Rating: PG for language

Archive: WWOMB, Beyond Canon

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the recognizable characters, I'm just having fun playing with them, and I'll put them back when finished with them.

Synopsis: An emergency e-mail message sends the Ghostbusters running to an abandoned Ghost town to help the owners.

AN: Sentences in single italic marks are thoughts. Words in // // are spoken telepathically.

part 5

The next morning arrives much too early for Peter Venkman's comfort. He is dragged out of bed by the others, stood under a cold shower, dressed in clean clothes, and shoved into the back of Ecto-1 without ever having once opened his eyes or made a noise that vaguely resembles human speech.

"Think Petey will sleep all the way to Denver?" Winston asks, grinning over his shoulder at the snoring lump in the backseat.

"Not for a lack of trying, anyway." Egon says, pushing his glasses back up on his nose with one hand as he checks Peter's seatbelt with the other. Peter shifts in his seat, ending up sleeping against the window for the ride to the airport.

Arriving at the airport, they head for the hanger where Ectos 2 and 3 are kept. A mechanic grins and waves them on as Ecto-3's loading door opens for Winston to drive up into the belly of the airplane.

Mechanics quickly tie Ecto-1 down as Winston turns around in his seat to watch the show.

"Peter, come on, we're at the airport and you need to get out of the car. Peter, you really need to wake up. You can't stay in the car." Egon unfastens Peter's seatbelt and pulls him away from the window, slapping his face lightly to wake him up.

"Go way Egon, it's still dark out."

"That's because you haven't opened your eyes yet, Peter. We need to move, you cannot stay in the car during take-off."

"Come on homeboy, time to get your butt moving. You can go back to sleep after we get in the cockpit."

Peter mutters something that would be very rude if it had been understandable and opens his eyes, seeing the dark belly of the airplane around him.

"Jeez guys, what time is it?"

"It is after ten, we had a little trouble getting you out of bed this morning."

"Well, let's get this show on the road then. The sooner we get airborne the sooner we get the hell back on the ground."

"You don't like my flying, Petey?" Winston asks, throwing one arm over Peter's shoulders as they head for the staircase leading up to the cabin of the airplane.

"It's not flying that bothers me, it's the take-off and landings." Peter grumbles as he settles into the first row of seats in the cabin. He looks out the window as the plane begins to taxi down the runway and closes his eyes as they take to the air. Once they level out Peter rushes to the bathroom and can be heard being violently ill.

Ten minutes later, the door opens and a very pale Peter Venkman leans against the doorframe. Egon and Ray immediately help him back to his seat where he closes his eyes, counts to ten in a number of languages, and takes a deep shuddering breath.

"Sorry guys, I thought I was finally over it, but I lost it when we took off."

"No Peter, I am the one who should be saying sorry. It is way too soon for you to be flying again after the accident. I shouldn't have insisted on flying to Denver."

"It's a little far to drive, 'Gon. I'll be fine. Just give me a little time."

"How's Petey doing?" Winston asks as Ray steps into the cockpit.

"About as well as can be expected, he had his eyes closed the entire time we were taking off, and threw up the minute we leveled out. Egon's with him right now."

Five hours later, they are circling the airport when the tower relays a message to them. "Mr. Dunne will meet us at the hangar and will direct us to a hotel. We leave for Four Corners early tomorrow morning." Winston relays to the others.

"Sounds good to me, Winston. You can get a nap while we talk to Mr. Dunne about what's going on out there."

A young man is waiting for them at the hanger doors as Ecto-1 emerges from the belly of the plane. Peter opens one door and the kid slides into the seat next to him. Giving quick directions to the hotel, the car makes its way to the hotel.

"Can you tell us what we might expect to find out there, Mr. Dunne?" Egon asks as the four men gather around the table in the outer room of the suite. They had ordered from room service and Winston had quickly eaten before heading to bed.

"It all started a couple of weeks ago. Four Corners borders on Chris' ranch, he noticed strange lights in the sky coming from that direction so he rode out that direction the next free day we had. He found nothing wrong, but still noticed the lights at night.

Since they only appeared at night, we decided to spend the night in out there. It wasn't the first time we had spent time out there, we usually spend a couple of days out there at least once a month. But the next morning, Ezra was nowhere to be found. We immediately started looking and found him three days later, wandering the desert. We got in contact with you when Ezra couldn't remember what had happened to him."

"Is there anything unusual about Four Corners? I've read a little about it in some of the occult journals. According to some of them, it's supposed to be haunted by the spirits of the lawmen who were killed. Could they be behind the lights you saw?"

"No gentlemen, I can say with all certainty that the ghosts that inhabit the town are not behind this." JD says, grinning.

"We'll be ready to leave tomorrow morning at nine, Agent Dunne. Can you draw us a map to Four Corners?"

"I can do better than that, Dr. Spengler, I'll meet you here at nine and drive out to Four Corners with you."

"Thank you, Agent Dunne. Will the others be there as well?"

"Yep, we're all be meeting you there." JD says as he leaves the hotel room. Standing outside the closed door, he calmly adjusts his bowler hat over one eye and gives the gunfighter dressed all in black and the tall figure dressed in buckskin with a sawed-off rifle a familiar two-fingered salute before all three men disappear from view.

Part 6

Winston is yawning into his morning cup of coffee when there is a knock at the hotel room door. Walking to the door, Winston recognizes the young man from yesterday and opens the door, waving him into the room.

"Good morning Mr. Zeddemore, are the others awake?"

A muted yell from the bedroom has JD standing up, reaching for his gun. Winston smirks, recognizing the bellow.

"They are now." He says, grinning and holding the pot up to his guest.

"No, none for me, thanks. What was that, anyway?"

"Egon waking Venkman up."

"I take it this has happened before?"

"Oh yeah, Venkman never wants to get up in the morning."

JD looks up as the bedroom door opens and Ray walks out smirking.

"How'd you wake him up this time, homeboy?

"Dumped the ice bucket down his pants."

"Good morning Agent Dunne." Egon says, exiting the bedroom as the shower turns on. "What are our plans for today."

"That depends on whether you want to come back to the hotel tonight or plan on spending the night in Four Corners."

"Since you say that the ghost town is normal during the day, we should spend at least one night there."

"Okay, the others will meet us in Four Corners. If we arrive before noon, it will give you at least eight hours of sunlight to set up your equipment." 'And the sooner this is over, the sooner the boys will wake up. I don't care about the damn prophecy, hellmouth, or anything else. I want our children to wake up.' And with that thought, JD closes his eyes and concentrates, calling up the image of his brother.

//Nathan, we're on our way, or we will be as soon as Peter gets some breakfast. He's even worse to wake up in the morning than Ezra. How are the boys?//

//They're still asleep.' Nathan replies, looking across the room of the clinic to the seven men asleep in their beds, as they had been for the last two weeks.//

Part 7

Nathan gets up from the chair he had been sitting in, crossing the room to stand between the first two beds. Buck Wilmington is asleep in the first bed; only the steady rise and fall of his chest letting the casual observer know he's still alive.

'Never thought I'd miss Buck's snoring.'

Nathan turns his attention to the bed on his other side. The young man sleeping under the covers looks almost exactly like the brother he'd just been talking to. A slightly different haircut, a few more pounds on his thin frame, and they could be identical twins.

"One thing never changes. JD never could keep weight on. Damn kid eats like a bird, both of them."

"Cussing out our youngest again, brother?" Nathan looks up as a shadowy figure flows through the closed door, reforming on the other side.

"Nope, just wondering if JD is ever going to be able to keep weight on."

"Not a chance, brother, not a chance. What do you want me to do first?"

"I've got water warming on the stove for their baths, 'Siah. If you want to get clean bedding from the closet, we'll get them washed and their bedding changed before Ez brings up their lunches."

Less than an hour later, all seven ATF agents are washed, lying in clean bedding, and Josiah looks up from brushing Ezra's thick hair when the door opens and Ezra and Buck walk in, carrying trays with food for the children.

Putting the tray down, Ezra comes over and, taking the brush from Josiah's hand, begins fussing over his 'son's' hair.

"Really Josiah, just because you don't care about your appearance, that's no reason to brutalize my child's appearance. We Standish's must keep up our appearance, after all. Come on love, open your eyes, it's time to eat."

Ezra's eyes open on the bed, but the green eyes are cloudy. Always staring straight ahead, he allows himself to be sat up, fed, and laid back down in the bed. His 'father' stands over the bed, stroking his hair.

"Go back to sleep son, it will all be over soon, one way or the other."

A whistle can be heard from the roof and Vin lowers himself through the open window, shutting it behind himself at Nathan's glare.

"Dammit, I've told you to use the door, I don't want the boys to get a chill."

"Don't see how, you got them all bundled up like mummies."

"They on their way?"

"Three miles out." Vin says, collapsing the telescope and putting it in the pocket of his bearskin coat.

JD grins as he sees Vin crawl through the open Clinic window, imaging the glare the tracker is getting from Nathan.

"How much further to Four Corners?"

"A little less than three miles. You can see the town the minute we get over this hill."

"Winston, stop the car when we reach the top. I want to see what the town looks like before we get there."

Ecto-1 stops at the top of the hill and all five men pile out of the car. Three of the men stretch their legs after the long car ride while the fourth Ghostbuster turns his attention to the town below.

"Oh wow, Four Corners looks just like the pictures. You'd swear that it was still the nineteenth century, not the twenty-first. How much work did you have to do to restore it?" Ray asks, bouncing as he takes the binoculars from Winston.

"None, it's been very well-preserved. I hope you gentlemen don't mind, I have a stop to make before we get into town."

"Where are we going?"

"The graveyard."

Part 8

"Cool."

JD grins, 'Was I ever this young?' he asks himself, looking at the youngest Ghostbusters with ancient eyes.

//Hell yes, you were greener than grass, as white as milk, and as tender as a baby's bottom when you first came into town. You still are.// Buck hoots.

//Shut up Buck//

//See you in a couple of minutes, kid. And remember, I don't like roses on my grave.//

//Bite me, Buck.//

//Later, kid, later.//

The hearse pulls in front of the carefully tended graveyard.

"Have there been any disturbances reported in the graveyard?" Egon asks, raising an eyebrow as his PKE meter begins buzzing in the back of the car. He'd set it on standby mode, to alert him at the first sign of paranormal activity, so he'd have a complete chronicle of all paranormal activity as they approached the Ghost town.

"Not this one, but we have seen lights in the graveyard up there." JD points up the road to another plot of land.

"You have two graveyards in Four Corners?"

"This is a private plot." JD says, getting out of the car and pulling a bag from the back. "We take turns coming out to this one at least once a week, the other one gets a visit every other month or so."

"What is so special about this plot?" Egon asks, getting out of the car and pulling his PKE meter from the back of the car. The wands extend and the device starts beeping excitedly.

'You mean besides the fact that this is where we're buried? Nothing much.'

"This is the final burial place of the town's protectors. We refused to allow them to be buried beside the others. The town didn't protect them in life, we wouldn't allow them to be protected by them in death."

"Allow them to be protected by them in death?"

"A lot of the disturbances in Four Corners seem to be directed at the old cemetery. This one has never been touched."

"What's up, 'Gon?"

"I'm getting some very strange readings here. You say this cemetery has never been touched?"

"Never has."

"I wonder what readings I might get from the other cemetery?"

"Residual readings?" Peter asks, looking over Egon's shoulder.

"No, whatever it is, it is very active here."

JD ignores them momentarily as he opens his bag, pulling out several small objects out and placing them on the carefully kept graves. A new black bandana is draped over Chris's cross, a toy train and flowers placed on the two beside his.

"Egon, look." Ray says, grabbing his arm and pointing at the graves.

"What is it, Raymond?"

"The names, look at the names."

