Frozen in Time
Tarlan Round 4 Part 4

Wade's eyes opened wide as the dishevelled figure of Beverly walked out of from the shadows beneath the trees. Her face was contorted in pain; her eyes wide with horror, and in her hand she carried the recording device Jack had been holding when Wade had last seen him.

"Help me."

She choked out the words through gritted teeth, her body starting to shake from the internal battle to regain control from the neural implant. One hand stretched out towards Wade, imploring him, and he stepped forward, his heart thumping hard in his chest as he wondered what had happened to Jack.

Suddenly, Beverly stopped, her amber eyes glazing over and hardening to gemstones. Wade realised that her beseeching hand was not empty as she pointed the gun directly at Wade's heart. Her finger began to squeeze on the trigger but Wade was frozen in shock, unable to force his muscles to throw him to safety. Images of his life flashed before him - from those pleasurable memories of a carefree childhood with Nicola, to his heart-stopping time with Jack. His body thrummed with remembrance of Jack's strong hands; the way Jack had worshipped his virgin body, taking him to heights of pleasure he had never imagined before. He had gone to Jack knowing that Jack was in love with him but aware that his own feelings were focused on Fox Mulder. That single night with Jack had turned him around. It was more than just sex. Jack had shown him how much he was loved and had given Wade all that he had; mind and body. And Wade could not imagine never having that again, never touching Jack again, or holding him, kissing him... making love with him.

Wade gasped as the expected death never came, reduced to watching as someone tackled Beverly from behind. The action released his frozen limbs and he raced forward, sobbing in relief when the attacker raised his head. A stream of blood concealed half of Jack's face; a black ribbon over alabaster flesh.

Alex and Mulder appeared beside them along with all the others. Even Gethin, Elliott and Luke had stumbled from the tent they must have retired to only a short while earlier. Jack looked up, his eyes glassy with shock.

"Neural implant. I should have realised. We have to get out of here. Now."

The group split up quickly with the archaeologists racing towards the Dome helicar while the rest abandoned everything and crowded into Jacqueline's. As they fired up the engines, Alex glanced through the front screen. He should have insisted they moved on earlier rather than than let them persuade him to wait until morning. He had caved in because the others had been so tired.

"Shit. Let's get a move on."

Shadows were moving along the edge of the clearing but, on hearing the helicars, the soldiers swarmed into the open. Alex could hear shouts as the leader ordered them to ensure he and Fox were taken alive. He shuddered, ice cold fingers of fear creeping down his spine as he realised what horrors would be in store for them if the Consortium recaptured them. The helicar cleared the ground, heading straight up. It rocked violently as the soldiers fired upon them in the hope of disabling the craft. Jacqueline swore profusely as she yanked the steering controls hard left then back the other way; all the time still climbing away from the woodland floor. Warning beeps filled the helicar and she yelled out.

"We have company. Hold on tight everyone."

She pulled the helicar into a tight roll, peeling left sharply. The metal screeched from the G-forces, the engine screaming from its own abuse as they pitched and rolled, dived and climbed as they sought to evade the three Consortium vessels that were hard on their tail. A streak of darkness came out of nowhere, racing past them and, suddenly, one of their pursuers blossomed into a fiery ball of destruction. The other two Consortium vessels peeled off fast, turning swiftly to retreat but the tail-ender would never make it. Alex's last sight of the vessel was of it hurtling to earth like a meteor; trailing fire and smoke.

Alex closed his eyes and gave silent thanks to whatever superbeing was out there watching over them. He opened his eyes and stared at the people crammed into the helicar; his eyes flicking across each one until they rested on Jack's. Jack cradled Beverly Adams in his arms but Alex did not need to ask her condition. Her large golden eyes were open but unseeing, her lips parted slackly. Tears were mingling with the blood still sluggishly flowing down Jack's face. Alex hardened his thoughts and features, knowing what he had to do.

"We need to set the helicar down."

