Chapter 16

"Kate, I-" Castle stood, reaching out a tentative hand, and she turned to see the ghost of a smile on his lips, his expression softer than it had been for the last however many hours they'd been thrown together.

She smiled back at him. Running upstate had been a mistake. Not that she hadn't needed the time alone, because she had, but because she'd thought she could do it without him.

She should have called him instead of fooling herself into believing he was better off without her. If the look on his face was anything to go by - hope and fear mingled, an underlying mistrust still in his eyes - she had only succeeded in hurting him.

She should have called. Kate took a step toward him. She could make this right, if only she could explain-

The conference room door swung open, and Houghton stood in the entrance, guns slung in holsters around her torso.

"Are you ready?" She didn't wait for an answer, turning and beckoning them to follow. "Let's go."

Over the years, Castle had had some pretty ludicrous ideas. This one though, took the cake, and it wasn't even his. Beckett glared at the back of Houghton's head as she led them from the precinct into the street. Surely this machine couldn't have been programmed with her memories - she would never have come up with anything this stupid.

Then again...

The memory of agreeing to act drunk, letting it turn into a kiss - more than a kiss - before losing all sense of reason and handing Castle her back-up piece... She shrugged, letting out a soft sigh as she conceded, silently, that she had a reckless side too.

"And this camp is only five blocks away?" Castle asked. "And we're just going to… walk right in there?"

Beside her, Alexis moaned, a small whimper, and she offered her a sympathetic smile.

She would never condone putting Alexis in danger, but the teenager had refused to stay alone in the precinct, and Houghton had shrugged, gesturing for her to come with them.

"And they're going to let us walk in, guns blazing?" Beckett asked, and Houghton just nodded.

"It's under control," she insisted.

Beckett grimaced, already on edge as they walked down the silent Manhattan street. How many times had she taken this route? She could have sworn she knew every inch of the two hundred foot stretch of pavement between the subway station and the precinct, but she could see now that that wasn't the case. The dull windows of the buildings reflected the shine of the moonlight, and everything looked old, foreign.

How quickly the world had collapsed in on itself.

Ahead, their coffee shop - usually Castle went alone to pick up their coffee, but that didn't stop her smiling every time she passed it - showed signs of destruction, its windows smashed, the door kicked in. Through the broken glass she could see the tables and chair strewn around the small room, the espresso maker on the floor.

How had this happened?

She shook her head, forcing herself to look down the street, when the silence was broken by a noise she couldn't identify. The swish of… metal? A clang, and yes, that was metallic. And it was growing louder. Much louder, and rapidly.

"Back here," Houghton commanded, ushering them into a doorway, and the four of them cowered as a squadron marched across the closest intersection.

These were not humanoid, a la Houghton and not-Castle. No, these were men of metal, their limbs, torsos and heads silver, their eyes flashing red as they scanned the street.

This was really happening.

"Come on," Houghton said, marching them back into the open streets. This time, Beckett knew to be afraid, and she shuddered, darting her head around as she tried to get a 360 on the city. Beside her, Alexis' eyes shone with unshed tears and she forced another smile, bravado she didn't feel, in an attempt to calm the girl. Castle, too, looked toward his daughter, extending his hand helplessly as he patted her shoulder.

"We're here." Houghton announced.

Rounding the corner, Castle blinked as his eyes adjusted to the blazing lights, the first hint of electricity he'd seen since they'd gone forward in time, and the first time he'd dealt with anything bright since night had fallen and they'd crept from the precinct.

"Okay…" Alexis exhaled, and he wrapped an arm around her.

"Be brave," he whispered in her ear, and she nodded.

"Take these," Houghton said, thrusting paperwork at them, and he frowned. Blueprints?

"I thought-"

"If we can get them out, great," Houghton said. "If we can't, we can at least give them these. There's a lot they can do from the inside."

Castle nodded, folding the pages of instruction. Was it really possible he was shoving the answer to saving humanity into his back pocket?

"Now." Houghton paused, looking at each of them, and drawing her gun. "In front of me."

