Reborn in Castle (TV show)

[Street] [On The Way]

The city looked half-asleep when Kate reached the street.

Rain had left the pavement shining black beneath the streetlights. She crossed quickly to her car, unlocked it, and slid behind the wheel. The engine turned over a second later.

She pulled away from the curb and reached for her phone.

Travis answered on the second ring, his voice rough with sleep but already alert. "Beckett?"

"We have Adrian," Kate said, turning hard through the first intersection. "Uniforms spotted him entering the old subway access near 14th and Roosevelt."

There was a rustle on his end, then movement. "You're already moving."

"Yes."

"Kate."

"I told the uniforms not to follow him and call for backup," she said before he could argue. "I'm going to hold the entrance until backup gets there."

Travis went quiet for half a second. "Do not go in alone."

"I heard you."

"That's not the same as agreeing."

There was some rustling sound on Travis' end as he got down from his bed and started to put on his clothes.

"I'm on my way," Travis said, his voice sharper now. "Keep me on the line if anything changes."

"Will do."

Kate ended the call and hit the gas.

...

[14th Street] [Old Subway Access]

Travis reached 14th Street.

Kate's car sat near the curb with the engine off. Two patrol cars were parked farther down, lights dark, doors closed. The officers on the site were missing and so was Kate.

"Damn it, Kate. You just had to go inside."

He checked his phone. Backup was still fifteen minutes out, maybe longer if ESU had to drag tunnel gear across wet streets at one in the morning. Waiting would be smart, but it also meant leaving Kate and those officers somewhere underground with Adrian March and whoever else might be hiding beneath the city.

Travis put on his gloves, drew his Glock and moved toward the service gate.

"Don't be dead, Beckett."

The old subway entrance sat behind a rusted fence covered in warning signs and fresh-cut chain links. One of the locks hung open against the metal like someone had clipped it in a hurry. The gate creaked when Travis pushed it, loud enough to make him stop and listen before slipping through.

Below him, the stairs disappeared into darkness.

The air changed halfway down. Wet concrete, old metal, garbage, and something stale that had been trapped underground too long. Travis kept his flashlight angled low, using just enough light to see the steps without announcing himself to every shadow in the tunnel.

At the bottom, he found the first sign of trouble.

One uniform lay slumped against the wall near a maintenance door, breathing shallowly. Blood marked the side of his head, but his chest still moved. Travis crouched beside him quickly and checked his pulse.

He was alive.

"Officer," Travis whispered, tapping his cheek lightly. "Where's Beckett?"

The officer groaned, eyes fluttering without fully opening. "Inside," he mumbled. "We were ambushed. Detective Beckett tried to... arg... save us, but they chased her inside."

Travis checked the corridor ahead. "How many?"

The officer swallowed hard. "I saw five of them with guns."

Travis grabbed the man's radio and clipped it to his belt. "Stay down and keep breathing. Help is coming."

He moved on before the officer could answer.

The tunnel stretched ahead, old tracks half-buried under dirt and broken concrete. Water dripped from pipes above. Somewhere deeper inside, voices bounced off the walls in broken pieces. Some laughed. Some cried. Some muttered to themselves like they were trapped in conversations nobody else could hear.

Travis slowed near the corner and listened.

A man stumbled across the tunnel ahead, barefoot, shirt torn, eyes wide and empty under the weak glow of an emergency bulb. He whispered numbers over and over while scratching at his own sleeve. Behind him, two more figures shuffled through the dark, one sobbing quietly, the other smiling at the ceiling like he had seen something wonderful and terrible at the same time.

"What the hell is this place?" Travis muttered.

He pulled back behind a concrete pillar as another group passed through the tunnel. They moved without direction, dirty and frightened, some shaking, some giggling in a way that made the air feel wrong. None of them carried weapons that he could see, but fear had turned the whole place into something unpredictable.

This was bigger than Adrian.

Travis waited until the path cleared, then crossed low and fast. His boots barely touched the wet concrete as he moved from pillar to pillar, flashlight off now, gun held close to his chest. Every few steps, he found signs of movement. Fresh footprints in dirty water. A torn piece of dark fabric caught on a pipe. A smear against the wall where someone had leaned too hard while running.

Then he found a shell casing.

Travis crouched and picked it up with gloved fingers. 'Nine millimeter. Looks Fresh.'

His grip tightened around the Glock.

Far ahead, someone screamed.

The sound tore through the tunnel, sharp, panicked, and gone almost instantly. Travis moved faster, keeping close to the wall. The voices grew louder now, layered together until they became a broken chorus beneath the city. Someone begged to be let out. Someone laughed about ghosts in the walls. Someone kept repeating that the ground remembered everyone.

Then the first gunshot cracked through the tunnel.

Travis froze for half a breath.