He saw the others open their mouths to object but then cold reason took hold. Beverly was dead, but the neural implant would still be active and, even now, it would be relaying their position to the Consortium.

Jacqueline set the car down and they swiftly buried Beverly in a shallow grave, aware that there was no time to spare for more formal rites and grief. Within ten minutes they were back in the air and heading towards the nearest safehold, Jack having finally completed the task of sending the vital information to Commander Jefferson.

-ooOOoo-

Wade tightened his arms around Jack as they lay quietly together in bed. He was draped across his lover, his head pillowed on the muscular chest, and beneath him he could both hear and feel the throbbing beat of Jack's heart. Alive. They were both alive, and Wade gave thanks for Jack having such a thick skull. As a medic, Wade knew it would be wise not to instigate anything more than touching and holding while Jack was still concussed. However, once Jack had the all clear, Wade was determined to take advantage of every moment granted to them.

Jack shifted slightly, sighing softly.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Just thinking about Beverly."

Wade sighed and nuzzled against the slightly furred chest. Earlier that day they had held a quick memorial service for her - in between making plans for the coming battle. He still did not understand what had killed her but then she had already been so weak from torture. Perhaps her struggle against the neural implant had sapped the last of her strength, or maybe it had imploded once the Consortium trackers realised that they had lost control of her. He recalled her pain-ravaged face, and then dwelled on the serenity of her expression when Jack laid her down in her grave.

"She's at peace now."

Wade sent waves of love across the link they shared and felt the warmth of Jack's response. They snuggled down beneath the thick blankets, still wrapped in each other's arms - and slept.

-ooOOoo-

Alex paced the small chamber he and Mulder occupied within the New York underground complex. They had drawn up the plans and, even now, Jefferson's people were equipping the fighters and soldiers for the coming battle. Some of the Resistance forces had already gone ahead, taking cover in the remnants of Phoenix and Dallas while they waited for the orders to strike. They would mobilise the rest tomorrow, just before noon, with the intention of arriving at the City of Domes close to midnight.

Alex had wanted to be in the first wave of the attack; sneaking back into the city through the tunnel that the resistance cells within the city - the Fifth Column - had discovered. However, that role had gone to Charles Morrison because he had the contacts. Everything hinged on the getting the Fifth Column into striking positions as the majority of the Resistance would be coming in through the main gates.

When Jefferson had handed over the leadership of the Resistance to Alex, he had tried to give it straight back. His reasoning was that Jefferson was one of these people and had been their leader for more than a decade. He knew them inside out; he knew their strengths and weaknesses whereas the people Alex had known and led were many lifetimes away in the past. However, Jefferson had insisted; convinced that he had spent so many years with his mind wrapped around how to hide that he no longer had the ability to lead them into open battle.

His thoughts had bombarded Alex. Alex had seen the inside of the Domes and he had knowledge of the terrain around the city. He had met members of the Fifth Column but, what is more important, he was a brilliant strategist; his skills kept well hidden from the Consortium that he had infiltrated back before the war. Jefferson had all the documented evidence to prove this; the massacre of the Elders at El Rico Airbase; the alliance with the Rebel Aliens that would have turned the tide in humanity's favour had Alex not been betrayed while formulating plans to destroy the Colonist mothership in Tunisia.

Missing believed dead.

Incarcerating him in the penal colony at Forj Sidi Toui was an inspired solution for an organisation that wanted to keep Krycek alive and yet make the Resistance believe he was lying in some shallow grave. If they had held him in one of their secret facilities then it would only be a matter of time before the Resistance found him. Instead, they had kept Alex alive and in reasonable health despite the appalling conditions inside the penal colony.

In the end, Alex had submitted to Jefferson's demands that he take back the leadership. Soon after they were deep in discussion as they formulated the method they would use to destroy the Consortium once and for all. However, being leader meant he had a duty to these people that went beyond the upcoming battle. Once they had succeeded in bringing down the Consortium then there were still major problems to overcome. The greatest of which was the slow extinction of humanity due to the decreasing pool of viable genetic material. Even though he and Mulder were perfect specimens in that respect, it would be highly impractical to use only their genetic material. Genetic defects would begin to show a few generations down the road as 'cousins' and their offspring interbred. Eventually it would place humanity in an even worse position that they were now.

