"Ray! Look out!" Winston yelled, barely managing to knock the younger man out of the way when he saw a flaming wooden beam fall nearly on top of him. They both collapsed on the floor, struggling for breath.

"Thanks."

"No problem, homeboy."

"We need to find the elemental and fast. I don’t think the suits can take much more of this…"

Managing to stand quickly, Winston stopped, looking over Ray’s shoulder. "I think it found us."

"Huh?" Ray turned around just in time to get a flash of flame to his face. "WHOA!"

Winston’s particle rifle came up instantly as he sidestepped Ray and fired a shot. It hit the ball of flame, but it didn’t seem to do any appreciable damage. Shaking his head quickly, Ray looked up and saw the elemental for the first time.

It was amazing, even with the gas mask being clouded from all of the smoke. It was in the shape of a slender woman, an inky black core that looked sketched over with a straight pin to reveal the swirling fire beneath in a tracery of flickering fire that detailed the face and obscured other parts. The elemental’s hair was made purely of wavy, flashing flames, crackling as she looked at them with full, pursed lips. She pointed at them with an imperious finger, and her cold expression didn’t change as a stream of fire shot from her fingers.

"Ray!" Winston shouted, partly exasperated. "A little help would be nice!"

"Sorry!" Ray brought his proton rifle to bear, dodging a stream of lava as he opened fire. It hit the elemental squarely in the chest, but it didn’t faze her. "Our proton packs aren’t working!"

"I kinda guessed that!" Winston shouted back. The elemental glanced at a coffee table, now almost a pile of blazing cinders, and snapped her gaze to the black man. The wooden table jerked, and then threw itself at him, barely allowing him time to blast it.

"Ray! Winston!" Egon’s voice came from the lobby.

"Over here!" Ray shouted back before ducking another volley of fireballs. The two Ghostbusters didn’t hear Egon and Peter’s combat boots pounding the tiling as they hurried to join them, but when the two entered the room, the fire elemental whipped its head around to face them.

Peter’s eyes, which were still glowing a bright white, narrowed when he spied the being. "You…"

The fire elemental’s hair flared brighter, and the fire that served as her eyes burned fiercely.

"You took Sean from me." Peter gritted out, snapping the proton rifle from its holster and powering it up. Apparently, Peter still had control to a certain extent. "You took my family! My home! Isn’t that enough for you?!"

Ray and Winston shot identical, shocked looks at Egon, whose eyes were transfixed on the scene unfolding. The fire elemental shook its head at Peter.

"Then what do you WANT?!"

The elemental lifted a finger to point at the psychologist. "Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie…"

Flames shot out of her fingers, but Egon threw Peter to the ground. He could hear the flames crackling just inches above them, spreading out across the flaming wall a few feet away.

"Get off!" Peter shoved the scientist off of him and stood quickly. Facing the fire-demon, the psychologist’s face suddenly twisted in pain. His hands grabbed his head as if trying to keep it from splitting in two, and when he looked up again, green slowly began to fade into his eyes through the gas mask, wavering as his eyes winced shut again. Peter staggered a few steps back with a cry.

"My god…" Egon breathed. "Peter!"

"What’s going on?!" Ray shouted, shooting at the flaming being to distract it.

"Peter’s fighting the possession!"

"Possession?!" Winston shouted about the flames, adding his proton stream to Ray’s. "Man, we can’t leave you two alone for five minutes!"

Suddenly, Peter’s head snapped up and he ripped off his gas mask, sucking in a deep breath and beginning to choke. As he sank to the ground, the purplish-white light began to surround him and fly apart, reforming in front of him into the woman-spirit.

"You will pay for hurting Sean." The spirit hissed. The fire-elemental gave the ghost a wicked smile and shot another stream of fire at her. It slid through her ethereal form without causing so much as a flicker.

