From: "Ana  Vicente" <thorn17@mailcity.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 15:47:46  0000
Subject: Lost (1/1)

TITLE:Lost(1/1)
AUTHOR:Ana Vicente
RATING:PG
CATEGORY:X
KEYWORDS:Post-XF
SPOILERS: Nothing Relevant.
DISCLAIMER:All the characters, except Kaye, belong to Twentieth Century Fox 
and Ten Thirteen Productions.
SUMMARY: Not summarized at author's request.
TIME LINE: 17 months before the events in AFTERTIME, a couple of years after 
the last episode of season 7.
NOTE: This story and AFTERTIME are independent stories but reading one might 
help you understand the other.
TO ALL NOROMOS: Don't let the beginning fool you, this story isn't all that shippy
FEEDBACK: To Thorn17@mailcity.com
___________________________________________________

       She missed his skin. They never slept naked anymore, it was too
dangerous. 
       She rose her head, brushing her face softly against his arm. He
moved and mumbled something, holding her tighter, but didn't wake up.
       She rested her back against his chest, trying to remember how many
times since the invasion they had had to leave hastily in the middle of
the night, not sure if they would find shelter some place else.
       She couldn't. The days of the past few months seemed to merge into
each other, into a continuum of fear and flight.
       Looking up, at one of the small windows near the ceiling, she could
see it was still dark outside. Yet, the tingling sensation travelling up
her body told her the sun would be rising soon. 
       She turned around to look at Mulder. They would have to get up
soon, there was along day ahead. She started kissing him lightly. He
smiled and pulled her around until she rested on top of him.
       She nibbled at his ear. "Time to wake up." 
       He opened his eyes and watched her face for a moment in the growing
light before pulling her into a deeper kiss. "You know, Scully, I believe
this goes against Bureau regulations." 
       She laughed, and the echoes of her laughter bounced off the walls
of the basement room that had not that long ago been their office. 
                          *
       Six hours later, she was standing by the window of one of the
conference rooms. A hand fell on her shoulder.
       "Better come away from there, Dana," Byers said, "someone might see
you. This place is supposed to be empty."
       The J.Edgar Hoover Building had been deserted since the invaders
had terminated the FBI along with all other government agencies. She and
the others had moved in some two weeks before, after their last hideout
had been discovered and stormed. This was probably the last place they
would come looking for them.
       She still marvelled at the fact that no one had been killed in the
raid. The ones that had been captured had probably not been processed yet.
At least, that was what they were counting on.
       For a few of the ones that had escaped, though, it had been a close
call. Her eyes found Frohike sitting in his wheelchair across the room and
there was a tightening in her throat.
       What frustrated her was not the fact that he was paralyzed, but
knowing that if she had had more than the scanty medical supplies Krycek
had managed to wangle, Frohike wouldn't be like that today.
       Her brother's voice boomed across the room. "What are we waiting
for, anyway?"
       "Darkness," Mulder replied calmly, "and Kaye." 
       She looked at the two men facing each other and sighed. After the
invasion, when the people in the Washington area who weren't working with
the aliens and hadn't yet been captured for processing started gathering,
they had turned to Mulder and her for leadership. Bill hadn't questioned
their decision, he knew the two former agents probably knew more about the
invaders than anyone else, but his feelings towards Mulder hadn't changed
and somehow this was all still his fault.
       Bill scratched the dressing over his left eye, another consequence
of the raid two weeks before. "Why do you trust this woman? She's still
working with them." 
       "That's exactly why she has access to information we need," Mulder
said, "The truth is, she knows where the prisoners are, we don't." 
       "All of them?" Skinner's voice asked from the shadows. 
       Scully watched him walking towards Mulder, he looked so old. His
eyes were painfully fixed on Mulder's as he waited for an answer;his wife,
Sharon, had been one of the people captured on the raid.
       Mulder shook his head, looking away. "I'm not sure. She said she'd
find out."
       Krycek rose softly from the couch he had been sitting on, there
were long claw marks across the fabric. "If she said she would, she will.
Kaye has the nasty habit of sticking to her word, and she knows her way
around." 
       Bill sneered. "Forgive me if I don't hold you as the most reliable
of character witnesses." 
       "Guys!" Jeffrey Spender banged his fist on the table. "This isn't
the way. We're all edgy, but if we start turning on each other, we may as
well march into one of those processing plants and spare them the trouble
of coming for us."