Gethin had supplied some knowledge of the canibalistic Nomads with the hope that they might be brought into the gene pool. From his information, it was obvious that they were afficted almost as severely as the Resistance for they didn't have the resources of the Dome dwellers. They were small in number, and widely scattered across the barren land, and so they were interbreeding. However, Alex was knowledgeable enough of nomadic tribes from his time spent in Tunisia, and through American history of the Indian people, to know that forcing them into cities would crush their free spirits and bring resentment.

There was a compromise that would benefit all humans. After studying the situation around the World, Alex knew that most of the planet was toxic wasteland. However, there were pockets where the radioactive soil might be cleaned and the land put into use for raising crops. The Dome scientists had the technology for they had applied it to several areas to produce food for the Consortium families. If they could provide the Nomads with machinery and expert help then perhaps they might be able to bring them back into civilisation without destroying them in the process.

When he spoke of this to Jefferson, he was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Resistance already had several ideas for something similar, though no one had considered making the Nomads part of them. Decades ago they had started to plan for the day when they could walk away from the tunnels that they had retreated to after the war. Alex recalled the way Jefferson's eyes had lit up when Alex mentioned the Nomads and it had not taken much to convince the Commander to turn his full attention to turning those plans into reality.

Alex reached the end of the small chamber and started pacing back the other way.

Feeding the people was important but they had survived this far without those plans in operation. The Consortium had their pockets of arable land and Dome farms, the Nomads had the roots of scraggy plants, shrubs and what few animals had survivced the war - including human flesh - and the Resistance had their gruel. Food kept the current population alive but each subsequent generation was smaller because of increasing sterility and genetic abnormality.

Alex knew that what they needed was to locate the secret storage facilities that housed the stolen ova and sperm collected through various sources. It was not just abductees that were raped in this way. Women undergoing fertility treatment would have ova harvested but never realised that many of those ova had gone into the Consortium banks. Men donating sperm tended not to care what happened but the Consortium kept their harvesting from this area secret too, knowing that the newspapers would have seen it as unethical.

He knew the current Consortium must have had access to one of those facilities but the decline in their viability was proof that it was a small supply that they had almost exhausted. It occurred to Alex that the whereabouts of these storage locations had been such a well-guarded secret that perhaps only a handful of the original Consortium's people would have known about them. CGB Spender - Mulder's Cancer Man - would have been one of them.

Alex, through his infiltration techniques, was another.

However, these facilities had all been underground, many of them were now buried beneath the levelled cities across the globe. The closest one to the City of Domes was beneath Hangar 13 but Alex knew there was a larger facility beneath what had been the Pentagon in Washington DC.

Alex had sent a small survey team down to Washington but they had returned earlier with the news that the Colonists had obliterated the Pentagon during the war. The building had collapsed in upon itself leaving a five-sided pile of debris and it would take an excavation team to dig through the rubble to find the elevator shafts that channeled deep into the earth.

"Gethin and Elliot. We could give them all the equipment and assistance they need once we are free to operate in the open."

Mulder grinned. He was still coming to terms with this side of Alex that he had never envisaged. Alex Krycek: Leader and hero of the Resistance, using that razor sharp intellect that he had kept dulled around his enemies to benefit all humanity. Mulder had sat in on all the War Council sessions, adding his own insights and quickly understanding why Jefferson had so readily handed over leadership to Alex.

"There has to be some way we can use these nanocytes in our blood too. The Consortium will have scientists who might be able to unlock the secrets and, perhaps, use them in genetic engineering to correct the defects creeping into each generation--"

"Alex."

"--But it all depends on taking the City with minimum casualties and minimal damage to the structures--"

"ALEX."

"What?"

"Come to bed."

