"Well, that's it, then. We've all officially called in sick." Beckett sighed as she hung up the phone.

"Something wrong, Kate?" asked Castle.

"I don't know," Beckett replied. "It's just harder to feel like we all need a sick day when we're sitting in front of each other." She ran her hands through her hair as she tried to gather her thoughts...a feat that she was finding harder and harder to accomplish when every sound she heard seemed to be amplified a hundred times over before it hit her eardrums. Beckett winced as she heard a car alarm go off, and looked out the window to try and figure out whose car windows she needed to go smash. It wasn't hard for her to locate the offending vehicle...but then she gasped when she saw the signs for the cross street where the vehicle was parked.

Houston and Sixth Avenue. Clear on the other side of town. She shook her head to clear the hallucination out of her mind and focus on what was in front of her. Gas, she thought, maybe that's it. Somebody gassed the apartment and we're all hallucinating. That would explain that smell, at any rate...

"What would you call it, Kate?" asked Castle quietly. "You and Ryan are both hearing things, God only knows what's going on with me and Lanie...if anyone can come up with a logical explanation, please feel free to speak up."

"And don't forget that Ryan's hearing our thoughts with a hundred percent accuracy," Lanie added, "how the hell do we explain that?"

"I'm kinda surprised you don't have any theories, Castle," remarked Esposito.

"Sorry," Castle apologized, "My active imagination took off when reality became too strange for it to keep up with."

Ryan called to the group from the entrance to Castle's office. "Guys, I think I've got something."

The group surrounded Ryan in Castle's office, curious as to what answers he might have. Ryan began, "Okay, when I first started looking I searched based on the things we were sure about: my...reading minds, Javier's improved memory and Lanie's healing ability. I found absolutely nothing useful. Then I thought about Castle."

"What about me?" asked Castle.

"You've had two moments where something you wished for came true seemingly out of thin air. You've been referring to them as separate incidents, like you've just used two of your three genie wishes. But I started to wonder if two things were actually connected. And then it hit me: Wizard."

Castle's eyes widened, and he practically choked on the word even as he repeated it. "A wizard? You think I might be a wizard?"

Ryan nodded. "At the beginning of Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter discovers he's a wizard when all sorts of little things he wishes for start to come true. Sound familiar?" Mutely, Castle nodded, and Ryan shrugged, "Hey, I'm just working off theories right now. The thing is, though, when I added wizard to my list of search terms, I think I might have hit pay dirt. But there's just one other thing I need to confirm..."

Confused, everyone watched as Ryan ran to the kitchen and came back with a glass of water. Handing the glass to Beckett, he asked, "Okay, can you please drink that for me and tell me what you taste."

Warily, Beckett raised an eyebrow and took a cautious sip of the water, spitting it out almost as soon as the offending liquid hit her tongue. "My God, Ryan," exclaimed Beckett, "How much salt did you put in there, anyway?"

Ryan was shaking a little as he took the glass back from Beckett. "I put one grain of salt in this glass, Beckett. And your reaction confirms my suspicions. I found this Wikipedia article on an old Chinese legend called the wizard of the four winds. Guys, the stuff that's happened to us today matches the legend *exactly*. It may even explain a few things we weren't able to figure out for ourselves."

"Like why I went into shock?" asked Lanie.

"Exactly," replied Ryan. "According to the article, the healer in the legend risked getting lost in the healing trance when they didn't have a specific injury or ailment to heal. If the healer got lost in the trance, then only the warrior priest could pull them out of it."

Castle raised an eyebrow. "Warrior Priest?"

"Uh, I think that might be me," replied Ryan. "In the legend, the Warrior Priest was a telepath/empath whose goal was to 'restore peace and balance'. He worked to keep the healer grounded when they needed it, and he was considered the yin to the yang of the Warrior Prophet."

"Who's that?"

"The Warrior Prophet has two gifts: the first one is that he can read the past, present and future of anything by connecting with its chi."

That knocked Esposito for a loop. "Wait a sec, bro. I can see the past *and* the future?"

"If we're a match to the characters in the legend, then yes," replied Ryan.

"What's the other gift?" asked Castle.

"The article wasn't real specific on that one," replied Ryan, "but there's something in the legend about the priest and the prophet teaming up to become the wizard's double-edged sword. When it's needed, the prophet is supposed to be able to call up an army on command and the priest is the one who releases them from service. But the article doesn't say how."

Beckett asked, "Does this legend explain why I felt so sick this morning?"