Egon Spengler looks at the closest grave and blinks, the name on the grave is that of the man riding with them. Walking carefully around the kneeling man, he looks at the other graves finding familiar names on all but two of them.

"Mr. Dunne? Are you ready to go?" Egon asks as JD stands up, dusting his knees off and touching his fingers to his lips and reverently touches each name on the headstones.

"Yes Dr. Spengler, I'm ready. I can come back later. You said something about wanting to visit the other graveyard?"

"If it's not too much trouble. I would like to see what readings I get from the other site."

JD heads up the road towards the other graveyard, following the four men. Catching up, he unlocks the gate and allows them inside, handing Winston the lock.

"You not coming in?"

"No, I refuse to step inside that place unless I have to. Lock the gate behind you when you're ready to leave. I'll be down in the other cemetery."

"Something's strange, 'Gon. I don't like it all, the way he reacts to this graveyard. Look at this one compared to the other one."

"The grass needs mowing here, the markers could use some work, and the place generally looks neglected." Peter says, looking around the overgrown graveyard. "This place gives me the creeps, no wonder he doesn't want to be around here."

"The readings are different here, but just as strong."

The four Ghostbusters lock up behind themselves and walk back down to the car, finding their host leaning against the stonewall of the cemetery. Getting back in the car, the four Ghostbusters look around as they roll into the town of Four Corners.

"You can park your car down by the livery stable." JD says, pointing towards a building at the other end of town. A door on the second floor of a building opens, and a tall figure dressed in black steps out onto the landing.

"Chris, these are the Ghostbusters. Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, and Peter Venkman.

"Gentlemen, thank you for coming to Four Corners."

"Shit, get down." JD yells, pushing Winston and Ray down to the ground, covering them with his body as a bright flash of light races through town. He sees Chris do the same for Egon and Peter as the energy flashes through the spot where the four Ghostbusters had been standing.

PART 9

Egon immediately pulls out his PKE meter, aiming it at the direction the energy blast had taken.

"Well that was a new one." Ezra says sarcastically, opening the saloon doors. "Care to come inside Gentlemen, or do you wish to stay outside on the ground?"

"Ez, hush or I'll shoot you myself." Buck says, holding out a hand and pulling JD to his feet before pulling the younger man into a bear hug. "How in heaven did you know that was going to happen?"

"I have no idea."

"Has that ever happened before?" Egon asks, slowly moving around the car, PKE meter beeping away.

"No." the man introduced as Chris says, eyes narrowing as he looks over the town. "Things are getting worse here. It's a good thing we called you in when we did."

Ray opens the back door of Ecto-1, pulling out their bags and equipment. Grabbing an armful, Winston follows Chris and the dark haired tracker towards the hotel.

Peter shuts the livery doors behind Ecto, watching in amusement as Egon wanders the street, busily taking readings of his surroundings. JD, who's making sure he doesn't walk into anything, is trailing him.

"Yo, 'Gon. Put down the meter for a minute. The others are at the hotel. I want to hear what's going on."

"What? Oh yes Peter, certainly. Just one more reading." Egon mumbles, never looking up from his meter.

Peter smirks at JD and grabs Egon by the elbow, dragging him down the street towards the hotel. Winston grins from the window.

"Peter's on his way with Egon and JD." He announces to Ray.

"He still taking readings?"

"Yep."

The door opens and Peter comes in, a frowning Egon following right behind him. The reason for Egon's displeasure becomes apparent when they see Peter holding the PKE meter just out of Egon's reach.

"Story now, more readings later."

"Yes of course, Peter, I want to hear their story too. But really, there was no need to grab the meter from my hand."

"'Gon, you nearly took a tumble into a horse trough because you weren't watching where you were going." Peter says patiently, grinning at the expression on Egon's face. "Getting a face full of water wouldn't have done either you or the meter much good."

"Okay, let's start out with the basics. We all haven't been fully introduced. I'm Chris Larabee, this is Vin Tanner(the long-haired man dressed in jeans and a blue flannel shirt), Josiah Sanchez(the tall man dressed in black slacks and an open necked shirt), Buck Wilmington (the tall man dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that had grabbed JD in a bear hug), and Ezra Standish. Nathan is working in the clinic right now, you'll be meeting him later."

"Mr. Standish, can you tell us a little more about what happened to you?"

"Like I said in my letter, I was coming back from Chris's ranch one night when I noticed strange lights coming from this vicinity. Since I had the next few days off, I came out the following night. I don't remember anything after that, just looking up to find myself on the back of Josiah's horse and the others dismounting at Chris's ranch."

"You can't imagine how relieved I was when Ezra asked us what was happening. Those were the first words we had heard since we found him."

"Knew it was too good to last." Buck mutters, wincing as JD swats him on the arm.

"Be serious Buck. This is important business."

"I know it is kid, but you gotta admit the look on Josiah's face when Ezra asked him what had happened was pretty funny. He looked like he had been hit upside the head with a board."

"I thought that the angels were singing when I found Ezra wandering. I knew my prayers had been heard when Ezra spoke."

"And the doctors could find nothing wrong with you to indicate what had happened?"

"Not a thing. I was slightly dehydrated, and they kept me overnight in the hospital for observation, but other than that, nothing." Ezra says, lying through his teeth.

//Brother, you could charm the birds out of the trees.//

//I hate lying to them, but I don't think they could handle the entire truth right now.//

//The fact that we're ghosts who called the Ghostbusters. The fact that Four Corners is sitting over an interdimensional gateway that must be protected or closed, or the fact that we're not ATF agents, the children are, and the children are currently in Nathan's clinic in a coma?//

"JD?"

"Yes Ray?"

"Is it possible to get a tour of the town? I'd like to see the Sheriff's Office."

"You want to see the Sheriff's Office? Why?"

"I brought along a book on haunted ghost towns, and a chapter in it deals with the legend of the Four Corners Sheriff's Office."

"There's a legend about the Sheriff's Office?"

"You don't know about it? Legend has it that the Ghosts of the town's protectors were furious over their deaths at the hands of a townsperson. The Sheriff's ghost supposedly set fire to the jail with the prisoner in it and it burned for over a week without any damage to the jail or any surrounding property."

The Ghostbusters are surprised at the reaction this statement brings. JD Dunne turns bright red, Buck Wilmington shakes one finger in his face, while Ezra and Vin howl with laughter. Meanwhile, Chris shakes his head.

"Well, at least it wasn't that damn dynamite this time."

PART 10

"Sure Ray, I'll show you the Sheriff's office. But I can tell you the story 's a bunch of hooey. The office has never burned, it's built out of six inch thick concrete blocks. The only things in there made of wood are the bunks, the desk, and the chairs. And they sure wouldn't haven't burned for over a week."

"I am going to take readings of the town. Winston, can you get the generator running before dark? We will need power for the equipment, as well as a couple electric lights."

"Sure Egon, it shouldn't take more than a couple hours."

"Wow, I would love to be able to spend a couple days in a place like this. Wouldn't that be neat, Peter. Spending a week roughing it without cell phones, noise pollution, automobiles. . ."

"Running water, flush toilets, electricity, central heating." Peter says sardonically, rolling his eyes at his friend's exuberance "You may like it, Ray, but give me a hotel with all the amenities any day."

The four Ghostbusters exit the hotel, Winston heading for the livery and Ecto, Peter and Egon taking readings, while Ray follows JD towards the jail.

Ray stops in his tracks as he sees the soot covering the whitewashed walls. JD looks in the direction the other man is staring and rolls his eyes.

"They're from the lights that nearly nailed us earlier. I've been cleaning them off the walls every morning since the lights first started showing up." JD grabs a small pail, dunks it in the horse trough, and wipes the marks off the wall. Pulling a set of keys from his pocket, JD opens the door with a screech of protest from the hinges. Ray stands in the middle of the room, trying to take in everything at once, while JD walks to the desk, pulls a bottle of oil from one of the drawers and oils the hinges.

Ray walks over to the wall, touching the yellowed wanted poster in awe as JD settles behind the desk. It's just like the book described it, wanted posters on the wall opposite the door as you come in, an empty gun cabinet under it for their rifles. A locked drawer underneath is where the ammunition would have been kept.

"Oh wow, this is just how the book described it."

"So what does the book say happened anyway?" JD asks, leaning back in the chair.

"According to the book," Ray says, pulling up a chair and sitting down, "The sheriff's ghost was enraged because the peacekeepers were betrayed and set fire to the jail with the prisoner inside. The jail was supposed to have burned a week straight, burned so hot it was impossible to go near it, then the flames just disappeared as quickly as they appeared. When the fire finally died, the townspeople entered to find everything untouched inside, except for the prisoner who had snow-white hair and never said a word about what had happened during the fire. The traveling judge for the area arrived in town a month after the ambush; he was tried, convicted of their murders by masterminding the assault, and hung from the gallows outside by an angry mob of townsfolk who were being driven out of Four Corners by the angry ghosts of the peacekeepers. A separate legend claims that some of the townsfolk happened to see lights in the jail windows, looked through the window, and saw the ghosts of the murdered peacekeepers laughing at the prisoner in his cell surrounded by ghost fire as he begged for mercy. The legend also says the jail is covered in soot from the fire, and no matter how often it was cleaned off, the soot always returned."

"Damn good story, but I've never heard anything about it before now," 'and I was there.'

"The book claims it found old pictures that were supposed to be taken after the ambush." Ray says, opening the book to a spot and handing it across the desk to JD.

"That's not the Seven," JD says, pointing to a picture of dead bodies that had been mistakenly identified as some of the peacekeepers. "They're members of the gang that attacked u. . .the town." JD corrects himself automatically. "We've turned the old Newspaper office into a mini-museum if you'd like to see the history of the town."

"Neat, it's not often you get so see a Ghost town so well preserved, let alone a history of the town."

Meanwhile, Peter and Egon are busy taking readings throughout the village. They pause outside the jail, watching Ray talking with JD hands waving as he talks, grin and continue on. Egon heads back to the hotel as soon as Winston radios he has electricity set up in one room, immediately turning on the computer so he can compare the various readings he's gotten from the town.

PART 11

Ray enters the old newspaper office and stops in his tracks. He walks over to the first display case and stares at a yellowed newspaper.

"Every newspaper from the first issue printed until the last one before the town was abandoned is displayed here." JD says, lounging in the doorway. "In addition, they've all been put on microfilm, we've got a set here and the Denver Library has a set in their old history files. The paper was printed every week from the time Mary started the paper to a week before the townspeople left. We found the diary she kept when we were putting everything together last summer."

"Is it here?"

"Right over here."

Ray rushes across the wall, staring at a yellow bound journal sitting in the middle of a display case. He stops, staring at a penny dreadful novel in the next case. Seven men are shown on horses, and he stares at the man beside him then back at the novel in disbelief.

"That's the peacekeepers for Four Corners?"

"Yep, the nickname the Magnificent Seven was coined by a two bit author named Jock Steele and it stuck." JD says, pretending to ignore the look of shock on Ray's face as he realizes that five of the other six men on the cover look exactly like the men he met earlier today, except for the still missing Nathan who he suspects will look like the seventh man in the picture.

An hour later the four Ghostbusters are settled in their hotel room waiting for the sun to go down and the paranormal activity to start while Ray tells the others what he found earlier in the museum.

"Did the journal say anything about what supposedly drove the townspeople off, Ray?" Egon asks, pushing up his glasses as he eats one of the MRE's they had brought in their supplies.

"According to the newspaper publisher's notes," Ray says, looking at the shorthand notes he took in the museum. "The town water supply had dried up, forcing townsfolk to send wagons to a river ten miles away daily for water. Most of the surrounding farmers had been wiped out by the gang that ambushed the seven, the few that were left was wiped out by a tornado that came through the area, a tornado that hopped right over the town. The drought that had been plaguing the area was the final straw for the farmers, they left the area in droves. A smallpox epidemic broke out a day after the lynching, a quarter of the town's population died in that epidemic. The final blow was the railroad's decision not to build a stop at the town."