       He sat back in his chair and watched as his words sunk in. He
seemed to be bracing himself for an unpleasant retort and she knew why.
Most people there hadn't been able to forget who his father was.
       "Jeff's right," Mulder said. He was one of the few that had come to
trust Jeff fully. he had never told her why, but she was pretty sure she
knew his reasons. 
       "Is everything ready?" she asked quietly. Several people nodded.
"Then we should all get some rest."
       "We'll reconvene at sunset," Mulder said. 
       People were starting to leave. Scully stopped her brother. "Come
with me, I want to take a look at your eye." There were other doctors
around, but she wouldn't have any one else take care of Bill. 
       "My eye's fine, you don't have to -- " 
       "Hey. Who's the doctor here?" 
       He smiled, giving her that 'my-little-sister-is-so-cute' look she
used to hate, and followed her meekly.
       In the small infirmary, she removed the gauze that covered his
eyes. He would never regain the use of it, but at least the wound was
healing well. She examined it carefully and, finding no sign of infection,
redressed it. 
       He walked her to the stairs that led to the basement, kissing her
on the forehead before he left. "See you later, sis."
       She found Mulder walking back and forth in what was now their
bedroom. There was no bed, of course, only a mattress on the familiar
floor.
       He stared at her, then pointed at the clock on top of a credenza.
"She's late."
       "Maybe she had trouble getting out. There's time." 
       "She's going to get caught one of this days and then ... " He shook
his head.
       She rubbed the small of his neck. "If that happens -- *if* -- we'll
manage. We always did before, when it was just you and me. And a few
others. There's a lot more of us now."
       "We weren't under martial law before, we weren't being hunted
before, we had a lot more resources before." 
       "We're going to win this one, Mulder," she said firmly, "We don't
have a choice."
       "True, you don't." 
       They looked behind, startled. Kaye was standing in the doorway, the
beams of white powdery light streaming down from the windows giving her
dark hair and her dark clothes an eerie gleam. 
       She smiled, looking around. "I admire your sense of humor," she
said, pulling a pipe out of her jacket pocket. Scully gave her a stern
look and she returned the pipe. "Fine." 
       "What have you found out?" Mulder asked. "Are they still alive?" 
       "They were transferred to the nearest processing plant two days
ago, the one they set up in the old warehouses, by the river." She handed
Scully a box. "I brought you some more vaccine, you may need it." 
       "Forty eight hours." Scully examined the contents of the box. It
would be more than enough. "We're still in time." 
       "But we'll have to get them out of the pods," Mulder said, "the
operation will take longer than we expected." 
       "They may not be in the pods yet," Kaye said, "they've been using
the mind-controlling qualities of the virus to form an army of slaves,
sometimes it's a while before incubation is iniciated." 
       Scully placed the box carefully on a desk, Mulder's old desk. "But
this will work anyway, right?" 
       "Yes. You'll just have a harder time injecting it. The slaves won't
exactly be cooperative. Remember that. 
       "I brought a larger quantity of the vaccine than you'll need for
your friends, I thought you'd want to get some of the others out too." 
       Scully nodded. "And we still have some left from last time." 
       Kaye handed Mulder a piece of paper and a card. "The codes will be
changed again after midnight, you have to be out of there by then, or the
doors won't open. 
       "The pods have a date inscribed, it marks either the infection with
the agressive form of the virus or the activation of the latent one in the
case of former slaves. You'll have to inject each pod. They made some
changes to the procedure after your
 intervention in Anctartica. Remember, ninety six hours." 
       "We know," Scully said, "after that the vaccine won't destroy the
virus." 
       "The vaccine is effective up to a hundred and twenty hours, but
after ninety six there won't be much of the host left to save." 
       "What about the slaves?" Mulder asked. 
       "With the latent form of the virus, infection date is not
relevant." 
       Mulder picked up the box of vaccine. "I'll take this upstairs,
we'll start dividing it." 
       Kaye turned around to leave. Scully followed her. "Wait, I never
got to thank you -- " 
       "Forget it," kaye said, defiantly lighting her pipe. "I wanted you
to take care of Maya for me and I brought the others along too. Some of
them are probably yours anyway." 
       "Do you want to see her? She heard you were coming today, she's
been asking for you every five minutes." 