"What?" As Alexis spoke, Beckett nodded, apparently unsurprised by this twist in the plan.

"What?" he echoed, the reality hitting him.

"You didn't think we could just walk in there, did you? They'll know you're human the second they lay eyes on you. But I can get you in if they think you're my prisoners."

Castle closed his eyes, a vain attempt to block out the matter of fact tone with which Houghton was presenting their options.

Options?

It didn't feel like they had a choice at all, and he wondered if that was perhaps the whole point. Was that the entire reason to ensure humanity's survival, to make sure people could continue making their own choices, exhibiting their own free will?

He scrubbed a tired hand across his face. If they ever got back to their own time he was going to have to give serious thought to serious literature.

He opened his eyes to Houghton's glare, frowning back at her.

There was a bravado that hadn't been there before, when it was just the two of them. Huh. He frowned, trying to work it out. Houghton was being downright prickly, but what had changed?

It was 2016 now but to hear her talk she had time traveled more than once. True, things were more volatile here, but as reasons went, that one didn't ring true.

Alexis was here, but she had been in the Hamptons, and Houghton had insisted on saving her after the ill-fated book launch party, so it couldn't be that.

Kate. It had to be Kate. Ironic that Beckett seemed to be dealing better with her robot counterpart than the machine was with her. He swallowed as an uncomfortable idea settled upon him.

Houghton was jealous.

Being programmed with human memories was wrought with flaws, and Houghton made a mental note to send that feedback to- she shook her head. There was no one to send the feedback on to. She couldn't risk connecting to the grid again, not unless she was willing to risk being reprogrammed. That would mean turning her back on the resistance, and turning her back on Castle.

That wasn't an option.

She needed to save Castle at all costs to herself, and Beckett too.

If only she didn't need to lead them first into the lion's den. But 2016 was just one of many years and there was work to be done. She needed to do her job, and if everyone else completed their own tasks, this whole thing would be averted.

Where would she be then?

Nowhere, came the answer in her own head, and she glared at Castle as he stood in her line of vision with his eyes closed.

They had to do what they had to do, though, and she drew her weapons, nudging her gun into Beckett's back. The cop flashed her a look over her shoulder but got the point she was trying to make, marching forward, Castle and Alexis beside her.

The last hundred feet were all too short, and she nodded at the guard, careful to keep a blank and neutral expression on her face. Certainly that was an advantage of the previous models, she had to admit; they weren't cursed with the potentially fatal flaw of facial contortions that could too easily be interpreted and misinterpreted.

But if she were mere metal she'd be one of the many, and she couldn't bring herself to regret anything, not even sharing Beckett's face and memories, not when they'd brought her the last few days with-

No.

She didn't need to go there.

She would get him in, get him out, and get him safely back to his own time before she faded away.

"Humans," she coughed out, and the guard nodded, his movements clumsy as he opened the door.

"Processing is that way," he responded, and she watched Castle, Beckett and Alexis, wishing she were oblivious to the fear that was coursing through their veins.

"Have you searched them?" the next machine asked, and Houghton nodded.

"Of course," she lied, the fib half true; she'd been the one to give them their weapons, even convincing Alexis to tuck a small handgun into the waistband of her pants before they'd left the precinct. So it wasn't exactly that she had or hadn't searched them, so much as she was acutely aware of just what everyone was carrying beneath their ill-fitting and bulky coats.

"Then through there. Work and room assignments next."

Their fingerprints were taken, their names recorded; no one asked for ID so as Houghton spilled off the names she'd prepped for them, no one blinked. She marveled at the inefficiency, but of course, in 2016 the idea that a resistance would rise, that anyone would push back was less than an echo. The third generation models were so very assured of their superiority that corners were being cut. With any luck by the time they ran the day's new convicts through the system they would all be long gone.

"Clean." The machine had marked something against Castle's name before looking at Beckett and Alexis. "Cook and repair."

She guided them through another door, relieved to be alone with her humans in the next room.