Two more shots followed, closer this time.

The sound came from the left passage beyond a collapsed maintenance sign.

Travis pushed forward, stepping over broken tile and old cable as dust drifted from the ceiling. A man lurched out of the darkness in front of him, face twisted with panic, hands reaching blindly.

"Stay back," Travis warned, gun angled low.

The man rushed anyway.

Travis caught him by the wrist, turned with the momentum, and drove him hard against the wall without firing. The man folded to the floor, groaning and clutching his shoulder while Travis moved past him without slowing.

Another gunshot echoed.

Then Kate's voice cut through the noise, distant and strained.

"NYPD, drop the weapon!"

Travis's eyes sharpened immediately.

He broke into a controlled run, Glock raised, every instinct locking onto the sound of her voice.

After a while, Travis found traces of blood on the floor. He stayed hidden and followed it, and soon, he found Kate limping near the wall, while grabbing her stomach.

"Kate," He called out.

...

[Present time]

The tunnel shook again.

Dust spilled from the cracked ceiling in thin streams, drifting through the weak beam of Travis's flashlight before settling across broken concrete, rusted pipes, and old brick walls slick with moisture. Somewhere deeper in the darkness, footsteps echoed and then disappeared, swallowed by the maze beneath the city.

Kate sat against the wall inside a ruined maintenance room, one hand pressed over the side of her stomach while her breathing came shallow and uneven. Blood soaked through her fingers and darkened the fabric beneath her jacket.

Travis knelt beside her, one hand locked firmly over the wound, keeping pressure steady while his other hand held his Glock toward the broken doorway.

"Stay with me," he said quietly, his eyes never leaving the entrance.

Kate tried to answer, but the movement pulled a sharp breath from her instead. Her face had gone pale under the grime streaked across her skin, though her eyes still carried that stubborn fire he knew far too well.

"I'm fine," she forced out.

Travis glanced at her for half a second. "That's a terrible lie, Beckett."

A faint, pained smile touched her lips despite everything. "Still counts as talking."

"Barely."

Another sound moved through the tunnel outside.

Travis went still.

Kate saw the change in him immediately. His shoulders tightened, his breathing slowed, and the hand holding the gun adjusted by less than an inch. It was not panic. It was calculation.

Whoever was hunting them was getting closer.

The room they had found was half-collapsed, barely large enough to hide them behind a rusted metal cabinet and a pile of broken concrete. The old door hung crooked on one hinge, leaving a narrow gap into the passage beyond. If anyone looked too closely, they were finished.

Kate's fingers curled weakly around his wrist. "Travis."

"Don't talk."

"That's usually my line."

He did not look away from the doorway. "Save your strength. And next time, try not to go alone in tunnels."

"Yeah, next time... I atleast broke his leg," Kate said with a groan.

She swallowed hard and leaned her head back against the wall, trying to keep her breathing quiet. The pain was spreading now, hot and deep, but what scared her more was the look in Travis's eyes. It wasn't fear but something colder... dangerous.

"Tell me you have a plan," she whispered.

Travis listened to the footsteps outside, counting distance, rhythm, and weight. Three men at least. Maybe four. One dragging his left foot slightly. Another carrying something heavier than a handgun.

His thumb shifted lightly along the Glock.

"I have half a plan," he said.

Kate let out a weak breath that almost became a laugh. "That's comforting."

"Trust me. I'm gonna kill them all and then I'll take you to the hospital. Till then, keep your eyes open," Travis said before switching off his flashlight. "Maybe think about our next date. That'll keep you awake. I mean, dying without watching your favorite movie will suck big time. Your soul won't get rest and you will probably haunt me forever."

"I'm gonna hit you." She let out a painful smile.

The footsteps stopped outside the room.

Kate held her breath.

A shadow moved across the gap beneath the broken door.

Travis did not wait for the door to open wider.

He fired twice through the gap.

Two heavy bodies hit the tunnel floor outside almost at the same time. The sound echoed through the old maintenance passage and rolled away into the darkness, followed by a few shocked curses from the men still standing beyond the doorway.

Kate flinched despite herself, then forced her eyes open again as Travis shifted in front of her, keeping his body between her and the entrance.

"I won't warn again," Travis called out, his voice carrying cleanly through the room and into the passage. "Put down your weapons and surrender, and I'll let you live. Fight back, and I'll end you."

For a second, the tunnel went silent.

Then a familiar voice answered from beyond the doorway.

"That should be our line, Detective. We outnumber you."

Kate's eyes sharpened through the pain.

Travis took a deep breath, calming his nerves.

The tunnel lights flickered on.

Adrian March stepped into view just beyond the broken door, staying far enough back that Travis could not get a clean shot from where he knelt. His face looked thinner than it had in the interview room photo, hollowed by sleepless nights, rage, and whatever had dragged him this deep into the dark. His clothes were dirty, his hands shook faintly, and his eyes had the same feverish shine Travis had seen on men who had already crossed too many lines to find their way back.

