Fargo Phlebotomology Laboratories

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Dominion Over My Soul r?-Tara-p1
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"Tired of doing the Rip Van Wrinkle?" asked Langley as he entered the room to give Mulder a big hug. "Glad to have you back."

"It is nice to see you doing better, Mulder." Byers said, coming in after the other gunmen.

"I feel a little underdressed. Good thing Frohike isn't here, otherwise I might not hear the end of it." Mulder smiled rapaciously, not at all bothering to try and pull the very short and small hospital gown to cover himself.

Total silence filled the room as all of Mulder's friends exchanged knowing looks.

"What? Did I miss something?"

"You missed a lot of things while you were gone, Mulder. Frohike's here, just in another room."

"Well, get him in here, Byers."

"No, I think you misunderstood. He's in another room in a coma similar to yours and Alex's."

"But how?"

"Our first attempt to cure Alex of oilien position didn't succeed," Scully said. "Or rather, it didn't succeed to what we had planed. It drove the oilien out of Alex and into Frohike. The oilien pretty much kept Frohike as hostage in exchange for Alex, in hopes that I could cleanse Alex of what little vaccine we had succeeded in giving him."

"We pulled a fast one on the oilien, got it to re-infect oilien boy after he'd been vaccinated. Killed the nasty but ended up with you, Frohike, and him here all going into comas. You're the first to wake up."

"Just what all did I miss? No, wait, you can fill me in on the way to the Fargo Labs. We'll just roll Frohike in here so that you two can keep an eye on my brother as well while we go get the cure."

The two gunmen exchanged a look with their FBI counterparts before Scully pulled at the dividing curtain. On his part, Skinner flipped open his cell phone, saying that he would call Officer Dancer and see if maybe she could help out.

Before Mulder could ask, Scully pulled him aside to explain while Skinner talked to the woman. Byers and Langley reluctantly left to make arrangements for Frohike's body to be transferred into Krycek's room.

* * *

Dreamtime

Krycek watched as Mulder disappeared from view, his heart nearly ripping in two as his only hope disappeared from view. The clawed hand around his foot pulled harder, pulling him back farther into the grate systems. He grabbed vainly at the opening, trying to keep himself from being pulled back into the darkness.

"Please, help me," a voice whispered in his ear. Hot, stale breath warmed the back of his neck before something dripped on him, making him shiver. It felt like blood. "Don't leave us."

The hand left his leg and Krycek looked down to see what or who had grabbed hold of him. A pale face surrounded by white, scraggly hair disappeared into the darkness before he could do anything. He reached towards her, trying to rescue her from the darkness, not wanting to leave her behind but he was unsuccessful as he reached back towards the specter that was probably all that was left of Marita.

Oh, god, how did it come to this? The black oil a cancer feeding off of him and everything he knew. They had fought *against* this. Could it be too late?

No, not as long as there was a breath of life in him, would his world succumb to the darkness. Alex looked back to where Mulder had disappeared. They had never been able to follow each other. They had always had different paths. Alex fighting the monsters of the dark, Mulder tilting at windmills that sometimes housed dragons.

He started crawling after Marita, his hands, already sore from defending himself, started to ache heavily but he took no notice of it. Pain had somehow become his hold onto life. As long as he was in pain, he was alive and could fight.

The darkness seemed to stretch forever as he burrowed through the building. There were no exits, no turns, and no vents. The path he had already taken dried up after him, disappearing into a deeper black, as if there were no turning back. He tried not to let the vent get to him, but it reminded him of the silo or maybe the cold darkness the oilien trapped him in when he was not amused by his horse. Panic made him hands scramble harder on the grating, propelling him farther and farther down the tube revealing no way out.

"Marita, where are you," he screamed, hoping she would know the way out. "Marita!"

"Can you help me find my daddy?"

There was a tug on his pant leg and he turned to face a little girl. She was about 7 with dark brown hair falling in waves around her neck. One of the fingers of her right hand played incessantly with a pinch of hair. She'd wet the tip then stroke the lock of hair over her face like it was a paintbrush. "I can't find my mommy or daddy," she whined.

Alex looked around the big, deserted mall hoping that someone could help him with the child but the mall was closed and empty. Several of the storefronts were chained up, closed off to him. The other's stretched open, like hungry mouths waiting to eat him. The wide isle was clear, letting him see from one end to another. He couldn't even see stairs or escalators that would lead him to the upper level.

