Alexis's In Wonderland
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: If you own Castle, I don't. Rating: M, in parts. Time: Not too long after the events in Four of a Kind.
Author's note: This is a sequel to Four of a Kind, exploring the alternate universes found in The Time of Our Lives.
Chapter One. Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
"I'll get it." Rick called to his wife when he heard the knock on the door. Opening the door, he found a familiar face staring back at him.
"Meredith, what are you…" He felt himself go numb and as he hit the floor he thought. Damn! It's the other damned Meredith. Or another one.
He heard two more thumps and bodies fell to the floor and then an unfamiliar face was looking down at him.
"Sorry for the intrusion, Mr. Castle. We wouldn't do this if it wasn't absolutely necessary."
Like hell. He thought. Then everything went black.
This time when he woke up, he didn't feel like he had been ripped apart and reassembled by a demented three year old like he had the last time. He did feel woozy as he stood up. When he did, he shot to the ceiling, which fortunately was padded. He fell slowly to the floor.
"What the hell?" He muttered.
"Babe? Where are you?"
Rick walked slowly to where Kate was lying face down on a large couch. "You're Kate Beckett? Captain Beckett? My wife? Not someone else?"
"Yes. What happened?" Kate sat up and rose about two feet off of the couch. "What the hell?"
"Yes, what the hell." Said another voice.
"Simone?" Rick asked, turning around.
A woman who looked enough like Kate to be her sister, but wasn't, sat up slowly. "Where are we?"
Rick looked around him. They were in a large room, bigger than the first floor of his loft, well furnished with carpets over a hardwood floor, three large comfortable looking couches, and a small coffee table with a carafe of water, glasses, and cookies.
Rick pushed himself up off the couch with one hand and held himself there.
"You have been working out." Kate said.
"No, we're on the Moon."
"We're where?" Both women said at once.
"The Moon. I weigh about a sixth of what I'd weigh on Earth. So, my guess is that we're on the Moon."
"But we can't…" Kate began.
"When I opened the door it was Meredith. Not my ex-wife Meredith, but the one from another, alternate Earth."
"Crap." Kate said forcefully.
"I'm thirsty." Simone said. "Do you think the water's safe to drink?"
Rick shrugged. "We'll probably have to eat or drink something sooner or later." He reached over and got the water carafe and a glass. "I'll try it." He sipped the water. "Tastes like normal water." He grabbed a cookie and took a bite. "An Oreo. Tastes all right, too."
The two women looked at each other, shrugged, then ate and drank. As they did so, Rick got up and looked carefully around the room. There was no other furniture and only one door, which was locked.
"Okay. We're here and here is the Moon, but what's next is anyone's guess."
"Ah! Mr. and Mrs. Castle and Ms. Renoir. You're awake." A voice came from nowhere they could discern. "Please join us." The door opened silently. "Please just go down the passageway."
Rick walked over and looked out the door. There was a long hallway that curved off to the right. Rick looked down at the floor and laughed.
"Something funny, lover?"
He nodded. "The floor is yellow bricks. They want us to follow the yellow brick road." Rick took Kate's hand, then Simone's and they walked down the hallway, with Rick humming, We're Off to See the Wizard.
Shortly after they went around the curve, there was another door. As they approached it, the door opened. They stopped just in front of the door. Rick shrugged. "We may as well."
The new room was about the size of the room that they had just left and was decorated in much the same manner. The exceptions were a large desk at the far end of the room and a window. In spite of himself, Rick was impressed by what was outside the window. Outside was the stark black and white of the Moon. Just above the rim of a distant crater wall he could see a full Earth. I'm on the Moon. This is so cool. He thought. No. Not so cool. I don't want Kate or Simone involved in this. Whatever this is.
His attention went to the desk and the man sitting behind it. Castle knew the man. He was the skinny, older man who had been at their trial on an alternate Earth. He was dressed in a light grey suit with a white shirt open at the neck. His white hair seemed to be sparser than when they had last met. He was studying something on his desk. Rick remembered him as having been friendly, not that that really meant anything.
The man looked up from the desktop and smiled. "Mr. and Mrs. Castle, and Ms. Renoir. How good to see you again. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Arthur Metford. Please, please sit down."
They remained standing. Rick frowned. "How about sending us back where we belong and cut the fake buddy-buddy crap."
"Because it's not fake, Mr. Castle. I really am pleased to see you." He did grin. "Although I do understand that you may be less than pleased to see me."
"Where's Meredith? This universe's Meredith, I mean." Rick demanded.
"Not here. She really is a busy young woman. I'm very much afraid she doesn't have time for this."
"She's not the only one who doesn't have time for this." Rick shot back.
They heard a musical chime and Metford looked at the door. "Perhaps things will be clearer when you meet our other guests."
The door opened soundlessly and a man and a woman entered. It took Rick a second before he recognized the couple. His hand shot out to take Kate's. He felt Simone take his other hand. "Crap." Kate and Rick said together. Simone added a heartfelt "Merde."