"That doesn't sound like anything that could be blamed on the peacekeeper's ghosts. Sounds more like coincidence to me, and the townsfolk's guilty consciences blamed it on vengeful ghosts."

"That's what she thought, and said in her journal." Ray says, "But then it started getting worse. According to her, all the events could be explained scientifically and she thought that the others were just jumping at shadows. But then there was stuff she couldn't explain, and as much as she didn't want to admit it, it couldn't be explained away by science. She mentions it in her journal, desperately trying to find a scientific explanation. The journal stops in the middle of a word."

"What kind of stuff?"

"The trouble started immediately after the bodies of the seven where buried. Their coffins were repeatedly dug up after burial, until the second graveyard was prepared just for them. Then the day after the last burial, two new graves were beside them. The crosses say 'Adam Larabee' and 'Sarah Larabee'. They were Chris Larabee's wife and young son, who had died in a fire a couple years before the seven started working together. Mary and her father in law Judge Orin Travis immediately made a trip out to the burned out remains of Chris's ranch. The graves there had been dug up." Chris, who had been listening quietly outside the hotel room smiles, and holds out his hand to a dark haired young woman. A young boy, as dark as his mother, wraps himself around his dad's leg.

"What next?"

"According to Mary, lights began to appear in the middle of the night. They flashed through town every night for two weeks. . ."

"Like the lights that have been reported for the last two weeks?"

"Do you think there's a connection, Egon?"

"Possible, I'll know more after I get some readings tonight. Does the journal say when the lights first started appearing?"

"Yes, Mary says that they first appeared the night of the ambush, which according to her journal, is a week from tomorrow."

"Does the fact the anniversary of the ambush is coming up have anything to do with the lights appearing now?"

"It very well could be, Winston. Ray, how many years will it have been?"

"It will be a hundred and twenty-five years next week. Does that have anything to do with it, Egon?"

"It could be, there are phenomenon out there that appear and disappear on a certain schedule. The legend of Brigadoon comes immediately to mind, the fabled city that's supposed to appear every 200 years."

PART 12

"There's something else you should know, I don't know how important it is but I have the feeling it means something."

"What is it, Raymond?"

"Well, not only do our clients have the same names as the seven peacekeepers of Four Corners, they look exactly like them too."

"You're kidding me Homeboy, right?"

"Nope, I saw an old novel in the newspaper office. It's not just a slight resemblance, they look exactly like the seven peacekeepers."

"Reincarnation? Past life memory?"

"Possible, I'll have to think about it after this situation. According to the local weather forecast, dusk will be in an hour."

"How do we want to handle this, do another sweep of town just after dark to see if any of the readings have changed."

"Exactly Peter, then we'll find a place to watch and see if the lights appear again tonight. Hopefully the sensors we've place around town will pick something up."

"I vote for the jail."

"You just want to see if that legend's true and the ghosts of the peacekeepers are going to appear." Peter says, reaching over and ruffling Ray's hair.

"Hey Peter, if we have time, do you think we can perform a séance with Lady Jasmine after we get home and see if we can summon one of the peacekeeper's ghosts to find out what really happened? If the lights and other disturbances around the town doesn't turn out to be them?"

"You're not going to let it go until you find out one way or the other what happened, are you?"

"Nope, maybe I'll write a book debunking the legend if I find out what really happened. JD says the Denver library has a copy of all the town papers on microfilm, I'll see if I can get a copy of the papers concerning the ambush and its aftermath for my research."

"Sounds like there might be a paper in there for a psych journal. The effects of a guilty conscience on the population resulting in mass hysteria and the fleeing of the town because they thought a curse had been laid upon the town."

"Damn Petey, sounds like both you and Ray are both going to be doing some writing when we get home."

Egon stands up and walks to the window, watching as their clients settle in the saloon across the street. Ezra's behind the counter like he's done it before sliding glasses down the bar to the others. Chris and Vin settle at a table in the front of the saloon watching the sun duck behind the hotel as it begins to set. Meanwhile, Buck and JD are lighting kerosene lamps while the missing Nathan eats at the bar.

"Wonder how they keep everything fresh without refrigeration?" Winston asks absentmindedly as he stands and stretches before pulling his pack on and walking out the front door.

"I asked JD about that since he says they spend a lot of time in Four Corners when they can get away from work, and he said they have a icehouse behind the saloon they use to keep meat and vegetables fresh. They do their cooking on an old wood cookstove in the saloon's kitchen. I asked why they didn't use a generator for electricity and they said they didn't need it, Four Corners has never had electricity, and they like being able to get away from the hustle and bustle of modern electricity. JD also said that Ecto's the only car they've had in town. Unless you know the hidden road that we took, it's almost impossible to find the town unless you know where to find it."

Ray watches in disbelief as Josiah walks to the pump behind the saloon and calmly begins to draw water.

"Ray, I thought you said the town's water supply had dried up, and everybody had to truck in water from the river?" Peter asks, watching as Josiah brings the water to the back of the saloon. Ezra takes the water with a smile and places it on the stove to heat so they can wash dishes.

"I did. But they had been experiencing droughts for a couple of years previously. The water table could very well have dipped below the level of the pipes and once the region got some rain, the water level could have risen again so they could use the well."

"And the townsfolk, still feeling guilty about the deaths, could have blamed the well drying up on the curse, and not the water level falling."

"Where do they get the ice for the icehouse? Do they bring it in along with their food?"

"JD told me they usually come out once after winter's started with their horses and cut ice from the river. It usually takes them a couple days to gather enough ice for the following year."

"That is so neat, I would love to be able to see something like that."

"Maybe if everything turns out okay," 'and the children wake up' "You can come back again this winter and watch us cut ice." Chris says, coming up behind the Ghostbusters.

"Can I? That would be so neat. I've always wanted to live like this for a while. Peter though, he hates roughing it."

"Damn straight, I've gotten used to my creature comforts." Peter says, ruffling Ray's hair, "I like getting up, turning on the light, having running water when I want it, heat at the turn of a knob, being able to cook without having to use wood or coal, and being able to listen to the radio or watch television."

"We have a solar operated radio, a day in the sun usually charges the battery for about ten hours of play. As for the other things? If you've never had it, you usually don't know what you're missing." Chris says, shrugging.

Ray exits the hotel, stopping to take a deep breath.

"Smell that air, Peter. It's clean air, you can't get that in New York."

"I'm a city boy, Ray," Peter says, mock complaining, "All this clean air is going to kill me. I can't live without exhaust fumes, blaring car horns, and urban sprawl."

Ray and Peter head off in opposite directions, PKE meters in their hands as they take readings. They meet up outside the hotel an hour later and dump their readings into the computer, which begins to compare the readings from earlier today.

"The program's going to take a couple hours to run." Egon says, turning away from the computer at Ray's shout.

"Guys, I've got something coming in from the south side. Let's get outside and see what's going on."

The four Ghostbusters exit the hotel at a run, passing Chris who's sitting outside the door. The legs of the chair hit the porch with a thump as he quickly stands up. The slight glow in the distance tells him what had caused the sudden exit. Egon holds his PKE meter out, getting readings as the glow comes closer while Ray, Peter, and Winston power up their packs.

"Incoming." Chris yells to the others. The other six men run from the Saloon as the lights come over the hill and speed through town. The lights flash through town for over an hour before disappearing as quickly as they appear.

"Was there anything different about the lights than there was before?" Egon asks, heading back to the hotel room to dump his readings into the computer.

"Yeah, they only lasted for a couple of minutes before, they lasted, what an hour tonight?" JD asks, looking at his wristwatch.

"And they've never flashed back and forth through town before. They usually flew through town and vanished." Vin adds.

"So the display we witnessed upon arriving earlier today is what normally occurs?"

"Yeah, except for the fact it was the middle of the day when they appeared, that was what we normally see at night." Chris says, picking his hat up off the porch and putting it back on his head.

"Are these the same lights you witnessed Mr. Larabee, that brought you to Four Corners to investigate?"

"No, those lights were in the sky, not ground level and they stayed in place, they didn't move like these did."

"And when did the moving lights first appear?"

The seven look at each other. "About a week ago?" JD hazards a guess.

"Yeah, a week to ten days." Vin agrees.

Ray drops his proton pack in the corner of the room before stretching and yawning.

"Egon, do you need me to stay up and help you look over the data?"

"No Raymond, why don't you get some sleep? I do suggest that at least one of us be awake in case something happens. I'll take first watch while the data runs."

"Okay Homeboy, wake me in four hours for the next watch."

"I can't believe I'm so tired, it's only ten o'clock." Ray says, yawning as he settles into bed.

"I told you all that clean living was bad for you, Ray." Peter says teasingly, "See, I grew up on carbon monoxide and fast food, and I'm wide awake and feeling good. But get some clean air in you, and you're out like a light."

Ray's response is a muffled snore.

Part 13

The next morning Ray looks up from his spot on the hotel porch when Vin comes past with a horse and wagon.

"Want to come with me, Ray? I'm going to the river to catch some fish for a cookout tonight."

"Cool, we really don't have anything to do. The sensors are all set to catch anything that might happen. Winston, I'm going to the river with Mr. Tanner to catch some fish for a cookout tonight."

"Take your proton pack and a radio with you." Winston orders, "Since there's no interference out here, we'll be able to contact you if anything happens here. And if something happens out there, I want you to get his skinny white ass straight back here," Winston tells Vin, "He's got a curiosity bump a mile wide and takes too many chances. He's the kind who'd be trying to pet the nice kitty while the lion was busy eating him."

"You've got it." Vin says, "We should be back in a couple of hours. Nathan and Chris are picking greens to cook the fish in tonight."

Ray clambers into the wagon with a helping hand from Vin.

"Hold on," Nathan calls from the door of the Clinic. "Put some of this on or you'll burn to a crisp before you get back." Nathan walks down the stairs with a jar of salve that he, Vin, and Nathan slather on every inch of flesh not covered by clothing. Nathan then grabs a wide brimmed cowboy hat and slaps it on Ray's head.

"There, now you're ready to go." He says, watching as the wagon goes down the street.

"How do you plan on keeping the fish fresh until you're ready to cook them?"

"I've got a washtub in the back. We'll just pop them in water until we get back to clean them."

"Where are your fishing poles?"

"I don't use poles. I catch the fish by hand."

"Cool, I've never seen anybody catch a fish by hand. I've heard of it, but I've never seen anybody do it."

"I had a friend teach me when I was younger. I have a fishing spear I've used too, but if you're as accident prone as JD it's safer to leave it here."

"Probably," Ray says, blushing, "Peter calls me an accident looking for a place to happen sometimes."

"Ahh, you're just young." Vin says calmly, "You don't look before you leap, that's all. You don't mean to get into trouble, it just happens, and no matter how much your friends complain they're always going to bail you out." They arrive at the river twenty minutes later and lift the tub from the back of the wagon. Walking to the river, Vin rolls up his jeans and, handing his boots to Ray, wades into the water.

"What do you want me to do?"

"I'll throw the fish onto the bank. Dump them into the tub before they flop back into the water." Vin says, bending down and, with a quick movement, tosses a fish towards the bank.

"Cool!!" Ray says, quickly walking over to grab the fish. He drops it into the tub. An hour later, the tub is full.

"Are we going to be able to eat all those?"

"Trust me, they won't go to waste. What we don't fry tonight we'll put on ice, stick them in a barrel of brine, or salt for this winter. Take your boots off and come in, I'll show you how to fish barehanded."

"So you guys really are self-sufficient. You don't find it too much trouble to spend time out here during the winter?"

