The Final Stand
By Ashley
ashxf@aol.com

~The Sequel to Seek and Ye Shall Find~

If William is humanity's last hope against alien invasion, how does an 11-year old kid prevent an invasion when grownups have tried for half a decade and failed? And what are Mulder and Scully up to while in hiding?

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Chapter One

The desert sun was unmerciful as it baked the desert below. Ten year old William Mulder (II) wiped the sweat from his forehead as he continued down the sidewalk of his neighborhood in Roswell, New Mexico. He had lived here for three years now with his parents, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, and although he had been raised on a small Midwestern farm in an even smaller Midwestern town up until the age of seven, he regarded the desert city and the sprawling neighborhood as his home.

William had been given up for adoption by his parents when he was nine months old, due to the fact that they were both being hunted by unknown forces and couldn't protect him. In the nine months between his birth and adoption, he had been attacked twice and kidnapped once, and it looked like there would be no end to it in the future. With his father in hiding and his mother at a loss, she had made the heart wrenching decision to send him away, and he had gone to live with Bob and Nancy Van de Kamp on a small farm in small town in the middle of nowhere.

For seven years he had believed them to be his natural parents, even though he had never called them Mom or Dad and looked nothing like them. After discovering his adoption, he soon found himself in a chain of events which led him to discover his real parents and their friends, John Doggett and Monica Reyes. However, his search had also led to the murders of Bob and Nancy and a frantic flight from Midville with Doggett and Reyes to Washington D.C. There, he had met his grandmother Maggie Scully and had finally been reunited with his birth parents. They had brought him to Roswell, a safe haven from those who were looking for them, and he had lived here ever since.

A small dust devil went dancing across his path as a breeze kicked up the sand and dirt, but offered little relief from the heat. William was amazed to find how he had adjusted to living in the desert after a lifetime of living in the Midwest. It never snowed here, although it did in the mountains nearby, and it was very dry. But the culture fascinated him. He had been out to visit some friends at the local Native American reservations several times, and he had an extensive collection of Zuni animal carvings. Soon he would be leaving to go on a three day long vision quest at a nearby reservation and he was excited about it, not to mention honored to be allowed to participate.

In all outward appearances, William looked like a regular kid, if a bit tall for ten years old. He had his mother's red hair and blue eyes, but his father's facial features and photographic memory. But what couldn't be seen were William's other features. He could almost hear people's thoughts, could sense others around him, could, on some occasions, move objects with his mind, and sometimes could even see events happening in other places. He was exceptionally brilliant, testing with an IQ of 180. His adoptive parents had suspected, but had never really known just how different he really was.

His parents knew, though. They had never really explained everything entirely to him, but he got the impression that several events concerning his parents before his birth had contributed to his strangeness. But they loved him, he never doubted that. And his father had promised to explain everything to him soon.

He was almost home. It had been a long day at school and he was anxious to get home. He began to skip and whistle, walking past the new houses of the neighborhood. They were small, but nice homes with very little yard space. Instead of trees, mostly shrubbery and a small cactus here and there made up the flower beds. Suddenly he felt a prickle on the back of his neck as the hairs rose. Although he could see or hear nothing, he froze and looked around. Suddenly a white van came whipping around the corner behind him. It screeched to a stop beside him and the door opened. Two masked men jumped out, but William was already running.

He ran between the two nearest houses as the two men chased after him and the van sped off down the street. He ducked under a hedge row and into the next yard. He didn't look back but he knew the two men hadn't slowed down. He felt rather than saw them split up and he was prepared as he rounded the corner of another house. Sure enough, there was one of the masked men waiting for him, but William was ready for him. Using his forward momentum, he ran up and planted a swift jump side kick into the man's chest, barreling him over to the ground.

William rolled over, jumped to his feet and kept running. He rounded the hedges onto the sidewalk but the second man was waiting and the van pulled to a stop beside them. He grabbed William and wrestled him to the waiting van as the boy wriggled furiously trying to escape. Reaching down to his belt, he pulled free the special weapon given to him by his parents' friend, John Doggett. It looked like a small cellular phone, which in fact it was, but in true James Bond fashion, it also housed several small weapons, one of which was a stun gun device. He activated it with a button, pressed it to the man's arm and pushed the fire button.

The man instantly dropped him and fell to the ground. William scooted away up the driveway of the nearest house and ducked into hiding behind the air conditioning unit and a wheelbarrow. He stayed there, panting hard, trying to regulate his breathing so he wouldn't be found out. He heard the first man and the van's driver looking through the bushes for him. He waited silently, barely breathing, with the phone gun still in his hand, ready to go. He waited for a half hour, but it seemed like an eternity. Was it safe to come out? He had heard the van drive away but it was probably a ploy. His mother would be wondering where he was, but he wasn't going to come out until he knew it was over.

Then, he heard a voice calling to him.

"OK, Will, I quit. Come out now, you win!" One of the masked men, the one William had knocked over with a kick, had come into the backyard where he was hiding. He took off his mask, revealing the sweaty but grinning face of William's father, Fox Mulder.

With a grin, William stood up and Mulder laughed. He came over and ruffled his son's hair.

"Not bad, kid, not bad at all. Although next time I'd refrain from actually stunning someone during a practice run, poor Gibson's still seeing stars."

William flinched a little. He hadn't meant to actually stun anyone, but you never knew. He followed his father to the van where the driver, Doug Eagleman and the second attacker, 24 year old Gibson Praise, were waiting. Gibson was looking green and his friend, Doug was fanning him.

'Nice move squirt....' William heard inside his head. Gibson was telepathic and William was one of few people who could actually hear and respond to him.

He smiled sheepishly and thought back, 'Sorry, man. I didn't mean to.'

Gibson sighed and smiled. He shook his head and said, "Do you want us to drop you off?"

Mulder shook his head, "No, thanks guys. It's only two blocks, we can walk it. And I know you two wanted to go down to the reservation tonight, so go on ahead."

As Doug and Gibson waved goodbye, Mulder and William started walking back towards their house on the edge of the neighborhood.

William looked over his and his father's clothes and shook his head. "Mom's gonna be mad."

Mulder smiled softly. "She doesn't like the way we're training you, but she of all people knows how important it is. We don't have time to play around, it's already 2012. This December is it, and I know you've been training ever since we've had you, but we still don't know for sure what to expect."

William felt a small shiver as his father mentioned the impending date. December 22, 2012, the date on the Mayan calendar that signaled the destruction of the universe, the date the aliens would come to invade the Earth. When William had first heard the story, he wondered if his parents and the others who had settled in this neighborhood weren't a little off their rockers. But as he had been told more and more, he came to realize that nobody was playing games. The entire town of Roswell, New Mexico was built on a large deposit of magnetite. The aliens themselves were affected in such a way that, while it wasn't fatal, staying in the area caused an illness in them similar to radiation sickness in humans. But there were other beings as well, human-alien hybrids known as "Super Soldiers" that could not be killed in any way, not by bullets or even being crushed into hamburger. The only thing that WOULD kill them was magnetite. It pulled them apart and reduced them to a pile of powdered metal. Using this information, several scientists who had moved to Roswell in a growing community of secret specialists, had developed a type of dart gun that fired darts of concentrated magnetite. One of the weapons on William's cellular phone, besides a stun gun, was a magnetite dart. However, it was only a single shot.

The people of this task force had been working for a decade to develop weapons against the coming invaders, the dart guns being one. The group included not just the residents of their neighborhood in Roswell, but a network of carefully placed people around the world. After arriving and setting up a haven in Roswell, safe from the Supersoldiers who could not come near the magnetite their homes were built on, former FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully along with several others who also knew of the impending invasion, had begun to work on a plan to stop the planned invasion. All over the world, individuals who were part of their group worked in secret alongside their regular jobs to do their part, developing weapons, vaccines and battle plans to fight an unknown superior force from another world. Dana Scully had been working as well, using her degree in medicine and a teaching position at the local university to develop and reverse engineer the vaccine Mulder had used on her in Antarctica. It was the only known defense against the virus that turned human beings into biological incubators for new alien life forms. It had been Mulder who had named the group Aegis, after the mythological Zeus' shield. But it had been suggested by a group of local teenagers who played a role-playing game called Conspiracy X, and Mulder had found it funny how the kids never knew how close their game came to the truth.

In the meantime, Mulder and Scully had been trying to raise their son in the best way they could. They wanted him to have as normal a life as possible, and to never be afraid, but they didn't want him to be clueless. They made sure he trained in martial arts and learned all that he could about how to defend himself. They told him as much as they could about their operation and the plan going on to stop the invasion. But aside from all of that, they still had a little boy who had lost people he had considered parents in a terrible way. Like his father, he was very good at blaming himself for things that were ultimately beyond his control, and both of them had talked to him at length, even talked to some counselors to make sure he was handling everything alright.

William looked up at his dad. "Dad, am I going to be able to go with you and Mom this summer?"

"Sure, you do every year. Don't you want to see your friend Josh again?" asked Mulder.

Since coming to live with his birth parents, William had stayed in contact via email with his friend from Midville, Joshua. Every summer since then, they had made trips to visit Josh and his family, the Van de Kamp's graves, then on to Washington D.C. to visit the Scully family. William loved his grandmother and Uncle Charlie, but Uncle Bill was always a little short with him. And he knew that Uncle Bill detested his dad. They also made a point of visiting Mr. Skinner, and Agents Doggett and Reyes, as well as Jimmy and Yves, two remaining members of a group who called themselves the Lone Gunmen. The other three of that group, Byers, Langley and Frohike, had been friends of his parents for years and had died "in the line of duty" as his mother had said. They visited their graves in Arlington Cemetery every summer too, while Mulder would tell William all the crazy stories the three guys had gotten into.

"Well," said William, "This is it, this is the year."

"That's right," replied Mulder, "And if there was ever a time to see everybody, this is it. Plus you have a birthday coming up in a few weeks, right? Mom says we can have any kind of party you want, a real big one for all your friends. She says you already picked one out?"

William nodded. He heard what his father didn't say. That this might be the last year they were all alive, so live it up now. He and his mother had planned to rent out the local Skate Galaxy and have the black-light lit skating rink/maze/laser tag facility all to themselves. William had planned on inviting his entire Little League team and everyone from karate. He didn't have many friends from school since he was in the eighth grade and most of his classmates were four years older than him with entirely different interests. He wished Josh could come though.

They walked into their house and paused in the kitchen. Dana Scully was on the phone, apparently chewing someone out.

"No Richard! You SAID you would have those MagGun proposals sent to the Pentagon by this past Monday, it's Friday." she said in exasperation. She paused and listened, then continued irritated. "OK then, fine. When Al comes to invade us all, maybe we'll just send up a radio transmission asking, 'Sorry boys, our Mags aren't going to be ready for another two weeks, could you come back then?' Think that'll work?"

Mulder snorted back a laugh and she turned around, and her mouth dropped at the sight of her son and his father covered in desert sand tracking into her kitchen. Suddenly her attention shifted back to the phone. "OK, OK, fine then. Just do it fast, will you?" She hung up then turned her stern gaze on the two men in her life. They both grinned identical sheepish grins. She knew it wouldn't do to laugh right now, she didn't want either of them to think she approved of what she knew they had been doing, but it WAS a funny sight.

Mulder said almost apologetically, "Umm, Dana, we're um, just going to go, err clean up, OK?" He hurried out of the kitchen and William scooted after him after blowing a kiss to his mother. Once they were out of sight she allowed herself to smile. She knew it was important for William to be on alert and be trained, she just wished it didn't have to be so rough. She wished he were still a baby, but in other ways she was glad he wasn't. While other mothers were worried about kidnappers, pedophiles and speeding cars, she worried about super soldiers, UFO's and government agents coming after her kid.

While sitting around the dinner table that night, Scully clued Mulder in on the latest developments on the home front. They had worked in secret until the past year when finally bringing in the military and the President, with a little help from their friends still in the FBI and Congress. It hadn't been easy, especially since you never knew who to trust, and who could be an alien in disguise. They had relied on Gibson Praise as a sort of human lie detector to tell if anyone in the room was an alien or not human in any other way. William had been learning to do it himself, although his abilities were different from Gibson's. William had been injected with a form of magnetite as an infant by his half-uncle Jeffery Spender, who lived next door with Gibson. He had never been told why, although his parents didn't seem to mind Uncle Jeff being around, but he sensed his mother had a bit of animosity towards his uncle. But they needed every man they could get, even one who had been as weakened and disfigured as Jeff Spender had been by the experimentation done on him by the government.