       Kaye looked away. "Better not. It would only complicate things." 
       Scully eyed her in disbelief. "She misses you." 
       Kaye didn't reply, simply walked away and disappeared around the
next corner. Scully looked up, Mulder was standing half-way up the stairs,
staring at her. 
       She walked up to him. "Whatever they did to her ... " 
       "I know." He looked at the place where the dark shape had last been
visible. "Sometimes I wonder ... " 
       The huskiness of his voice gave away his pain. She held his hand
and pulled him gemtly. "Come. Lets give those people something to do." 
                           *
       The sun had already set, but there was still a bloody glow just
above the horizon. To Scully, it looked like the Plimsoll mark on a
gigantic black ship. As they drove towards the river, she watched as the
red line sunk further and further until it disappeared completely. 
       Darkness was complete by the time they reached the warehouse area.
The new moon night was afew days gone, but the crescent above them was so
thin that it could barely make a lighter patch of sky around itself. 
       There were no guards by the processing plant, the invaders were
confident of their superiority. Mulder slid the Key card through the lock
and input the code. heaving a hydraulic sigh, the door opened. 
       Mulder looked at the others and whispered, "Midnight." 
       There was a dull green light inside, barely enough to make things
visible. It was like looking through mal-functioning night-vision goggles. 
       They started going through the pods, injecting the ones they could.
Krycek called softly for them. he had found seven of the thirteen people
they had come for. Skinner rubbed the frost on the surface of each pod,
looking inside, searching for Sharo n. Scully followed him, injecting the
vaccine into all of them. The others started carrying the pople they'd
rescued outside. 
       Imersed in their work, none of them noticed that the light in the
room had changed, become brighter. When the last of the group of seven had
been injected and Mulder was lowering her from the pod, Scully turned
around and found the missinng six sta nding there, staring at them. Even
in the dim light, she could make out the dark blots sailing across their
eyes. 
       They attacked as one. Mulder and some of the others, struggled to
control them while she inject them. A dark oily substance poured out of
their mouths forming throbing pools on the floor, the movement of the
fluid ceasing when its color changed to a greenish amber. 
       Scully stood up, looking for Sharon. the other woman showed up to
her left and lunged towards her, wielding a hook-shaped weapon Scully had
never sen before. But Skinner was quicker, he tackled his wife and punched
her unconscious. 
       Scully kneeled beside her, injecting the vaccine in her arm. Then,
she smiled encouragingly at him. "She'll be thankful for the bruise." 
       Skinner opicked up his wife and carried out of the plant. Mulder
was looking around for any other slaves. She grabbed his arm. "That's all
we have time for, Mulder, let's go." 
       They ran to the door. All the others were already outside, and Jeff
was holding the door open for them. Suddenly, an elongated shape dropped
from the catwalk above the door, blocking their way. Mulder stood between
her and the alien, as the creatur e's claws extended. 
       She saw Jeff moving cautiously behind the alien, she saw his hand
emerging from a pocket with one of the make-shift gimlets they had managed
to fashion. In a swift movement, he drove the metal spike into the back of
the creature's neck. 
       But these aliens were different from the hybrids, it took them
longert to die and they were stronger. With a terrifying shriek, the
creature struck Jeff, hurling him out the door. 
       Mulder was ready when the alien turned back to them. He had a
gimlet -- a real one -- and stabbed at the back of the alien's head,
hitting the same spot Jeff had already pierced. Promptly, he moved away,
avoiding the drops of black blood. 
       The creature pivoted, screaming as it crashed into the circuit box
next to the door. Sparks started flying, a putrid stench filled the air as
the electicity seared the alien's body. 
       Before they, or anyone outside could do anything, the door slided
shut. Mulder ran to the door, Scully pulled him back just as the lock
bursted into flames. 
       Mulder grabbed her hand and they turned around. "I saw another door
back there," he said. 
       They ran. the others had orders to leave immediately should anyone
be captured. They had to hurry, if they were to catch up with them. Mulder
led her among the rows of pods, both of them skidding on the fluid oozing
from the broken ones. 
       Relief took over her when she saw that the door in the back had a
conventional lock, she still remebered how to pick one. But, before they
could reach it, the door opened. Behind it, all was darkness. 
       Then a cigarette was lit, its tip glowing like a red eye as the man
holding it stepped into the light and smiled. 

                      THE END