"Work assignments?" Castle asked. "Clean, cook and repair?" He was glowering as he stood over her, and she pushed him away; no doubt there were cameras here, and she could not afford to be seen as vulnerable to the threats of a human.

"You know your real assignment," she reminded him, matching his glare, and he narrowed his eyes at her before taking a step back to stand in line, shoulder to shoulder, between his daughter and his- and Beckett.

Houghton shrugged, suddenly tired of the human emotions that were clouding her judgment, interfering with what should have been easy and clear objectives.

"You need to go, now," she told them, waving them toward the next set of doors. "Find who you need to find. I'll be waiting for you."

"You haven't told us who we're looking for," Beckett reminded her, and the sharp sting of annoyance flooded through her wiring.

"Ri- Castle knows," she said. "He doesn't know he knows. But he'll know, when he sees her."

For someone who had been to hundreds upon hundreds of crime scenes, for someone who had awoken in the hospital more than once, and for someone who had poured over the crime scene photos of her own mother's murder more times than was healthy, Beckett couldn't believe just how depressing this place was.

It looked like it had been an office building once, although she couldn't remember anything specific; the building was a block past the subway station closest to the precinct, so any occasions she'd had to walk past it would have been few.

The ground floor - processing - had been all too bright, the fluorescents unforgiving. Now they had made their way up the stairs, the lighting was lower, and what used to be cubicles were visible.

In each cubicle people huddled, and Beckett buried her head in her hands as she trailed after Castle and Alexis.

The whole place was full of an overwhelming sense of gray although in reality, there were colors. But everyone's clothing was drab, the shades muted in the emergency lighting that permeated everything, and the stench of too many people living in too close quarters had her wrinkling her nose. Any noise was low mumblings, no conversations were held above a whisper, and each cubicle housed three or four people all on cots practically on top of each other.

Castle slowed his step as they rounded a corner, and she forced herself to blink, focus on what he was doing - was he walking blindly just looking for someone he might or might not know?

This plan stank, nearly as badly as the floor itself.

"Castle-" she started, and he stopped in his tracks, turning to her. "Do you even know where we're going?"

He shrugged, reaching out to point at the office walls. "Honestly? I was going to start with finding our room, figured we could go from there."

At the end of the hall two machines swept the corridor with flashing eyes, both of them setting their gaze on Castle, Beckett and Alexis, and Kate nudged him, urging him forward before they could draw much more attention to themselves.

"Two-twenty-three," Castle mumbled, setting off at an ambling pace and squinting at the numbers on the partition walls. "Look. Here."

This was one of the larger cubicles. It had probably been two, but whether the removal of one of the temporary walls had taken place before or after people had been rounded up, Beckett couldn't say. There were, however, six cots, three of which were empty - no blankets on any of them - and three others, upon each of which someone lay.

A child was sleeping on her cot, blankets protectively wrapped around her, and to her left, a man who Beckett took to be her father, judging by the way he lay on his side, his arm wrapped protectively around the small girl. On her right was a woman, who sat up as they approached, a smile curling onto her mouth as she recognized them.

"Detective Beckett and Mr. Castle." She kneeled on her own bed, beckoning them to the empty cots without standing and being seen over the partition. "I never thought I'd see you two again."

Beside her, Castle beamed, standing a little straighter before turning to Beckett. "Houghton told me I'd know who I was looking for when I found her!"

Beckett nodded, ushering Alexis forward before the girl could ask any questions, and pushing Castle after her; he couldn't just stand there with a grin on his face and expect the machines at the end of the hall to take no note.

It was on the tip of her tongue to question exactly why Houghton had been so sure Castle would recognize the woman when it was obvious she knew her just as well, but she stopped herself, sinking onto the cot beside Castle and holding out her hand to let the other woman pull her into a short embrace.

"It's good to see you, Jordan." She turned to Alexis to introduce them. "Alexis, this is Jordan Shaw."

A/N: I heart you guys so much for all the happy feedback last chapter... hope you enjoyed this one too! Everlasting gratitude to Jamie and Kylie for their notes! x