All the lights of the mall were off. Light filtered from the upper level through skylights. At the skylight above him a robin flew into the window. It'd bump into the picture of the sky then fall down. It got up again and flew back into the window.

Alex squinted into the light that streamed from another skylight farther along the mall. The nearly white light made a large circle of the plaza seem to glow. Inside the light he could see people moving. Maybe they would know where the girl's parents were.

The little girl put her hand into his own and started walking beside him.

"My name's Sam, what's yours?"

Alex looked down at the little girl. "Nice to meet you, Sam. I'm Alex Krycek. I think I'm your brother."

Sam giggled. "You can't be my brother. My brother's a doody-head."

"Fox isn't a doody-head, he's just...special."

"A doody-head."

Alex laughed. "Yeah, a doody-head."

* * *

Hideout Hospital

"How can I trust you with my brother?" Mulder glared at Officer Dancer, already not trusting her. According to Scully and Skinner, she wanted to arrest Alex for murder.

"Mulder!" Scully pulled Officer Dancer into the room, past the scowling Mulder. "Never mind him, Carla. He's always been like that."

"It still doesn't excuse bad manners. Fox, you should apologize to the woman." Mrs. Scully had followed Officer Dancer into the room. With a gentle nudge, Mrs. Scully was able to direct Mudler's attention towards Carla Dancer.

"Mom, what are you doing here?"

"I hope you don't mind, Dana, but I invited her along. She was with me when Mr. Skinner called and was concerned. She wanted to help out."

"Is this Alex Krycek? The man that that *monster* kept on asking for?" Mrs. Scully passed by the group of people to gently stroke Alex's bangs back from his forehead. She then stroked her hand lightly down his arm until she was able to hold onto his hand. As soon as she sat in the nearby chair and pulled it closer everyone in the room knew that she would be unmovable.

Scully's eyes went straight to Frohike who was behind the curtain. She didn't know how her mother would react to finding out that she had to watch out for the "monster" too.

Dancer's calm hand rested on Scully's shoulder as she leaned into whisper that she had already informed Mrs. Scully on some of the circumstances surrounding her kidnapping, that she held no ill will against the man.



* * *

Dreamtime

Sam hid behind Alex, holding onto his hand tightly. Before them a wall of light could possibly block their way. In the light people stood dimly, almost like statues. Above them hovered a figure, one that looked like it had just fallen from above and time had just stopped before his impact into the group below.

The sight sent shivers up Alex's back. The man looked like he was in great pain, as if he was screaming his death song. Alex's eyes roved over the man, trying to identify him. He looked failure but he couldn't quite put his finger down on just who he was.

The man was pretty good looking, with dark silky looking hair. His mouth, though distorted by the scream, was a red cupid bow that Alex really envied. Alex never looked kissable while this man did. Short nose with kind of wide set eyes and slender ears. The body was well-built, perfectly shone off in t-shirt and worn black jeans.

"It's time to go, Alex." Sam let go of Alex's hand and stepped towards the light.

"Sam, no wait. We have to find your brother."

"He's there." Sam pointed into the crowd but Alex only saw strangers. He grabbed Sam before she could touch the light. "No, Alex, this is the way home. I wanna go home."

"It's dangerous." Alex held on tightly to the struggling child.

"I wanna go! I wanna go! I wanna go!" Sam kept on yelling until she stamped on Alex's foot making him let go of her. She reached out into the light before Alex could stop her and then she was standing in the crowd.

As he watched, Sam grew up before his eyes. Before he knew it, a thirty something woman was turning toward him, her hand out stretched. "It's time to join us, Alex."

Alex reached out, his fingers almost able to touch the physical presence of the light. The world seemed to hum with an unspoken power.

"Come, Alex, join us." Another voice and another hand separated themselves from the crowd. Melissa Scully's gentle blue eyes looked at Alex with acceptance.

"I'm sorry. I can't."

"Yes, Alex, you can." One or maybe both women said.

"I don't wanna go." Alex hugged himself, feeling so cold and empty.

"Krycek, you monster. You killed my father." Mulder screamed and fired his gun. The bullet ricocheted off the entrance of the ally way, nearly missing him. Alex only paused for a moment to give Sam and Melissa a short apology before he disappeared into the darkness once again.

* * *

Fargo Phlebotomology Laboratories

Mulder's leg jiggled, making the whole car rock slightly. Scully wanted to put a hand on his leg to still it but had decided after 2 hours in the car with him that there would be no stilling Mulder until their little raid on the Fargo Labs.