"Actually, it might. There's a character in the legend called the Hunter. The Hunter is connected to the world in ways that the other characters aren't. The hunter's gift is six enhanced senses. We've only seen three of the physical five in action today, though - taste, hearing and smell-"

"Um, I think sight might have happened too," Beckett admitted quietly. "I heard a car alarm, then looked out the window. I saw the car I thought I was hearing-it was on Houston and Sixth."

"That's all the way over on the west side," Castle gasped, eyes widening. "Are you sure that's where you saw it?"

Beckett answered nervously, "I'm not sure about anything right now, really. But whatever car I was looking at was parked on the corner. I read the street signs right next to it."

Castle grabbed a pair of high-powered binoculars and looked out of the window of his office. "Was the car you saw a neon green Mustang with black flame decals on it?"

"Yeah," Beckett replied, "how'd you guess that?"

"It's still there," Castle declared, his voice shaking a little. He offered his binoculars to his girlfriend. "Right on the corner of Houston and Sixth, just like you said. Wanna see for yourself?"

Beckett crossed the room to the window and took the binoculars from Castle. She put the binoculars up to her eyes...and almost dropped them. "That's the car...that's the car I saw."

Lanie knew her friend needed someone to change the subject, but there was one word out of the Hunter's description she, as a doctor, couldn't shake off. "What's the sixth sense?"

Ryan hesitated a little before answering. "The article called it the sixth sense, not the legend. The legend called it the ability to 'commune with the ancestors'. I think that means the hunter could talk to the dead. I take it that hasn't happened to you today?" Beckett shook her head, and Ryan decided to wrap up his description for his increasingly shell-shocked friends. "I'm not sure how accurate the description of the wizard is. It seemed kind of too all-powerful to be true. Anyway, the wizard's primary talent was the ability to shape the world around him according to his will. Kinda standard wizard stuff to that point. The rest of it I'm not so sure about."

"What is it?" asked Castle nervously.

"Well, he's called the wizard of the four winds because in addition to being a wizard, the article says the wizard in the legend could control the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Anyway, I'd like to keep digging," Ryan told them. "The article didn't answer all of our questions, and I really want to track down a copy of the legend to fill in those blanks."

Lanie caught the group's attention while Ryan turned back to the computer to try to get back to his research. "Okay, while finding out more about this legend is all well and good, where does that leave us now? Does *anybody* believe that we should pin all our hopes on a Wikipedia article?"

"I don't know," replied Ryan, pushing away from the desk with a frustrated sigh, "but I can tell you one thing: short of the one-in-a-billion chance that we've all lost our minds at the same time, this is the only explanation I've found where everything we've experienced this morning fits."

"The way I see it, we've got two choices," said Esposito. "We can try to forget last night ever happened and go back to to work tomorrow like normal, or we can go to our regular doctors and see if these things can be treated or something."

Beckett was the first to speak up. "I can't just forget this happened, as tempting as that sounds. All morning I've had moments where I heard things, smelled things, saw things when I looked out the window. I thought I was losing it. At least with Ryan's explanation I now have some small idea what's going on. But I can't even imagine going to a crime scene right now."

Ryan agreed. "Guys, I didn't just volunteer to do research for my own curiosity. I can't get your thoughts out of my head. And that's just five people. Put me in the bullpen right now and you might as well have Bellevue pick me up an hour later. And as for going to a doctor..."

"Anyone think we wouldn't all get our own padded rooms if we talk to a doctor about this?" asked Lanie. "Because I can tell you I would think y'all had lost your minds-"

"If it wasn't happening to you too?" asked Esposito. Lanie nodded.

"There is a third choice." Castle now had the group's attention. "We take a couple of days, go someplace private and well...practice."

Beckett had some idea of where Castle was headed, even without the ability to read his mind. "Your place in the Hamptons?"

Castle nodded. "There's plenty of room and the neighborhood is dead this time of year so there's plenty of privacy. That should help Ryan and Beckett a lot..." As they nodded in agreement, Castle continued, "and if there's any chance I have half as much power as this legend says I might have, then wouldn't it make sense to get me out of the middle of Manhattan as quickly as possible in case something goes wrong?"

Everyone agreed that there was a lot of logic to Castle's argument. Lanie asked the group, "Okay then, so are we all agreed with Castle's idea?" As the group nodded, Lanie went on, "then we should all probably go home and pack a bag..."

Lanie's voice trailed off as the members of the group collapsed onto the wet grass. Surprised and disoriented, everyone looked around to try and get some sense of what had just happened to them.

Beckett was the first to realize what had happened. "Uh, guys, I think this is Castle's house."

All eyes glared at Castle, who blushed with embarrassment. He admitted, "Sorry guys, uh, but when I was back at the loft I wished we could all be here already."

