PLANE

Chapter 1

Kate had a dead body and a new lead so she and Ryan were out here in the freaking middle of nowhere in the Bronx of all places, searching for a new clue. She had taken this old supposedly abandoned factory building. It was dark; there was no moon to speak of and no working lights anywhere.

All around her were broken cars and pickup trucks that were stripped nearly to their bare-bones; she didn't see why a currency trader would come down here at 2:00am in the middle of the freaking night.

But then she heard something. It was a humming sound combined with… Wind? At least that was what it sounded a lot like. Coming to the end of the alley, she had two choices. Go right or go left. Left had that sound, so she turned left and looked. What she saw had her rooted to the spot.

ZOMBIES! Real honest-to-god zombies and a shit load of them to boot. However, there was also someone else down here. He, or maybe it was a she given the size, was between her and the zombies. And she had something in her hand that had to be at least eight feet long, perhaps. Six feet was too short.

She was swinging it around her in a form that suggested she was showing off, like in those movies. Or that Indiana Jones movie where the guy had this big sword, and he was showing off that he knew how to use it and was going to cut Indiana to ribbons with it. Except Indiana just pulled out his gun and shot him dead.

It certainly had Kate pulling out her gun because it looked like she was going to need it.

Then the impossible happened. This glowing rope, which had a sort of purple color to it, swung out and cut off at least eight heads, maybe as many as ten. When the rope hit the floor it crackled and sizzled, leaving burn marks on the blacktop.

It seemed to take no time at all and all of the zombies were missing heads. Just like that, that glowing purple rope-thing retracted and then the rod, staff, stick, whatever it was, shrank down to something like two feet, and she put it behind her back.

Then she turned to face Kate. Only Kate didn't see a face. The light was terrible, but her eyes had adjusted to the darkness pretty well. What she saw was a black armored…suit, maybe? And she was wearing a black helmet. It wasn't just some black motorcycle helmet, either. That was something else. Different somehow.

She spotted something on her hips and something else was strapped to her leg.

"NYPD!" Kate yelled at her, and just like that, the mysterious woman took off running and jumped through a window headfirst. "SHIT!" She was fast! Kate had barely blinked.

But Kate wasn't going to jump through some damn window. What she needed was a door. So, Kate ran to one. Thankfully it was still the old rundown factory she had already searched and hadn't found anything to help her with her case.

What she did see was someone in black at the far side headed for a door, so Kate took off running, still with her weapon out. Her quarry stepped through the door. When Kate reached the door she noticed that it said WOMEN on it.

That meant it was a dead end. Whoever it was had trapped themselves. Kate had them now. And since zombies didn't actually exist that meant this person had just killed an unknown number of people by cutting off their heads with something. A weapon that she couldn't explain. YET!

Opening the door slowly and looking while pointing her weapon inside showed it might be a Women's restroom, but that also meant it didn't have any windows and was jet-black inside.

GREAT. She was after someone dressed in all black inside a jet-black room with literally no light at all. She had a solution to that problem, though. She had a flashlight. She had used it earlier while searching this place. Not that she'd searched the restrooms.

Stepping through a doorway, she went right around a short wall, then left again, and into the restroom itself. On one side was a row of toilets inside partitions and the opposite side held sinks with mirrors over them, but most of the mirrors were broken.

All of the toilet stalls were open. However, the very first mirror had Kate's attention at the moment. It was shimmering, kind of a wavy effect, and not because her light was shining on it. No, this was different. The mirror also didn't show the toilet stalls to her left.

ODD… It shouldn't be doing that. It had her taking a quick look at the toilets for her jet-black lady before reaching out with her flashlight hand and extending a finger to touch the mirror since it was different.

Instantly she held up her hands to block out the seriously bright light. Like bright daylight kind of light, and it hurt. Then she heard voices.

"Alexis!?" a deep male voice rang out and sounded like a question.

"AW, CRAP!" a female voice answered. "Sorry, Dad, the mirror must have still been active enough. She caught me killing some of the Horde, so I ran for it instead of killing her," Alexis explained.

Kate blinked and tried to get her eyes to adjust. It was just that it was suddenly so bright. She could make out the black lady and now she could tell that yes, she was definitely in some kind of armor. From head to foot, no less. The helmet was clearly not a motorcycle helmet, but something else entirely.

It had Kate looking around and saw a room full of mirrors. They were all over the place. There were lots of them. They were all tall mirrors like in one of those funhouse mirror rooms. Except the ones she saw didn't do funny things to your body.

Except this wasn't the Women's restroom. Yes, the floor looked like tile of some kind. The walls between the mirrors were…what? She had no idea what they were. It didn't matter. The ceiling was tall, though. There was obviously a second floor, and it had a railing.

"Where am I?" She still had her weapon, so she wasn't afraid.

"Welcome to OZ!" the male voice called out. That had Kate looking in that direction since the lady in all black hadn't yet moved.