"Nah, as long as we can keep warm and fed, we're pretty good. We don't have to get out unless we want to. We stock up on supplies during the spring and summer, we have a huge garden that we can in the fall and there's a couple local farmers who are glad to sell us cattle they've butchered."

"Really? Don't you ever get lonely out here?" Ray scrambles to his feet, pulling off his boots and rolling up the legs of his jumpsuit. He walks into the water and Vin shows him how he does it.

"This is as close to heaven as we're probably ever going to get." Vin says seriously, his eyes darkening. "We've got a radio to listen to when we need some noise, Ezra's got a library of books in the old schoolhouse. I wouldn't want to live any other way, and if it wasn't for the job, we'd probably live out here year-round."

"This is so cool." Ray says as they walk to the bank. The tub of fish is placed in the back of the wagon and they make their way back to town.

Meanwhile, Peter and Egon find Chris and Buck working in the garden.

"Gentlemen, have you seen Ray?"

"Yeah," Buck says, tilting his hat back so he can look up at the blond Ghostbuster. "Vin was gonna take him to the river to catch fish for tonight's cookout."

"Cookout?"

"We figured you must be tired of those MREs." Chris says as he checks on the corn they planted. He fills the wicker basket with corn, thankful that Sarah had gotten her wish and planted triple what they would have normally planted, and walks it to the wagon they'd pulled beside the garden. He grabs another basket and starts picking tomatoes.

"Gentlemen, you didn't have to put yourself to so much trouble."

"Ahh, it's not trouble at all. We usually do this once a month or so, and it's just as easy to cook for four more people as it is to cook for us."

"Did Ray take a radio with him?"

"And his Proton Pack. Winston insisted, just in case something came up."

"And where is Winston?"

"Ezra found out they had a mutual love of books, so Ezra took him to look at the library we made of the old schoolhouse."

"We won't see either of them for hours then." Peter says grinning. "I just hope he doesn't end up too sunburned."

"Nathan slathered him with a salve he makes that keeps us from burning." Chris says, putting the last basket of food in the wagon. "That, and the hat Nathan put on him, should keep him from being hurt."

"Thanks, Ray doesn't think about stuff like sunburns until it's too late." Peter says, "You'd think the first time he got burned he'd remember to use sunscreen but he never does."

Nathan looks up from the herbs he's dicing as Buck and Chris begin to bring the garden stuff inside.

"You just take that right back outside and clean it in the trough." He orders, waving the knife in the air. "I don't need to be picking dirt out of my food unless I can help it."

"Where's JD? I thought he was going to help?" Buck says, placing the basket back on his shoulder with a grunt.

"He's busy bringing up a barrel of flour to coat the fish." Josiah says from the other side of the kitchen. "He'll be here in a couple of minutes. Is that all the fresh tomatoes?"

"Yep, and there'll be just as many tomorrow." Buck says, dropping the basket of freshly washed tomatoes with a thud. "I suppose we're going to have to start canning them."

"If we want any to eat this winter, yeah." JD says, coming in with a barrel over one shoulder. "The storeroom's getting mighty bare. And we can't count on the children to bring in supplies."

"You know, this was a lot easier when we were still ghosts and didn't have to eat."

"Would you rather give up the children and a chance at our salvations?" Chris asks dryly, having heard Buck complaining about this before.

"Hell no, Chris, the kids were the best thing to happen to us."

"Then quit your bitching and start peeling potatoes. We want to get this finished before Vin returns with a load of fish." JD says, swatting him with a wooden spoon.

Part 14

Vin pulls up behind the saloon; smirking at the sour look Buck gives the tub of fish he helps pull off the wagon.

"You timed this, didn't you? Waited until we just got all the garden stuff taken care of then you pull in with a load of fish."

"Good haul, Vin." Chris says, coming out to look. "We'll have plenty for the cookout tonight and any that doesn't get eat in a couple of days we'll smoke for this winter. How's the river stocked?"

"The river is loaded. I think we can get three or four loads to save for winter, even with the ones we take to eat now."

"How do you prepare your fish for winter? I grew up on farm, but my foster family brought food in the winter."

"We've got a smokehouse out in the woods we use to smoke some of the meat." Josiah says, picking up a fish to demonstrate with. "We'd cut the fish into fillets and fill the smokehouse with as many trays as it can hold. We then use small chips of green wood and smoke the wood for three days. Then the wood is placed in barrels and put in the warehouse until we need it. We usually smoke fish, a couple hams the local farmers are butchering, and our homemade sausage. We also put the fish in a brine solution if we have enough barrels, or we preserve them in salt." Josiah drops the fish back into the tub and dries his hands on the towel tucked into his pants.

"Doesn't it take a lot of time to put up your own food?"

"Not really," Buck says, shrugging his shoulder, "we usually spread it out if we can. Like with these fish, we'll eat some of them now, we'll smoke some of them in a couple of days, and we'll salt the rest of them. It's only when the garden all comes in at the same time that things get hectic. We're all canning, pickling, or drying from sunup to sundown until it's all taken care of. Then we get to relax and enjoy the reward for all our hard work this winter. Like right now, we've got tomatoes ripening on the vines now until the end of the season. We'll be making all sorts of stuff with them until we run out of canning jars, then we'll end up sun-drying the rest of them and grinding them up to use in stews."

"And after the tomatoes it will be the pickles." Nathan says, looking over Buck's shoulder.

"Ahh, those are easy. Bring out the barrels of brine we saved from last year and pop them in. Let them sit for a couple months and bang, there you go, pickles."

"This fascinating, what do you do with your other garden stuff?"

"The peppers we dry down in the root cellar, along with the onions and garlic. The cellar's cold and dry, so we can keep peas, beans, apples, and corn down there until we need it. What we do need and can't grow ourselves, such as spices, flour, rice, etc. we buy in bulk and store in the shed out back."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

Nathan smiles, waving Ray's offer away. "You already helped Vin with the fish. Go have some fun until the cookout."

Ray walks back to the hotel, finding Winston curled in a chair in the lobby. Ray brushes a hand over the richly upholstered fabric, wondering again at the cost of making it a hundred years ago when everything was done by hand, and the added cost of bringing it out west from San Francisco.

"Don't look like hundred year old furniture, does it?" Winston asks, looking up from the book.

"Nope, it looks like it was built yesterday. Something half this well preserved would go for thousands of dollars at any antique store."

"Have a nice day?"

"Yeah, Mr. Tanner showed me how to catch fish with my bare hands. We brought a huge tub of fish back with us. Mr. Tanner said that what they don't eat in a couple days they'll either smoke, salt, or preserve in brine for this winter. They also said that they'll make a couple more trips to get more fish and they buy butchered cattle from nearby farmers. They're really into stocking enough food for an entire winter."

"Wonder why? It's not like they spend the entire winter here. It would be different if they lived here year-round, but they have jobs in Denver." Winston asks, looking up from his book. "But you should see the library they got in the old schoolhouse. I swear, they must have a couple thousand books there."

"Well, it only makes sense. There's no electricity here, so they don't have television to keep them occupied." Ray shrugs.

"Yeah, but they come out here for vacations, to get away from everything. Why would they want to have something to keep them occupied?"

"Mr. Tanner said they'd live out here year-round if it wasn't for their jobs. Maybe they plan on retiring here?" Ray says, his eyes glowing with excitement. "I know I would."

"You would." Ray looks up as Peter and Egon enter the hotel. Peter's scratching at his arm, and Ray sees a rash starting to break out.

"Do you want me to go see if Nathan has anything to help with that rash?" Winston asks, putting down the book after marking his place with a piece of paper. "Nathan brews medicines from the local plants, he might have something for that."

"Would you please, Winston? I don't know what Peter got into, but it appears he's allergic to it."

"Maybe he's allergic to clean air?" Ray asks, smiling as he remembers Peter 's complaints from the night before.

"Ha, ha, ha, Ray, very funny. Owww, don't make me laugh, please?" Peter complains.

"Nathan, are you in here?" Winston asks, opening the Clinic door and peering into the room. He sees a table in the middle of the first room and a door leading to another room. Nathan comes from the other room, shutting the door quickly before Winston can see what's inside.

"Winston, what's the matter?"

"Petey seems to have gotten into something he's allergic to. Do you have anything to help the itching and rash?"

"I know just what he got into," Nathan says, walking to another door and pulling a couple items from the shelves. "JD's allergic to the same thing so I keep this on hand. He has to soak in these herbs for as long as possible, then apply the salve to the rash after he gets out."

"Petey boy's going to hate that, he hates cold water." Winston smirks.

"Ahh, we can fix that." Nathan says, walking over to the window. "Buck" he calls out.

"Yeah Nate?" Buck asks from the boardwalk below.

"Peter got into the same stuff JD's allergic to. Can you start a fire in the bathhouse so Peter can get a hot bath?"

"Sure thing."

"You know, if I were a mean man," Winston says, smirking, "I'd tell Petey he had to sit in cold water, just to see the look on his face when I told him we had water heating for him to take a hot bath."

"Good news," Winston says, walking into the hotel. "Nathan's got some stuff to take care of that. He's got some herbs you need to soak in, so he's got Buck lighting a fire in the bathhouse so you can get a hot bath, and some salve to put on the rash after you get out."

"You mean I can get a hot bath?" Peter asks, looking like he's seen Nirvana.

"Yes, Peter, you can get a hot bath." Egon says sighing as they head for the bathhouse. Entering the building, they see ten old bathtubs, a stack of thick towels, and JD dumping pails of water into the tub on the stove.

"The water should be warm enough for you in about ten minutes." JD says, "There's enough water for all of you if you want to get a bath."

"We've got different clothes here, but we didn't bring them with us."

"Peter's going to have to change clothes, otherwise the rash will come right back, so you might as well go get them." Nathan says, coming in and dumping a handful of crushed herbs into the water. "Let these soak a couple minutes before you get in, the water will be warm enough by then."

Ray heads back to the hotel for their clean clothes. He returns to the bathhouse to find Peter up to his neck in steaming water while Winston and Egon scrub themselves in the other tubs.

"Give me your clothes and I'll start them soaking." Josiah says as Ray slips into the tub."

"Egon, did you get a chance to look at the readings today?" Peter asks after they return to the hotel. The herbs had stopped the itching right away, and the salve Nathan had given him to use has a cooling effect that makes him feel almost human again.

"Not yet, Peter, why?"

"I thought I saw signs of a surge this morning when I checked the sensors."

Egon turns to the computer and calls up the recordings.

"You're right, look here Peter. There was a slightly higher energy level this morning and it's slowly growing. Winston, when we go to the cookout, please keep a PKE meter on alert so we get a warning if the energy levels rise any more."

"It's not like Gozer again, is it Egon?" Ray asks, "Didn't we get these kinds of readings he appeared?"

"The readings were similar, yes." Egon says, pushing his glasses back with one hand. "We will need to keep an eye on them in case a rip is forming. Judging from the levels right now, I'd say we have about a week before the levels reach the critical stage."

"A week? Like the anniversary of the ambush?" Ray asks, remembering what they had been talking about last night.

Egon blinks, the timing couldn't be a coincidence. "Indeed."

JD knocks on the door, grinning at Ray. "You guys ready to eat now?"

"I'm always ready to eat," Peter says, grinning, "As the guys can and will tell you."

"Yes, Peter loves three things, eating, sleeping, and busting ghosts."

"Not true," Peter pretends to whine, "I like teasing Janine and threatening to neutronize the spud too."

"Ahh yes, correction, Peter loves to eat, sleep, bust ghosts, tease our receptionist, and threatening our mascot Slimer too." Egon says deadpan. "My mistake."

"You mean Slimer actually exists?" JD asks, looking over at Ray.