Mulder was sitting up in the bed and he threw back the cover, revealing his naked form and tumescent flesh. He reached down and stroked more life into the rapidly swelling shaft; a slow smile building as he saw the heat of Alex's reaction. Green eyes dilated to almost black, his youthful face flushing, those sensual lips reddening - and Mulder felt his smile fade as wonderment took over. The lines of stress and fatigue that had haunted Alex's face in the past had gone. Intellectually, Mulder knew this rejuvenation was the work of the nanocytes, and he was aware that his own body had undergone the same process. However, on the aesthetic level, Mulder had never seen any creature more beautiful than his lover at this moment, and he could almost believe that he had died and God had sent this angel to lead him to heaven.

Mulder reached out, his fingers trembling from the emotions that crashed through him. Warm fingers wrapped around his and Mulder drew Alex to his side. He gasped softly as he saw his reflection in those shining eyes; the soft mental link slowly forming between them allowing Mulder to see deeper still. He felt Alex's awe and joy as he beheld Mulder, feeling the ripples of adoration and passion flow through the perfect body.

Their lips met, tentatively at first but slowly increasing the pressure until they were crushing each other with bruising strength. Fingers carded through Mulder's hair; the palms moulding to the shape of Mulder's head as Alex kept them locked in this passionate kiss. Kiss-softened lips parted and Mulder thrust his tongue inside, eager to savour the unique taste of his lover. Slowly he mapped out the interior, desperate to know every ridge, and every curve and hollow. He jousted with Alex, their tongues coiling and striking, caressing and sliding as he demanded to know everything. Finally, Mulder retreated, drawing his lover into his mouth so Alex would know him as intimately.

Mulder drew Alex over his body, gently forcing him onto his back on the bed while Mulder rolled over on top of him; his mouth never releasing its possessive hold. Gradually, Mulder recognised the hardness digging into his stomach. He pulled back and grinned into the desire-filled eyes. Last time he had been overcome with desperation, needing to be filled by this man and, though the intensity of that desire remained, this time he wanted to possess his lover's beautiful body.

Mulder encouraged Alex to spread his legs; his own falling between them. Carefully and slowly, he drew back onto his knees, his mouth worshipping the heaving body lying beneath him. Alex gasped as Mulder's tongue lapped at the tight bud of a nipple, his cry of pleasure sending shockwaves through Mulder's body. He did it again, his tongue twisting over the sensitive flesh, coiling around the small bud and flicking at it. He drew back, seeing the puckered flesh glisten with saliva, and Mulder blew gently, bringing another small moan of pleasure falling from Alex's parted lips.

"Mulder."

Mulder grinned at Alex's beseeching cry. He wished he could spend all night teasing his lover, bringing to the very edge of annihilation over and over before he let him fall but time was no friend right now. Alex needed to rest, and they both needed sleep to give them strength for the coming battle.

Mulder continued his journey down the muscular torso; lips, tongue and fingers flowing over silken flesh, trailing across curves and hollows of strong bone and muscle. He let his mind flow with them, wanting to map every inch of this precious body with all of his senses. Alex anticipated him when Mulder reached the sensitive flesh of inner thigh, easily reading Mulder's needs as he held out the sweet smelling gel that Mulder had placed on the bedside cabinet earlier. Mulder felt a warmth curling through him at this submissive gesture, and flushed with pleasure in knowing that Alex would freely give himself only to him.

He scooped up some of the sweetly scented gel and rubbed it between his fingers; warming the cool lubricant before reaching between the firm asscheeks for that hidden entrance. Alex drew his legs back, exposing himself fully to Mulder's tender caress. He moaned softly as Mulder's fingers stroked into his body, easing past the tight muscle to caress the silken inner wall. Mulder found his sight torn between the body opening to him and the mahogany hair fanning the pillow as Alex rolled his head back and forth. He tried to capture the litany of soft words that mingled with pleasurable gasps, the alien sounds translating into warm ripples in his mind as their link intensified.