"What?" He was tall, about six foot two maybe. Perhaps 220, she was guessing. Broad-shouldered, shortish brown hair, with a little touch of stubble, curse him, that made him look even more handsome than he normally might look. He was wearing what appeared to be a type of uniform. It was black, with a wide red belt, and a red chevron on the chest. He had some kind of gold bars down by his wrists and wore black shoes. He might be somewhere around his mid-thirties, she thought.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist. You can put your weapon away. You're not in any danger here. I assume that's a weapon." He only had descriptions from his daughter to verify that it might be one.

"Who are you?" Kate kept her weapon pointed at him, but kept an eye on the woman as well.

"You first," Rick told her. "This is my place, so my rules."

"Not a chance." Kate wanted answers, not to tell them everything she knew. She was the one with the weapon out here.

Rick groaned and used a couple of fingers to rub his nose. "Alexis?" Rick asked, and before Kate even realized it, her weapon was gone. The black lady was standing over there with it and was taking it apart for her. Literally taking it apart. As fast as Kate could blink, parts were hitting the floor.

Once she was done, the very last part hit the floor, including the still-intact bullets, at least. "Shall we try this again? Who are you? My place, my rules," Rick said yet again.

"Kate Beckett, homicide detective, NYPD out of the 12th Precinct. And holding a police officer against her will is a federal offense." Kate wasn't really sure he cared about that, but it might work, so what the hell.

"Well, Kate Beckett of the 12th Precinct. What do you think, Alexis?" Rick asked his daughter.

Kate watched as the black lady reached up, did something, and there was a short popping sound that was followed by a brief rush of air. She took her helmet off then shook out her seriously long orange hair. She was pretty, about five foot five without the heels she was wearing. Her skin was a touch faded like a pale, almost white color. She had piercing blue eyes just like he did. Kate was thinking she was maybe sixteen years old. A lot younger than she had been guessing.

Alexis offered her observation of the stranger. "Confrontational, clearly stubborn, projects an aura of authority. She actually believes she's in charge here. Yet she doesn't even know where she is. Based on her actions and questions, I'm guessing closed-minded and set in what she believes to be the truth, her truth. She's clearly confused but not frightened even after losing her weapon."

Rick switched to business. "What did you find?"

"A small Horde, nothing to worry about. I don't believe he's in that area any longer or the Horde would be larger. Fourteen, maybe sixteen tops. I removed their heads. I would have looked closer, but I was interrupted and didn't want to kill her since she wasn't part of the Horde. The mirror I used must have still had enough of a charge for her to be here," Alexis explained.

MIRROR! "What's going on? Who are you people and where am I?" This wasn't an abandoned factory restroom or factory. And somehow the mirrors were important.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Richard Castle and this is my daughter, Alexis."

"Richard Castle. Really? Richard Castle's an author." Kate wasn't buying it, never mind that he did look a lot like the Richard Castle on the back of all of his books she owned.

"Really? And you don't believe that there could possibly be someone else with the same name? You may indeed be correct, Alexis." Rick was thinking stubborn and unwilling to believe unless it fit her truth.

Alexis shrugged. "It happens. Shall I kill her?"

That had Kate looking at her. She had seen what the weapon on her back could do. Her head could come off in an instant with that thing, let alone with whatever else she was carrying.

"Walk with me, Kate Beckett of the 12th Precinct." Rick began to walk away and headed for the only door or what she took to be a door to this place. Alexis silently offered for her to go first with a wave of her hand.

Kate then noticed that this Richard Castle was limping on his left leg. That was when she saw that his black pants showed his left leg wasn't bending and flexing like the right one.

The door slid open, and out he walked followed by her; she stopped dead in her tracks. It was a large room with an impressively high ceiling. It was twenty feet, if not more. They were on an elevated walkway that led across to an open space filled with consoles, something like a Mission Control room for NASA, just a little different.

Kate could feel Alexis behind her, and since he was still walking, she started walking. The colors were a bit peachy in places like the base of the consoles. There were shades of blue and green. And the light, while bright, wasn't overly so. It didn't appear to be coming from anywhere, but seemed to be everywhere. As she walked past them, she could see they were very well lit.

He went past a set of stairs going down that ended in a grand room with now even taller ceilings. Down there, she saw two corridors going off into the distance. But he kept walking toward a wall and then turned right, approaching a glass wall that slid open to either side the second he reached it. She followed him outside and got hit by a gust of wind. It was clearly a balcony and she joined him at the railing.

"HOLY. SHIT!" They were way up high and there was what looked like a city beneath them. There was a city skyline down below. Now while way up here, the buildings looked short, but she knew they weren't. She saw a massive suspension bridge leading from where they were out to the city.

There was a city skyline across from them and another one just like it to her left. Between all the buildings, she saw green. Leaning out over the railing and looking down, she saw even more green space. However, it was what was beyond the skyline that had most of her interest. Everywhere she looked, she saw nothing but clouds. They were above the clouds.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Rick commented since he loved this view. He knew there was still another skyline right behind them that they couldn't see from here, and the tower they were in kept going up.

Below them was parkland with lakes where people could swim. Along with side areas with various items to see and enjoy. It was an amazing city all told.