Behind him, more armed figures moved through the passage, spreading out with practiced caution.

Travis kept the Glock steady. "I thought you wanted revenge for your family, Adrian. So why are you doing this? What changed?"

Adrian laughed once, but there was no humor inside it. "Why?" He stepped closer, and the weak tunnel light caught the hard edge of his expression. "This is revenge."

Kate tried to shift against the wall, but Travis pressed harder against the wound and spoke without looking at her.

"Don't move."

Adrian heard him and looked at Kate with something almost like pity. "You cops always arrive late. That is the part nobody writes down. You come after the damage, after the bodies, after the files are gone and the people who made it happen have already moved into better houses."

Travis kept his voice level. "You killed people who helped bury the truth."

"They buried more than the truth," Adrian snapped. "You saw them on your way in, didn't you? The ones wandering through the tunnels. The broken ones. The forgotten ones. Keller threw people down here after his drug experiments. He used them, erased them, and left them under the city like garbage."

Kate's breath hitched slightly, and Travis felt the movement beneath his hand.

Adrian's voice rose, filling the ruined passage. "Those hollow eyes you saw are what men like Keller create when nobody stops them. The city above kept living. The courts kept stamping papers. The churches kept praying. The police kept closing files. And down here, people were left to rot in the dark."

Travis's eyes flicked briefly toward the deeper tunnel, where distant voices still echoed between the walls. "Then help us get them out."

Adrian shook his head slowly. "There is no getting out. Not for them. Not for me. Not for anyone who helped build this place."

A small red blink caught Travis's attention near Adrian's hand.

A remote.

Travis's pulse slowed.

Adrian lifted the device just enough for Travis to see it properly. "Tonight, it ends. This place is rigged. The tunnels, the old rooms, the sealed chambers, everything Keller thought he buried. We are the Hollow Men, Detective. We are what happens when the city erases people and expects silence afterward."

Travis lowered his voice. "Adrian, listen to me. You still have a choice."

"No," Adrian said, his eyes wet now, though his hand stayed firm around the remote. "That was taken from my dad and mom. It was taken from me when they gave me another name and told the world I belonged to someone else."

Kate looked at him through the haze of pain. "Killing everyone down here won't bring them back."

Adrian looked at her, and for one fragile second, something human cracked through the rage. Then one of the armed men behind him raised his weapon toward the room.

Travis saw the motion.

Time narrowed.

He closed his eyes for half a breath and gathered everything into one line of focus. Pain, fear, anger, the echo of Kate's breathing beside him, the weight of the gun in his hand, the distance between targets, the shape of every shadow beyond the broken doorway.

His old instincts awakened once again. This was a do-or-die situation, and there was no room for a mistake.

He moved.

Travis pushed off the floor and rushed through the doorway before anyone outside could adjust. His first shot dropped the man on the right. His second caught the gunman beside him before he could fire. Travis kept moving, turning with controlled precision as the tunnel erupted into panic.

A muzzle flashed from the left.

Travis fired first.

Another man stepped out from behind a concrete support.

Travis fired again.

The remaining two tried to scatter toward the side passage, but Travis crossed the distance with brutal speed, each shot landing before either could bring his weapon back on target.

The whole exchange lasted only seconds.

Then the tunnel went still.

'Holy shit! I got super speed, and it felt like freaking Max Payne bullet time. This is even better than the warehouse incident,' Travis thought.

Dust drifted down from the ceiling.

The gun smoke curled through the flashlight beam.

Adrian stood frozen in the middle of the passage, staring at the fallen men around him like the ending had arrived too quickly for his mind to understand. His hand still gripped the remote, the red light blinking steadily against his palm.

Travis swung the Glock toward him. "Drop it."

Adrian looked down at the remote.

Then he looked back at Travis.

His face had gone strangely calm.

Travis felt cold spread through his chest. "Adrian. Don't make me do this." He wanted to end this as fast as possible since Kate's condition didn't look good and she had lost a lot of blood. So, he didn't have the time for a proper negotiation.

The red light blinked faster.

"Shit! You motherfucker!" Travis ran toward the maintenance room.

Booom!!!!

Everything went dark for Kate as she only remembered the sound of the explosion and Travis covering her with his body. It was all so hazy, but she was sure that Travis was there with her and for some reason, at that moment, she felt really safe despite the pain and explosion.

--

[AN: I don't know if it was ok, alright or bad. 😬😬 I'll call it somewhat alright for an original case.]

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Find me in the link below for advance chapters: https://unknownmaster.carrd.co/

[20 advance chs] + [Modern Family: 26 chs Early access]