Scully told them that their contact at the weapons processing factory had been late on delivering the magnetite gun proposal to the generals in their group at the Pentagon. On top of all that, there were some holdups at the CDC in getting the vaccine out. England had already begun inoculating their citizens and most other countries had plans in place, thanks to the group members already working in those countries.

"Relax, Scully," said Mulder, "It'll all get going in the next two weeks like planned. When announcing the need for millions of Americans to be vaccinated with a new vaccine against an unknown disease, it has to be done carefully to prevent panic. Besides, no one's going to know what the truth is, they're coming up with some story about Anthrax or something."

Scully nodded, "The Aegis group wants to know about the meeting, people have been calling nonstop."

Mulder sighed. Although he had not asked for the position, he was considered one of the group leaders, since he had founded the beginnings of the network during his time in hiding in New Mexico when William was a baby. He had been reluctant to take on the role though, since he had a mental image of his father and the men he had worked with in a similar situation, running the Syndicate in the shadows of an alien invasion.

"We'll shoot for July 4th, everyone will be off from work and we can make it into a sort of neighborhood barbecue or something, we'll avoid suspicion that way. And it'll give everyone time to get down here." He picked at his salad slowly.

Scully turned to William. "What about you? Still on for your birthday party?" she asked with a grin.

He smiled back. "Sure am, and the vision quest too. Who knows, maybe the spirits will send some huge sign of how we're supposed to win the invasion." His parents both smiled somewhat sadly.

Later that night, William tossed and turned in his bed. Sleep was coming more and more difficulty as the months faded away to the inevitable. He didn't let his parents know he was sleeping badly, since he didn't want them to worry even more about him, but lately he'd lie down around 9:30 and stare at the ceiling until 1 AM. And when he DID sleep, his dreams were filled with images of Bob and Nancy lying dead in different places on the farm, of his family being frozen in alien pods, of UFO's zooming through the sky spitting fire like in War of the Worlds. It was getting to the point to where he was starting to see flashes of daydreams during the day. Once he thought he saw a UFO overhead, although UFO's couldn't fly over Roswell without crashing due to the magnetite. Another time he thought he saw a gray alien in the bushes. He hoped he wasn't losing it so soon to the time when he might be needed.

Sighing, he got up out of bed and went down the hall towards the kitchen for some water. He didn't turn on any lights, since both of his parents were light sleepers. But as he came into the den, he saw that his father was still up anyway watching television. Fox Mulder had been an insomniac for years. Mulder looked up and saw his son standing in the doorway. He grinned and patted the sofa next to him. William went over and crawled up beside his dad. Mulder pulled a blanket over both of them and settled back down.

"Can't sleep?" he asked.

William shook his head. Mulder pressed on, "You're worried about something? You don't have to do the vision quest, you know. Or is it something else?"

William thought for a minute, then asked, "Dad, are we going to win?" He had never asked this question right out, knowing his parents were working as hard as they could to ensure the war would be won, but what did they really think?

Mulder, for one, didn't quite know how to answer. " I really don't know son," he said with caution, then decided to continue, "but if you want absolute honesty, well, the chances aren't good."

"Then we're all going to die anyway?" asked William. Mulder smiled.

"Probably not. There are 8 billion people on the planet, even with the gestating virus, there will always be pockets of people who will be isolated and will escape it. Plus we have the vaccine and we've been inoculating people for years, so quite a few will be immune to it. To the best of our knowledge, Al doesn't know about the vaccine yet, and thanks to the friends we made at the CDC, the vaccine has been mass-produced for three years now and shipped out with regular vaccines given to babies when they're born. As for the older ones, doctors who are part of Aegis have released announcements saying previous booster shots were found to be ineffective, to come in and get the "new improved" one, doctors are giving them during annual checkups, and all of us here in Roswell and the whole family have had them. So we're betting the virus thing won't work as well as they'd hoped.

Now don't get me wrong, it'll still get a lot of people if it's released. We just can't vaccinate everyone, there's no time. But we estimated about half the world's population has it by now, and some of our Aegis crew have been burning those cornfields mom and me showed you two years ago in Texas and all over the world. Some of our more, um, enthusiastic crew even blew up some of those huge bee hives with home made napalm. Managed to get the attention of the local news."

Mulder paused and sighed. William thought for a minute, then asked, "I read about all the terrorist stuff at the turn of the century, and listen to what you and Mom tell me about the Syndicate an Aegis. What makes us different from those guys? I mean, we operate in small groups loosely connected to each other, we have ties in the government. We're going to end up fighting a huge....."

"DON'T compare us to them, William," Mulder said sternly, "Aegis is NOT like any of those organizations. The Syndicate was only trying to buy time to save their own asses while keeping their unlimited power over the masses, and the terrorists, well, they didn't care who got killed, civilians, kids. We're trying to ensure our species will survive whatever's coming. We're trying to save lives here. Yes we operate in some of the same ways, groups loosely connected through our network, all trying for the same goal, but we're not trying to kill anyone or control anyone, we're trying to keep the planet for ourselves, which, frankly I think we have a right to. I mean, apparently they WERE here before us, from what I was told. But they didn't originate here, they came to colonize it but it was too cold. So they left or lay dormant in ice. But when they came back, suddenly here we were and they don't feel like sharing. Neither do I actually. Who are they to come and commit genocide? What right do they have to the planet? None at all. It's ours.

And you know, I'm not about being heartless. If some catastrophe destroyed their world and they needed somewhere to live, and above all, were more gracious about sharing the planet, I could see letting them colonize in a few places. If they were at all willing to coexist and respect our right to live, I wouldn't have a problem with sharing the planet. But their constant lies and back-stabbing to the Syndicate, the virus, all of it shows they don't really want to work with us at all, they just want us to help them kill ourselves."

William snuggled closer to his father and listened. His parents had told him of past events they had dealt with while working on the X-Files, and it was a lot to remember. But he had never heard his father's true feelings about the matter. William knew both of his parents had suffered terribly to fight the lies and horror they had found within the cases of the X-Files. Within a space of five years, his mother's father and both of his father's parents had died or been murdered. His aunt Melissa had been shot and killed, mistaken for her sister. His aunt Samantha, for whom his father had searched for 25 years was found to have been eventually killed after years of experimentation by the Syndicate. His half sister Emily had been created as a human answer to the super soldiers, without his mother's knowledge, and she had eventually died from her abnormal blood condition. The three original Lone Gunmen had been killed preventing a deadly virus escaping, his half uncle Jeff Spender had been shot by his own father, the Cigarette Smoking Man (William's genetic grandfather), and when he didn't die, he was left to be experimented on, leaving him horribly burned and disfigured. Gibson had been forced into hiding at the age of twelve because of his mental abilities, after his parents had been found dead.

Both Mulder and Scully had been abducted for several months, only to be returned nearly dead. His mother had battled a brutal cancer. And his own birth, which should have been a joyous miracle, was overshadowed by the Supersoldiers hunting for him, for Mulder's forced flight underground, attacks and kidnappings which eventually led to William's adoption to Bob and Nancy Van de Kamp. All these families, all these lives, destroyed, all because of greedy evil men and unfeeling creatures from God knows where who couldn't stay off someone else's planet. The whole thing sucked. And for what? To fight a losing battle?

"Dad?" William asked slowly. "What if we fail?"

Mulder pulled his son close. "Well, at least we will have tried."

The Final Stand Chapter 2

Dana Scully was having a rare happy day. For today at least, they were going to forget about the whole mess of alien invasion and Aegis and whatever. It was William's 11th birthday and since she and Mulder had missed the first seven years and birthdays of their son's life, they were going to make up for it. They had taken over the local Skate Galaxy so the kids could have unlimited access to the skating rink, the maze, obstacle course, and William's favorite, Laser Tag. He had already played it three times. And Mulder was thoroughly enjoying his role as Dad-big kid. Scully had had to fish him out of the balls pit twice to come help with the cake and ice cream. He had been through the laser tag twice with William already, reminding Dana of the time they were caught in the video game at FPS years ago.

After singing happy Birthday, opening presents and plenty of cake and ice cream, William coaxed his mother into joining them in the skating rink. She hadn't been on skates in 30 years and felt like a turtle on wheels, but Mulder came up and, with a wink, took her hand and hauled her around twice before she laughed and headed for the side. William was having one of the best birthdays of his life. Earlier that day, Agents Doggett and Reyes had shown up as a surprise. They were on their way back from a case in California and had decided to swing by New Mexico for William's birthday. (and some cake no doubt) They had given him a new Virtual Reality Game System game, the newest one out by Nintendo. Monica had been helping his mother herd the kids, and Doggett had been switching between the video games and talking to Mulder.

After several exciting hours, William convinced both of his parents, the two agents and the rest of his friends from karate and Little League to go for one final Laser Tag game. Everyone agreed and they headed in. William always felt like an android or something wearing the cyber vest with light sensors and running around with the light gun. The object of the game was for the two teams to blast the other team's four light stations, hidden in rooms and pockets in the maze. William half wondered if he wouldn't be doing something similar but for real in the near future.

As the buzzer sounded, the two groups headed into the black-light illuminated maze. William watched with awe as his mother expertly ducked behind a corner. His parents were on his team but Doggett and Reyes were on the other one to make it more fair. William climbed up the ramp leading to the upper level and grinned as he watched his father and Doggett below in a laser shootout. Both men never noticed William's karate friend, Kyle come up and shoot them both, even though Mulder was on his team. Both men laughed. William set off to find the light stations. As he ran into a light station, he blasted the sensor in the roof and it set off the strobe light indicating he had destroyed the station. But as the strobing light flashed in his eyes, suddenly his mind leapt, and he saw an image of a triangular craft in the sky, strobing lights shining down on him. But as quickly as it had come, the vision vanished. William stood for a second, wondering what had happened. Then he shook his head hard and set off to find another station.

A he rounded several more corners and fought off other team members, he felt a funny sensation creep into his head. He turned quickly and stifled a scream. Right behind him was a gray alien!

'No, no it can't be. It's not real, it's a hallucination...too much cake, too much sugar, that has to be it!' he thought. He raised his gun, forgetting it was only a laser gun that shot harmless light. Then he remembered and felt his belt for his phone gun. It wasn't there. He remembered, he hadn't brought it. He backed away and blinked hard. Suddenly the alien was gone. He looked around rapidly. People were running everywhere, still playing. Derek Sanchez shot him twice but William never noticed. Derek asked if he was OK, but William didn't hear. He ran away blindly through the maze, as if trying to outrun an invisible pursuer. He ran around a corner and saw his mother. She looked up and froze. Dana registered the look of pure panic on her son's face and sprinted over to him.

"Will, what's wrong? What happened?" she asked as she pulled him into a hug. Safe now in his mother's arms, he burst into tears, not caring if any of his friends saw him. Alarmed now, Scully asked again what happened.

"Al...I saw, I thought I saw....Al," he said between sobs, using the Aegis code-word for alien.

A look of fear came into Dana's eyes as well as resolve. She looked up and made a move as if to go somewhere, but just then the lights came back on and the sounds of the other team cheering filled the room. They had one by one light station. William didn't care, but he dried up his tears right away, lest anyone thought he was crying because his team lost. Mulder and Reyes came sprinting over with smiles, but stopped when they saw William.

"What's going on?" Mulder asked as Doggett joined them.

Scully pulled them closer and whispered, "He thought he saw a Grey, back in there somewhere." William nodded confirming.

"OK, get everyone out of here, " said Doggett. He, Reyes and Mulder turned and went back into the maze. Scully took William's hand and led him out with the other kids. It was the final game and everyone started packing up to leave for home. William dutifully said goodbye to his friends, forced smiles and laughter, and finally, when the last one had left, went to his mother who held him protectively close. His father came out followed by the agents, saying they had not been able to find anything at all. William insisted he had seen a Grey, but no one knew what to think. They gathered up everything and headed for home, and the drive back was somber.