They were seeing another Rick and Kate. Rick looked at the other him. The first thing he noticed was that the other him was dressed in jungle cammies with web gear on, but was missing any weapons or ammunition. It had taken a second for Rick to recognize him because he had a beard and long, scraggly hair down over his ears and his collar. He was also a lot skinnier than Rick. He could also see cuts, bruises and sores on the man. His cammies were dirty and torn. The man himself looked exhausted.
Turning to the other Kate, she was dressed in what must have been a prison issue, bright orange jump suit. Her hair was darker than the way Kate wore hers was and much shorter. The biggest change was that this Kate had a black patch over her left eye. She had a bruise on her cheek and glared at Castle.
"I've explained to our two newcomers where we are." Metford said cheerfully. "Perhaps I should begin by introducing everyone?" It was obviously a rhetorical question as he began talking at once.
"The gentleman between the two ladies is Richard Castle. Mr. Castle is a successful and very wealthy novelist. Some years ago he began following the lady to his right. She's Captain Kate Beckett, NYPD, on whom he based the character of Detective Nikki Heat in a series of books. She is also Mr. Castle's wife."
That got a reaction from the other Kate. "You married that asshole? You must really be desperate, lady."
Kate moved closer to Rick, putting her arm around him. "I'm happy, not desperate. Happier than I've ever been."
The other Kate spat.
"Ladies, please? If I may continue?"Metford cut in. " The other young lady is now known as Simone Renoir, but was born Kathleen Beckett on a more backward alternate Earth, but her DNA is identical to Kate Beckett's. Identical to all other Kate Becketts. She was brought back to Mr. and Mrs. Castle's version of Earth where she had some plastic surgery so that she didn't look like Captain Beckett's twin. And in spite of coming from a world where the steamboat was the technological marvel of the age, she's fit in very nicely in in a more modern society. It was not our plan to have her come here, but she was present when we went to…pick up the Castles."
"Nice way to describe kidnapping." Kate said coldly.
Metford shrugged. "The military gentleman is Richard Rodgers, Staff Sergeant, US Army, Retired. Mr. Rodgers was once known as Richard Castle. Then one day he went to see his publishers and asked his mother, daughter and wife to meet him for brunch at the Windows on the World restaurant at the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The date was September 11, 2001."
Rodgers nodded. "All that was ever found of them was a little piece of bone and flesh that they said was my little Alexis. They never found anything else."
Metford went on. "Mr. Rodgers was in a state of shock for a few months, but then found that he could enlist in the US Army. He went through infantry training, made in through airborne school, but not through Ranger School. However, he did find himself in Afghanistan shortly thereafter. He soon developed a reputation as…being crazy. He volunteered for anything as long as it was dangerous and would get him into combat with Muslims. He did eventually make it into the Ranger Regiment and served multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the wars ended."
"Not really." Rodgers broke in. "The wars went on, hell, they multiplied, but they didn't involve US ground troops, just Special Forces trainers and air power, drones."
"Mr. Rodgers tried to get into the Special Forces, but they felt that a man with a well known hatred for Muslims was not the person to train the Muslim soldiers which would be a large part of the Special Forces mission." Metford went on.
Rodgers nodded. "I couldn't handle the peacetime Army. I had no legitimate way to work off my anger, so I found other ways. I got into trouble, and to make a long story short, the Army decided I had severe PTSD and retired me."
"And you're wearing cammies because?" Castle asked.
"I had a buddy in the CIA. He got me a job with East African Air Services, a company based out of London. We provided technical support services for African Union troops fighting in Somalia. I was checking on some of my door gunners when a PRG shot down the Mi-17 helicopter we were in. I got chased through the bush for two days. I finally got trapped by Al-Shabab, and then I found myself here."
Metford spoke again. "The other lady is also Kathleen Houghton Beckett. She's not a detective anymore, but a Federal prisoner. She also met a Richard Castle."
"A first class asshole." The other Kate volunteered. "He started shadowing me to write a book. Nikki Heat. No one can tell me that's a cop name. But, he did help me find the man who killed my mom, a professional named Dick Coonan. Castle asked me to go to the Hamptons with him for Memorial Day. I dumped my boyfriend and went with him. I really fell hard for him. And after six months he dumped me. The man thinks with his dick, and he broke my heart. He's had a dozens of bimbos in his bed since he dumped me. I kept looking for the man who ordered my mom's murder and found evidence it was Senator William Bracken. I actually thought that Castle might want to help me bring him down. He said it was too dangerous… for him." She glanced over at Kate. "I hope your life never depends on your husband doing something brave."
"How about him standing next to a bomb I was standing on, trying to disarm it and managing it with only seconds to spare? I could go on, but I doubt you'd be interested."
The other Kate just shrugged. "Bracken had me set up for a murder I didn't commit, so all I could do was take a run at him. I got into a speech he was making using my shield. I put two rounds into his gut. One of his goons grabbed my gun hand trying to get my piece away. Broke my wrist doing it. I got out my backup and shot Bracken in the forehead. We were both on the ground and he looked at me just as I pulled the trigger. He died knowing who'd killed him and why."
"And you couldn't prove how dirty he was?" Kate asked.