Mulder's fingers circled the hard flesh standing proud from its bed of silken, brown curls, his thumb smearing a bead of passion across the flared head. Alex bucked into his hand, his eyes widening - frantic and yet glazed with desire. Mulder released his hold on Alex's engorged shaft and positioned his own at the entrance to Alex's beautiful body; the head pressing against the loosened muscle. He looked deep into Alex's glassy eyes, waiting for a sign to take possession - to make them complete. Dark eyes, rimmed with forest green, regained focus, slowly softening as they filled with love and trust, and Mulder felt the last remnants of any hostility he had ever held for this man fall away - never to return.

With infinite care he pressed inside, slowly sheathing himself in the hot channel. He paused, revelling in the tightness of muscle along the whole length of him, captured by the strong muscle that pulsed around him. He wanted to stay like this for all eternity; caught in the heat of this beloved body forever but all too soon the need to slake the desire that fired through him took a hold. He withdrew most of the way and then pushed back smoothly, loving the way Alex cried out his name as he brushed against that special pleasure centre.

Alex wrapped his strong legs around Mulder, holding him fast but giving more than enough room to find a strong rhythm as Mulder thrust into the willing flesh. Once more his fingers encircled Alex's straining flesh, his hand sliding along the silken-steel shaft, his thumb rubbing over the sensitive tip. Alex was thrashing beneath him, thrusting erratically into his hand as Mulder timed each stroke to match the pounding into Alex's ass. He gasped when those strong muscles clamped down upon him; lost in the keening wail as Alex froze momentarily before his seed spurted from the engorged shaft, splattering over abdomen and chest and coating Mulder's hand in its slick warmth.

Mulder was lost in the maelstrom of sensations churning between them, his senses lifted by the power of Alex's climax. Every nerve ending was tingling, alive with an intensity of passion that overloaded his entire body. He soared with starlight flashing behind his eyes as his mind whirled out of control, his deepest most basic thoughts wrapped around the brilliance within his lover's mind.

When he came back to his senses, Mulder was lying partly across Alex with his head pillowed on the muscular chest, hands wrapped around the lean waist. His fingers trailed through sweat-sheened flesh before burrowing beneath Alex; each palm cupping the firm curve of an asscheek.

He couldn't recall anything beyond that moment when he had soared high into the heavens entwined with Alex. He looked into the sleep-softened face. The lines of fatigue had smoothed away leaving a heart-stopping, child-like innocence that almost seemed out of place in such a seasoned fighter as Alex. Mulder inspected his lover, noticing that the lines of abuse from Spender Junior had all but faded away - but the nanocytes were still healing the internal bruising.

The heavy musk of their lovemaking filled the small chamber and Mulder could feel sticky patches of spent passion on his body and on the sheet beneath him. He considered finding a wash cloth to clean them both but Alex looked so deep in restorative sleep that he did not have the heart to awaken him. Instead, he lay his head on the pillow next to Alex - breathing in the scent of his lover - and then he closed his eyes and slept.

-ooOOoo-

Alex slammed his hands down on the War Room table in exasperation.

"I've written down the exact location of all of the storage facilities I know about. There is nothing more I can tell you about them. It's up to Gethin and Elliot to do the rest."

"There is still the matter of the nanocytes in your system. If we can harness their technology then--"

"No. I spent years in rat and bug infested holes; lost my arm, my dignity, my family and friends in this fight for the future. I will not stay behind now that victory is close at hand. I shall be in the first group that breaches the Dome's main gate."

"And I'll be right beside him."

Alex turned and Mulder could read the hesitation in the glittering green eyes but Mulder had no intention of waiting in comparative safety while Alex ran into danger. Plus, this was his fight too. He had spent countless years searching for the truth, and then for a way to bring the Consortium to its knees. He had lost good friends to the war; Scully, Skinner, and the Gunmen and they deserved their retribution. Uniting all the factions of this new world would be his new goal and that starting with the end of the Consortium.

Over to Demi-X.