Once they got home, the four adults listened again to William's recount of seeing an alien in the laser tag arena. But no trace had been found. Plus there didn't seem to have been anyone else who had seen it.

"I thought they couldn't come into Roswell in the first place because of the magnetite," said Monica Reyes.

"No they can, they just can't fly over it," Mulder countered. "The Supersoldiers can't come in the town, they'd be pulled apart, but aliens and humans can. Usually a bullet will take care of an alien though."

Scully pulled William closer to her and he could feel his mother's uneasiness and wished he hadn't said anything in the first place. He was beginning to doubt his sanity and wondered if he should mention having seen flashes before of aliens on the street.

"Well, aside from all this, we have other problems," said John Doggett somberly. "Seems our friends in what's left of the Syndicate know for sure about us now. Jim and Yves sent us an intercepted downloaded letter detailing certain operations, and you and Dana, so they know for sure you're alive now. Good thing you were officially pardoned from that Knowle Rohrer thing, Mulder, or the military'd be knocking on your door right now."

"Also, if you're ready for more good news," sighed Monica, "Seems the aliens know about Aegis too. We don't know if they know about the vaccine, but they do know there's a resistance movement organizing. We think they don't know about you guys or that it's centered here in Roswell, but they might soon enough. They might step up the timetable."

"You said the aliens know, do you mean the Greys?" asked Mulder.

"Well yeah, who else?" asked John.

"Well," said Mulder, "We know there are actually several different races, but we aren't sure if they're all connected to the Greys, or if they're at war. We heard something earlier about a war, but it wasn't confirmed."

"You mean like Jeremiah Smith?" William asked. He had met the shape-shifting healer alien two years ago, and he had looked perfectly human to William, although Gibson had pointed out the different feeling of the man versus a normal human.

"Yes, but we're not sure if the Jeremiah and Gregor race are a race unto themselves or creation of the Greys who are rebelling." said Dana. "We know the Jeremiahs know about us, they're part of the Aegis group. Half of what we've been able to do is with their help."

"This just keeps getting better and better....." John sighed.

Doggett and Reyes stayed for dinner, then a little while afterwards talking to Mulder and Scully. They left for Washington D.C. after wishing William a happy birthday again. They'd be seeing each other again in a few weeks.(William hoped)

As his mom tucked him in, she mentioned that they were thinking of canceling William's vision quest at the reservation.

"No! Mom please! I might not get another chance and I was glad to be asked. Don't make me back out." he pleaded.

"I just don't think it's safe, William. Out there in the open, no defenses, plus I'm not sure I like it anyway. No food for three days? That can be dangerous for an eleven year old kid."

"You decide to bring this up now?" he pouted, "Why not just say no a month ago? And Dad said it was OK"

"Watch yourself, Mister..." she warned somewhat jokingly but sternly. She sighed. She knew he wanted badly to go, but if he was seeing aliens.... And she knew Eric Hosteen, the grandson of Albert Hosteen, would be there watching him. The person on the vision quest was rarely left entirely alone these days. There was usually someone nearby in case of emergency, and the Hosteen family had been a tremendous help to herself and Mulder through the years. Without Albert's help, before his death years ago, Mulder would be dead today. Eric had even chosen to be beaten badly by the Cigarette Smoking Man rather than give up Mulder's location at the time.

"Let me think about it some more, OK? And I'm coming along if you DO go." she said.

"Mom, it's supposed to be me alone in great Mother Nature. It won't work if you're there." he said.

"I'm not leaving you by yourself, even with Eric there. And I'll stay out of sight, but I want to be there. No discussion. Either I go or you don't." she said firmly.

William nodded, knowing that since she had made up her mind, either go along with her or don't go at all. She kissed him good night and gave him a big hug.

"Thanks for the party, Mom. It was great," he said.

She smiled and pulled him closer, "I'm glad, sweetie. G'night."

She tucked him in, then left turning off the light. William lay back, steeling himself for another few hours of staring at the ceiling.

The sound of his parents' voices came drifting in. He heard his name being mentioned and slowly got up and crept to the hallway to listen. His mother was talking.

"You know, Mulder, if ten years ago someone had told me about what I'd be doing these days, I would have laughed. And that's AFTER having been on the X-Files for several years. Who would have thought that we'd be on the front lines fighting off an alien invasion while trying to raise a kid?" She sounded almost downbeat.

"I know, Dana, but what else can we do, roll over and let them kill us all? Why make it easy? Besides, my gut is telling me there IS a way to win, I really think it can be done. I just wish the world didn't have to be disrupted to do it." said Mulder.

"You know, when I look at the news and see all the reports of different countries at war, people killing each other over land less than the size of Maryland, corruption in corporations, it just makes me want to yell at all of them, 'Hey don't you know you only have seven months left to live? There's a huge, superior race of beings who want this planet and they could give a damn about your religion, your money, whatever. They only want the planet and us off of it. Stop fighting each other and help us fight THEM!' It's all so stupid and pointless, fighting each other when we'll need every person we can get." she paused for a minute.

Mulder knew something was on her mind, so he waited. Finally she said, "Mulder, what about what happened today? What's going on with William?"

"What ISN'T going on with him?" he said. "Dana, regardless of what he appears to be, he isn't your average child, you know that. I don't think he saw a real Grey, but maybe a premonition or vision of one. With his mental abilities, and we don't even know the extent of them, it could have been anything. Remember what everyone said about him when he was born? Even those kooks up in Canada, the cult. William was destined to turn the tide of the invasion, that whoever's side he was on would win. That's why the Supersoldiers wanted me dead, probably you too. If we raised him, as we have mostly, he'd side with us. If they raised him, he'd side with them. I wish I knew what his part is in all of this, if only to protect him. Whatever he is in the big picture, he's our little boy and I love him."

Dana said, "I can't believe he's so important to this somehow. I mean, the Syndicate has been working with Al on colonization for over fifty years. You and I weren't born then, and yet now everything depends on a child neither one of us even expected to have. I just don't see how that came about so suddenly, or how all the plans they made centered on one little boy no one could guarantee would even be born."

"I don't think it did, actually," said Mulder. "Things changed after our little fiasco in Antarctica. With the destruction of the Syndicate and the ship taking off, that turned the tide. Before, the aliens were going to "colonize", told the Syndicate they would simply turn humans into a slave race using the black oil. In exchange for making the preparations for them, the aliens would grant the Syndicate and their families amnesty. But lo and behold, the virus actually turns people into human incubators for the aliens, which would kill us all and repopulate the Earth with Greys. With the Syndicate dead and the project dying, all bets were off. Now we know for sure they don't plan on coexisting, they're coming to kill. Before, the bounty hunter aliens were sent to police the project. These days, the job seems to be to clean up. They figured out the Syndicate was working against them, hopefully not about the vaccine, but the Jeremiahs, Gregors, and.....Samanthas.....were the Syndicate's attempts to create a human/alien hybrid who would survive the plague.

Apparently that didn't go over well with the Greys, they sent the bounty hunter to get rid of them. And Emily..."Mulder paused, not sure if he should continue, but did, "I think she was an attempt to make our own super soldier. With that experiment a failure and the Syndicate dead, all the aliens had to do to ensure the remnants of the project were carried out was to send in the super soldiers, human replacements who could not be killed by our weapons. So now here we are, on the verge of invasion, with only Aegis, a loosely connected group of resistance cells, the only barrier between humanity and annihilation."

"But what about William?" Dana pressed.

Mulder continued, "I really think William's the anomaly no one counted on. Scully....Dana," he seemed to be struggling with his words, not sure how to say what was on his mind. "You know how it was, how you thought you couldn't have children, and after what they did to you, you shouldn't have been able to. The in vitro didn't work, even after four times, then one night we, um...well you know."

Scully laughed softly, "Yeah I know."

Mulder went on, "And we weren't even TRYING to have a kid then, that was for us, and after eight years long overdue, in my opinion. But lo and behold, what happens? It's almost as if whatever God is up there was just waiting for that one time, after all, the artificial stuff didn't work. And the night he was born, Dana I swear I saw that light in the sky leading me to you. It wasn't a UFO, it wasn't a satellite. It's like, one small miracle after another. And then when we had to give him up......only to have him almost literally drop back into our lives, old enough to understand what had happened but still young enough to give us time to raise him...it's all seemed to work out where William is concerned. Now I'm not going to tell you that our son is the next Jesus Christ or something, far from that. But I know he's special, he shouldn't have been able to even be here but he is. It's almost like, no matter what the archeologist down in the cell in south Africa say about what was written on the UFO you found in the sand, about how they think our whole conception of God was what they aliens led us to believe, I think William is proof that there really IS a God and we're being watched over."

"I hope you're right, Mulder. I really do. Because if not, we're all in for a world of trouble." Dana replied.

William slowly closed his door and went back to bed.

The Final Stand Chapter 3

William never knew what kind of persuasion his father employed on his mother to get her to allow him to go to the vision quest after all, but he suspected that she was planning on hanging around nearby anyway, only keeping it a secret from him. Eric Hosteen had offered to delay the whole thing, but there wouldn't be time later, they were leaving on their annual summer pilgrimage to see family and deal with Aegis business. The only change was that they would set up in Eric's backyard instead of the wilderness, but since he had a huge open stretch of land, William didn't mind too much.

He helped Eric set up the tent and the stones set in a circle around it. Then Eric came to him and handed him a canteen.

"There's some broth in there and another bottle of water inside the tent, so you're all set. Remember, no cheating. If you have snacks, turn 'em over now, bud." said Eric.

William turned his pockets inside out with a smile.

Eric laughed and said "OK, well, there's a small two way radio in the tent, I'll be up at the house and if you need anything just call. We're still within the boundaries of the safe zone, so you shouldn't have any problems, but if you do, I know you have your phone gun, but call right away. I'll be watching you but you won't see me, any sign that you're getting sick or something I'm pulling you out, got it?"

William nodded, hoping it wouldn't come to that.

"I don't want to have to tell your mother if anything does happen, like snakebites. Incidentally, keep an eye out for rattlers, not common on my land but not impossible either. Now remember, try to stay in a clam state of mind. If the spirits have a message for you, and I have a feeling they do, they'll come. Just let them come."

"How will I know if it's a message or if I'm just tripping out? And what if I don't recognize it?" asked William.

"You will know." said Eric. "Plus, if you miss it they usually try again until you get it."

Eric turned to leave and called over his shoulder, "Remember, don't step out of the boundary stones until I come get you."

"Wait, Eric!" called William, "What about when I have to go to the bathroom?"

Eric grinned widely and tossed a roll of toilet paper to William. "See that bush over there?" he pointed, "I dug a hole behind it. That's rapidly dissolving toilet paper, be sure to bury it good. See you in three days!"

Eric turned and started to walk away when William called after him, "Just how rapidly are we talking about? Am I going to have to play beat the clock in the bushes?" Eric snorted but didn't turn around.

William shook his head and went about settling in for three days of soul searching. He arranged his sleeping bag, canteens and rapidly dissolving toilet paper in a neat order in the tent, made sure the flashlight and radio worked, then walked the entire perimeter to explore, which wasn't very far. The only thing in the circle besides his tent was the infamous bush. He turned a circle and observed the landscape around him. Flat. A cactus here and there. Tumbleweeds. And God it was hot. Eric had set him up in what passed for shade near a stand of some cacti, but the house as the top of the rise about a hundred yards away looked quite shadier.

He sat down and waited for the expected visit from the spirits. By late afternoon that same day, William had discovered something about himself alright. He discovered that, despite his unusual differences, he definitely had the attention span of a normal eleven year old. With no books, video games, and especially no music, he hadn't realized just what true boredom was. He half wondered if he'd die of boredom instead of the elements.

When night fell, he found out something else about himself, that he was still a child that really, REALLY wanted his mom and dad when it was cold and dark and god alone knew what was creeping around outside your tent. He wasn't allowed to make a fire, and had only the big lantern and a flashlight to push back the darkness. He knew Eric (and probably his mother) must be nearby and that was some comfort, but since he could barely see anything part of his mind kept telling him that he really WAS alone out in the middle of the desert. As much as he tried, he couldn't keep images of Supersoldiers and aliens and government bad guys sneaking up to his tent and nabbing him while he slept. Although he had his hand on his phone gun, and he knew the SS couldn't come onto this land, it still made for a restless, sleepless night. He had suffered with bouts of insomnia before, but nothing like this. He doubted he slept more than an hour or two that first night.

