Chapter 10
Run for your life
"Mister Castle, I have been expecting you."
A heavily accented dark voice ricochets off the walls of the huge warehouse. Castle and Beckett both freeze as they are greeted by the darkness of the room.
"Who's there?" Castle shouts into the blackness, holding onto Beckett and trying to push her behind him. He doesn't care that she carries a gun and is able to take perfect care of herself. Right now, with the superpowers, he is more powerful. He could actually protect her from evil forces.
Beckett, sensing the shift in their balance of power, moves behind him, still aiming the gun at the darkness, towards the voice.
"You don't know me, Mister Castle..." the voice carries a sense of smugness. The madman in the darkness is playing with them. Just playing.
"Who are you?" Castle barks again.
"Does it matter?" the voice replies again.
Before Castle can answer, they hear a growl in the background. Immediately after, the voice that spoke to them silences the beastly sounds. The growl turns into a small whine and the noises in the background stop.
"What the hell is going on in here?" Castle whispers to Beckett who is behind him, trying to see through the darkness.
"I don't know," she whispers back to him. "But … considering this is the last place Donnelly was, I would safely assume it has to be connected with his death and the chemicals that affected you…"
There is a click of a gun behind Beckett and she stops talking. Then he hears her gun fall to the ground in front of her.
"Beckett?" Castle whirls himself around to be greeted with a sight of slightly nervous Beckett at gunpoint. It can't be…. Jerry Tyson?
"Tyson?" he breathes out.
The man who holds the muzzle of a gun against Beckett's neck furrows his brows in the faint light that is sneaking in from the slightly opened door.
"Who the hell is Tyson?" he asks Castle, his voice lower than Tyson's and laced with a thick accent. Probably Eastern-European.
"You are not Tyson?" Castle is confused now. "Are you sure? You look like him," he blubbers, trying to buy some time to come up with a plan to save Beckett from the strangely familiar yet unfamiliar man. Castle shakes his head to clear his mind.
It has been only two weeks since Tyson tried to kill him and Beckett. It still haunts Castle, 3XK seeping into his dreams, poisoning everything. Beckett had helped him sweep his apartment. They'd found at least four bugs and three cameras in the loft, plus the transponders. Tyson had done a masterful job of keeping an eye on him. Castle despised 3XK for ruining the days he thought he was spending alone with Beckett - only to discover that Tyson had first-hand knowledge of how they worked together… in bed. Castle shudders as his focus returns to his current situation. He looks up again to face the man who holds his love at gunpoint.
He doesn't look like Jerry Tyson anymore. Instead, he looks like he could be Tyson's and Josh Davidson's love child. Ewww.
"What do you want?" Castle asks, trying to think of something … anything... to save her. He can't lose her again. He won't.
"I want ye to surrender," the foreigner spits out, twisting the gun into Beckett's neck.
"I… I..." Castle tries to sputter something. Castle isn't holding him at gunpoint, why is the man still holding Beckett at his mercy?
"I want you to not fight when I will own you."
Own you? What?
Beckett stares at Castle, her eyes big. She is mouthing something. What is she trying to say? He concentrates on her moving lips. 'Use….. the… powers'.
Uh, right.
He looks down at his hands. One green and scaled, one pink and ordinary. He has superpowers. Between his freak-out at the morgue and their arrival here, he had completely forgotten to use his freakish powers. Not that he needed to use them.
Castle narrows his eyes and looks back at the stranger.
"Not a chance," he yells at their captor as he lunges into action, focusing his mind on the gun.
Before anybody can react, the gun flies out of the Tyson-wannabe's hands, landing somewhere behind Castle. "Arghhh," the strange man yells in frustration when he discovers he is missing the gun. He seems shocked a split second, but not too long. He remains calm, almost as if he was expecting something like that to happen.
Beckett uses that moment to duck between some barrels that are standing against the wall.
"Come back!" the man yells at Beckett.
Castle releases a sigh of relief as he sees Beckett disappear behind some blue barrels. At least he thinks they are blue, since the light that seeps in the doorway is still faint. She... is safe for now. Somewhat.
"Leave her out of this!" Castle's voice echoes in the room, turning the stranger's attention back on him.
"Mister Castle," the man starts again. "I need you to stop right now. Or I will have to stop you!"
"How are you going to stop me?" Castle teases, averting his eyes to one of the wooden carts that stands against the wall. Concentrating his mind, he stares at the box. Suddenly, a piece comes off of it and flies in the direction of the strange man who is currently positioned between Castle and Beckett. The madman only has time to yelp before the piece of wood embeds itself in his thigh.
