Fire and Ice
Warning! This is a DARK story. Reader discretion is advised.
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She had another contract which was good. It had been a busy time lately and at her new prices she could buy what she wanted and live there nicely.
She had read the file that she had created, followed her target for the last week, getting a feel for who he was. According to her research, … research. That thought brought up a long suppressed memory. There was a time when that word meant something different to her, however those days were long gone now.
Research. He was divorced and the wife had the kids at the moment. His ex-wife and the kids weren't her target, at least not yet.
The divorce was recent and he was still suffering from the result of it. She had watched him come home from the ABC liquor store and was likely already drinking what he had brought home.
She hated alcohol, hated it with a passion. Alcohol had destroyed who she used to be, destroyed the dreams she had at the time. Now she was forced to create new dreams, ones that she just might be able to reach.
She was young and fit and had worked really hard to get into this shape and stay there. It had taken only one year of near constant training to learn both Bojutsu and Akido. This was followed by 6 months of intense training using weapons of several kinds that included a combat course. The following 6 months had been crammed with learning computers and security systems.
Fortunately she had always had a strict and insatiable desire to learn. For the last year she had put all of that to good use. She was now the new lead go to person when you wanted something done.
Disarming his alarm system was child's play. It wasn't even state of the art, still it did tell her that he had a webcam that he used to keep tabs on his dog. The dog that was lying not far from her feet, dying slowly and silently. She felt bad about the dog for about half a second and then it passed.
It did however get her to turn on her scrambler to make a mess of the video feed from his webcam. Even if someone did manage to clear it up any all they would see was the disguise that she was presently wearing. Her next disguise was already in her bag waiting for her to change to it.
She picked to the lock with quiet ease and slipped inside and found him planted in the living room watching a porn video of a pair of lesbians going at it. The bottle was partly gone and his little glass was still in his hand taking small sips as he watched.
She wasted no time and stepped up to the side of the sectional and put two rounds in his chest, followed by a single round to his forehead.
She didn't know why someone wanted him dead and she didn't care, and even if she knew and was asked to deliver a message, she wouldn't. Delivering messages was something people did in movies.
She moved to the kitchen and turned on the stove, pulled out a pan, filled it half way with tap water, ice cubes from the freezer and put it on the stove. Then she started searching for the cleaning supplies until she found what she wanted and mixed them and placed the container in the water and promptly left.
It was part of what she loved about killing in people's homes, every home had just what she needed. Meaning she didn't need to bring anything with her.
She was already changed into her next disguise as she stepped into her hotel lobby when the jug at the home melted exposing the chemicals causing a small explosion and starting a fire that gutted the home.
Beckett walked into the house, or what was left of it and found Lanie over their body. "Hey Lanie, what have we got?"
"Male, and based on the two rounds to his chest and the one to his head, he didn't die in the fire." Lanie tells Kate.
"Meaning the fire and the water to put out the fire will have removed what little DNA that was left behind of our killer, provided he left us anything at all." Kate knows the drill.
"It's definitely our guy Kate. The fire started in the kitchen." Lanie points to what was left of the kitchen.
"Fire and Ice. Household chemicals in a pan of ice water on a hot stove. Downtown really wants this guy." Kate informs Lanie of some of the heat she was getting to solve this and put an end to it.
"You still happy you took the Captain's job?" Lanie asks.
"Not lately no." Kate hated politics of the job, still it was the next step in her career. "Tell me what you find after you are done with him." Kate tells her and moves off to talk with the fire inspector. Normally Kate would leave it to her homicide detectives, but downtown was on her case, so she was actively involving herself.
Kate helped with the murder board and waited for Lanie and the fire inspectors report, along with the report from CSU. Even if she already knew what they would find, or didn't find.
They would find his security system disabled, not a trace of DNA anywhere. His wife or ex-wife would tell her nothing useful and the neighbors heard and saw nothing. No strange cars, no taxis were anywhere near the area, and the transit system didn't have a bus going down that street.
The security cameras anywhere near the area would only show normal car and foot traffic.
Kate however also had the rest of the precinct to consider so she worked on her paperwork and made herself familiar with the bust that robbery was going to run in the early morning hours tomorrow.
Kate picked up some food on her way home. While Kate was walking home a memory suddenly surfaced. This food would likely go only half eaten since it was already past 11:00pm. It would leave another shining example of her love of trying to create a new deadly disease in her refrigerator. There was a time when Castle would cook for her and tease her about what was in her refrigerator. When she ate real food. Kate pushed the memory back down and built her wall just a little higher.