By the time the dawn rolled around, the vision quest was looking less and less like a wonderful adventure and more like the trial that it was. He was hungry, having finished off the broth and water the night before, and he was relieved to see Eric had left a new bottle of broth and canteen of water by the tent. But it didn't do much for him. And using the hole as a toilet was grossing him out, but he couldn't avoid it. Finally he told himself to suck it up, he knew his parents had been through worse, to stop being a baby. He thought about practicing his karate moves to keep busy, but decided to wait until later when the sun wouldn't be baking him alive.

Instead he slowly paced the perimeter of the circle. Without outside stimulus for his mind, he found himself thinking more than he ever had in his life. He thought about everything he knew about the upcoming invasion, as well as his parents' conversation that night. He thought about Bob and Nancy and Midville and Josh. he thought about his extended family, about the planet, about the impossible task ahead of them. It was enough to make a grownup's head hurt, never mind a kid's.

Why him? Why all of this? How the hell was HE, a kid, supposed to be the deciding factor between two warring species for control of a planet? It sounded like a bad sci-fi movie. It sounded like his favorite book, Ender's Game. He stopped pacing and thought for a second. Like the boy in that book, the fate of humanity had rested on him, a child, over a coming alien invasion. And yet that boy, who wanted nothing more than to simply be a child, to be loved by his family and left alone, had basically been forced into his role and tricked into doing the job that was required of him. And when all was said and done, the boy was nearly shattered. Was that to be his own fate?

William sat down on the ground and thought about the Bible school classes he had gone to in Midville. He absentmindedly hummed "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore", which had been Nancy's favorite song. He realized he was about the same age Jesus had been when he learned he was God's son. William wondered for a second what that would be like, to be a kid his age and suddenly have it revealed to you that your father wasn't your father, the creator of the universe was, and that this would mean a life of hardship, a horrifying death, etc. etc. That must have really shook Him up. William doubted he would take such news himself without his head exploding. It was too much, too big a responsibility, especially for a child. He didn't want this role that was pre-ordained for him. He doubted he was anything like Jesus, but it was a huge situation all the same. Jesus had eventually taken up his role at the age of thirty, and William wanted another eighteen years to himself to work it all out. But time was up. He had only six months.

The way he saw it, there was this big bully of a race that simply wanted to come in and take their planet with total disregard to their race and their civilization. It reminded him of the stories of the European conquerors and the Native Americans. The Europeans had the bigger firepower and technology and therefore considered it their right to invade and overthrow the rich cultures of the people already here. And due to their arrogance, untold amounts of data in math, science and astronomy were lost when the Indians' writings and books were destroyed by the conquerors. But they survived anyway, although somewhat diminished. How different would the world be today if the Europeans had not won, had been driven out? The United States probably wouldn't be here.

But then there was the example of Hitler invading most of Europe. That wasn't a good thing at all, millions of people died all because one dictator thought he had the right to rule the world. So what then? What was the right thing to do? Restless again, he got up to resume his pacing.

That night was no better than the first, except pure exhaustion was starting to catch up with him. He was running out of things to think about, was sick of pacing the circle, and had figured that the spirits didn't want to talk to him anyway. He was ready to go home, but he was no quitter and was determined to stay the whole time. He only had 24 more hours to go. The third day was the worst. He was beyond hunger, even with the daily supply of broth and water. He knew he was feeling some dehydration, and he felt weak. He knew he should call Eric over the radio but kept putting it off, hoping to hold out just a few more hours. He had barely slept in three days and was starting to feel like he was dreaming even though he was sure he was awake. It was around late afternoon on the third day that his eyes started playing tricks on him. Eric had told him to expect it, it meant the spirits were coming, but it was still unnerving.

For a second he was sure he saw his father standing by a cactus, but when he blinked it was gone. He thought he heard his grandmother's voice once, and another time he thought he heard running water. The landscape seemed strange somehow, as if the edges weren't clearly defined and the colors dull. He could feel himself dozing and drifting in and out, hearing flashes of memory, of his life in Midville, various songs from "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" and "Shout to the Lord," to his parents' favorite song, "Joy to the World". He found himself humming the part "Jeremiah was a bullfrog..." over and over, thoughtlessly.

"That's a funny song..." came a child's voice to his right.

William about jumped out of his skin! He turned, suddenly alert, to the sound of the voice and gaped in amazement as a little girl came out from behind a cactus. Her blonde hair was whispy and she looked to be about four years old, but William knew her right away. Her blue eyes were the same as his, her smile just like his mother's. He was looking at his long dead sister Emily. But that wasn't possible was it? His father had said something about seeing ghosts before, something his mother seemed to be prone to despite her skeptic's approach. Was this real or was he tripping out? Was this his sign or was he sleeping and dreaming?

The little girl smiled at his and held out her hand. "Come on, brother. There's not much time. There's a lot for you to see."

William shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere, I can't leave the circle."

Emily said, "What circle?"

William turned to point to the stones, then stared in shock. They had disappeared, along with the tent and Eric's house. What the HELL was going on? He looked at her in confusion. She smiled again. William felt uneasiness coming over him, although he didn't feel any danger on his mental radar. She obviously was the sign he was supposed to look out for, but he didn't want to go wandering off into the desert as out of it as he was. He stood up and looked down at her. She took his hand. and pointed behind him.

He turned to look, expecting to see a SS or something, but felt the shock of his life when he realized he was no longer in the desert, he was floating in outer space!! Panic swelled up in him and he fought back a scream, but then he heard his sister's voice in his ear.

"Don't be afraid, Will. It's just a vision, like a movie."

He settled down a little, finding he could breathe, and felt a little better, realizing that this was just like a Virtual Reality game or something. They seemed to be floating over what looked like the Earth, but the continents were strange. The landmasses were still drifting, Africa had not joined Europe and the North and South American continents were not connected. William watched fascinated as what looked like a spacecraft came into orbit around the primordial Earth. It was strange, alien, even stranger than the pictures of the alien spacecraft his parents knew of. Then William knew he was looking at a totally different race, never seen before, maybe not even by the Greys.

"Watch close," said Emily as the craft fired shot after shot of some kind of matter into the atmosphere and oceans of the Earth as it rotated on it's axis. Then, as suddenly as it had come, the craft sped away into the deep darkness.

"What was that all about?" William asked. Emily didn't answer, but pointed again and William saw that the perspective had changed, they were now on the land watching evolution as if on a fast forward. The masses that the craft had fired into the ocean were changing, DNA combining, cells forming.

William watched as single celled organisms started to form, joining to become multi-cellular. Their seemed to be something wrong with the DNA, parts of it seemed to be dissolving. What were once six base pairs now only had four survive. But the four based pair organisms seemed more heartier, stronger, than the their six base pair relatives, who quickly died out. Ocean creatures formed, fish came out of the water and breathed with primitive lungs. William watched the rise of the reptiles, the dinosaurs, as they existed on a planet made mostly of swamp. Mammals suddenly made an appearance, but were small and weak and lived in hiding.

Then William saw something shocking. The race of the most intelligent of the dinosaurs, the Velociraptors, started evolving even more, developing advanced brains. They started using sticks and stones as tools, started evolving slowly into an almost primate physiology. They were destined to become the superior species on the planet. But that wasn't right, was it? William soon got his answer.

Another craft appeared in the heavens, different from the first one. William knew it was the Greys. He watched as landing parties and small craft in the air analyzed the air, soil, and life-forms. Then, William watched in horror as they Greys, without so much as a backward glance, used what looked like some kind of gravity control to maneuver a huge asteroid onto a collision course with Earth. He felt himself cry out in disgust and fear, as the asteroid crashed into the Yucatan, sending up fire and earth into the sky. He watched as the sun was blocked out and the cold blooded reptiles started dying. The herbivores went first, when the plants died, soon followed by the carnivores who had nothing left to hunt and eat. The semi-sentient descendants of the Velociraptors and their emerging culture were utterly destroyed. The Earth sunk into a nuclear winter, and fallout from the asteroid began to settle. Glaciers formed over the land masses and the Earth became uninhabitable for the Greys. It was too cold.

The ones who were exploring settled into a dormant state of the black oil deep beneath the surface of the Earth, and the Grey's spacecraft flew off into space. Then the mammals began to rise, the age of the reptiles having been abruptly destroyed. The DNA which had survived from the first ship began to reassert itself and primates began to form. Millennia passed and primitive ancestors of humans began to form, the species that was known as Australopithecus. They were basically advanced knuckle draggers. They were at the same stage of development as the raptors had been when once again the Greys came and found the Earth teeming with life.

William turned to Emily. "Why am I watching this? I didn't know about the raptor civilization, but the rest of this I learned in school."

"Watch," she said, "What you are witnessing will be the only thing that can save us."

William was even more confused but if his sister had come with some message of how to win the upcoming invasion, he would watch and remember. Were the Greys planning on using another asteroid? History said no, but maybe that's what they were planning in the future invasion. But not this time, as William watched.

The Greys came down and began to study the primitive men. Then, as William watched in disbelief, the Greys began to cross their DNA with the primitives. Strange new offspring were born, with the physical attributes of the Australopithecus, but with the intelligence of the Greys. The species Homo had arrived. Homo Habilis walked around, superior to its parent species, but the Greys only produced a few of them. William fought back anger as he saw the race had been created as a sort of slave race, being made to dig in quarries for metals such as gold and silver and other resources. Basically, the ancestor of modern man was created much as he mule was.

William felt a sense of anger and pride build up. How dare they! They had no right! But his anger faded into a grin as the Greys realized their mistake. The new species evolved quickly, much faster than ever before. What once took several thousands of years was done in only a hundred. They jumped from Homo Habilis to Homo erectus, then to Homo Neanderthal with a sub branch of what would become Homo sapiens. The Greys kept experimenting, creating new species, trying to get it under control. The Earth was a mining colony to them, but was fast developing into a permanent colony as they had always intended. The early humans saw the aliens as gods, their ships were fiery chariots in the sky.

But one race of humans seemed different. It was a species very similar to modern man, in fact William couldn't seen any difference, except that this race had absolutely no psychic ability. While the average Homo sapiens had a certain degree of access to other planes, this species didn't, but they had far more advanced logical brains. Two great empires rose up from these people, and William recognized them as Atlantis in the Atlantic, on the early landmass that was Cuba, and the one known as Lemuria or Mu on another landmass in the Pacific.

The Greys were alarmed. Their mule race had risen much faster than they ever had, they had to be controlled and quickly before they challenged their masters. Mu and Atlantis already were developing aircraft and other vehicles, and had harnessed electricity and solar energy. Abandoning all experiments and mining, the Greys once again intervened in Earth history, using a strange looking device to focus the sun's rays on the polar ice caps. They melted rapidly, in only a week, huge chunks of iceberg breaking off and raising the ocean level by several hundred feet in only hours. William knew he was watching the Great Flood of the Bible. This certainly explained why nearly every culture all over the world had a Flood Myth.

William watched, helpless again, as the beautiful civilizations of Atlantis and Mu were destroyed and humanity plunged into another era of darkness, technology forgotten, other races destroyed and forgotten. But the Earth was still not quite inhabitable with all the water and unusable land mass. So once again the Greys left. Over the next few centuries scout ships returned to check up on things and it seemed that the human race just didn't want to roll over and die. They proliferated and rose again in another great civilization. Finally they arrived in the present era, as scout ships returned to observe the new civilization.

They Greys now realized they couldn't depend on a natural disaster to claim the planet, they had to wipe out the entire sentient species. In order to do that, they had to be more covert, in the form of the virus. But they had to ensure that humanity didn't unite against them, or the ruse would be useless. By this time human had developed nuclear weapons and if they used them against the Greys, the Earth would end up useless to any race. Slowly and carefully, they infiltrated the societies, influencing leaders, mostly through religions, making sure they were misinterpreted and used as excuses for war and genocide. Religion and emotions intrigued the Greys. They were purely a human trait. Emotions could be used to divide the humans, but they could also be used to unite them. The bonds between related humans were astonishing, even a little frightening. But it was religion that got the most attention. The humans claimed the one true creator had talked to them. They tried to verify this, copying down the humans' religious texts on their ships and computers for study.

