Four Winds: Generations
A Castle Fantasy AU
By Laura Picken

This story is in the continuing series of Castle fan fiction based on my fantasy alternate universe story "Four Winds". If you want to read the story, click on my author page, otherwise, here's a quick summary (we're multiple stories into the series, I'm not explaining this in the story *anymore*): Castle, Beckett, Lanie, Esposito and Ryan are struck by ball lighting in the loft on a dark and stormy poker night and wake up with superpowers: Ryan's a powerful telepath, Esposito can get your entire life story by shaking your hand, Beckett has five super-heightened senses and can speak to the dead, Lanie can heal the living by touch, and Castle's a wizard. There's other scattered abilities here and there, but that's the basic gist of it. Not freaked out by the concept yet? Then read on and enjoy :-).

For very loose timeline purposes, Castle fans can place this somewhere in the post-"Always" future: Castle and Beckett are a firmly established couple, Beckett's back on the force and Ryan has fought his way out of the doghouse. Season five might make it into the canon of this series if I'm still writing it in September, but right now I make no promises.

DISCLAIMER: Castle, Beckett, et al. are property of Andrew W. Marlowe and ABC. The legends described herein are inventions of my own twisted imagination and should not be taken to reflect the traditions of any particular group. All non-English language phrases are courtesy of Google Translate, so please forgive me if I get anything unintentionally wrong.

Okay, enough business, let the adventure begin!

"Okay dad, you remember how clouds are formed?"

Castle nodded. "They're condensed water vapor. Clouds go from white to gray as the water concentration increases, until finally it rains."

"And when clouds form at ground level."

"The fog comes a-rolling in."

Alexis crossed until she was behind her father for safety. "So dad, first I want you to try creating a cloud, then increasing it until it rains, and finally a controlled burst of fire to burn it off. Okay?"

Beckett frowned at Alexis, confused and a little nervous. "But Lex, what if the fire goes out of control? And what about the steam? Are you sure it's safe for us to be here?"

Castle was the one to reply to her question. "I have a spell I refresh every time I walk in this room that automatically shields me, the room, and anyone else in here from any damage my practice could cause. We'll be fine." He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. Castle focused on finding the water molecules in the atmosphere of the room, willing them to come together in the room's center.

Beckett watched as a small, wispy cloud materialized in the center of the room, then gradually condensed further and further until a small, puffy white cloud had formed. She drew in a breath through her mouth, realizing quickly that the air now felt bone-dry. Beckett noticed how hard her boyfriend seemed to be concentrating just to maintain that small cloud. "Is all the humidity in this room in that cloud, Castle?" He nodded.

Alexis was in full guide mode. "Total control over the elements has to mean being able to create them as well, Dad. Add more water to it."

Castle was starting to sweat from the mental exertion. He willed more water molecules to be created and merge with the existing cloud, growing until the cloud filled almost half the room. Castle closed his eyes, pushing the molecules to concentrate until the cloud was about half its size and matched the slate gray of the floor.

The rain started within seconds, pouring out of the cloud at a rate that left Beckett quite impressed. Alexis noticed her father's trembling, though, and sensed he wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer. "You're doing great, dad. Now use fire to dissipate the cloud."

The unexpected power of the fire knocked Castle off his feet and had the two women shielding their eyes. A wall of flash-fire roared across the room, instantly turning the water in the cloud and the growing puddle on the floor back into steam-which turned the air in the room into a combination of acrid black smoke and hot, humid, white steam.

It wasn't deadly, but it wasn't a picnic to breathe, either. Alexis pushed her way through the coffin to get a breath of fresh air in the main room. An odd thought occurred to Castle as the mess dissipated. Needing the rest and distraction, he invited Beckett to sit near the open coffin door and asked, "Hey, have you called your dad yet to invite him over to the loft for Thanksgiving?"

Beckett suddenly seemed unable to look Castle in the eye, so he pressed harder, slightly miffed at her reaction. "You haven't told him about *us* yet, have you? *When* were you planning to tell him? Or were you just waiting for me to do it when I asked him for your hand?"

"I tried, okay!" Beckett finally replied defensively.

"When?" Castle asked with increasing annoyance, "When's the last time you talked to him?"

Beckett hesitated before admitting, "Just after my reinstatement. Before that, the last time we had talked was just after the whole zombie thing..."

Castle made the connections immediately, and his anger dissipated as quickly as the raincloud had. Before Cole Maddox. Before a beaten Kate Beckett spent a near-eternity hanging off that ledge by her fingertips.

Before her world completely changed.
And then changed again.

"Look," Castle began gently, shifting his position until he was able to take her hands into his own. "You already know that my mother knows nothing about the Guardians, so we were going to have to have a 'powers-free' holiday anyway. But...you know your dad is going to be happy if he knows your happy, right?" As Beckett nodded, Castle continued, "So call him, okay? Invite him to dinner."

Beckett nodded her agreement, and the couple embraced. Alexis let them have their moment, but soon she could hold back her teasing no longer. "Hey Dad," she poked her head through the coffin to ask him, "Do you even remember how to actually *cook*?"

Castle returned Alexis' teasing. "Well, I hope you remember how to peel potatoes, because that's what you'll be doing *all* Thanksgiving morning now..."