"Yes, he's a souvenir from our first actual case. He was haunting a New York hotel, scaring the guests. We busted him, and when the containment unit was shut down and all the ghosts escaped, he decided to stick around. He loves Peter, sleeps on his pillow whenever he can, gives him ectoplasmic kisses, and steals his food."

"Ectoplasmic kisses?" Chris asks, raising an eyebrow as they approach the burning pit at the back of the hotel. Buck's busy laying wood for a fire while Josiah brings the food out. Nathan lights the kindling in the corner and the fire crackles to life.

"What Ray means is the little bugger slimes me whenever he can." Peter says sourly.

"Sounds painful."

"Only to my wardrobe. I usually end up getting slimed at least once a week, either by Slimer or on one of our busts. At least it hasn't happened yet, knock on wood." He says grinning as he reaches over and raps his knuckles on Ray's head.

"Peter, cut it out." Ray laughs, swatting Peter's hand away.

Peter takes the plate of corn on the cob, potato salad, and blackened fish from Josiah. He sees the others beginning to eat and digs in. He's laying on his back, watching the fire die down to coals a couple hours later as Nathan puts bundles of fish wrapped in greens to bake in the coals. Potatoes are placed beside the fish, and corn, still in the husks is added to the coals. Buck and Josiah are covering the coals with a layer of wet leaves, a tarp, and then dirt to slowly cook for a number of hours when the PKE meter on Winston's belt begins to shriek.

"Hey guys, heads up." Winston says, grabbing the PKE meter and holding it up to see what triggered the alarm, "We've got something coming in hot and heavy."

"That's not a normal storm, is it Mr. Larabee?" Egon asks, looking up as the sky darkens menacingly.

"No, it's not." Chris says, grabbing Egon's arm and leading him into the nearest building. "Everybody inside, now."

"Hotel or the saloon?"

"The hotel, we can shut the doors. Vin, Ezra, grab the lanterns in case whatever that is knocks out the line to the generator."

"What about the children?"

"Damn, is there any way you can get the readings from your sensors without being in the hotel?" Chris asks, looking at the hotel and then back at the clinic.

"Yes, I've set up a relay so the readings come to my PDA."

"Come on then," Chris says, leading the way to the Clinic. "It's time you found out what's really going on and why it's so urgent that whatever is going on stops."

Part 15

Egon enters the dimly lit room and stops in his tracks as Chris walks across the room to where seven beds are set against the far wall. He can tell they 're occupied, but that's all he can see in the dim light until Chris sets one of the lamps on a table beside two of the beds and he sees the man lying in the bed is identical to the man standing over the bed.

Ray turns to look at JD and suddenly remembers a couple of times when he'd said something, then quickly corrected himself. He hadn't thought anything of it at the time, but now . . .

"You don't just have the same names as the Peacekeepers of Four Corners, do you? And it's not a coincidence you look exactly like the people in the novel. You are the Magnificent Seven, aren't you?"

"Ray, are you feeling okay? Sure you weren't out in the sun too long? 'Cause that sounds outlandish, even for you." Peter says, entering the room with Nathan and Buck. He stops, staring at the scene in front of him. " Umm, Never mind." Peter blinks and rubs his eyes, but he still sees duplicates of the men they had just been sitting around eating and swapping tall tales with less than ten minutes ago.

"Aren't you?" Ray asks JD again, then blinks as the modern clothes the seven men had been wearing are transformed into copies of the outfits he had seen on the novel's cover.

"Yes Ray, we are." JD says calmly.

"Ray, you remember the reaction you got when you first told us about the legend of the sheriff setting the jail on fire?" JD asks the younger man.

Ray nods, his eyes wide.

JD smiles at the youngest Ghostbuster and opens his coat, revealing a star on the inside lining.

"I knew the jail never burned because I was there. I am the Sheriff, Ray."

"Oh wow, that is so cool." JD smiles at the exuberant response. "Can I talk to you later? I would love to find out what really happened to the prisoner?"

"So was it you who called us, or them?" Winston asks, pointing to the forms in the beds.

"We called you, Gentlemen." Josiah says, his voice rumbling as Egon begins to call up the sensors data on his PDA. "The children have been in a coma for the last two weeks, ever since the lights first started appearing."

"Do you know what's going on?"

"Yes, we've been acting as Guardians for the town ever since we were . . . killed," Ezra says with a shudder as Josiah wraps an arm around him.

"What are you guarding?" Egon asks, putting down the PDA as he looks at the seven men. He reaches out to touch Buck, blinking in surprise when his hand touches solid flesh. His hand twitches over the PKE meter, and, smiling, Buck allows himself to be scanned. At Chris's nod, everybody allows himself to be scanned. Egon looks at the figures on the bed, and at a nod from Chris, scans them too. Egon looks up as two ghosts join the men in the room, walking over to Chris and wrapping their arms around him.

"Fascinating." Egon says, staring at his PKE meter.

"What is it, Egon?" Ray asks, getting up to look at the readings with Egon.

"I am getting a bunch of different readings. Our friends here," Egon says, pointing to the seven peacekeepers, "seem to be both living and dead. I'm getting normal human readings, yet they're overlaid with a class seven energy signature. While the seven men in the beds, whom I believe you said are your children have the same readings, but they seem to be muted. This could be because they're currently unconscious while Mrs. Larabee and her son," Egon looks up and smiles at Sarah's nod, "display normal class three signatures."

"Do you have any supernatural abilities since your deaths?" Egon asks, looking up and then blinking as Ezra vanishes from in front of him, reappearing in the other room, sitting at the table. Ray crows in amazement at the sight while Egon raises an eyebrow and scans him again.

"Showoff," Buck says fondly, walking through the table in the middle of the other room. He reaches out and claps Ezra on the shoulder, nearly knocking the other man off the chair.

"Mr. Wilmington, do you happen to know the saying about the pot calling the kettle black?" Ezra asks, smirking. "You've seen us change clothes instantly," Ezra says, "And we also can speak to each other telepathically."

"Really?"

"Yes," JD says, "I contacted Nathan back here in Four Corners while Peter was in the shower, and I was in contact with Buck when we stopped at the graveyard."

"Boys, behave, Dr. Spengler asked us a question." Chris says. "He wants to know what we've been guarding for over a hundred years."

"Dr. Spengler, have you ever heard of Hellmouths?" Ezra asks, leaning back in the chair.

"Yes, there's supposed to be one somewhere in California. A small town called Sunnydale if I remember correctly." Egon says, remembering reading something on the subject a while ago. "They're supposed to be portals to other dimensions."

"Indeed." Ezra says, "There is a Hellmouth, or something very similar to a Hellmouth according to everything I've read, nearby and we've been charged with keeping it from opening."

"Can I ask how and why you were charged with this duty?"

"I don't know why we were chosen, but I can tell you what we've managed to figure out over the years." Ezra says, closing his eyes and beginning to rub his temples. Josiah walks over to him and begins rubbing his shoulders and neck. Smiling, Ezra reaches back and lays his hand over Josiah's.

"Vin lived with the Comanches for a couple of years when he was younger," JD says, "One day the Shaman of the local tribe had a vision during a dream quest. He saw a great evil coming through that would destroy the world if it wasn't stopped. Unfortunately, the only way to stop the Hellmouth from opening was the death of the local defenders. Only the deaths of a hero would close the gate until the next time it was due to open, but the deaths had to be from betrayal, not self-sacrifice."

"And the ambush met the criteria?" Egon says, realizing what is coming next.

"We didn't know it at the time, but a damn fool kid getting drunk and wanting to make a name for himself by killing somebody fit the definition. He was angry because his father had been killed during a bank robbery, he ended up hating all lawmen because of that, and he decided to kill every lawman he could get his hands on. He called in his father's old gang to start with us. Damn Kid didn't realize the gang would probably kill him too. He distracted Buck and Josiah while they were out patrolling the night before, otherwise we would have seen the light from their fire. We'd have investigated and stopped them before they got to town. They caught us with our pants down and sixteen people were killed that day, the seven of us, four innocent townspeople, and five of the gang members. The surviving gang members escaped and were later captured by a posse that tracked them down."

"And this was enough to close the Hellmouth?"

"Yes, since our deaths happened just as the Hellmouth was opening, it was closed. But, the Shaman's vision also said that it was going to reopen again so we had to stick around to make sure it didn't happen. We've kept in touch with the descendants of the Shaman over the years, read everything we could find on Hellmouths, and learned that this one appears to appear in cycles. One of the descendants of the Shaman had a vision about fifty years ago, saying that when the Hellmouth appeared again, it could be closed forever and we would be free. And as a reward for our service, we were changed from normal ghosts to what we are now."

"Can I ask why you and your son weren't changed also, Mrs. Larabee?"

"Call me Sarah, Mr. Venkman." Sarah smiles, reaching down to run her hand through Adam's hair. "You don't need to hide, silly. They're not going to hurt you." She smiles down at her son, who looks up at her.

"Really momma?"

"Really Adam, you and Sarah don't need to hide anymore." Chris says, "And as for why they didn't change when we did, all I can think of is because they weren't killed in the ambush they weren't changed like the rest of us."

"Can you tell us when you were first aware of the change?"

"We'd been out for a ride of the area when Sarah said she heard something coming from the cemetery. We immediately headed over there, and found the ground over our graves boiling. When it finally stopped, there were seven babies lying naked, crying, on the ground. Sarah immediately reached for them but her hands moved right through them. She sent Adam to go for some of the tribe that was farming nearby while we kept watch. The babies kept crying and instinctively, we reached for them; to our astonishment, we found we were solid. We immediately brought them back to town, to be greeted by members of the local tribe. They'd had a vision of what was happening, and brought us supplies for the babies. We found that we were human again and needed to eat and sleep. Luckily it was spring so we were able to start gardens for the winter from seeds they brought us, put in supplies of coal for heat, and buy supplies for the babies. The tribe also told us that the land was in danger of being taken by the state. . ."

"Which is when you showed up with deeds and proof that you'd been paying taxes on the land?" Egon asked, remembering what they had found before flying to Denver.

"Yes, we made sure the land was officially ours, the local tribes had been quietly buying up land around Four Corners so the Hellmouth would be protected, and opened an account in all our names that the taxes could be paid from automatically. Money goes into the account from the tribe's farming and casino for whatever we need we can't get from the land and we proceeded to raise the children here in Four Corners. Four years ago, the Shaman had another vision saying the children had to leave Four Corners for Denver, and we created false records for them. Three years ago, the state of Colorado tried to take the land again through eminent domain. We stopped them again and we're currently in the process of getting the town declared a historical site so the state government can't touch it."

"Which explains the discrepancies we found in the records," Ray says grinning, "We'd noticed that you all were supposedly home births, which isn't common in this day and age, and your parents didn't seem to exist until the birth of their sons."

"We couldn't hack into hospital records, too many things could have gone wrong." Ezra says, shrugging. "If they're recorded as home births, all you need is a birth certificate from the county courthouse, and those are easy enough to fake."

"Wait a second, if they all appeared the same day, why aren't they the same age?"

"I think it's because they stopped aging when they reached the ages we were when we died." Ezra says, standing up and walking over to the beds. "I've been doing some reading, as Winston can attest to by the contents of the library, and I believe the children are us. Is it possible to create a clone magically?"

"Of course, that's why the readings are the same. They are you." Ray says, pulling up the readings on the PDA as Egon stares out the window at the black sky. "We can detect the differences between parent and child with the PKE meters, and the differences between identical twins. But all the reading are identical for all of you, they would have to have been created from you. Whatever created them probably used the DNA left in your bodies and created them, which is why they were found on your graves and why the dirt appeared to be boiling. Did it look like some of the ground had disappeared?"

"Yes, it looked like the ground above the graves had dropped a couple of inches." Josiah asks, closing his eyes as he remembers that day."