William saw the Greys' dilemma. IF religion truly meant that a higher power was talking to their mule race, it changed the whole concept of taking the planet and destroying them. But the Greys convinced themselves that it was nothing and moved forward with plans to retake the planet.

"Disgusting isn't it?" said a man behind him. William turned and saw his grandfather William Mulder, whom he had been named for, standing behind him. At this point, William was not surprised in the least.

"Hello, Grandpa," he said.

The man smiled, "It's good to hear you say that. But I wish we could have met under better circumstances."

He came up to William and put a hand on his shoulder. The visions of the Earth's history faded away into darkness and he stood there with his grandfather. He could see vague shapes of people standing in the distance, and he recognized some of them as his aunts Melissa and Samantha, his grandfather Bill Scully Sr., and the three Lone Gunmen, surrounded by several others.

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked his grandfather.

Bill Mulder looked down at his son's son. "It was my hope that my son, your father, would fight the coming future, and he has, with your mother's help. But there are places even they can't go. The situation has changed with the death of the Plan and the Syndicate. Now, a new route must be taken, one only you can travel. Do you remember the first ship you saw that fired the DNA into Earth's oceans?"

William nodded and his grandfather continued, "They were a race that has long since disappeared, a race no one has ever lain eyes on. They are known by many names, but they are the life givers, the gardeners of the galaxy. They traveled from system to system, dropping their DNA into planets, hoping life would form. On many different worlds, species so different from each other you could not believe they had common ancestry emerged. But one thing they all had in common remained."

"Their DNA?" asked William.

"Yes." Bill Mulder continued, "Their DNA, a six base pair DNA, this distinguished them from other life forms. They may look different but all offspring of that original race are bipedal hominids, with two eyes and a mouth, and above all, psychic, telekinetic and telepathic abilities."

"But humans only have four base pairs, and we can't do all that stuff." countered William.

Bill Mulder smiled a pained sort of grimace, "We could if they had left us the hell alone. You saw how the raptors were developing. Another few millennia and they would be a reptilian race capable of all of that. Yes, they would have only had a four base pair DNA, but for some reason on this world, the four base pair worked better for life than the six. This is the reason the Greys wiped them out. You see, in the greater more connected society of the species who are known descendants of the seeders, they only recognize sentient, or worthwhile life, as those who are six base paired life forms, because this is proof that they too are offspring of the seeding race. Therefore, since the raptor race only had four base pairs, it was decided that they were not worthwhile life and were open for destruction so the Greys could colonize their planet. And the same mentality goes for us, humans are only a four base pair life-form."

"But that's crazy!" stormed William. "Look at us! We have spaceships of our own, we've walked on the moon. We have vehicles and a civilization, everything! How can they say we're not sentient or worthwhile to live? Who are they to make that call? They KNOW we're an advanced civilization, we're around even after they tried over and over to wipe us out. And if we're so useless and expendable, why experiment with us in the first place?"

"Because," said Bill Mulder, "As you say, they know damn well what they're doing. But they can explain it away on the four base DNA bullshit.' It's ok because they're not one of us, we have six, they have four.' But they experimented with us for that very reason. You saw how the Atlanteans and Mu people had no psychic ability? Well, the reason for that is entirely the Greys. You see, humans could do all the things the Greys can do, telekinesis, telepathy, all of that, and more even. We can connect with the true higher power and heavenly realms, we can conceive of angels and other unseen beings beyond anything they can do. The only reason it remains a vestigial talent, is due to the flow of blood to the human brain. We use only ten percent of our brains, for everything, from body functions to thinking. The other ninety percent is the psychic ability, but it's not active because the brain doesn't receive enough blood flow and nutrients to sustain the energy it needs. It's like having a 100 watt bulb but only enough electricity to put out 30 watts. They altered our physiology such that we couldn't take in enough food or air to do all of that, at least not now anyway.

If we were to evolve more, probably. But right now, half the food we eat and air we breathe goes to power that ten percent. We'd be eating all day and on oxygen just to stay alive if we used all of our brains. But you, Will, you're different."

William shook, not sure he wanted to hear this. His grandfather continued, "Like your friend Gibson Praise and a few other people on the planet, you brains are activated in certain areas that normally aren't. But you are far above them all. You have access to all of your brain's functions, but on a normal human metabolism. What this means is, you can use your abilities, but not all at once. If you decide to use telekinesis, for example, you would use up so much energy that you probably wouldn't be able to move for a while afterwards, and you'd be so hungry you could eat a whale. And it would depend on how hard you use the ability. Moving a small object probably wouldn't hurt too much, but moving a truck could knock you out cold."

William took it all in. It made sense, why his unique talent came out at a time when he was excited or using a lot of energy. But while all of this was very intriguing, it didn't help him know how to stop the invasion. What was the point in showing him all of this? The only thing he seemed to have learned was that the Greys considered them to be more worthless than pond scum because they were short a few DNA base pairs, and that they wanted the Earth for themselves, had wanted it for years, and had demonstrated a revolting lack of concern for life on several occasions, by slamming a meteor the size of Arkansas down to kill the dinosaurs, and melting the polar ice caps to kill the humans. None had been entirely successful in that there were still reptiles and humans, but it had succeeded in wiping out the current civilization. So how they hell was that supposed to help them win this time?

If the aliens had that kind of technology back then, how far had it advanced since then? They had super soldiers running around in strategic places, a virus ready to be unleashed and if that didn't work, they could always try the asteroid thing again. What did humanity have? A space shuttle? What a laugh, it was like trying to fly a hot air balloon at an F-16 and hope you hit it. Humans have guns but that would require getting through Al's protective technology to use it. Scully had wondered initially if using a virus of their own might work, as in War of the Worlds, but how to administer it was another story. It was known from abductees that there were always decontamination devices all over the alien ships.

William looked up and asked, "How is any of this supposed to help me? Help us? Knowing all this stuff only makes me see what we're really up against, ruthless and unfeeling THINGS who could give a damn about our protests and claims to the planet. They don't care, and we can't beat them with technology. We're out of options. Yeah the Mag guns might work, but even Dad says it a 50/50 chance,"

Bill Mulder sighed, and said "Son, don't you get it? Don't you see? Of course humanity can't stop them. Oh we can give them a good fight, maybe even hurt them bad enough to where they'll back off for a few generations, then come back. But for the past few million years they invested in this planet, for reasons even I don't know. A bunch of upstart rebels aren't going to make them give up now, and no psychic kid is going to either. It's not your job to stop THEM, William, but to summon the ones who CAN."

William's head spun. Summon? What was he, a wizard? No way. And summon who? Or what?

"Summon? Summon what?" he asked. "Who the hell could stop them? The clones and hybrids?"

"No, Will," said Bill Mulder, "The ones they answer to. Didn't you hear me say there was a society in the galaxy? The Greys aren't the only race besides us descended from the original race, there are others, many others. And they all live by one code, to leave in peace with their brother races. What the Greys have done is against their law. They've tampered with and altered a race left by the founders, they've attempted genocide on several occasions, this is not allowed by the society's law, because they so revere the founder race. To disturb what the founders had set in motion is the closet thing to a sacrilege beings without emotions can reach. Because if one race will treat it's brother race in that manner, nothing would stop that race from conquering another. It's their way of maintaining order and lessening warfare."

"But you said they all share a common 6 base DNA, how could we prove that we're their brother race if we only have 4? They may agree with the Greys, that we're expendable animals to be used and discarded. We could end up with several races coming to do us in instead of one." protested William.

"Son, when you've got nothing you've got nothing to lose. If you don't call for help, you WILL be conquered. Humanity can't fight them off alone." said Bill.

"So how do I call for help?" asked William.

"Just call, with your heart and mind, see if you can't reach them." Bill replied.

"And what's to keep the Greys from intercepting it?" asked William.

"I don't know." Bill replied reluctantly, "But it seems that telepathy only works if you WANT someone to hear it. What Gibson can do is unique because he can hear thoughts that are not intended for him to hear. This could be because the average person does not know how to direct their thoughts. But think about when you talk to him telepathically. You only hear each other when you want to. Either that or just pray they aren't listening. Remember, they think it's an anomaly for a human to be able to talk this way anyway, much less to send out that kind of signal. But they know it's possible. Just remember what I told you about what happens when you expend that kind of energy on a mental task. Remember what it might do to you. This is your job, William. This is why you're here, because you are the only human on the planet, even beyond Gibson who could talk the way the rest of the founder's races can. That's why you're special, that's why God sent you to the parents He did."

William was thunderstruck! "God sent me?"

Suddenly a woman appeared to his right, and he recognized his mother's sister, his aunt Melissa. "That's right, baby." She smiled at him. "The one thing the Greys never understood, the one thing they won't let themselves comprehend. For all that they revere the founding race, they won't let themselves think about who created the founders, or who inspired the founders to set off across the galaxy seeding other worlds. They never stopped to ask why humans have the one advantage they don't, we live in a world of spirit and emotions, not logic and material. We recognize the existence of the soul, at least most humans do. We have access to the plane of the spirit, the afterlife, and energy. Our race, for all that it's been tampered with, has also been guided by another force, the same force who sent down its own wisdom when our creators had abandoned us, the same great being who gave us the guides that led us to a civilization that grew faster than any in the galaxy. You see, for all that religion has been twisted and used for personal gain of various humans through history, in it's pure form, it tells the only truth. That above the Greys, above all life, is one unmovable being who created everything. And it doesn't matter which religion you want to look at, they all say the same thing.

Forget the rules of the Christian church, or the laws of Judaism, or the beliefs of Islam, even Buddhism. The base of every religion says the same thing, just in different words. And that is, there is something greater than ourselves and we are related to it. And that's who sent you, Will. You're the one human who is not a part of all this manipulative mess. You were born to two people who love each other the same way this being loves all that its created, and they love you. Through their example, you'll find the strength to save all of humanity. I know that doesn't make sense now, but it will."

His aunt gave him a hug and faded back into the distance. His grandfather smiled and hugged him as well. "Good luck, boy. Just remember, you're not alone." Then he, too, faded away.

"Time to go, brother," said the small voice behind him. He turned and saw Emily holding out her hand. He took it and she led him towards the darkness, which turned into the blackness of space again, the stars shining like diamonds.

"Go on," she urged, "Call them."

Not knowing exactly what to do or say, William called out, "Hello? Anyone out there?"

Emily giggled. William sighed a little annoyed, then closed his eyes, reaching down with ever ounce of will he could muster. He MUST do this, or they were all dead.

"Hello? HELL-OOO!!!! Can anyone hear me?????" he mentally yelled, praying none of the Greys were listening.

'Please, God if you're up there don't let the Greys hear.' he asked. The he resumed calling, "Please, anyone, anyone at all.....can you hear me? We need help! Someone please help us!" He thought about his family, his parents, his friends, his world, all dying a slow horrible death and called again, getting desperate. His grandfather was right about the energy expenditure, he felt himself growing weak.

Suddenly, unbelievably, came a response! It was strange, an alien mind, but not unkindly, more confused than anything. "Greetings....we hear you. But who are you? We do not recognize your race mind."

William prayed for the right words, "Please I am called a human. We are a race that is offspring to the seeders, the founders who spread life through the galaxy. We're under attack by another race. They will come to destroy us. They have tried before and succeeded in destroying another seeder offspring race on our planet. Now they want to destroy us. I was told this was against the law."

Now the alien mind sounded really confused, "Surely you must be mistaken. We know of no race called 'human.' And what you are accusing is very serious indeed, if accurate. Why do we not hear more of your people at your location?"

William felt himself straining to the breaking pint to keep the connection, and he didn't have time for a lengthy debate. "We are still an evolving people. This attacking race has altered us to their own purpose, as slaves. But when we grew on our own they sought to destroy us and take the planet for themselves. We would have the ability to talk to you if we had not been altered and limited. I don't know why I can speak to you, but I can and I'm speaking for my people. We are a child race still growing but being forced back into childhood. We haven't got the technology yet to stop them. They are a much older race than we are. Will you help us? Can you help us? Even if you can't, know that this race is breaking one of your most sacred laws. If they do this to us, they could do it to someone else, maybe you. Isn't it worth even checking out?"