"Where are we?" There was no place like this that she knew of. Hitting her head and dreaming came to mind, but it felt so real.

Rick made a sweeping motion at it all with his arm. "Welcome to the Plane Bytopia."

"Plane?" Kate didn't understand at all.

"Hmm, conference room I'm thinking." Rick led the way back inside. Kate lingered to look at the spectacular view.

Kate was aware that Alexis was always right behind her with her weapon or weapons.

Kate slid between these panels and into a room that held just one table and no chairs. Once Alexis was inside, the panels swiveled and sealed the room closed. Suddenly Kate felt trapped and she was nervous.

Then the table in the middle lit up. "Haven't had to do this in a while. See if I can remember." Rick began pressing glowing white panels. "Here we go. Pay attention." He waited for Kate to look.

"This little black ball is what we call the Prime Material Plane. It's where you're from. Everything you know, every part of it. Not just your planet, but all of what you call galaxy and beyond. Outside of that is this area." Rick added a new ball, just a different shade, more gray-looking.

"This is what we call the Astral Plane. Despite what you see here it's vast, almost infinitely vast in scope. It's mostly barren, made up of loose rocks floating about. Still, it's home to the races that live there.

"Outside of this is Feywild and Shadowfell. And outside of that is the Ethereal Plane. Not nearly as vast and a lot easier to travel through than the Astral Plane." Rick kept adding layers. "Now comes the fun part. Outside of this are the Elemental Planes: Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. They're what you think they are: all water or fire, based on the Plane itself. Better hope you can breathe water or breathe fire, or else.

"Next comes a series of Inner Planes. Each is its own entity. After that comes the Outer Planes, which is where we are. Out here there are Upper Planes and Lower Planes. For the Lower Planes, think Abyss, Hades, Hell, and others. Seven in total.

"The Upper Planes like Bytopia is where we are. Here we actually have two levels. Ours is above the clouds and below the clouds is lush green land. The Upper Planes also total seven. Each Plane has its own number of levels. We have only two while the Abyss has 666 layers. Following so far?" Rick questioned Kate since Alexis already knew it all. "I realize it's a bit complex, but it's actually rather simple once you get the hang of it."

"I'm not sure." It was all so fantastic and Kate's mind was still outside on that view. She hadn't ever seen anything like it in movies or anywhere, really.

"You live here on the Prime Material Plane while we live way out here on one of the Outer Planes. Upper Planes are all good while the Lower Planes are all evil. Most are more Evil than your imagination can take you. True Evil unto itself.

"We use mirrors to get around. They're a lot faster and a lot safer method of travel. We have a mirror for every Plane known to exist. Each has a method to keep unwanteds from entering our Plane should they ever figure it out.

"All Alexis here needed was any one of your mirrors. Any mirror would do, no matter how big or how small. Broken ones present more of a challenge, but they can be used. She charges the mirror and touches it. You likely touched it while it was still charged and brought you here.

"Still keeping up?" he asked her.

Kate looked between him and her and back again. "I…" She could see it, and yes, she could touch it. She was touching the table even now. She had touched the railing and leaned out over it. Either this was one hell of a dream or somehow it was real. Real didn't make sense but no dream could be like this.

Kate focused on him. "So what was she doing? I saw what looked like zombies, which don't really exist."

"Killing the Horde," Alexis stated simply.

"The Upper Planes all fight the Lower Planes. The difference being that we fight it out on the Prime Material Plane, your Plane," Rick told her. "And yes, Zombies do exist along with a whole list of other Undead and Demons and Devils, and a list of other evil creatures almost too numerous to keep track of."

Alexis spoke up. "Zombies, Skeletons. Some are corporeal meaning solid, like Bone Naga, Death Knight, Ghouls, and a whole list of others. Then there are the non-corporeal meaning non-solid, like Ghosts, Shadows, Specters, Wights. There's a large list of Demons and an almost equal list of Devils. Thankfully Demons and Devils need to be summoned by someone. So, that doesn't happen very often unless you get a powerful Lich who can do almost worse. That's who I was chasing down. He was once known as Earnest Cline. Not sure what he calls himself now."

"This is nuts." Kate shook her head. It was too much. It was like dreaming a bad movie filled with undead. "I suppose you're going to tell me vampires and werewolves exist too." She watched those two nod. "You're both crazy!" Kate was sure of it now.

"Perhaps a room for our guest so she can sleep and think while she recovers," Rick suggested and looked at Alexis to carry out that task.

"How about if you just send me back. Or better yet, pinch me so I wake up from this," Kate countered.

Rick broke it to her. "Can't. At least not yet."

"Why can't you?" They obviously had a mirror or two.

Rick spelled it out. "Because those mirrors require a great deal of power to use. Try too often and you break one. I did that once and I don't want to do it again. You'll be fine. No one hurts anyone here. We're a good Plane."

"OW!" All at once Kate got hit hard. Her arm hurt, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

"You're awake," Alexis told her after walloping her in the arm.