"We just got lucky."

Beckett's eyes widened as Ryan tossed an aging manilla file down on her desk. "Those prints were in the system?" she asked.

"I didn't say that," Ryan countered. "One of the...geekier guys in forensics apparently collects old sets of 'odd' fingerprints. He recognized the prints of our mysterious friend."

One eyebrow lifted in surprise, Beckett opened the file. "This file is from the 20s..."

"1926, to be exact." Castle and Esposito stood behind Beckett as she flipped through the file while Ryan continued his summary. "The prints belong to one Olga Kolontayev. She was a famous soprano for the Bolshoi Opera."

Esposito was confused. "Hold up, I thought the Bolshoi was a ballet company?"

"Ballet started through opera, not the other way around," replied Ryan. "Anyway, Ms. Kolontayev wanted to sing Fricka in 'Das Rheingold' but the Bolshoi at the time was only interested in performing in Russian. She was all set to defect and make her debut at the Met when she mysteriously disappeared..."

"Any theories as to why?" asked Castle. "I take it she didn't just change her mind and decide to stay in Russia?"

"Nope," agreed Ryan. "There were rumors floating around that she was romantically involved with the star baritone in the cast and that he was cheating on her, but there was no solid proof in the file."

Beckett was starting to put some of the disjointed puzzle pieces together. "That would explain the viciousness of the attack on Engebretsen, kind of a hell hath no fury thing."

"Ellis Island records do seem to indicate that she made it into the country," Ryan told them, "but she disappeared before she made it to the Met."

"So she's just been off the radar for almost 90 years?" Esposito asked in disbelief. "Are we sure she's not..." Esposito's question trailed off as Beckett flipped to a photograph of their subject. "That's her," he exclaimed, changing his tune almost immediately.

Ryan was taken aback by his partner's abrupt switch. "That's her? That's Stephanie's ghost?"

Esposito nodded. "I'm sure. She's a lot older, obviously, but it's definitely her."

"And does this look like anyone we know?" asked Castle, pulling a man's picture out of the file.

Beckett held the picture up to the picture of one of their victims on the murder board. "I'd say that confirms our theory about Engebretsen. For her, that one was clearly personal."

"And Hightower was probably because she knew Engebretsen would be called in to take his place," Ryan added.

"But then, why attack Alex Korotkin?" asked Castle. "And why target Stephanie?"

"Let's ask them," Beckett suggested to the group. "Ryan, you and Esposito go talk to Alex. Castle and I will track down Stephanie and see if the she recognizes anything we've found out this morning."

"So she's not a ghost?" Stephanie Frederickson stood up and paced her living room in nervous disbelief. "That...woman who's been following me all these years? She's *human*?!"

With the production temporarily suspended due to the police investigation, it wasn't hard to find the object of their suspect's twisted affection. Beckett and Castle found Stephanie holed up in her tiny studio apartment, apparently trying to seek some comfort in the arms of her old friend Jake Bradford. And neither of them were particularly happy to see the Guardians or to find out what the team had uncovered. "Does the name Olga Kolontayev mean anything to either of you?" asked Castle.

"No," Jake replied, shaking his head. "Should it?"

"We believe that to be the old woman's name," said Beckett.

Stephanie's mind was reeling, desperately trying to rationalize the new information she was being given with her own experiences. "But...but what about the bird? Th-th-that...that *thing* cannot possibly be human..."

"No," Castle explained, "the bird is most *definitely* a ghost."

Beckett explained, "We believe the bird to be a ghost taking the form of a legendary old Russian figure called a sirin. According to the legend, a sirin was a bird whose appearance and song were designed to lead someone to their death."

Stephanie looked relieved...but only slightly. "Oh good," she groaned sarcastically, "and here I was thinking you were just going to blow me off as crazy..."

Jake, though, was fixated on the second half of Beckett's description, and he cut Stephanie off to ask, "Wait a second, did you say the sirin leads someone to their *death*?"

Beckett nodded. "Your friend Alex Korotkin saw the sirin chewing on her wire just before she fell."

"Alex saw it?" asked Stephanie. "Then why isn't she dead?"

"And why isn't Stephanie dead, even though she's been seeing this...sirin for years?" asked Jake.

Beckett and Castle simply shrugged. "We were lucky to get to Alex in time. And as for Stephanie...we don't know," said Beckett.