Lanie rolled her eyes before leveling an accusatory glance at Castle. "Well so much for packing a bag!"

"But this just proves I was right!" Castle insisted defensively.

Ryan tried to interrupt him. "Uh, Castle..."

Castle ignored Ryan in an effort to complete his train of thought. "I mean, if I was able to get us here just by thinking about wishing for it, I clearly need to be as far away from civilization as I can-"

Ryan grabbed Castle's wrists, forcing the other man to refocus his attention. "Castle!" Ryan declared insistently, "We. Are. Not. Alone. Here."

The group turned to look at the house. Standing motionless on the porch, staring at them, was a pale and very shaky Alexis Castle.

"So what you're trying to tell me is that the loft got struck by lightning last night?" Castle nodded.

"And when you woke up, you had become a *wizard*?" Swallowing hard, Castle nodded again.

"And your 'wizard powers' fired off before you wanted them to and because of that, you guys just 'appeared' in the backyard."

When Castle nodded a third time, Alexis practically jumped off the couch and started pacing the room furiously. "Dad, do you realize how absolutely *crazy* that sounds?"

Castle sighed loudly. This was a conversation he never hoped to have to have, and he was not surprised one bit to see that it was going so badly. Turning to the group, Castle asked, "Well, since we all came out here to practice, would anyone like to try to help me out here?"

Ryan cautiously volunteered. "I think I have an idea, Castle. Ok if I give it a shot?"

Castle nodded, then turned to Alexis, who sat down next to her father and threw up her hands in a wordless gesture of 'Sure, why not?'

Ryan drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to focus on radiating peace and serenity as best he could.

Every person in the room visibly relaxed - Beckett even cracked her neck and groaned with relief. "Ryan, this feeling...is this that whole 'peace and balance' thing you were talking about before?"

Ryan smiled shyly, blushing a little. "I think it might be, yeah."

"Remind me to take you to every meeting I have with Gates from this point on," replied Beckett with a smile.

Alexis watched the exchange between Beckett and Ryan with a mixture of cautious curiosity. "Detective Ryan?" asked Alexis, "How can you be changing everybody's mood by just thinking about it?"

I wish I could tell you, Alexis, thought Ryan, but I really don't know. It just happened to me at the same time as what happened to your dad.

Alexis gasped, stunned. "Oh my God," she exclaimed, "I was looking at your face that whole time, and you weren't *talking* at all, were you?" Ryan shook his head, and Alexis jumped up to pace again, pure shock overriding any of Ryan's attempts to control her emotional level. Alexis stopped mid-pace, the color draining from her face as she turned back to face her father. "And that means...everything you were trying to tell me...it's all true?" Castle's solemn nod of confirmation caused Alexis' legs to give way beneath her, and Castle was by her side in a heartbeat, leading her slowly and gently back to the couch.

Once Alexis was able to catch her breath again, her mind connected the dots at a furious pace. "Dad said you *all* needed to come out here to practice. That means all of you...?" Beckett, Esposito, and Lanie all nodded. Shocked warred with curiosity in Alexis' heart, and as usual, curiosity won out. "Well?" she asked the trio, "After learning about those two, there's no way in hell you're getting rid of me. Who wants to start?"

Esposito decided to offer himself up first. "But Alexis, what about your midterms? I mean, if you were so worried about them that you came all the way out here for a quiet place to study..."

That threw Alexis for a second. "How did you-wait a second, retrocognition?" When Esposito looked at her in confusion, Alexis clarified, "If I remember correctly, retrocognition is when you can remember events in the past that you couldn't possibly have been a part of. And my midterms have been the farthest thing from my mind since you got here, so there's no way you're telepathic like Detective Ryan. What did you see?"

"You were standing on line for the Wafels and Dinges truck just outside of the main campus gate with your friend Patricia - dark hair, green eyes, really pretty...anyway, you got a Wafel with whipped cream, chocolate syrup and sprinkles, and Patricia got one of those pulled pork things...ugh...anyway, you were saying how much you needed a break because people on your floor are partying so hard you can't concentrate. Patricia suggested you go to the loft, but apparently your dad is almost as much of a distraction. That's when you came up with the idea to come out here for at least the weekend. Your first midterm is not until next Thursday? Wow, you are much more disciplined than I was at your age..."

Alexis cut Esposito off, sufficiently impressed. "I remember. Oh, and Patricia has a boyfriend, so don't even. Can you see the future as well, detective, or just the past?"

"According to this legend that Ryan found, I should be able to see the future too, but I haven't tried yet," replied Esposito.

"Hmmm...maybe we can find a way to work on that..." Alexis mused. She then turned to the two women. "Kate? Lanie? What about you guys?"