Kate let her forehead rest up against her door. Once again as she had done several times in the last three years, asked herself why she had always pushed him away. Maybe she really did want to suffer in this life, it seemed to be working out that way.
Kate put the key in the lock and entered her apartment and dropped her keys at the door and put her weapon in the drawer and went into the kitchen, turning on the light.
"Good evening detective Beckett." A voice suddenly spoke up scaring Kate for a second.
It caused her to look at the person sitting at her dining room table. "ALEXIS!? Kate didn't believe it. She hadn't seen or even heard from Alexis in years.
"Except its Captain Beckett now isn't it?" Kate didn't hear any kindness in Alexis's voice, it sounded more like a poker voice, devoid of emotion.
"How, … how did you get in here?" And why was she hear after all these years.
"Getting in was easy, I guess a captains pay isn't good enough for the good stuff. Or perhaps you think that since your captain now, that you didn't need the good stuff." Alexis mentions.
"What are you talking about?" Kate was confused. Why were they talking about the lock to her front door anyway? "Why are you here? How is your father?" Castle meant a lot to Alexis, so it seemed a safe topic to talk about while Kate got her food out.
"I'm here for you actually." Alexis gets up and steps around the counter to stand at the entrance to the kitchen. "And it's because of my father that I'm here at all." Alexis tells Kate.
Kate watched Alexis reach behind her back and in a the blink of an eye Alexis pulled out a Taser and shot Kate as Alexis watched Kate twitch in pain and fall to the floor.
Alexis expended the full charge before she pulled out the barbs from Kate and dropped the Taser gun, wanting to make sure that Kate felt the entire amount of pain that the Taser could provide.
Alexis went to her small bag and prepared a syringe and injected it into Kate. Then Alexis went into the bedroom and pulled out the hand truck that she had stowed there earlier.
With care Alexis wrapped up Kate in the tarp that was with the hand truck and used what she had learned to tie Kate to the hand truck and took her over to the front door.
Then Alexis went back to the kitchen and grabbed a pan and filled it half full with tap water and ice cubes out of Kate's freezer. Then combined the chemicals and placed the container in the water and turned on the stove.
Alexis had Kate down the elevator and out the front door and into her stolen panel van and was driving away. In fact Alexis was almost to her destination when the stuff on Kate's stove blew and started a fire that gutted her apartment.
It was hours later and Kate was blinking her eyes open and started trying to clear her mind. It was dark and she was cold and could feel a breeze over every square inch of her body.
Kate started moving her head and quickly found that her hands didn't move as she wanted them to. Looking up Kate found that they were bound and that she was actually hanging from her wrists. The wire that had been used was very tight and was already cutting into her wrists and she could see and feel the blood from the wounds traveling down her arm.
It was now that she found that her feet didn't move either. Looking down she found that her feet were bound with a similar wire and that it was cutting into her ankle area. Not just that but she was spread eagle in the middle of nowhere, plus she was naked.
"What the, …!?" Kate didn't understand what was going on. How did I get here? Alexis was in my apartment. Someone she hadn't seen or heard of for years.
"You're awake. … good, we can begin." A female sounding voice spoke up.
Kate looked that direction and watched Alexis wheel in a double level cart filled with various items. "Alexis?" It certainly looked like Alexis. Her hair was still reddish/orange in color, however it was cut really short. Boy cut short even.
"Normally I just kill people and don't explain anything about who wants them dead or why, but I'm going to make an exception in your case, since you are my last contract. Except in this case I'm paying myself to kill someone." Alexis explains.
Kill? … Contract? …. Alexis was a hired killer? How did this happen, and why her? She didn't remember doing anything to Alexis.
"You can talk if you wish Kate, you can scream if you wish. In fact I can guarantee that you will be doing a lot of screaming, it just won't be because you are having an orgasm." Alexis moves around some of her tools.
"Like my father did, I do research for all my contracts. You made it to Captain after the killing of Captain Gates. You still consider Lanie one of your friends, not married, no boyfriend. In fact how many dates have you been on since you threw my dad to the curb? … One, two? Maybe one whole one night stand perhaps.
You live all alone, not even so much as a cat. Care for no one and no one cares for you." Alexis starts to circle Kate while looking Kate over.
"What do you want Alexis?" Kate needed time, the longer she kept Alexis talking the longer someone had a chance of finding her missing and start looking for her.
"What do I want detective? I want you to suffer detective, suffer until you die." Kate could hear pure venom in Alexis's voice.