Beckett couldn't help but smile as she followed them through to the main room, listening to the affectionate banter and play between her boyfriend and his daughter. Her attention was cut off by the ringing of her phone. "This is Detective Beckett."

With nothing handy to write down the information with, Beckett repeated the information dispatch gave her three times to lock it into her memory. She ended the phone call and yelled to her partner, "Castle, we gotta go, we've got a body."

"Can dad take me home first?" asked Alexis. "It's so much easier to take the train from Manhattan than it is from here..."

Beckett shrugged, "I don't see why not. Castle, come back afterwards and we'll drive to the scene from here."

Castle went home with Alexis and returned before Beckett had so much as an opportunity to blink twice. "Sorry honey," he ad-libbed with a wink and a sly smile, "guess we'll just have to pick up coffee on the way..."

Kate Beckett hated working Chinatown cases. Not because of the cases, or the people, or even the language barrier. No, she hated Chinatown because most of the time the apartments were so small that the team couldn't work with more than one or two people at a time in the room with the victim. Which meant working the cases took two or three times longer than usual.

Castle and Beckett were met by Esposito as they finished coming up the 6th flight of stairs. "Hey Esposito," Beckett greeted him, "What do we got?"

Esposito pulled out his notebook to inform his teammates. "Our victim's name is Sonam Kundun, 21 years old. His mother found the body this morning, and has been trying to keep the boy's grandfather out of the room ever since. Something about needing to read the book of the dead over the body..."

"Kundun was Tibetan?" asked Castle.

Esposito replied, "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Researched the topic for a book I never ended up writing," Castle replied.

"Did the grandfather get into the room with the body before we got there?" Beckett asked.

Esposito replied, "I can't tell, grandpa speaks no English and the mother doesn't speak all that much."

"In that case," offered Castle, "anyone mind if I try something?"

Beckett and Esposito shook their heads...until Beckett stopped, feeling the tell-tale itch of Castle's magic on her skin-but only behind the ears. "Okay Castle, what are you trying?"

"Translation spell-hopefully," Castle replied nervously, "Never tested it, though, so I have no idea if it'll work."

Beckett sighed. She *hated* using crime scenes as testing sites because they needed to gather such a large amount of information in such a short amount of time. Still, if it works it would save us a hell of a lot of time trying to find a translator who speaks Tibetan..."If it doesn't work, you'll reverse it immediately, agreed?"

Castle threw up his hands in an expression of defeat, "Agreed!"

They walked into the apartment to find the kitchen had become the staging area for the skeleton team of forensic experts and medical examiners that couldn't get into the bedroom. Beckett went to the bedroom door to find Lanie and one other tech were all that could fit. She greeted her friend, "Hi Lanie."

"Hello to you too, sunshine," Lanie greeted her back, wrinkling her nose at the smell Beckett seemed to trail in with her. "Wooh, girl, did you two just come from a pool hall in Jersey or something?"

"Flame throwing practice," replied Beckett casually. "So what do we got?"

Lanie shook her head at her friend's offhand comment that she knew probably spoke supernatural volumes. Refocusing her energies back to the case at hand, Lanie informed Beckett, "Someone went to a great deal of trouble to make it look like Mr. Kundun here killed himself."

"But he didn't?" asked Beckett.

"Nope," replied Lanie. "The killer tried to make it look like he performed the ritual of seppuku. But there are two big problems with that theory-"

Beckett was able to complete the first part of the sentence quickly, "the first being that Mr, Kundun was Tibetan and not Japanese-"

Lanie completed her sentence, "and the second problem is that seppuku, done right and while you're still alive, is messy as hell. We'd both be covered in his blood and I'd be bagging up his intestines."

"Ew," commented Beckett.

"Uh huh. So the fact that our friend here is mostly intact leads me to believe the giant knife wound in his abdomen was inflicted post-mortem, possibly not even here."

"So how did Mr. Kundun here die?"

"I was hit on the back of the head," said a voice behind Beckett, "and that's the last thing I remember."

A chill ran down Beckett's spine as she realized that the voice probably belonged to the spirit of Sonam Kundun. Trying to keep herself composed, she asked Lanie, "Did you check his skull?"

Without giving it a second thought, Lanie started feeling around the body's scalp, smiling slightly as she felt her given target. "I can't confirm that this is what killed him," commented Lanie, "but it woulda hurt like hell."

Beckett heard Sonam behind her exclaim in a whisper, "Grandpa..."

Beckett turned to see an frail old man shuffle slowly toward Castle, having been released from the confines of the second bedroom. The shock on his face was evident and powerful. As the room fell into hushed silence, the man fell at Castle's feet and loudly declared,

"Oh my lord and master Sìfāng, I am your humble slave Tenzin. How may I serve you?"

Credit and thanks must go to someguyshere for giving me the idea of piggybacking Castle's elemental abilities on top of each other. He may not have the hang of it yet, but he'll get there. ;-). Oh, and for those who gave me their votes at the end of "On the Job Training", I'm going to do a little of both. Which means the journal will show up soon. :-D And hey, if Tenzin ends up sounding like Joel Grey in Remo Williams to you, I'm okay with that.