The fire-demon’s eyes narrowed. She shot Peter’s coughing form a quick glance, and then turned on Egon. Before the other three could stop it, it flashed to the scientist’s side and ripped off the gas mask. Assailed by smoke-choked air, Egon almost immediately doubled over. The entity shot a hand in front of his face and viscous red smoke issued from her hand to cling to his face.

Egon screamed in pain as he stumbled backwards. The elemental turned on the ghost and gave her a satisfied grin.

"NO!" The dead woman shouted, and immediately flew into Egon’s body. The residue from the smoke cleared almost instantaneously, but Egon’s eyes rolled back into his head as he sunk to the floor.

"EGON!" The others shouted in alarm, running to the physicist’s side. Peter caught the tall blonde before he could finish his descent to the floor.

"We’ve gotta get him outta here!" Peter shouted.

They turned to look back at the fire-demon, who was watching the scene with satisfaction. With another cruel smile, she turned and disappeared with a parting flicker.

"Pete, help us out here!" Winston scooped up the prone scientist’s legs. "Ray, grab his arms!"

Ray took a hold of Egon’s arms, with a worried look to Peter that the psychologist couldn’t see. "He’s gonna be all right, Peter."

"I’ll believe that when he’s back in the lab, playing with his mold." Peter snorted. It took a bit longer to carry Egon out of the burning house, but after what seemed to be an eternity of licking flames and fiery blaze, the cold night air was definitely welcome.

"Here." Winston let go of one leg to point at a spot out of the way of the hubbub. "Put him down there." They laid him down gently, Ray and Winston stepping back as Peter almost lunged forward, simultaneously ripping off his gas mask and scooping up Egon into his arms.

"Egon…" Peter said jokingly, trying not to let his fear show. "Egon, I’m the one who catnaps on a job. You’re supposed to be the one who punches my shoulder and tells me scary remarks like we have zero chance of survival. C’mon, Spengs, open those baby blues for me." Peter stroked Egon’s face before he started firmly patting his cheek. "Egon." His fingers searched the physicist’s neck for a pulse and quickly found one, though it seemed to be a bit fainter than usual.

"Egon, wake up." Winston ordered as he went down to his knees on Peter’s left. "You’re really scaring us here, man."

"Egon, you have to come back." Ray pleaded. "Somebody has to keep Peter in line, and I can’t do that as well as you can."

"Egon, we need you…" Peter told him softly. "I need you." Seeing his vision blur, Peter squeezed his eyes tight and burrowed his face in Egon’s thick blond hair. "You can’t leave me." He fought with himself to pull back and look into the pale face, just in time to see the eyelids open.

"Peter…?"

"Egon!" Peter grinned, swooping forward to kiss the scientist. Remembering at the last second where he was, he changed his trajectory to kiss Egon’s forehead. "Egon, you’re okay!"

"Peter…" Egon sighed his name. "…love…"

Then, as if Egon’s revival had been a hallucination, Egon’s eyes slid shut again, and he let out a deep sigh.

"Egon!" The three of them chorused.

Out of what felt like everywhere at once, EMTs were pulling the three Ghostbusters back from their fallen partner and sweeping him up onto a gurney. The faces swam in Peter’s blurred vision, but he knew just one thing, and that was to make sure that he didn’t lose Egon for a second.

"Egon!" Peter rushed forward, but there was somebody grabbing his arms. He twisted and fought as he saw the familiar face being taken away. "Egon!"

He savagely yanked an arm out of someone’s grip and threw a wild swing, desperate to get Egon back from these people trying to take him away. "Don’t worry, Spengler, I’m coming!"

"Peter!" "Having trouble breathing--" "What are you doing?!" "CPR!" "We’re losing him!"

The voice swam together in one long unintelligible phrase.

"Peter!" Ray?

"Peter, I’ll knock you out if you don’t quit!" Winston? "Don’t make me do it, man!"

Peter wheeled around with wide, confused eyes. "Egon needs me!"

Hands grabbed at him again, and the psychologist fought until stars flew in front of his face and then everything went black.