"My father loved you. Loved you even with all of your faults. All he ever wanted to do was see you smile, listen to your laugh and try and take away your pain. But instead you insulted him, paraded your boyfriends in front of him. Kissed them in the precinct in front of him.
He almost died when your apartment blew up, he was so scared he had lost you that day. Even grams saw the look on your face when you found him alive after the bank blew up.
Dad did everything he could think of to get you out of your shell, and how did you treat him? … Do you even remember the last words you said to him were?
Did it have anything to do with love? I'm betting you yelled at him and sent him packing didn't you. Likely told him to stay out of your life forever, didn't you?" Alexis offers her opinion of Kate's actions that day.
"Castle and I were always complicated, but what does Castle have to do with this?" Kate didn't understand.
"You never wondered why dad didn't come back and try to get you to change your mind. To try and get you to see how much he loved you? Even after all those times that you hurt him, he kept coming back. I tried to get him to see reason that you were never going to love him.
That you were incapable of loving anyone. You never wondered why Detective?" Alexis asks Kate.
Alexis didn't wait for Kate to respond. "He didn't come back because dad killed himself that day." Alexis tells Kate, getting Kate to suck in a breath.
Castle wouldn't have, he couldn't have! He loved life to much to kill himself. It wasn't possible. Had she really pushed him that hard?
They had fought and Kate had said some mean things that day and her walls kept her away. She had thought about Castle from time to time for years, but could never get herself to apologize and seek him out.
Not having Castle in the precinct after that day had hurt. His empty chair haunted her for months. Even Lanie couldn't get her to see reason. Kate was alone again and her walls kept her there and she adapted to being alone again.
"Dad came home and started drinking. I went out to spend time with friends. When I came home I found him collapsed in his chair at his desk. The place reeked of alcohol. At first I thought he was asleep so I let him sleep it off. Except he hadn't moved an inch come morning.
I called for an ambulance. Dad had drank himself to death. He was hurting because of what you did. All you ever did was hurt dad. … My father is dead because of you." Alexis explains.
Kate was shocked and let her mouth fall open. Kate had just thought that she had finally gotten Castle to listen when she pushed. He was too good a man to be stuck with her, she was broken and couldn't be fixed.
"I found this on his desk along with the bottles of alcohol." Alexis lifts up a little black box and opened it to show an engagement ring.
The shock of seeing the ring had Kate's mind screaming. NO! IT WASN'T POSSIBLE! He, … He was thinking of asking her to marry him?
"My dad loved you, he was going to propose. You didn't have to be perfect detective. No one is perfect. Couples who love each other work together to solve each other's problems. Help support them when they need help.
But not you. You have to do everything alone. No one gets to see or love Kate Beckett." Alexis believes she understand Kate.
"I'm sorry Alexis, I never meant. … I just thought he would stop trying to save me. I never meant to hurt him, not like that." Castle had killed himself because of her actions. She had broken him.
"Hurt him, … You killed him and now I'm going to kill you. You are going to know pain detective, your last moments are going to be filled with intense mind destroying pain. You are going to be a mental vegetable by the time I kill you." Alexis informs Kate.
Alexis then walked away into the dark but came back with the hand truck that had a cooler and a Honda generator on it. "So you understand Kate while your mind is still sharp enough to understand.
The generator is for the light so I can watch you scream and die slowly, and to power the little two burner stove top I have. I fill a pot half full with water and ice, mix some household chemicals and place the container in the water, and when the container melts, it results in a small explosion and will burn your body to a cinder.
If I do this right, you'll even still be alive as your body catches on fire. Of course your mind will long since be gone by that point." Alexis informs her.
"Fire and Ice!?" Kate knows that method. "You're the killer?" Kate didn't see how, Alexis wasn't capable of this.
"Fire and Ice. … I'll have to remember that. I kinda like it. … After I found my dad dead because of you, I quit my classes and took new classes. I'm now a master of two forms of Kung Fu. I learned all I could about computers and security systems.
After you I plan on retiring for roughly a year. I know just what I'm going to do, and then I'll come back and start my work again for a time before I retire once more." Alexis tells Kate her plans.
"You don't have to do this Alexis, your father wouldn't want this life for you, he loved you a lot." Kate tried to reach the Alexis she remembered.
"My father is dead. … Did you know grams died shortly after dad died? Grams gave up after watching her only son drink himself to death. All that was left was me, just me. Because of you I was left all alone.
You destroyed my family detective and now I'm going to finish destroying yours. After you're gone your father will start drinking again and maybe if there is any justice in the universe he will drink himself to death.