"Agreed." came the reply, "But we still must verify that your race has a......." The voice faded out and William felt himself falling. Suddenly he was lying on his back, floating, and Emily stood above him.

She smiled at him and bent down and kissed him on the cheek. William felt a warm glow fill his heart, the same one he had felt when he hugged his mother for the first time. He smiled sleepily up at his sister, then faded away into deep slumber.

The Final Stand Chapter 4

The first thing William became aware of was the steady beeping sound. Then he became aware that he was cold. The next thing he felt was a headache that would make a migraine feel like a paper cut. He groaned in agony and whimpered. Instantly, he felt his mother's arms around him and felt her rocking him slowly.

"It's OK, Will, it's OK. I'm here now.." she whispered.

Slowly he opened his eyes. Everything was a blur and out of focus but he could see he wasn't outside anymore. He was in a hospital and the beeping was from the monitors. He felt someone else move in beside them and heard his father's voice.

"Hey buddy, welcome back. You gave us a hell of a scare. Scared Eric too, he found you out cold on the ground."

Scully sounded a bit more miffed. "I knew it, I knew it was a bad idea." She hugged him closer.

"How long was I out?" asked William.

"Almost a day," said his mother. "William, what happened?"

He slowly lay back and smiled at his parents before drifting back off into sleep. "I called 9-1-1."

Mulder and Scully looked at each other, puzzled. William ended up staying in the hospital for an extra day for observation, then, the doctors satisfied he was on the mend, was sent home.

In the days that followed, William begun to understand the meaning of the term "mother-smothered." Dana Scully had been very upset by what had happened and had to convince herself that her son was really ok. That involved confining him to bed for the next few days drinking a gallon of water a day. Mulder had been frightened too, but was more convinced that William was not going to die from his ordeal. After arriving back home, and to pass the time, William wrote down everything he could remember about his experiences and gave them to his parents to read. They had held off from questioning him for the most part, but as they read the notes, the questions came pouring out.

Scully seemed to think that it was all a dehydration induced hallucination, but Mulder, who had himself been through the Navajo ritual of the Blessing Way, was all too familiar with such experiences. And the information was intriguing. If it was correct, it meant that they were all either in deeper trouble than they thought, or maybe there was a ray of hope for the human race after all.

On the third day, William was on his computer talking with Josh via video conferencing. He hadn't given his friend the details of his vision quest, opting instead to simply tell him that Virtual Reality games had nothing on the ancient ceremony. Scully popped in once to gather up some laundry and to admonish both boys not to try anything like the vision quest without adults around. After assuring Josh that they would be visiting later that summer, William signed off and went out to enjoy the first day outside since his mother sprang him from his imprisonment.

He walked out into the backyard and saw his mother swinging in the hammock. He walked over and crawled up next to her.

"Where's Dad?" he asked.

"Finishing up that intercession psychology class he was teaching at the college. He'll be home later this afternoon." She paused a second, then said, "We want you to come to the Aegis meeting tonight, you might need to tell them what you saw."

William was momentarily stunned. Him? An eleven year old kid speak to all those grownups about his vision? He knew about the meeting, of course. It would be the first time since its inception that all the leaders of Aegis would be together in the same room, hell the same town, for any period of time. They had planned to discuss the final preparations before the invasion in six months. It would be the last time they would all see each other alive, probably. Agents Doggett and Reyes were coming along with Director Skinner, from the FBI. Lone Gunmen Jimmy and Yves had arrived last night with what information they had. Several others from various clusters were arriving either by car or plane all throughout the day. William hadn't even expected to be there himself, figuring he was going to be left at a friend's house or with a babysitter. Tomorrow was the fourth of July and they had been planning a barbecue and fireworks, possibly the last party or festive time they would ever have as a group. He had been planning on going to the picnic, but not the actual meeting.

Not knowing what to say, he simply nodded and snuggled close to his mother. The day was beautiful for a summer day, not too hot and breezy. They were under the shade of the arbor and could see the clouds passing by. William relaxed, enjoying the day and wondered if he would ever have a normal life. It was as normal as his parents could make it, sending him to Pecos Elementary School, involving him in activities, giving him birthday parties and vacations to Disney World. But there was always the unspoken invasion overshadowing it all. Like the way he had to carry his phone weapon everywhere and be on the lookout not just for strangers following him but UFO's in the sky. It was in the way that his father always set up portable motion detectors in the hotel rooms they stayed in, as well as his grandmother's house. It was the fact that Roswell was the only place his parents felt safe enough to let him go outside by himself, which he was never allowed to do at his grandmother's house or anywhere else also reminded them of the inevitable future.

They stayed outside for a long time, just looking at the clouds, both wondering about what was to come. Scully knew her son was scared, but she admired the way he handled himself, never giving in to panic. She knew it must be a terrible strain on him, and she knew it wasn't fair that he should have to live like this. She almost wished he had never started searching for her, never started the chain of events that had alerted those dark forces to his whereabouts, killed his adoptive parents, and destroyed the safe haven she had made for him. But she was so glad she had him back now. She knew, as she had perhaps always known, that no place was really safe, not even Roswell. After all was said and done, she was his mother and he belonged with her and Mulder. She felt terrible guilt and sadness for the Van de Kamps and hoped God would forgive her for putting them in this situation that had ended their lives. And speaking of God, where was he right now? She remembered a vague dream she and Mulder and William had all had on the night they had brought him home to Roswell, of all three of them on a beach. The Van de Kamps had been there, and there had been a voice and a glowing cross in a fog. She had wondered if it had been a sign from God or wishful thinking. She supposed they were all about to find out.

---

Later that night, Mulder, Scully and William walked into the giant meeting hall of the local church that they had rented for the night for the meeting. William, bowing to his mother's wishes, had put on his nice shirt and shorts, and his parents had put on their work suits. Several people were guarding the doors and surrounding area, and William could see the telltale bulge of both MagGuns and regular guns beneath their coats. But other than that, it looked for all the world like a simple large meeting, with chairs set up and a podium in the front, as well as a table heaped with sandwiches, punch, fruit and cheeses and cookies. After giving a plaintive look to his father, William scooted off for the table with Mulder calling after him not to go too far.

It seemed like all of Aegis was here as well as their families. William waved to several children he recognized from his neighborhood who were the sons and daughters of scientists, government officials, military personnel and other assorted professions, all whose parents had come to Roswell for the express purpose of joining the underground resistance against the invasion. Like him, these children had been raised on the knowledge of the future and he felt a certain familiarity with them. Gibson Praise came in with his friend Doug Eagleman, followed by Eric Hosteen and his father, Albert Hosteen's son. He spotted Reyes and Doggett and Skinner talking to his parents up front and Jimmy and Yves nearby. He scooped up some more sandwiches on a plate and grabbed a cup of punch, and turned to go to his parents. Suddenly he bumped into someone, nearly spilling his drink. He looked up and felt his mouth drop open.

It was Jeremiah Smith, or one of them anyway. He knew them to be clones, half alien and half human hybrids created by the Syndicate who had rebelled against them and were fighting with the resistance now. William had seen one of them before (or was it this one?) but, knowing what he now knew, he openly stared. This man was part alien. He could sense it in the man's thought processes, as Gibson could. Also, he knew, the man could change physical appearances. He didn't sense any bad feelings from the man, but was still uneasy with the alien presence. The man only smiled, excused himself and walked on. William shook himself and went to sit down next to his parents.

What followed in the next two hours ranged from attention gripping interest to coma-inducing boredom. Several people got up to speak about the progress of their particular field in the resistance movement, which would be carried back to the individual cells and clusters of people who had not come to the meeting. A group from the Center for Disease Control reported that 2/3 of America had been vaccinated with the vaccine with more every day, that similar reports from other countries insured that over half of the human population would survive the virus holocaust. However, they reported, it was likely that with the death of the Syndicate and the destruction of the bee fields, the virus would likely be airborne now, as well as inserted into food and water sources and, thought he vaccine worked on all forms of the virus, to be on the lookout. A man in a military uniform reported that several groups within the military had placed various troops in strategic locations and armed them with the new MagGuns adapted for tanks and ships. He said that while the average serviceman didn't know much about the upcoming threat, they had been told to be on alert for December and any time before that. It seemed though, that the higher levels of the military were still operating until vestigial Syndicate orders, and so the bulk of the resistance in the military were enlisted men, who would do most of the fighting.

Skinner, Doggett and Reyes spoke about the government itself, and those they had formed contacts with in Congress and the CIA who could be trusted. They had extensive information from former Syndicate sources stating that the aliens knew about Aegis, probably even the weapons, and were possibly stepping up the timetable, meaning that the invasion could come at any time, maybe even later than December, just to throw us off. It wasn't clear if they knew about the vaccine, though Reyes figured they didn't, otherwise it would be more likely that they would postpone the invasion until a new virus could be developed. Jimmy and Yves spoke about the warnings and preparations they had been putting out on the internet the past decade, avoiding detection from the government as best they could, warning people about the upcoming invasion. Groups such as MUFON and NICAP had been sending out the word, preparing people, anyone who would listen, about what was coming.

Finally, Mulder and Scully got up to speak about alternatives, and that was hiding. Scully had been in contact with several groups in northern Canada, South America and Africa who had built hiding facilities in the jungles and underground caves where people were stocking up on everything from food to books and recordings of everything they could save on the human civilization. It was a sort of Noah's Ark and was considered a final ditch effort at saving anyone who could carry on the present civilization after the invasion. William was beginning to think that they had forgotten about wanting him to speak and was just beginning to relax when Mulder announced that his son would speak about his vision during a vision quest.

William felt his face turn red as Mulder spoke, "My son is a very special person. From the moment he was conceived it became apparent that he was important in the entire business in a way we didn't understand. We had people telling us he was a miracle, others telling us to terminate Scully's pregnancy, to not let this baby be born. When he was born, several SS arrived, even though Dana had been hidden. We knew they were there to take him away from us, but when he was born, for reasons we still don't fully understand, they left him alone and left the scene. From that day, it seemed everyone and their grandfather wanted him. Members of a strange UFO cult in Canada kidnapped him, saying that the SS were angels and he was their leader who would bring God's kingdom to Earth. This was a quite a misinterpretation on their parts about the SS, but it didn't change the fact that William was important to the Super Soldiers. From what we heard, whoever raised William would be the ones whose victory in the upcoming battle would be ensured. This is why I was marked. The SS figured that if I raised my son to my own values, he would fight against them. If they took him, he would end up fighting on their side. My brother Jeffery decided to end this debate by hampering William's gifts with a magnetite injection, but this didn't work as well as he had hoped.

So we did the only thing we could do to keep him safe. Dana arranged for him to be adopted by an anonymous couple and raised in secret. This fell apart three years ago following the murders of these people and William came to be with us again. From an early age, William has demonstrated amazing abilities, some of which many of you are familiar with. However, just last week he underwent a special test of the local Native American tribe, and he saw something I'd like for him to share with you."

Mulder beckoned to his son, and, face still on fire, William slowly went to the podium. He stood on a box to reach the microphone and was relieved when his parents stayed up there with him. He looked out into the sea of faces and felt his knees knocking together. Scully put a hand on his shoulder and whispered, "Don't be afraid, Will. Just tell them as best you can."

Gulping, William pulled out the papers he had written for his parents describing what he saw. In as much detail as he could his wavering voice described seeing the birth and evolution of all life on Earth and the creation of modern man from an already evolving species. He described what he had been told by his grandfather Bill Mulder about other species all arising from one founding species, and that to tamper with or make war on a brother species was considered against the law of the galaxy, that it had been ignored in their case because humans and all life on Earth had only four DNA base pairs while offspring species of the founders had six. William stressed, though, that he had been told that life on Earth was also from the founding species and therefore what had been done to them was wrong, although it should seem obvious. He also told them about sending out a distress call as best he could and having made contact with some unknown entity. Coming to a close, William stepped back behind his mother who leaned into the microphone.