"Saint William Bracken?" She said sarcastically. "No one, not even my defense attorney, bought that." Then she smiled. "Oh, I did get a souvenir from one of his thugs." She pulled of her eye patch to show a gaping hole where her left eye should have been. "He shot me as I lay on the floor, disarmed. Too much damage to the bone to put in a prosthetic eye. That's what they tell me, anyway. Personally, I think the government just doesn't give a shit about me. A cop did stop the thug from putting another round in my brain. Lucky me."
"How'd you end up here?" Castle asked.
Metford took up the story. "Ms. Beckett was sent to the Federal Correctional Institute at Danbury, Connecticut. She was not popular there."
That got another sarcastic laugh from the other Kate. "Cons hate ex-cops to begin with, but the leader of the biggest, toughest gang in that prison was a redneck biker chick who called herself Miz Lil. She was all hot for Bracken. Her brother had gotten into some kind of a job training program that Bracken set up and made himself into the biggest Harley-Davidson dealer in New England. I got beaten up a couple of times because of her. That taught both me and Lil that the guards really didn't give a shit what happened to me. So Lil decided to have me shanked. Four cons dragged me off behind a refrigerator and were about to cut my throat while the guards looked the other way. Then, all of a sudden, I was here."
Metford nodded and smiled. "You'll be happy to know that the authorities are certain that those four inmates and the guards were part of a massive plot to help you escape. After all, how else could you have simply disappeared? You've caused quite a panic back home."
She smiled. "I hope Lil shanks those bitches herself. And the guards."
"Okay." Castle spoke up. "So we all know each other's life stories, and by the way, I like long walks on the beach and people with a sense of humor. How about telling us why the hell you brought us here?"
"I was coming to that, Mr. Castle." Metford chided him gently. "Perhaps I should begin at the beginning?"
This time Castle rolled his eyes. "That's such a cliché. Why not start at the middle and work towards both ends?" He said sarcastically.
Metford cleared his throat. "There are many, many alternate universes. Perhaps the number is infinite. We don't know. We do know how to travel from one universe to another, though, and to the best of our knowledge, we are the only ones who have that secret. We have discovered thousands of alternate Earths in the last forty or so years. In some, earth is a barren, airless ball of rock. In others, intelligent life of any sort has never arisen, and on many more, there are humans. We have yet to discover any sentient non-humans. There are a hundred or so planets that have levels of technology comparable to that of your home Earths. Some might have, say, more advanced computers than your Earth. Some might have more advanced spacecraft, or more advanced medical technology. And we have people on each of these technologically advanced Earths to keep track of that technology. When one Earth makes a breakthrough in, let us say, nanotechnology, we obtain that technology for ourselves. Drawing on the finest minds of over a hundred Earths, we are the most advanced society among all of the Earths. And we wish to keep it that way."
"Yeah, kind of like vampires, living off of other people." Castle broke in.
Metford sighed. "Unlike the mythical vampires, Mr. Castle, not one gets hurt by us. Should we take your books, print and sell them here, you wouldn't be out any money you might have made. Your Earth doesn't have the technology to get your books to us to sell them anyway. If we take something from your NASA, who's hurt?"
"It's just that someday you might want to be able to do something besides take from other people." Castle snapped at him. "What happens if you do run into someone who can travel between the worlds?"
"Yeah." One eyed Kate said. "How come Castle and his women got involved in this?"
"Castle and his wife. I have one wife and a friend of both of us."
"Sure, sport. Tell me another one." The other Kate said with a sneer. "I know you. You're banging both of them."
Metford ignored her. "Mr. Castle came into contact with an incredibly ancient device, which we believe was brought to the Earths by an extraterrestrial race. It can open several types of portals between the alternate universes. Mr. Castle managed to transfer his mind into the mind of another writer Richard Castle who had never met Detective Beckett and who had failed as a writer after killing off Derrick Storm."
One eyed Kate smiled. "Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."
Mr. Metford glared at her. "But, somehow, Mr. Castle set off some sort of a chain reaction with the device. It brought two other Kate Becketts to his Earth. Two extra identical Kate Becketts would have seriously blown our cover, so to speak. We had to pull the Mr. and Mrs. Castle and the other two Becketts off that world and onto ours. Then our politics got in the way."
"How?" Rodgers asked,
"That's not important."
"What he means is he isn't going to tell you. That would betray their big secret." Rick said.
"Precisely, Mr. Castle." Metford said with a smile.
"The Castles and the Becketts were sent to a world that we didn't keep a team on where we thought they would be safe."
"Which we weren't." Kate said. "We got sent to a nice open air shooting gallery posing as a planet Earth. Apparently no one thought to check what kind of a place they were sending us to."
"But they met me and brought me to their world. It's fascinating." Simone added. "And now I have two of the best friends ever, Rick and Kate."
"Jesus. You make me want to puke." The other Kate said.
A green light lit up on Metford's desk. "My, my. It seems I'm needed elsewhere for a time. Perhaps we can reconvene tomorrow morning? I'm sure you're all hungry and thirsty and Mr. Rodgers looks like he could use a good night's sleep." Metford tapped the desk and another door opened in the wall. "You'll find food and drink in the common area and sleeping quarters for you all in the rooms off the common area. Good night all."