Time to start dying detective." Alexis takes a syringe out from his bin of tools and starts ripping open the small blood vessels in Kate's arms and listens to Kate's screams of pain.
Kate had blood streaming down her arms and down the side of her body and is pooling on the floor.
Alexis slaps Kate awake. "You still with us detective?" Alexis looks at Kate. Alexis moves to her bin of tools and comes back with a scalpel.
"You remember that time I interned with Dr. Parrish. I learned a lot from her, like how to use a scalpel with skill. … It is time to remove your breasts detective." And Kate starts screaming again until she collapses unconscious.
Kate starts blinking her eyes open. Her arms feel like they are on fire, her chest hurts like a son of bitch, and her ankles are killing her. "That shot should keep you awake for a little while still." Alexis holds up the empty syringe.
Alexis tosses the syringe aside and pulls out a machete from her bin of tools. "It is time to lose your toes detective." And Alexis takes a mighty swing on Kate's right foot and Kate starts screaming in pain yet again.
Alexis was slapping Kate awake after injecting more drugs into her system. "Time to wake up detective. … Are you still with us detective. I can't have you dying on me just yet." Alexis gives Kate one final slap to the face, harder than the others.
"Lex-us?" Kate whispers out.
"So you are still with us detective. You always were a fighter until it came to my father. Though I suppose in a way you fought him too. Anything to protect your heart.
Poor little Katie Beckett lost her mother and sealed herself off from everyone else. Couldn't see what my father was trying to do for you. No you just couldn't have that, now could you? Let someone into your heart and see what you had done to it over the years, and my father paid the price.
And I bet you thought you could get off scott free didn't you? Not take responsibility for your actions that have consequences for others. No little Katie Beckett had to be protected from anyone loving her." Alexis shifted her next tool around in the hot coals.
"You've probably noticed the IV in your arm by now." Kate actually hadn't noticed, all she really noticed was all the areas of her body that were screaming at her. "You've lost a lot of fluids and I need you awake so you can experience all of this. It is all for your benefit after all." Alexis pulls her tool out of the hot coals and looks at it.
"Did you know that branding is an ancient practice detective? It was used to mark property or to inform anyone who saw the mark that this person had been cast out from her family. A true black sheep in the family, cast aside and forgotten." Alexis holds the hot end up to Kate's face so that she can see it and feel the heat from it.
"Recognize the symbol detective? … No, that is a pitty. You really should have done some more reading. … It's time to mark you detective." Alexis moves around to behind Kate and firmly shoves the branding iron straight into Kate's left butt cheek, causing Kate to scream out in pain.
It felt like Alexis was trying to burn her way all the way through her body, till Alexis finally pulled it away. "I noticed you had already marked yourself. You and your little tattoo. Except this mark is far more permanent." Alexis drops the branding iron back in the hot coals to heat it up again.
Alexis grabs a bottle of scotch and shows it to Kate. "We can't have you getting infected now can we?" And Alexis pours it over Kate's burn on her ass, causing her to scream from the pain yet again.
"What's the matter detective, not a fan of scotch? … You should be, it's really very good scotch. Only the best for my dad. It's the very same scotch that my dad used to kill himself with. Perhaps I'll let you taste it before you die." Alexis offers.
"Oh, I see its lunch time. I need to keep up my strength, I wouldn't want to slip up and make a mistake and kill you too soon." Alexis moves over and sits in a cheap folding metal chair and pulls her lunch out of her bag, and eats while watching Kate squirm from the pain.
Alexis had finished her lunch and selected her next tool. "Recognize this detective? … No? Didn't they teach you anything in school detective? … This detective is a barbed wire beating stick. It's an exact copy of the one the Nazi's used on their Jewish prisoners. It was used to rip open the backs of the Jews during WWII.
You wouldn't happen to be Jewish would you detective? Not that I happen to be a Nazi, just that it would seem fitting if you were." Alexis proceeds to whip Kate and listen to Kate's screams until Kate collapses unconscious from the pain.
Kate had no idea how long she had been out when she woke up again. Still her mind mostly just felt the pain that was all over her body. From the wire that was digging into her wrists to the wire that was digging into her ankles and the various places in-between.
"So you're awake again detective, how thoughtful of you. However I'm afraid that I have a ship to catch that is sailing soon and I still need to fly to it to start my trip, so I need to end this.
It has been most enjoyable listening to you scream detective." Alexis actually did have fun inflicting pain on Kate and listening to her screams.