"People," she said, "Neither I nor Mulder can confirm or deny any of this, but I believe my son. I can't say for sure how much of this I can accept, and I do not suggest we should change any of our plans, but I'd like to know how all of you think this might fit into the whole operation."

Mulder then spoke up, "Also, taking into account that yet another entity is involved or knows about what's going on, we have no way of confirming that they'll be any help. Hell, they may agree with the Greys and decide we need to be eradicated. Or they may do nothing at all. But if they decide to help us, we just might have a real fighting chance."

William slipped back to his chair as questions broke out and everyone started speaking at once. William glanced over his shoulder at Jeremiah Smith, whose expression had not changed a bit. Then, he turned and stared at William and winked.

---

Though the mood of the meeting had ended on a grim note, the family of three had decided to go ahead with their annual trip to visit friends and family. William was glad to be going to see everybody, but nervous about leaving the safety of the magnetite zone. he had a bad feeling that unseen forces were just waiting to pounce like a fox waiting for rabbit to come out of its hole in the ground. He knew his parents felt the same way, but it didn't stop them from flying out of Santa Fe a week later headed for Des Moines.

William always enjoyed visiting Midville. For the first six years of his life he had grown up in the small town knowing everybody and, though Josh's family had really been the only ones he had been close to, he missed the familiarity of the small town. The first summer he had visited with his birth parents, they had gone out to the farm where he had lived with Bob and Nancy Van de Kamp. He had wanted to see it and so had his mother. But once in sight of it, William felt a desolate feeling come over him and had wanted to leave. The farm now belonged to another family and it was someone else's home. He always left roses on the graves of his adoptive parents and they managed to squeeze in going to his old church at least once a visit. But it was visiting with Josh that William really looked forward to. The boys had remained friends, even with a four year age gap and several hundred miles between them. Thank God for the internet. Josh's parents and sister had been equally as glad to see him and meet his birth parents.

During this year's visit, William had been told not to mention anything to anyone about the upcoming war. There was nothing any of them could do about it and it was better if they just didn't know, to let them live out the rest of the few months in peace. What's more, it was likely that Midville wouldn't be a high priority area in the invasion anyway, so it was likely everyone would survive the initial wave of attacks. After that, if the humans were going to win it would depend on how well the initial attack was diverted anyway. William found it hard to keep quiet, especially with Josh asking him every five minutes what was up. William just contented himself with spending as much time as possible with his friend. After all, even if Midville survived the invasion, there was no guarantee William himself would.

It's a strange realization for a child to come to, contemplating his own imminent death. After all, what eleven year old lived his life as if he only had five months left? Maybe one with terminal cancer. William had been surprised with himself at how calmly he was taking it. The only thing he hoped for was that it wouldn't hurt too much when his time finally came. He wouldn't allow himself to wonder if he would survive. he hoped he would, but steeled himself for the worse as his parents seemed to be doing. They only spent three days in Midville and William walked to the cemetery with his mother the last afternoon. She laid a white rose on the Van de Kamps' graves, and whispered, "Thank you both, for everything."

With a brief hug to William, she turned and walked a few steps away to give him some time to himself. William looked down at the headstone marking the graves, remembering three years ago standing here with Doggett and Reyes. A super soldier had come to get him and he shivered in memory. He remembered his dream of the beach, with Bob and Nancy dressed in radiant white smiling at him as they vanished into a brilliant white fog. He remembered the booming voice and the glowing cross. The voice had said they were not alone, they were being protected. Was it true? He had been raised to believe in God, but did he really?

Had it been God or another force that had spoken to him during his vision quest? And if there was a God, would He help them? He had prayed for help as he knew his parents and many other had, but so far they had not gotten an answer. The aliens were still coming. He closed his eyes trying to quiet the turmoil of his mind, when he felt the wind blow his hair. The sun peeked out from behind a cloud and shone right down onto his head. As he opened his eyes, he was suddenly ware of how beautiful a day it was, and how pretty the churchyard was. Trees, swayed in the wind, a cool breeze swept through the town, the sun was shining in the most clear blue sky he had ever seen. He let his mind wander back to Sunday school at this same church, and the stories they had learned through the songs they had sung. He remembered the stories telling about how humans were favored best of all creation, even over the angels, how they had been given paradise and this beautiful planet. They certainly hadn't done a good job of showing any gratitude for it, maybe they deserved to loose it? What would it look like when the Grey's got a hold of it?

No, he told himself. It's ours.

He looked into the distance and saw a storm cloud far off. It was casting a rainbow across the distant sky. Suddenly he remembered the story of Noah, and how the rainbow was the promise that humanity would never be destroyed again. Was this a sign? A sign form God? He felt that it was and felt a weight lift from his chest. He smiled.

Looking down at Bob and Nancy's graves, he whispered, "No more. No more of this. No one else is going to die, no more families are going to be torn apart. I'm ending this. I promise you."

He turned and walked back to his mother.

---

Leaving Midville was always hard and waving goodbye to Josh made William certain he would never seem him or the town again. He didn't even try to fight back the tears as they drove away. Mulder tried to lighten the mood by getting them to sing along to old Ray Stevens goofball songs. William never thought he'd see the day where he and his parents were singing along to "Osama Yo Mama".....

"Osama, Yo Mama didn't raise you right When you were young she must've wrapped your turban too tight She shoulda kept you home on those Arabian nights....."

They sang along to "Ahab the Arab" and "Sitting up with the Dead" amongst others. By the time they were on the third verse of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" William was feeling a little better.

---

The Final Stand Chapter 5

They always enjoyed visiting Washington D.C. This was where William had lived with his parents before going to live with Bob and Nancy and there was a lot of history for his family in this city. William enjoyed looking at the monuments and museums, the federal offices and the historic sections. This was where his godparents, Agents Doggett and Reyes and Mr. Skinner lived, as well as Jimmy and Yves, the last two Lone Gunmen. But most of all, this was where his Grandma Maggie lived. She was always so happy to see them, especially William, and always made a big fuss over them when they visited. Scully was especially glad to see her mother and this year, her brothers Charlie and Bill, Jr. would be there with their families for a sort of family reunion. Even though William was the youngest of the children, he always enjoyed being with his cousins. He could whip Matty in VR Nintendo Mutant Monkeys and CyberMario Bros. any day. He liked his uncle Charlie a lot, who didn't seem to mind much about his parents and their pasts and was always ready with a joke or cool story from the Navy to tell. Dana Scully had decided to let her younger brother in on Aegis three years earlier and Charlie was a key role in the Navy for them.

But it was Bill Jr. that William rather disliked. Even though the man was his uncle, and William liked his aunt and cousins a lot, he didn't need special psychic talents to see that Bill Jr. was extremely annoyed with his sister Dana for the choices she had made in her life. And he didn't even bother to hide his disdain and hatred of Fox Mulder. It made William fighting mad to overhear his uncle berating his mother for joining the FBI, giving up being a doctor, getting involved with Mulder, having his bastard son, getting their sister Melissa killed, it went on and on. Last year William had stormed into the kitchen howling in fury at his uncle, using language he wasn't accustomed to using, and letting his uncle know in no uncertain terms that he would not hear his mother spoken to that way. Dana had swooped down, and taken her son upstairs, grateful to escape her brother. William couldn't understand why his parents put up with it, but his father had explained that while they were guests in Maggie Scully's house, they would treat her son with respect. William had countered that he never showed them respect, but Mulder had assured his son that Bill Jr. got plenty of heat from Maggie when nobody was around for the way he treated his sister and her family.

Charlie Scully also was known to tell his brother to shut up once or twice. But for the most part, the family enjoyed being together. The kids got along well enough, although once Matthew had taken his father's taunting and called William "a bastard kid whose parents couldn't even do the decent thing and get married." William never quite knew what had happened next but Matthew had suddenly found himself sitting on the roof of the shed, mouth hanging open in shock. Mulder and Bill Jr. had had to get an extending ladder to get him down and Dana had given her son a stern lecture about losing his temper and letting the telekinesis explode. But aside form these small mishaps, the family gathering were usually quiet.

They spent this visit touring the city, meeting with Aegis members, visiting family graves and being with friends. William knew his parents missed the city and wished they could live here permanently again, but it wasn't safe and the longer they were away from Roswell, the more danger there was. They couldn't stay in one place too long and there were still some individuals who were looking for them.

On the last night of their stay, William walked out onto the back porch and saw his mother and grandmother sitting on the back swing. "Is it really that bad, Dana?" Maggie was asking.

"Yeah, mom, it is," she answered. "It's better if EVERYBODY is in Roswell this Christmas. Skinner, John, Monica, everyone's going to come. Naturally Charlie's coming, but I didn't tell Bill why. I just said it's me and Mulder's turn to do Christmas at our house. He grumbled something about Christmas in the desert. Mom, you have to make him come."

"I will, I will, but Dana...are we, I mean...are we going to...is it really...?" his grandmother struggled.

"Yes mom." Dana said firmly "I don't know what the outcome will be but I do know this city is a primary target."

Maggie nodded glumly. Dana turned and saw William. "Are you packed Will?" she asked. He nodded. She smiled softly, "Then you better get some sleep. We head to Europe tomorrow." William went over and hugged his mother and grandmother, then went inside.

As he passed the den, he heard his uncles and father talking in hushed, but strained tones. His cousins were huddled next to the door listening. William scooted down on the floor to listen. His uncle Bill was talking.

"I just don't understand why you haven't married her, Mulder."

Fox Mulder's reply was clipped but slow, like a teacher explaining to a child, "You think I haven't asked her? Repeatedly. She said yes, for your information, but there's just too much going on right now. There's no way we could pull off the kind of wedding she wants, and deserves, with all that's going on right now. Besides, I don't see where it's any of your business. And frankly, Bill, I'm getting real sick of your insults over and over. Jesus Christ man, don't you ever get tired of harping on the same subject?"

"No more than you do," Bill replied coldly. "Aliens and shit, invasion, conspiracies. You think I'm going to let my sister marry a freak like you? Then she goes and has your kid, like some high school girl....."

William was shaking in anger and was about to storm in when he heard his father reply with a tone he had never heard before, deadly calm, "You leave William out of this, Bill. He's just a child, he is NOT to blame for anything. And neither I nor your sister regret a single thing. We love him."

"Yeah? Then why did she dump him?" Bill said matter-of-factly.

Charlie spoke up now, "Bill, you know damn well why, and it had nothing to do with wanting him or not wanting him. He was in danger. They've put a lot of people behind bars and they have friends who are a little pissed about that. William was in danger, hell man he was kidnapped, attacked several times. If your kids were in danger and you couldn't keep them safe, what would you do?"

Bill said, "Might have been different if he hadn't run out on her."

Mulder was expressing a herculean effort to control his rage and said, "You know I didn't 'run out' on her. I had multiple death threats, it was either hide or die. It's still not safe. But whatever you say, it won't change anything. I love Dana. She knows it, and I know she loves me. We have a son whom we both love and that will never change. Married or not, I'm the father of your nephew, so get over it, you're stuck with me. And you're willing to let your pride and anger get you and your family killed. So Dana didn't follow the life you and your father had hoped she would. So you don't understand what we do and what we've been fighting for over a decade. Fine. But don't berate either of us. And for God's sake, listen."

Charlie spoke up then, "He's right Bill. I've been a part of this for three years now. We're all in danger and it would be just stupid not to go where it's safe. Forget about the 'who's married and who isn't' crap. Forget about the past, man. This is no joke."

Suddenly the door opened and all the children tumbled into the room. Mulder was looking down in pained amusement. Without a word, they scattered and William ran upstairs behind his cousins. He wondered if his uncle Bill would come to Roswell in December. It was one of the few safe places, but he didn't believe in aliens. Well, he would soon enough but it would be too late. William curled up in his sleeping bag, but was still awake when his parents came in the room later. Everyone was troubled, he knew, but they had done all they could.

He felt safe with his parents in the room, but somewhere, in the back of his mind, he wondered how safe they really were. Were they being watched? If so by who? He felt a prickle on the back of his neck and his hand closed tighter around his phone gun under his pillow. Sleep was a long time coming.