"Whatever created them probably used the energy from the earth to make them." Egon says, turning from the window. "Raymond, can you access your address book from the PDA and send e-mail?"

"Yeah Egon, I update it once a week. All my current e-mail addresses should be in there. Who do you want me to e-mail?"

"Rupert Giles if you can reach him, or Wesley Wyndham-Pryce. Those are the two names I hear most often associated with the California Hellmouth."

"Yeah," Ray says, looking up his address book, "they're both in here. Do you want to send the message?" Egon nods and takes the PDA, quickly composing a message and then looks up.

"Is it possible to send an e-mail from here, or do we have to go back to Denver?"

"The boys work from here on their vacations." Chris says, "you can send a message from your PDA."

"You sound like you've had experience doing this?"

"Ez used little Ez's PDA to send the e-mail message that got you here. We've been keeping an eye on you, hoping you would be able to help us, after you defeated Gozer in New York." Egon smiles and hits send, sending the message for help to two e-mail addresses.

Part 16

"Giles, you've got an e-mail marked urgent, with a receipt requested." Xander Harris says as he looks up from the computer. "The subject line says 'Possible Hellmouth activity in Colorado?'

Xander moves as Rupert Giles drops the books he had been shelving and races across the room to the computer. He drops into the vacated seat and immediately opens the message.

"Do you think it's real, Giles?" he asks, he's never seen the older man looking so upset.

"Yes Xander, I'm almost positive it's real." Giles says, quickly composing a return message and sending it off. He reaches up, removes his glasses and polishes them before looking over at the young man standing beside him. "The Council has heard rumors of a Hellmouth in the States like Dr. Spengler described. The Council felt it was just that, rumors, but some of the younger Watchers started investigating the sightings and managed to start a file on it. I know Wesley has a copy of all the research, we were talking one night about it and he told me he had been updating it. And I've met Dr. Spengler at a paranormal conference, he's a prominent parapsychologist, despite his choice in professions, and he's not the type to make mountains out of molehills."

"Despite his choice in profession?"

"Yes, he founded a business after he got kicked out of Columbia. You might have heard of them, they call themselves the Ghostbusters."

"You mean I might get to meet the Ghostbusters?" Xander asks, his eyes wide. "Cool, I wanted to go to New York when I was younger to see if I could catch them in action. Then I found out about the Hellmouth and watching ghosts get caught didn't seem all that much fun, not when I was busy trying to stay alive."

"Do you want me to call LA for you?" Xander asks, shaking himself out of his funk.

"No need Xander, I see he sent the same message to Wesley. We'll be getting a call from him soon. Keep the cordless phone on you, I expect him to call as soon as he gets the message. I'll be looking through my books." Giles says, standing up and heading for the bookcases.

Xander looks over at the stacks of books they had been putting away when he 'd taken a break to check the beeping computer and, sticking the cordless phone in his pocket, grabs a stack and starts putting them away.

"Giles, does this mean we might be going back to the States?" Xander asks as Giles comes back to the table with an armload of books.

"Possibly, especially if this is a Hellmouth. The Sunnydale Hellmouth was damaged, but it's been theorized that a Hellmouth could be drained of its powers, closing it forever. Why, do you miss America?"

"No, I can get anything I need over here." Xander says, shaking his head in denial. "I was just thinking that I'd never left California before Graduation and now I'm living in Jolly Old England." Xander affects a English accent. "Pip, pip, and Cheerio. Rawther."

Giles can't help laughing. "Xander, that's a horrible accent. I promise you, if we do travel to Denver, we'll try to get in some sightseeing after we take care of the Hellmouth."

The phone in Xander's pocket rings and he turns it on with a grin.

"Hello Wesley," he says, grabbing a book and putting it on the shelf.

"Turning psychic in your old age, Xander?" Wesley asks in the Hyperion Hotel office. Cordelia, hearing the name Xander, makes a mad grab for the phone. "Here, say hello to Cordelia before you give the phone to Rupert or we won't have any peace from her." He smiles, handing the phone to the young woman.

"Xander, how are you doing?" Cordelia asks her old boyfriend. "Do you know what's going on? Wes just sat down at the computer, read his e-mail and grabbed the phone from me."

"Yeah Cordy, I do. Giles got an e-mail from somebody he knows who says they've found a Hellmouth outside of Denver."

"Damn, I was afraid it was something like that. Can you put us on speakerphone on your end?" Cordelia switches the phone on her end and minute later Giles and Xander's voices are heard in the office.

"Hello Wesley, I told Xander you'd be calling the minute you got the message."

"Do you think it really is the Hellmouth from the legends."

"All the facts fit. You're going to Denver, right?"

"Of course, you."

"Just as soon as I can make the travel arrangements for myself and Xander. I promised him we could do some sightseeing after dealing with the Hellmouth, he'd never left California before we left Sunnydale."

"Who is Dr. Spengler, the name sounds familiar?" Angel asks, reading the e-mail over Wesley's shoulder.

"You might know of his profession more readily, Angel. He's one of the members of a paranormal company based in New York. They call themselves the Ghostbusters."

"Oh jeez, you mean they're real?" Spike asks, rolling his eyes. "I thought they were about as real as Ms. Cleo and her psychic network."

"They're real, yes." Wesley says, "Giles and I had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and caught them in action. It was rather intense, one of them nearly got taken out by a fledgling during the fracas but a hockey stick to the head distracted him long enough for Giles to stake him. I don't think any of them even noticed how close they had been to being attacked by a vampire. Or at least I didn't until I got a note from them later thanking us for the assist."

"Did you send them everything you had on that legendary Hellmouth?" Giles asks, looking up as Xander waves an itinerary in front of his face. He hands over his credit card and Xander buys the tickets.

"I don't have it on a computer, otherwise I would have. I'll bring it with me tomorrow."

"We'll be leaving in a couple of hours and arrive at 8 tomorrow morning in Denver." Giles says, "We'll sleep on the plane. Xander just sent an e-mail telling them when we'd be arriving and they said somebody would be picking us up."

"Okay, Cordy just got me a flight arriving in Denver at seven." Wesley says, "I'll let you go so you can pack what you need and I'll see you in the morning."

"Xander," Cordy orders before Wesley hangs up.

"Yeah Cordy?"

"Think you can come see me before you go back to England? I know it would be hard, being this close to Sunnydale, but I'd like to see you and I think Joyce would too."

"Where is Joyce now?"

"She left Sunnydale after the funerals." Cordy says softly, "She said she couldn't stand being on the Hellmouth anymore. She's opened a Gallery a couple blocks from us."

Part 17

Back in Four Corners Egon looks at the PDA as the e-mails from Wesley and Giles confirming their arrivals in Denver reach his inbox.

"They'll be arriving tomorrow, Winston, with all the information they have on a legendary Hellmouth. They've also got an idea on how to close the Hellmouth permanently by draining its energy."

"Who am I picking up?"

"Remember the two gentlemen at the last paranormal conference we attended? They clobbered a fledgling vampire who was about to attack you with a hockey stick, distracting him long enough to stake him."

"Oh yeah, I remember them now. What do they do, anyway? They didn't seem to fit in with the other people attending the conference. I got the idea they thought half of them were flakes. Of course, I thought half of them were flakes too, so they were in good company." Winston grins, remembering the two stuffy British men in tweed who'd been caught in the crossfire of a class five attack on the conference. The younger man had swung a mean hockey stick.

"They were involved in training the Slayer who died during that Ascension last year. Giles returned to England with a young protégé of his while Mr. Wyndham-Pryce moved to Los Angeles."

"Damn, that was a pretty nasty fight. From what I heard, over a hundred people died, most of them teenagers who were attending graduation."

"Yes, including his Slayer and most of her friends. From what I read, they stopped the Ascension by blowing up the High School."

"What teenager hasn't wanted to blow their school up?" Peter says, "But I've never heard of anybody actually doing it."

"The town mayor had turned himself into a hundred foot tall snake demon, Peter," Egon says, rolling his eyes, "They blew up the school to destroy him. Unfortunately, the Sunnydale Hellmouth was right under the school, they were lucky it didn't open again in the explosion."

"If Mr. Giles knows of a way to permanently close Hellmouths, why didn't he close his?" JD asks, not understanding.

"The Sunnydale Hellmouth has been damaged and is unstable. All they can do is try to keep it from opening and destroying everything."

"And since our Hellmouth, if it is a Hellmouth, is stable, appearing and disappearing at regular intervals, it is possible that it easily could be drained."

"Exactly." Egon smiles.

"Hey guys, it looks like it's calming down out there." Ray calls from the window. He's got a PKE meter in his hand, staring at the readouts. "All the sensor readings are rapidly approaching normal."

Chris walks through the door, standing outside a minute before allowing the others to come out.

"Ozone," Peter says, sniffing the air. "Did anybody see any lightning?"

"No, but the sensors would have detected it if there was any." Egon says, heading for the computers. "It also could be energy build-up from the Hellmouth."

"Egon, what time are the flights coming in?"

"Mr. Giles flight is coming in at 8:30 in the Virgin Airs terminal. Give them a half-hour to go through customs. Mr. Wyndham-Pryce's United flight gets in at 8:15."

"Okay, I'll pick him up first, pick the other two up when they clear customs, and head back here. Anything you want me to pick up while I'm in Denver?"

"I'll get a list together before you live." Egon says, pulling up the sensor data. "Ask Peter and Ray if they need anything."

"Sure thing. Would you believe it's only 5:30? That storm/whatever only lasted an hour. It felt like forever." Winston looks out the window to see JD and Buck brushing sand off the tarp and pulling the food from the coals. Nathan takes the food and heads back to the Clinic.

"I'll stop at the grocery store on the way back and get in a load of food. No need for them to be feeding another three mouths for as long as it takes us to fix this. And I don't plan on leaving until we do fix this. Call Janine when you get to town and tell her not to schedule any cases for the next two weeks."

"You okay, Petey?" Winston asks as he comes into the room and stares out the window. Peter looks over, his eyes haunted.

"They must have been going through hell all this time." Peter says, staring at nothing. "They've been tied to this place for a hundred and twenty-five years until they finally got a chance at salvation and now their children are lying there unconscious and they can't do a thing about it."

"No, but we can." Egon says, putting his hand on Peter's shoulder. "And we won't stop until the Hellmouth is closed permanently and the kids are awake."

Peter blinks as his sight begins to cloud over. Egon recognizing the signs of a psychic episode, leads him to a chair. Peter begins to smile broadly as he sees a different Four Corners, lightly dusted from a recent snowfall.

The inside doors of the saloon are shut against the weather, but he can see inside and finds a pot of fish chowder cooking slowly on the stove as the doors upstairs open and a yawning Ezra Standish, who he immediately recognizes as the man currently unconscious in the clinic stumbles down the stairs, heading for the bar and two men currently wrestling in front of it.

"Why are the two of you disturbing me at this ungodly hour of the morning?" he asks through a huge yawn as he steps over them on his way to the coffee pot. Another door opens upstairs and Ezra Sr. comes down the stairs, scowling at the clock over the bar. Little Ez rolls his eyes and calmly points at Buck and JD.

"We were wondering if you wanted to join the rest of us on a ride later today. We're going to find a Christmas tree for the Saloon while Vin and his dad go to the river and get a last batch of fish before the river freezes."

The door across the room opens and a small figure throws itself across the room, landing on the middle of the pile.

"Whoof, you're getting heavy there Adam," Buck says, picking up the young boy and holding him over his head.

"Daddy says to tell you two to quit your damn fussing, you're worse than your fathers ever could be, leave Ez and his dad alone they've got a lot of baking to do before we go pick up the others at the airport tomorrow, and get your asses outside before he shoots you." Adam says, grinning. He blinks, finding himself back in the hotel room, with Egon and Vin standing over him.