"None of this makes any sense," insisted Stephanie. "That...woman *and* the sirin disappeared into thin air right in front of me. More than once. Now that is something that human beings can not do."

Beckett and Castle locked eyes in silent communication. Now for the hard part...thought Beckett. "Ms. Frederickson, while we now believe that Ms. Kolontayev is human, we do believe that she has some experience in manipulating the supernatural."

"That's why she can control the sirin?" Stephanie suggested.

Beckett nodded. "Ms. Frederickson, we believe that you are still the intended target here. Is there any way we could interest you in protection?"

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "Police? What, you're going to post a squad car outside my apartment? Have a couple of uniforms stand guard in the hallway? Isn't that just going to put a gun in the hands of the witch who wants me dead?"

Show time, Castle projected through their link. "That wasn't the kind of protection we had in mind, Ms. Frederickson."

"Really?" drolled Stephanie. "What *did* you have in mind?"

Castle drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes to center his focus. He held his arm perpendicular to his body, his palm closed and relaxed.

When a bald eagle flew into the room from out of nowhere and landed comfortably on Castle's outstretched arm, Jake and Stephanie found it impossible to hide their amazement. The couple swarmed around the eagle, staring at the bird in amazement as it moved its head and flapped its wings. "How...how did you do that?"

Castle leaned back in the chair, a serenely confident smile plastered across his face. "Your 'ghost' isn't the only one who has some command over the supernatural, Ms. Frederickson."

Beckett pushed the point home. "Now can we talk about some protection for you, Ms. Fred..."

Eyes never leaving the eagle on Castle's arm, Stephanie raised a hand to cut off the last of Beckett's statement. "Please, just call me Stephanie. And tell me what you have in mind."

The sirin flew high above the tall buildings of the great city. Her master was quite angry with her, and with good reason. That woman should have died. Everything had been set up *perfectly*.

It was those warriors. It had to be. The ones with those brilliant, glowing auras. Victory had been in her claws...and they ripped it from her grasp at the very last moment. In her own way, she was just as angry as her master. She took great pride in her work. So to have such a triumph swept out from under her...

As much as she despised the expression, it was hard not to take the loss personally.

The sirin spent but a moment in her master's presence before taking flight to correct the grievous wrong done to them both. She flew the cavernous streets of Manhattan in a careful search pattern, not wanting to lose her prey again.

Finally the glow of her targeting beacon called to her in the distance. The sirin followed the sound, growing in confidence as she saw the auras laced with red. Her soul leapt with joy when she saw that she was chasing down not one aura, but two.

The sirin's joy only grew as she approached her targets. There...in the distance...two of the warriors were coming straight toward her, probably looking to meet up with her targets. As much as she wanted to eliminate all four of her problems at once, there were three other warriors still out there.

And they needed to be taught a lesson about meddling with an angel of death.

The sirin scanned the area, her mind working with furious speed to find just the right chain of events to achieve the desired outcome. It didn't take much: with so many metal horses traveling at unnatural speeds between the metal horseless chariots, all she had to do was distract the right horseman at exactly the right time.

Achieving the success that had previously been denied her thrilled the sirin to her very core. The metal horse flew through the intersection, launching its rider into the air until he met his end when his neck snapped against the metal pole that held up a glass torch. The distraction caused by such a spectacular event sent at least a dozen of the metal chariots careening into each other and into the crowds of people on the sidewalks. Two of the metal chariots pushed into a giant metal ark labeled "Express", turning it on its side and sending it careening out of control into the cornerstone of one of the giant stone buildings.

Crushed underneath the giant metal ark were the mangled bodies of the sirin's two targets: Bryce Parrish and Alex Korotkin.

And all the golden warriors could do was stand there and watch.

Hi all! Yep, it's Thursday, not Monday. So why post early? Believe it or not, my reason to speed up the posting timeline again isn't that real life is letting me relax (it's not). It's not even a renewed surge of interest in this story. It's driven by the success of Power Play. It is my second most popular story to date, beaten only by the start to this series. And if I'm going to keep *all* of you happy I've got a lot more writing to do. :-D There will be three more chapters to this story and two more stories in the series. I'm going to *try* to keep to my schedule of posting a Guardian chapter every Monday, but if I can do more I will. And the more comments I get, the more motivated I will be to write...obviously. So don't forget to sign the guest book!