Neal was not in New York anymore. He knew that as soon as he was taken out of the van and felt the warm sun beating down on him. However, a split second later, he was back in the shadows, being lead through some type of building or wear house, where no light seeped in at all. Neal heard voices coming from the far end of where ever he was, and one voice - a man's - sounded eerily familiar, but that was impossible, that man had been dead for years.

Someone pushed Neal into a chair, and he could hear the sound of more zip ties securing his hands to it before they removed the blindfold. Still groggy from the trip, Neal had to blink several times before he could make out the figures standing in front of him. One man was handing two others an envelope most likely filled with money, so it was safe to assume these were the men who kidnapped him. When Neal was finally able to make out the three people standing around him, he couldn't help gasping in surprise; surely his eyes were playing tricks on him.

"Robert?!?"

The man turned after paying and dismissing the other two men, and there was no doubt about him being exactly who Neal thought he was.

"That's Agent Moreau to you, Neal. Or should I say, Bryce."

"What?" Neal couldn't think to say anything else, he had no idea who Bryce was, or why Kate's father was alive and calling himself an agent. It all felt like a really bad nightmare, except Neal knew this was quite real.

"I know all about who you really are, so there's no use denying it. Why do you think Kate stuck with you all those years, even for most of your prison term?"

"Kate?" He wished he could come up with more than one word questions, but Neal was unable to form the words on his tongue that were already in his head.

"Don't worry, my daughter doesn't work for the Ring; I just told her we needed a little help finding someone. Although, I do feel guilty for what we're going to do to you; I think she actually fell in love with her mark, but you didn't hear it from me."

"Look, I'm not whoever you think I am! What does Kate have to do with this?"

At last, Neal was able to string together a couple sentences that he hoped would come out right. He was still trying to get over the fact that the man he had thought was dead for six years was standing in front of him, telling Neal he was Kate's mark. He had no idea what 'the Ring' was, so that would be his next question, if he got the chance to ask one.

"Stop playing stupid, Bryce. My patience is wearing thin, and I wouldn't suggest trying it. You may be able to fool the FBI, but you can't fool the Ring. I had Kate make sure it was actually you this time when we got the tip. Of course, our plan to grab you had to wait almost four years when that FBI agent found you, but the wait payed off. Kate confirmed the suspicion we had all along - we had really found the infamous Agent Bryce Larkin."

"I swear, I don't know what you're talking about! Please, you have to believe me!"

Neal saw stars when Robert's fist collided with his jaw, causing the chair he was tied to to fall on it's side from the sheer force of the blow. Sure, Neal had experienced his share of cheep shots, but never had one brought forth such blinding pain.

"You might not be in the mood to speak freely to me, but where that team takes you is a place which will make even the toughest men talk."

He left Neal on the floor, shocked and truly, deeply frightened for perhaps the first time in his life.

******

"Agent Peter Burke?"

Casey was waiting by the car parked on the tarmac where he was supposed to meet the agents from New York. Technically, only two of the three people were agents, and it was easy to pick out the two who were.

Agents Burke and Jones shook hands with him, while the other man stood there nervously, eyes darting to each of the agents. Casey wasn't sure he could trust the strange man, but Burke seemed to, and he wondered what their connection was. He could feel a background check coming on as soon as he got the man's name.

"And you are?" Casey asked while the two agents loaded their suitcases into the trunk.

"Call me Haversham, and that's all you're gonna get out of me, Fed."

Casey grunted, and motioned for them to get in as he slid into the drivers seat.

"If this turns out to be some kinda sick set up to get me busted, you're gonna regret in, Peter."

The agent rolled his eyes at the man's paranoia, but responded anyway.

"I wouldn't have gone through the trouble of buying your plane ticket if this was a set up, so you can relax. Neal needs our help, Mozzie, he's in serious trouble."

The black, government issued car was a little cramped, so Peter nabbed the passenger seat before Mozzie could complain about being stuck in the back with Jones. Colonel Casey was a man of few words, Peter decided, mostly because he didn't say a word until they pulled into a parking lot of some kind of healthy eating place. The Orange Orange? Peter was about to ask why they had stopped here when Casey handed them each blindfolds.

"Put those on, we're about to go into a top secret government facility."

Peter and Jones complied reluctantly, but Mozzie fussed until Casey offered his "hard way" option, and then he was more than happy to cover his eyes. Mostly.

"Hey!"

Casey had pulled Mozzie's blindfold tight after catching on to him trying to cheat, making the outline of his glasses visible through the fabric.

"No peaking." Casey said, his smile probably showing in his voice.

Minutes later, the three men looked around in awe at the inside of Castle. They didn't have long to marvel, for Casey introduced them to Chuck and Sarah, who were busy looking through photos of people; most of them in suits, with an exception of a few.

"Hi, I'm Charles, Charles Carmichael, but you can call me Chuck." Peter looked at the young man skeptically, he didn't look like an agent. Then again the blonde didn't look like an agent either, more like a model. The world is full of surprises.

"We have some pictures that we want you to look at. Hopefully you'll recognize some of the people, and from there we can figure out who in Mr. Caffrey's life is a Ring agent." Sarah greeted.

"A what?" Jones suspected he wasn't the only one who didn't know what this Ring thing was.

"They're the bad guys, really bad; that's probably all you need to know. They are also the ones who have your friend."

Chuck knew he hadn't made much clear, but at least he gave some kind of explanation to the confused men. Casey grunted, making it obvious to Chuck and Sarah that he was thinking: did you really expect the FBI to know anything about the Ring?

Peter, Jones, and Mozzie sifted through the pictures, recognizing many people, such as Neal's landlady, June, but after showing them to Chuck, he said none of them had anything to do with the Ring.

"Wait a minute,"

Everyone looked at Mozzie as he lifted a photo from the pile on the table.

"This is Kate's father."

"That's a recent picture, look at the date it was taken." Peter pointed to the numbers at the bottom of the picture.

"Wait a minute. Didn't Kate's father die almost six years ago?"

"I guess that's what we were led to believe."

Mozzie handed Chuck the picture, who, after just a glance, drew a sharp breath.

"Agent Robert Moreau, he's been with the Ring for most of his life, since he was in his twenty's. His mission for the past six years was to track down Bryce, who he now believes is Neal Caffrey. His daughter is Kate Moreau, I think that's her picture."

The photo he pointed to was the same one Neal had, the hand on her shoulder belonging to the "Man with the Ring". Chuck studied that one next, flashing not on Kate, but on the ring on the other person's hand. It was a ten year FBI pin, but this one had been stolen to use as a decoy, the man who took it none other than Robert Moreau.

After revealing this to the rest of the room, Peter was left speechless. All along they had been fooled into thinking it was a fellow agent involved in the twisted case of Neal, Kate and the infamous "Man with the Ring". The entire thing, music box included, had been a decoy to throw them off of the trail. Thinking about it now, Peter would much rather have had it been what they previously thought, it certainly would have been less complicated.

A/N: This coming week might be busy for me, so I might take a little longer on the next couple chapters. No worries, though! I'll try to get one up tomorrow and another before Friday!