"Can you tell us what you saw?" Vin asks quietly when he sees Peter is awake again.

"Four Corners, about five, six months from now." Peter says, blinking as he remembers the vivid images from the vision. "Buck and JD were wrestling in the saloon, Ez and his father came downstairs wondering why they were, and I quote, 'disturbing them at such an ungodly hour of the morning?' Buck and JD asked if they wanted to join them on a ride later to find a Christmas Tree for the Saloon while you and your son went to get another load of fish from the river before it froze over. Adam came into the room with a message from his dad, telling JD and Buck to quit bothering Ez and his dad, they had a lot of baking to do, they were worse than their fathers had ever thought to be, and to get their asses outside before he shot them."

"Oh yeah, that's definitely a message from the Cowboy." Vin smirks, "I can almost see him sitting outside glaring at the boys. Get JD and Buck together when they're not working, and they just love to fuss, fight, and bedevil each other. Just like their fathers. If everybody wasn't so worried right now about the Hellmouth and the kids, Buck and JD would be bugging each other just like you and Ray do. Thanks for letting me know everything's going to turn out okay." Whistling, Vin leaves the hotel to spread the news of Peter's vision to the others.

"Buck, grab JD, Chris, and Josiah will you? I've got something everybody needs to hear." He says, heading for the Clinic. Nathan and Ezra are there like he thought they'd be and he grins, dropping into his usual chair and leaning back on two legs.

"What are you grinning about?" Nathan asks, looking up from washing JD's face after feeding him.

"Peter has visions just like James does." Vin says, "I walked into him having one in the hotel, he saw four corners about six months from now."

"And?"

"Buck and JD were fussing and fighting in the Saloon until they woke Ez and Little Ez up, wanting to know if they wanted to join the others looking for a Christmas tree. Me and Vin were off getting a last batch of fish before the river froze, and Chris sent Adam in with a message telling JD and Buck to leave Ez and Little Ez alone, they had a lot of baking to do that day, they were worse than their fathers had ever thought of being, and to get their asses outside before he shot them." The rest of the seven smile at the news.

Part 18

Winston wakes up at five the next morning, grinning at Ray who hands him a cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal.

"You and Petey give Egon your list of stuff you wanted when I was in town?" He asks, looking over at the snoring blanket covered lump that is Venkman in the mornings.

"Yeah, we gave him our lists last night before I got Peter to go to bed. You hear about the vision he had?"

"Yeah, good news. Sounds like once the Hellmouth is closed, the kids will wake up okay."

"Yeah, I filled your thermos with coffee, took Ecto-1 out of the stable and turned her around so she's heading out, and I thought you could stop for breakfast at that café about an hour out of Denver."

"Sounds good to me." Winston says, standing up, stretching, and pulling on his clothes. He takes the flashlight and thermos from Ray with a grin and climbs behind the wheel, quietly leaving Four Corners so he doesn't wake anybody else up.

Once he pulls over the top of the hill, he turns the radio on low for noise and pours himself a cup of coffee. An hour later, he pulls into the café they had passed on the way in, already open for business despite the fact it's only a little past six in the morning.

"Good morning sir, can I take your order?" The waitress behind the counter asks as he takes a seat.

"Yeah, give me the farmers breakfast special." Winston says, looking quickly at the menu, "with scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage, a glass of orange juice, and toast."

"Certainly Sir, is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Can you tell me when the supermarket will be open?"

"Not for a couple hours sir."

"I'll stop in on the way back, then."

"Have you moved into the area recently?" The waitress asks, putting his food in front of him.

"No, I'm staying nearby to help to help somebody out." Winston says, looking up as everybody in the restaurant straightens up. He's just beginning to wonder if he's in trouble when a middle-aged Indian male, black hair just beginning to show some grey, and a younger man enter the restaurant.

"It's okay, everybody." The older man says, smiling at Winston, "The guardians called him and his partners in to help the children." Everybody in the restaurant relaxes and begins to smile.

"How are they doing?" the younger man asks, sliding into the seat beside Winston.

"The kids are still unconscious, but my partner had a vision yesterday showing everything back to normal in six months."

"That's good, why are you headed to Denver this early in the morning?"

"We've got a couple experts on Hellmouths arriving in about an hour. Oh, that reminds me I need to call the office in New York and tell our receptionist not to make any appointments until further notice."

"Here, use my phone." The older man says, handing it over. "Oh, I'm James, the current Shaman of the tribe, and this is Chanu."

"It's long distance, man, I can't put that kind of charge on your phone."

"Ahh, the tribe has three Casinos in Colorado alone that will pay for it. Besides, you are helping the Guardians and the tribe is honor bound to give you any assistance necessary."

Winston dials headquarters, leaving a message for Janine on the answering machine, and hands the phone back. Winston finishes his meal and accepts a refilled thermos of coffee for the road when the Waitress waves off his attempt to pay.

"The meals on the house, anything for those who are helping the Guardians." The waitress says smiling.

"Will you give Vin a message for me?" Chanu asks, following Winston out of the café. "Please tell him I'm glad it's nearly over, and I did teach his son that stunt." Chanu gives Winston an evil smirk, one he recognizes instantly, having seen it on his brothers and sisters numerous times, the look that says 'I finally got the bastard back'. "Tell him, payback's a bitch and revenge is a dish best served cold."

"I take it he knows what stunt you're talking about?"

"Ohh, yeah." Chanu smiles, "He knows exactly what I'm talking about."

Winston gets behind the wheel again, and arrives at the airport a half-hour before the flight from LA is due. He grabs the signs from the back seat Ray had made last night and checking the boards to find what gate the plane's arriving at, stops to buy the paper.

Twenty minutes later they announce the flight from LA is arriving and Winston stands up, holding the sign up so Wesley will see it when he gets off. He's shocked when he sees the man walking over. Gone is the tweed jacket, replaced by a leather knee length black duster over jeans and a white shirt. Only the glasses are the same as he remembers.

"Hello Mr. Zeddemore, it's nice to see you again." Wesley shakes his hand firmly. "When are Xander and Giles due in?"

"Their flight arrives in ten minutes," Winston says, looking at his watch, "By the time your luggage arrives, they should be getting through Customs."

"Actually," Wesley says, "I only have these two carry-on bags. I normally ride a motorcycle, I've learned to pack everything I need in as small a bag as possible."

"I never would have figured you for a motorcycle." Winston says, shaking his head. "Last time I saw you, you were wearing Tweed and, if you'll pardon the expression, had a stick so far up your ass it made your backbone look like it was made of macaroni. What happened?"

"I grew up." Wesley says, shrugging, "I met the Slayer and her friends and realized that a proper British gentleman wouldn't be able to help her, so I started changing. I loosened up, got rid of all the tweed, and started to learn how to fight. After she was killed," Wesley closes his eyes, and hangs his head remembering the brave young girl he had worked with so briefly, "I joined a couple of other people helping out people in LA. We currently run a detective Agency called Angel Investigations."

"And Mr. Giles?"

"He moved back to England, there was nothing left in Sunnydale for him after the Slayer died, taking with him one of the Slayer's friends who survived the battle. Another friend, who hadn't been injured in the fight, moved to LA after the battle and currently works for us as a receptionist. Giles and Xander do research for a number of people, including the Agency and the Council."

They walk to the customs area, finding Xander waiting for Giles to finish up the paperwork.

"Xander!!!"

"Hey Wesley, good to see you again." Xander says, getting to his feet and limping towards the other man. Winston sees his leg is encased in a heavy brace and he's leaning heavily on a cane as he grabs the older man in a fierce hug.

"How are you feeling Xander?"

"Tired, it was a damn long flight." Xander says as Giles walks over, pushing a cart with their bags.

"Hello Wesley, Mr. Zeddemore, good to see you again."

"Good to see you again, Mr. Giles. I hope you two can help us out here."

"I'll be glad to help." Giles says, patting a bag, "I spent most of the time before our flight looking stuff up in our books. Thank goodness Xander took care of packing our clothes, otherwise I'd be wearing this outfit," pointing down at a pair of sensible shoes, tan pants, and a white shirt, "for the next two weeks."

Winston helps Xander put the bags in the back of Ecto-1 as Giles and Wesley go over the files Wesley brought with him, including some new information he 'd found last night in some new books he'd recently gotten.

"Guys, I have a couple stops to make before we head for Four Corners." Winston, says, looking back in the rear-view mirror, "I've got a list of stuff the guys asked me to pick up for them in Denver. And we're going to be stopping for lunch and a load of groceries about halfway to Four Corners."

"Is Four Corners a real Ghost town?" Xander asks, perking up. He'd been airsick most of the flight from England, despite the medication he'd taken, and he's beginning to get interested in his surroundings.

"Real live ghost town, complete with no running water, no indoor plumbing, no electricity except for what we get using our solar-powered generator, and no telephones." Winston says, grinning at the younger man. He reminds him of Ray, the same type of energetic eagerness, and he hopes to never see the devastated look in Ray's eyes he's seen in Xander's eyes when he'd first laid eyes on Wesley at the airport.

Winston quickly runs in and gets the stuff on the list, including three 24-roll packages of toilet paper and soap for Peter, and they leave Denver behind them an hour later. Wesley, Giles, and Xander stop at a local second hand store, buying old clothes to wear in Four Corners.

"Last stop for running water and a flush toilet." Winston says, pulling up in front of the café two hours later. "We're going to be eating lunch here and getting a load of groceries to take with us."

Xander immediately heads for the bathroom, joining the others at a table a couple minutes later. He'd finally felt like eating again after the long flight, and Giles smiles to see him acting like a teenager again.

"Ahh, it's good to see a young man enjoying his food." The waitress smiles and pinches Xander's cheek, "And would any of you be interested in dessert as well?"

"No thank you, I'm stuffed." Xander says, "I think I've eaten more today than I have the last week. I didn't think I would ever be hungry again after that flight."

"I'm sorry, Xander, I'd forgotten just how badly you react to air travel."

"That's okay, G-man, so did I. And it's not like my parents would have ever taken me anywhere that meant more than five minutes driving, let alone flying anywhere."

"Hopefully the weather won't be as bad coming back as it was flying in."

"If it is, I might take the stewardesses up on the tiny liquor bottles they kept offering us."

"Xander!!!"

"Just kidding, G-man. With my family history, booze is the last thing I'm going to be relying on to keep me from urping all over the place."

"Sir, the Grocery store has your order boxed up and in your vehicle. We've also filled your gas tank and checked all the fluids."

"Guys, you ready?" Winston asks, getting up from the table.

"Yes please, I'd like to be able to find out a little more about the Hellmouth." Wesley says, getting up and heading for the bathroom before they leave. "We've had legends of a Hellmouth that appeared and disappeared, but most of the council considered it just that, a legend."

Two hours later, Winston arrives in Four Corners. Xander's the first one out of the car and he stands staring at his surroundings, slowly turning around to take in everything.

"Xander, come help us carry stuff in. You can gawk later." Giles says, nudging Xander when the younger man stays in place for a couple minutes.

"I've been here before." Xander breathes, his voice barely above a whisper. "I know this place. I used to play over there," he says pointing over to the Clarion building, "While I was waiting for ma to finish work."

Chris had come up to help unload the car when he hears the barely audible words. He stops and stares at the young man, recognizing him instantly.

"Billy???"

"Mr. Larabee!!" Xander turns around, and moving as fast as his leg will carry him, throws himself into Chris's arms.

Part 19

"Who's Billy?" Giles, Wesley, and Winston ask in unison.

"Billy Travis was the son of Mary Travis, the owner of the Clarion." JD says, coming up with Vin and Buck. "She was a pistol, tall, blond, and had a temper that would rival Chris's. I think she was sweet on Chris, and I think Chris liked her, but they got along like oil and water. They fought constantly. She was a widow, her husband left her the newspaper when he was shot investigating a story, and she sent her son Billy, who was around Adam's age, to live with his grandparents. Billy came to visit her one time and ended up staying. Chris kinda looked after him like a second son."