"The wire is about to cut your hands off, your toes and tits are gone, your ass is marked for the whore that you are, and your back has been ripped open. Did I leave anything out?" Alexis questions.
"I would like to at least finish skinning you, but I just don't have the time." Alexis picks up a scalpel and opens a long and deep cut on the inside portion of both of Kate's thighs and the blood from each wound starts to trickle down her legs. Allowing Alexis to hear Kate scream in pain each time, one last time.
"The cuts are deep enough detective that you would bleed out eventually, just like your mother did when she was killed. However I prefer that you suffer as you die, so, .." Alexis walks away from Kate and sets up her little burner plate, pours out some water and add ice. Mixes her chemicals and places the pot on the burner.
"This will eventually erupt into a small explosion and catch you on fire, burning you alive. A fitting end if I do say so myself. Enjoy your death detective, I know I've had fun killing you." Alexis smiles and turns to leave.
"Lex-us." Kate barely whispers out. Her mind couldn't form the apology that she so wanted to say. Kate knew she had never meant to hurt Castle that badly. Hearing Alexis talk about how much Rick had loved her, only to have her reject him because of her walls, had caused its own kind of pain. The life that she could have had if she had just taken down her walls and risked it all.
"Oh you don't have to thank me detective. … It was my pleasure." And Alexis was gone.
Kate had time to think about what she had done and how she had treated people that she had called friends. Kate couldn't find the words, not really. "I'm sorry Castle, so sorry, so very sorry."
Kate watched the device explode and started screaming as the resulting fire started to consume her body.
It is now hours later:
"We've got a body." Espo tells his partner and him and Ryan head out to the address given.
When they get there the fire is mostly out and are directed to where the body had been found.
Espo didn't make it very far into the building before he found himself with his arms around Lanie who had crashed into him and was crying heavily.
Inside they all found the burnt corpse of a naked female who showed signs of having been tortured. The three of them had no trouble identifying the body, it was Kate Beckett, their friend.
Lanie wouldn't let anyone else touch Kate and did the autopsy herself and found the drugs in her system, along with every mark someone had inflicted on her body.
"MY GOD KATE!" Lanie couldn't begin to imagine who could do this to another person, let alone Kate. It had taken Lanie hours to finish her autopsy. Lanie spent half the time crying. Kate was her best friend, even with all her walls.
Ryan and Espo were doing their best to find any leads that would direct them to who had done this. The fire inspector's report had shown that Kate's apartment had been the victim of the "Fire and Ice" killer as had Kate herself.
Her body was in a desolate part of town, no camera's, no witnesses, nothing for them to go on. And as typical the fire and the resulting water and foam that it took to put the fire out, destroyed everything.
It is now one year later:
Alexis was making her way through the cemetery knowing the route by heart, just like Kate had known her route to her mother's grave.
"Hi dad, hi grams. … I know I haven't been by lately. I've spent the last year as a resident on a cruise ship. I sailed to all manner of ports. Seen a lot of the world. I have lots of stories to tell you. Hopefully I'll have time to tell them all to you." Alexis wiped away a tear.
"You probably know by now that I killed Kate. … I had to dad, I just had to. After what she did to you, to our family … She had to pay.
I learned that her father drank himself to death after Kate died. It seems fitting somehow. The Beckett family destroyed the Castle family, all because Kate loses her mother. Mine abandoned me and Kate had 19 good years. I would have traded her in a heartbeat.
I'm pretty sure my new life isn't what you would have wanted for me. … It's funny how life never works out the way any of us intended for it to.
I've found out that mom is fighting your will and is trying to get all the money you left behind. She is going to be my next target. The last thing I do for myself before I go back to accepting contracts.
Try not to be mad dad, it's not that bad of a life. Maybe I'll actually find someone to share it with. After a year of contracts I'm going to retire again for a while. I found a nice little place during my cruise and bought a house with the money you left me.
You really should have listened dad, Kate wasn't any good for you, but you always did have a big heart. I have one more stop before I catch my flight to LA and deal with mom.
Rest in peace dad, rest in peace." Alexis's kisses both stones and makes her way to a different cemetery. This one she doesn't know her way and it takes some time to find them.
Johanna, Jim and Katherine Beckett.
Alexis had some spray paint and sprayed the mark that she had placed on Kate's ass on her grave stone. "Rot in hell whore. You destroyed my family." Alexis dumped the spray can in a trash bin at the airport for her trip to LA and deal with her waste of a mother.
Alexis had a lot to tell her too.