"Mine's kind of hard to test, unless you want to cut your finger or something..." replied Lanie. Alexis stood up, ready to head to the kitchen, but Lanie stopped her. "Easy, Red, easy! Apparently I've developed the ability to heal injuries by touch. Can you take my word for it for now? Your dad's had a hard enough day without you slitting your wrists or some other insane stunt..."

Alexis agreed - reluctantly. "All right, Lanie, I'll take your word for it - *for now*. What about you, Kate?"

Kate massaged her temples briefly, trying to drink in as much of the calm Ryan was projecting as she could. "According to the legend, I have my five senses enhanced to supernatural levels and have the ability to speak to the dead. And, unfortunately, right now my new 'abilities' are about as unpredictable as your father's."

Having finally calmed down to a level approaching normal, Alexis started to notice the pain and fatigue in Beckett's features. The younger woman got up from the couch, crossing over to Beckett as quietly as she dared. "Even with the emotions Detective Ryan is projecting, you still look like you're hurting, Kate. Are your senses working at the new levels right now?"

Wincing, Beckett nodded. "My hearing's spiked almost as bad as it did this morning. It's definitely not pleasant."

"Can we try something?" asked Alexis. As the curious glances circulated around the room, Alexis explained, "My girlfriend Patricia - the one Detective Esposito saw - suffered from migraine headaches for years. Her mother dragged her kicking and screaming to a biofeedback clinic, but when she learned the techniques, she got rid of her migraines entirely. I don't think I've ever seen her take so much as a Tylenol. She taught me the basics, and I'm thinking that the same techniques might help you, Kate. Would you be interested?"

Beckett nodded weakly. "At this rate, I'll try anything."

Nodding her confirmation, Alexis drew in a quiet, deep breath, and released is slowly. In a calm, quiet, even voice, Alexis began, "All right, Kate, I want you to close your eyes and take a long, deep breath. Now, I want you to picture a set of five controls on a stereo amplifier. From left to right, the dials are for sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. The number on the dial represents how your senses are working. Can you tell me what the dials say?"

Beckett replied slowly, her voice tinged with pain. "Sight is twisting between 0 and 5. Hearing is twisting between 8 and 11. The rest are at 5 and not moving."

"Good, Kate," replied Alexis, "I'm really glad you can see the dials. If you can see them, you can turn them down. Let's try it with smell first, since smell's not moving. Can you see your hand moving to the dial?" At Kate's nod, Alexis continued, "Excellent. Turn the dial slowly down to 1, then take a deep breath and tell me what you smell."

Kate drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I don't smell anything. I used to smell the ocean."

"Very good, Kate. You can move that dial back to 5 if you want. Now, let's try that hearing dial. Can you picture your hand moving toward the dial?" Beckett nodded, and Alexis continued, "all right, now take in a deep breath, and as you let that breath out slowly turn the dial back to 5 and don't move your hand until the dial stops moving."

Beckett let out a strained grunt, but then her face relaxed visibly. Alexis smiled. "Kate, that's excellent! One last dial, and then we're done. Take a deep breath, then as you let that breath out, move your hand over to the sight dial, and turn it to the level you want it to stay at and don't move your hand until the dial stops moving."

Kate drew in one last deep breath, then let it out slowly and opened her eyes. It was only at that point that Castle allowed himself to finally smile. Beckett looked more relaxed than she had looked at any point that day. Kate put her hand over Alexis' and gave it a grateful squeeze. "Thank you so much, Alexis. I *finally* feel better."

"I'm just glad I could help," said Alexis, beaming her own happy smile. Suddenly Alexis' eyes lit up with an idea. "Hey, what if I helped you guys practice? That way you guys wouldn't have to be distracted with helping each other and you could focus just on learning what your new capabilities are."

Beckett eyed her boyfriend's daughter with protective apprehension. "Are you sure you want to do this, Alexis? We don't know much about what we're dealing with...it could get dangerous."

Alexis nodded excitedly. "It's not every day you get to run into a bunch of superheroes in training, especially when one of them is your own father. Besides, if I get hurt, apparently Lanie should be able to put me back together again?" Alexis looked to Lanie for confirmation of her last statement and found it with a cautious nod.

Castle beamed with a father's pride, enjoying how enthusiastically his daughter had thrown herself into their unusual situation. Resisting the urge to laugh, he declared, "Well, I have no objections. What about you guys?"

Beckett nodded her approval, and the rest of the group soon followed. Alexis practically squealed with excitement, then her active mind backtracked to something she remembered both Esposito and Beckett bringing up. "Now what's this legend you guys kept talking about?"