"Son of a bitch!" the man growls out, his hands darting to his leg. He grits his teeth and pulls the piece of wood out. Blood gushes out of the open wound. To Castle's utter shock, the blood isn't the usual dark red. Instead, the blood that pools around the feet of the stranger is dark green.
Castle just stares at him for a second, not knowing if he should try to escape or continue fighting. He catches a glimpse of Beckett at the door. She has been able to sneak around behind the barrels and is almost out of the door, but she has stopped her movements to watch the green liquid ooze from the man.
"Beckett, get out of here!" Castle growls, suddenly feeling a sharp pain surging through his body. It feels strangely familiar. He knows it. He felt the same pain in the morgue when they were looking over Donnelly's body.
This isn't right.
"Castle, come on!" Beckett shouts to Castle, opening the door and letting the daylight in.
"Beckett..." he wheezes out between the surges of pain.
She waves to Castle to hurry up.
He tries to move, but it's hard. His body feels like lead.
They both startle as the injured man starts to talk again.
"Do ya really think you can go?" the man laughs, taunting him further. "You can't even move."
"Castle," Beckett's voice is getting urgent. "Come on!"
He needs to get out of here. Fast.
"I'm coming!" He takes a few hurried steps towards the door. He discovers than he can move himself better as he gets farther away from the stranger. He is almost at the door - he can see the daylight behind her. She should be moving away from the door, heading to the car. But she is just standing there.
Why is she still standing there? Why…
Beckett steps back into the room. Slowly. And then Castle notices what made her reconsider her escape.
He stops moving before he collides with her.
Another man enters behind Beckett. Also carrying a gun. And the gun is aimed at the back of her head.
"Sorry, folks," the new addition speaks. "I don't want to ruin your fun. But she has seen too much. She must stay here."
"Ivar!" the injured man cries a little bit too enthusiastically at his partner coming through the door. "Oh, thank god!" he mumbles in pain, before he passes out. His body crumples onto itself and lands on the concrete floor with a thud.
Castle turns his attention from the body lying in the green goo back to the man standing behind Beckett. This man is different. He has lighter hair and blue intense eyes. Castle swears he has seen him somewhere before. He doesn't remember where but… he seems so familiar.
"I am sorry, Mister Castle, for the inconvenience," the man says. "My friend can be rude sometimes," he presses the muzzle of his gun to back of Beckett's neck. "But make yourself comfortable. Looks like you are not going anywhere."
Castle breathes out and closes his eyes in frustration. He failed again. He shakes his head and tries to gather his thoughts. Enough. What the hell is going on here? And who the hell is the man who looks like somebody from the Game of Thrones… His eyes fly open when he realises why he looks so familiar. Joffrey!
"What do you want from us?" Castle demands.
"Oh, Mister Castle," the Joffrey look-alike smiles wickedly. "You have no idea, do you?"
"No idea of what?" Castle only furrows his brows in confusion, staring at the man.
"Move," the blonde man shouts to Beckett. She takes one more step closer to Castle.
Castle watches her move closer to him. He can tell that she doesn't like the situation. Of course. When has Beckett liked being at gunpoint? Never. Nobody really likes it. But for Beckett, she is being unusually silent. That makes Castle a little bit nervous. Something is wrong with her.
But she can't do anything other than what her captor says to her. So, she moves. And the man moves behind her.
The two stop a few feet before they are within Castle's reach. Castle tries to concentrate to his powers. Pull off the same trick he managed to do with the first man. But somehow his powers are not working in this place. It's really hard to concentrate his mental power to make something move. He can't move objects. He can't see through things anymore. Hell, he can't even hear anything in the background, not to mention him trying to lunge into the captor with his super speed. Why does nothing work in here? Is that something to do with the green blood? What is going on in this strange place?
Castle narrows his eyes and tries really hard to move the gun away with his mental powers. But it doesn't move. Not even an inch.
The Joffrey-ish man smiles again. "See you real soon."
Castle and Beckett's eyes meet in confusion before a sharp pain hits them both. Beckett looks down at her leg and notes the source of the pain. A little dart has just embedded itself into her leg.
Castle watches Beckett's eyes as they roll back and she falls to the ground. He wants to lunge himself at her but he sees the Joffrey lookalike now pointing the gun at him.
"What...?" he whispers before the heavy wave of sleepiness hits him and everything goes black.
A/N: Thank you all. For reading. Reviewing. I love every single piece of your mind you give me. And you are all usually so gracious. I really love you guys. That you have still reading this story, even though I lack of updates. Seriously. Thank you! I love you for staying with me.
My betas. I love to hate you and hate to love you.
How about a review? What do you think is happening, where is this going? How do you like it?