"Fascinating, a past life memory. It must have been triggered by the sight of Four Corners." Egon says, watching as Xander shakes his head clear of the clouds and begins grabbing stuff to take inside.

"Or it might have been exposure to the Hellmouth." Giles says, "Especially if Xander, or Billy rather, were here when the Hellmouth was active earlier. Xander spent his entire life on the California Hellmouth and has been affected by it."

"Oh Vin," Winston says, grabbing a package of toilet paper and throwing it at Peter, snickering when it bounced off his head, "I have a message for you from Chanu?"

Winston stares at Vin, who's suddenly gone white as a sheet.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"Please tell me what this Chanu looked like?" Vin asks, blinking as Winston recounts his encounter at the restaurant.

"What did he have to say?"

"He says he's glad it's nearly over, and you're right, he did teach your son that stunt. Something about payback being a bitch and revenge being a dish best served cold." Buck and JD, hearing the second message, fall down laughing hysterically.

"Care to share the joke?"

"Chanu was my bloodbrother, he died nearly a hundred years ago." Vin says, rolling his eyes at his laughing brothers, "As for what he's getting even with me for, he was the Chief's heir and would need a wife to bear him a son. He'd had a wife once, but she was killed by her father for being pregnant with a half-indian baby, and he didn't want to get married again. I knew he would need a heir, and I knew the perfect woman to be the baby's mama, so I went to his father and suggested it. Before Chanu knew it, he and Singing Stone were married and nine months later she bore him twin sons."

"So, he's getting even for you going behind his back and marrying him off like that?"

"That, and while he liked Singing Stone, and she liked him, and gave him a huge family of children, they got along like Chris and Mary and were constantly fighting. I made the mistake one day of saying in his hearing that watching him and Singing Stone going at it made me glad I wasn't planning on getting married, and . . ."

"And he decided that he was going to get even?" Winston grins.

Vin nods.

"Yeah, that explains the look on his face when he gave me the message. That 'I've finally got the bastard' look I've seen on my brothers and sisters faces when they're playing a trick on another sibling."

The others enter the Hotel, finding Egon going over the information Wesley brought with him while Xander puts their stuff away.

"Fascinating, I wonder why the Council never bothered to see if this was possible."

"That's because the Council, for the most part, are hide-bound idiots." Giles says dryly. "They would rather focus their attention on the Slayer instead of investigating other paranormal occurrences."

JD looks up as Xander sits down, beginning to loosen the brace. "Can you tell us what a Slayer is for those of us who are out of the loop?"

"The Slayer is a young girl whose job it is to destroy vampires and demons. They have enhanced strength, speed, healing, the ability to sense vampires, and the knowledge of all weapons and fighting styles. The Council controls the Slayers, sending them out to fight vampires under the direction of their Watchers, field agents of the Council whose job it is to train the Slayer. Slayers under the Council's thumb generally are under the total control of their Watcher and have no live outside of fighting. There can only be one Slayer at a time, when one is killed in battle, another is called to take her place. Giles and Wesley were both Watchers, but unlike most of the assholes on the Council, they actually cared for Buffy, allowed others to fight with her, and allowed her to have a normal life until she was killed last year when the Mayor of our town became a 100 foot tall demon and tried to kill everybody during our graduation. Did I miss anything important?" Xander asks tiredly.

"Headache?" Giles asks, reaching into his bag for a prescription bottle and offering Xander a pill.

"Yeah, a bad one." Xander says, taking the pill and washing it down with a bottle of pop. "Sorry about that everybody, it was a long plane ride, I didn't get much sleep because I was too busy being airsick, and my leg is killing me."

"Why don't you try to get some sleep Xander?" Giles asks, helping the younger man up and leading him to a bed. "A couple hours sleep should help the headache."

"Thanks, Giles." Xander says, his eyes already closing as Giles pulls a light blanket over him.

Peter watches the younger man sleep for a moment before turning his attention back to Giles.

"The kid's hurting in there, and it's not just his leg or a headache." He says. Winston nods his head, remembering the look in Xander's eyes when he'd greeted Wesley at the airport.

"I'm afraid not," Giles says, taking off his glasses to polish the lenses, "Xander has been battling a huge case of survivor's guilt every since Graduation last year. He was injured early in the fight when a wall collapsed on his leg; I stayed with him and Cordelia to get them to safety. The others were killed during the battle. He blames himself for their deaths, feeling that if he had been there, things might have been different. I feel though, that if he had been there, he would have been one of those killed. The fact that he wasn't able to attend Willow's and Buffy's funerals because he was still in the hospital is part of his pain. Going to England with me has helped a little, but I'm afraid coming to another Hellmouth has brought it all back for him."

"Want me to talk with him? I'm a psychologist as well as a Ghostbuster, I've helped a few people deal with some tough stuff in their lives."

"I can help too," Winston says, "I'm a Vietnam vet, I've seen a few cases of Survivor's Guilt over the years."

"I can help as well," Josiah rumbles, "I was a priest for a number of years until I could no longer turn the other cheek. I can't allow any living animal to suffer pain when I can ease it."

"Josiah, have you ever left Four Corners in the last 30 years? I knew a guy in Vietnam who looked a lot like you, he helped counsel a lot of the kids out there."

"I'm afraid not, brother Winston, but the man you knew must have been a good man for you to remember him so fondly."

"Thank you Gentlemen, I think of Xander as a son and seeing him in this much pain is rather hard for me to take."

"What about his parents?"

"His parents are abusive alcoholics and never bothered to contact him since he left the hospital. Indeed, they packed up his belongings and put them on the curb the first night when the hospital didn't believe he'd survive his injuries. A couple friends of ours found them before something happened to them and I had them shipped to England with my belongings. He lived with me until we could get him to England on a work visa."

"That reminds me, I heard from Oz this morning before I got on the plane." Wesley says, pulling a letter from his pocket. "According to his letter, he 's been in Tibet and just found out what happened. The letter took about a month to get to me, and he said he'd be leaving for the States about a month after that."

"Thank you Wesley, I believe Xander will be glad to hear from Oz again." Giles takes the letter and places it on the nightstand beside Xander so he'll see it the minute he's awake.

Part 20

"Was what Xander said the truth, the Council would rather send children to their deaths than investigate other phenonema? And you two were Watchers?"

"Yes, Xander was correct. When the Council first started training Slayers, the average age of a Slayer was eight years old and if the lasted a month, it was a miracle. Gradually, the age of Chosen Slayers started to edge up and now, Slayers are usually in their mid-teens when Chosen. Buffy was 15 when she was Chosen, she was the longest living Slayer in history, dying just after her 18th birthday. Most Slayers were immediately taken from their families when they were chosen, Buffy refused to leave her mother, and when she became my Slayer after moving to the Hellmouth, I allowed her to have as normal a life as possible."

"When she became your Slayer?" Josiah asks, "I take it then that you weren't the first one to train her?"

"No, her first Watcher was a man named Merrick, who found her just after she had been Chosen. He started her training and was killed by a Master Vampire named Lothos. Buffy later killed Lothos and after burning down the school gym that was filled with vampires, she was expelled from School and the Council pulled strings to get her and her mother to Sunnydale. I met her the first day of School when she came to the Library after hearing of a body found drained of blood and stuffed in a locker. She didn't want anything to do with being a Slayer after leaving Los Angeles, but she found out that, as trite as it sounds, being the Slayer wasn't just a job, but rather a destiny."

"I take it this is not normally how it's done." Peter says dryly, leaning his head in his hand.

"What, allow the Slayer to actually think for themselves and not be perfect little soldiers? Oh no, of course they can't do that. I was considered a Rogue Watcher because I allowed Buffy to have friends and a life, imagine the horror if they knew the Slayer actually allowed other people to work with her." Giles says, dropping briefly into Ripper mode. "Wesley was sent to the California Hellmouth to take over Buffy's instruction when I was fired by the Council, he was the tantamount caricature of a Watcher, stick up his ass, no sense of humor, and quoting the Council every step of the way. Until his first day on the Hellmouth anyway, then he started to think for himself."

"Can you tell me a little about how you think a Hellmouth can be closed by draining it?"

"According to some of our oldest books," Wesley says, pulling a photocopy out of his briefcase, "A Hellmouth is a pool of energy. If that energy is breached, the Hellmouth opened as it were, the veils between the dimensions would be destroyed and Hell would literally come to earth. The Sunnydale Hellmouth, being so damaged, continually drew demons and vampires to it like a moth to a flame. Now your Hellmouth, since it's stable, the energy feeding it can be diverted, and once it's diverted, the Hellmouth basically goes Poof, to quote Xander."

"How do you plan on draining the Hellmouth?"

"I believe, that since the seven of you and the children are tied to the Hellmouth, you will be able to touch that energy. You can find something to store the energy for your use. . ."

"Like the Magic series by Mercedes Lackey, when they create Heartstones?" JD asks, breaking in excitedly.

Giles looks completely lost, but Wesley nods his head. "Exactly. The Heartstone would contain the pure energy, and allow it to be tapped by the seven of you and your children. Once the energy is transferred into a suitable container, both Wesley and I will lay a series of protective spells on the area. You would still be tied to the land, but you'd be able to come and go as you please."

"I've always wanted to see Paris," Ezra says, eyes glowing, "Maybe in February, when the weather outside is the worst."

"Why do you believe that we're tied to the Hellmouth?" JD asks, he'd been wondering about that. They seem so sure of that.

"It's easy enough to explain how the children are tied to the Hellmouth. They were created by the energies of it, that's why they're in a coma right now, the Hellmouth is becoming active, that's why the lights started appearing, and are appearing more frequently as the day it's scheduled to open comes closer. . ."

"Like a puppy will whine, move, and kick before it wakes up?"

"Exactly. As for how we can tell you are tied to the Hellmouth, your deaths closed it the last time, that's how you became the Guardians of the land. And since the seven of you are so closely linked to Four Corners, the Hellmouth's energies are keeping everything preserved. That's why the . . ."

"The tornado," Ray says excitedly, "Mary writes in her journal that the tornado skipped right over the town."

"Exactly, and Peter? You've been affected by the Hellmouth yourself, correct?" Giles says, looking at the dark-haired Ghostbuster.

"Yeah, I've been having more visions since I arrived in town. And not just visions of the future, I walked into the schoolhouse earlier to return Winston's book and see if there was anything I wanted to read, and I had a vision the minute I entered the room."

"Tell us what you saw?" Vin asks. Peter looks at him and begins laughing.

"It was horrible," he says through his chuckles. "Ezra was standing at the blackboard writing something, and the kids were sitting across the room in a row of student desks. Buck was on one end, JD was on the other end, and Buck was leaning back with a slingshot trying to hit JD with what looked like a tiny pebble. He leaned back too far and the chair fell over with a loud crash. Josiah sighed while Nathan and Vin laughed and Chris gave him his best version of the Larabee glare, JD stuck his tongue out at him, Ezra pinched the bridge of his nose and started counting to ten in French after telling Buck to sit back up and pay attention. You were there too, laughing in the corner?"

"Another typical day trying to teach the children." Ezra says, rolling his eyes.

"Do you know of a way to make sure that we're not bothered by either the state trying to take the land or people wanting to buy the land to develop it?" JD asks, getting back to something he'd been thinking about for a while.

"We were thinking of having this declared a historical landmark, but there's too much paperwork and no way to document the history of the area."

"I can think of a couple ideas," Xander says, limping back into the room. Giles immediately gets to his feet and helps the younger man to a seat. Peter and Josiah both see how he clings to Giles before turning his attention back to the others. "Th