Hours earlier they had sketched out their plans. On the northern end of the labs was a virtual maze of entryways and exit ways where several trucks had come and loaded and offloaded things. They were not sure if there would be any traffic later but the fact that lots of strangers approached this area, they were confident they could somehow slip in. In fact a singular door that was a direct pathway to the trash bins. It was kind of off to the side and partially hidden by the trash bins to begin with.

They had checkout the eastern wall also, the main entrance to the building. Security was tighter then Hillary Clinton's garter belt. One had to have a key card just to go through the first set of doors to get to the lobby where another level of security waited with lots of guns and metal detectors.

The northern and western areas had minor entranceways that were as secure as the main entrance.

There was concern that the southern entrances through the trash tunnel would have just as tight security but it was obviously the best way into the building. If worse came to worse, they could always try the trick Mulder picked up for when he couldn't unlock the door to his office. He'd just push a ceiling tile out of the way and wiggle through the nearly two foot gap between the top of the wall and the floor above his office. The trick, he said, was finding a wide enough space between the pipes and ductwork.

"Does that really work?" Scully asked.

"Why do you think I get in before you? Half the time I forget my key in there from the day before. If I get in early enough I can crawl over the wall before there is even a chance of you catching me," Mulder smiled, "Or I have time to put a slide presentation together before you get there."

"You could just put an extra key in one of those little magnetic boxes and put it on one of those file cabinets down there."

"You could also put it on your car key chain. I never forget mine." Skinner jiggled his key chain.

"You should, you're old." Mulder smiled boyishly as he cracked another sunflower seed.

"Agent Mulder, calling me an old foggy is not the best way for me to sign off on your next expense report."

"Well, if your going to be my brother in law or something, you'll have to get used to me jibbing you. I give Scully crap all the time." Mulder kept his eyes trained on the building, not at all noticing Skinner turning bright red. Scully had to cover her mouth, hoping that she wouldn't giggle. Sometimes Mulder was just a little *too oblivious* and *too accepting*.


* * *

Dreamtime

Krycek panted as he stood in the doorway of some building. He'd lost Mulder a long time ago but it still felt like somebody was just behind him, waiting for him.

"Five dollars."

"Huh," Alex turned to face the bouncer standing on the other side of the bar's entranceway. Dimly wondering what he was doing, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a seven-dollar bill and handed it over. He left the guy the change and walked right in.

The club he was in was smoky and pretty empty but he could feel the boom of the music and the pulse of life coming from upstairs. He walked up the very old, narrow stairs up into a mosh pit of people bouncing and pushing off each other. There were probably 500 people crowded on the rooftop.

Above him the dark sky was littered with tiny stars, one at a time falling from heaven to streak over the place. The stars seemed to illuminate the stage, though not all of them fell that way. On the stage nobody danced behind the wall of light. Instead they watched a puppet hung by strings waiting for the puppeteer to bring it to life.

He shied off from the stage. Instead he buried himself into the dancing throng of people, bouncing off one another into a huge mass of humanity jiggling to the jive of some rock or pop or whatever shook them and the walls.

The roof top was long and narrow, the stairs he had just come up leading to the right throng of people a little higher up, probably on the next building over or to the left where a diagonal stage faced off with a wall mural. On the garish orange was a painting of Icarus, as if landing in his melting wings to dance a while.

Alex closed his eyes, letting him self be swept up in the music. Letting his body move however it wanted. It wasn't important. Nothing was important anymore. He danced, his body moving until the sweat swung off his brow and fingers and face drenching his fellow dancers who returned in favor. A stinking mass of humanity, alive and free.

"Please, you must deliver this," a woman, blood instead of sweat on her brow, pressed an envelope into his hands. "Please, get it to my daughter. Let her know I didn't leave her in vain."

Alex turned over the envelope seeing the address he was to deliver it to and a picture, a mother holding a daughter, laughing on the swing.

A couple of feds pushed their way through the crowd, intruding on the wild night. They were calm and orderly in their pressed suits, wearing gold-rimed sunglasses with a wire earpiece. The woman rushed into the press of people, making Alex loose sight of her. Before he could follow her, he heard gunshots that he knew had ended that woman's life.

Without hesitating, Alex leapt into Icaruses arms and they flew away, the feds firing after them, wanting to know what the woman had handed him.