---

For the next few weeks, William and his parents traveled all over the world, from London to Paris, to South Africa to Beijing and Sydney, Australia, meeting up with various Aegis groups, making sure everything was in place. Everyone was as alert as could be expected, and after six weeks of solid traveling, they headed back to America. They had been forced to postpone the excursion to Area 51 to meet with Morris Fletcher, a government worker within the compound who knew Mulder and Scully.

There had been a message that there were problems, so they had left for the world trip with plans to stop by Nevada on the way home to Roswell. Mulder and Scully were interested in knowing how prepared Area 51 would be with the Aurora II planes. Area 51 was still in control of vestigial Syndicate powers, but Morris Fletcher had joined Aegis a few years back and was their principal contact on the base. William had the distinct impression that his parents weren't too fond of Morris. As for himself, he had never met the man, though he had seen a picture on one of the X-Files his parents had copied.

They arrived in Rachel, Nevada, and checked into the motel. They would drive out to Groom Lake later that night, probably along with several other UFO watchers in town. In the meantime though, they stopped in for a burger at the famous Little Ale E Inn diner. As they ate, Mulder told William the stories of Area 51, from the Roswell crash to the reverse engineering of captured alien spacecraft, resulting in the Aurora and Aurora II spy planes. As night fell, they returned to the motel and Scully made sure William had a sweatshirt on under his jacket, and they headed out to the lookout hill. One could no longer see the base itself after the government annexed the surrounding hills to keep trespassers away, but on a good night, an observer could still see the strange lights in the sky of the experimental aircraft. Mulder bypassed the road leading up to the popular public hangout and continued on off the road to another hill some ways away from the gathered crowd.

They got out of the car to wait for Morris. William crawled up onto the still-warm hood of the car with his father. Scully preferred to keep an eye open for any approaching vehicles. It was a beautiful night and William could never remember being so awestruck at the view. The sun had just set and several rays of pink, gold, purple and orange still streaked the distant horizon. The desert was slowly turning from gold to blue as the shadows of the hills elongated. The stars were clear jewels and a cool breeze with a chill swept over the area. It was beautiful beyond words.

A few minutes later some lights appeared in the sky, maneuvering over the dry lake bed beyond the hills. William was fascinated as his father pointed out the new Aurora II planes, reverse engineered from downed UFO's, and probably humanity's only real defense against attack from the air. The only problem, Mulder explained, was that human reflexes were rarely sufficient to operate at such high speeds and maybe only a handful of pilots could handle the craft. Mulder went on to tell William of the second case he and Scully had ever investigated concerning a vanished pilot who had resurfaced with his memory wiped after having a breakdown from flying the strange aircraft.

It seemed like hours passed before Scully called out that she could see a car approaching. Mulder told William to get into the car and get down. His heart racing, William ducked down into the back seat with his hand on his weapon. He saw that both of his parents had drawn their guns as well but were holding them down out of view. A white Jeep Cherokee came swinging into view and up the hill. Both Mulder and Scully stood tensed and ready. The door opened and a heavyset man with curly blond hair stepped out. He stared at the two former agents in front of him, then broke out into a grin.

"Hey, Scully. Looking lovely as ever. Still haven't ditched this loser huh?" he said somewhat sarcastically.

William felt his eyes narrow and wondered how mad his parents would be if he nudged the guy with his mind and sent him sliding down the hill. But to his surprise, he father grinned. (his mother rolled her eyes) Mulder said to the man, "Fletcher, still as personable as ever I see. So what's new?"

William lowered the window a little and peeked about the door to see what was going on. The man called Morris Fletcher was talking quickly and his father was listening while his mother kept a look out for company.

"Basically, the whole sky's getting lively," Fletcher was saying. "The number of unidentified craft seems to be increasing, not all of them ours of course. Don't seem to be doing anything except buzzing around checking things out. No landings or even any increase in contact reports. It's simply that there are more of them. Where we'd see one or two before, we'll see three now. A lot of sightings over our nuclear stores and military bases. And they don't seem to be avoiding any of the major cities anymore, though they don't stay around. It's like they don't care who sees them anymore."

"They probably don't," said Mulder. "And why not, they figure they've already got the planet anyway, it's just a matter of time. How's everything here, is everyone battle ready?"

"More or less. They're ready to go at a moment's notice. It's going to be a real interesting Christmas this year." said Morris, for the first time his jaunty demeanor dropping. Mulder went on to ask him about whether or not he and his family were coming to Roswell. They seemed to be moving off into boring subjects and, without anything to do, William stretched out in the back seat and gazed up at the stars through the back window. He didn't know when he fell asleep, but his next conscious thought was that the car was moving and his parents were back in the front seat talking.

"If he's right, it looks like they're invading sooner than December. I'm going to call mom and tell her to round up everybody and come down now." his mother was saying. She pulled out her cell phone and began dialing.

"You're probably right." said his father. "When your done with that, get on the line and alert Aegis. We need to go to battle ready now." William sat up, suddenly wide awake.

"Is this it, Dad?" he asked with a tremor in his voice.

"I don't know, son." Mulder replied. "I hope not. We're not entirely ready yet. The main stuff is in place but the details..."

He broke off as Scully cut him off. "Mulder, I can't get a signal."

"We're probably too far out, wait until we get back to Rachel, you can call from the motel." he said, keeping his eyes on the deserted desert road. Suddenly William felt something he had only felt once before. The back of his neck prickled and his heart went cold, his very entrails turning to ice water. Without warning his breathing sped up as his mind flashed back to three years ago, when he stood in the field by the farm, next to Bob's lifeless body, knowing both Bob and Nancy were dead and evil creatures responsible for it were in the house looking for him. He remembered his frantic flight from the farm, hiding out, the darkness of that night...

Danger. Evil and danger were nearby!

Scully heard him and swung around. "Will? Will, what's wrong?"

He could barely speak, "Mom, Dad, look out!"

Suddenly, a blinding light flashed from above engulfing the car. William cried out and tried to duck down behind the seat. As he did, his eyes looked out of the back window and, to his horror, he saw a UFO right above them. This was no Aurora plane, no human hands had made this vehicle. And he knew, without being told, that they were there for him. Scully reached behind the seat trying to grab a hold of him but suddenly everything stopped.

Time ceased to exist, there was only stillness and the light. William felt himself paralyzed, unable to move. He tried to call to his parents but he couldn't move his jaw. The only thing that seemed to work were his eyelids. He became aware of someone outside the car, which had rolled to a stop. There were many of them, short and indistinct.

No! No! Go away! his mind screamed. He lashed out with angry thoughts and, to his surprise, he saw one of them stumble backwards. He got the impression the being was surprised. Suddenly everything went black and he knew no more.

---

Final Stand Chapter 6

William had no idea how long he was unconscious, since time seemed to have stopped. He wasn't even too sure if he was lying down, upright or upside down. He became aware of himself slowly, as if waking from a deep sleep. He felt a strange pressure on his back and realized he was lying down on what felt like a metal table, but it had a strange give to it, a little like rubber, though it was cold like metal and smooth. He was still wearing his clothes, though his shoes and jacket had been removed for some reason. He tried to move a hand to his face, and it was then that he realized he couldn't move, that he was totally paralyzed.

Suddenly he remembered why and struggled to sit up. He couldn't. He opened his eyes, which seemed to be working, and figured that all of his voluntary muscles were immobilized, though he could breathe without difficulty. He could barely see, the room was dark. The air felt wrong, somehow, almost artificial, as if it had been recycled repeatedly and had no odor or taste. He could hear or feel the faint hum of machinery but not like any machinery he had ever heard before, the pitch was all wrong too. He became aware of whisperings around him and he became afraid. Where was he? And for God's sake where were his parents? He tried to call for them but nothing came out. He forced himself to relax and reached out with his mind. He could feel them, both of them, not far away but there were barriers, as if they were in another room. But he could also feel others, a strange alien presence.

Suddenly the lights came on, blinding him. He squeezed his eyes shut then cracked them open, afraid of what he would see. Sure enough, a being came into view.

Oh God in heaven, it was horrible! It was horrible! The black eyes were like pools of tar, bottomless, they didn't even reflect the light. The nose was two holes and the mouth a slit, like a gill instead of an orifice. He couldn't see any ears and the thing was hairless, with sickly skin that was more white than gray, like a blighted plant.

William would have screamed if he could, but he was frozen, his entire body locked up. Instead, he let out a mental scream, and apparently the being heard it because it stumbled backwards. It showed no expression on its face, but William could feel that it was surprised. It hadn't seemed to be expecting to hear a human mind. Another being then came into view and William could hear the two communicating.

It is the one. This is it. said being number one.

It is but an offspring, a juvenile. It cannot be as dangerous as they say. The parents seemed to have caused more trouble then this one. replied being number two.

Did you not hear it? countered number one. You heard it scream. You heard its words when we came to collect it. It can speak as we do. It is unholy proof, it must be destroyed immediately.

Destroyed? HIM?? William felt his blood run even colder than it had been. He knew they meant to kill him. And what about his Mom and Dad?

'What the hell are you THINGS talking about?' William raged at them.

The two grays turned around and regarded him. The second one spoke, 'We are merely discussing about what an interesting specimen you are. Do not be afraid, we mean you no harm.'

William noticed right away that somehow the communication was different. When they spoke directly to him it was as if he didn't have to use his own abilities to hear them, but when they spoke to each other, it seemed to be on a different channel of mental frequency, though he could hear it all the same. Then he had an idea. His father had often told him of abductees who said the alien communicated telepathically, even though many of them were not telepathic humans. If his grandfather was right, then the human brain was fully capable of mental abilities such as telepathy and telekinesis, but only the limited blood flow kept it dormant. The aliens seemed to activate that part of the brain so they could speak to humans, but deactivated it when they wanted to speak amongst themselves. It was like speaking to the enemy on one channel of a walkie-talkie, but to their friends on another channel. They didn't seem to realize that William could hear all channels, because, he realized, no human before him ever could. He wondered if Gibson could.

But there was something else. The creatures had lied to him. He knew damn well they were plotting to kill him, then turned around and told him something else. They didn't want him to be trouble. How much trouble could he be, he wondered?

'You liar,' he replied coldly, 'I heard you, you want to kill me!'

Now the creatures seemed alarmed.

It heard us! said number two, but that is not possible! These creatures cannot speak as we do, it was ensured that they could not.

Now do you understand? said number one, do you realize what could happen if this were reported?

But, it is such an amazing discovery, a speaking adama, it should be studied. said number two.

Are you a fool? number one asked stiffly, as long as it lives it is proof of the experiment, and this one speaks. There are some who might not care about the DNA base pairs, if it speaks it will be thought of as sentient. We will be held accountable for this.

'You're already in trouble, buttmunch' said William in anger. 'Sentient? Where I come from you're sentient if you're self aware and can reason. You know damn well we are a sentient race. You screwed around with my race, and that's against the law. That's why you want us all dead, isn't it. If someone else finds out about you boys playing with our genetics, there'll be hell to pay, right? What right do you have to decide who deserves to live and who doesn't? You have no business here!'

We most certainly do, adama juvenile, said number one rather smugly, You are not members of the sentient race, your DNA proves that. I don't expect you to understand of course. And this planet does belong to us, your race is only here due to our graces. We have decided you are pests, and we will exterminate you as we see fit. You have no rights, you are an inferior species, you were created as such. Now be silent.

William had never felt such rage and anger as he now felt. He had been raised to believe in Christian morals of forgiveness and patience and trust in God. But now, as the being's arrogant and cold proclamation sounded in his ears, the only thing he knew was hate and anger at this creature. He could not see that they were superior in soul, if they even had one, only in technology. Take away the technology and humans were far more superior. If he weren't paralyzed, he knew that one strike from his fist, even a child such as he, could and would be fatal to these things.

Scenes flashed through William's mind, Bob and Nancy at the kitchen table on the farm, Bob lying dead in the field, Nancy on the kitchen floor, his mother and father's years of turmoil and hardships trying to fight the future, his sister Emily, his aunts Melissa and Samantha, his grandfather and grandma Tina, and how many others, all dead because of these things? How many more? A mental roar rose up from his guts and burst forth in a blast of mental force. The first being was hurled by an unseen force straight into the wall. It crumpled on the floor and William knew it was dead.

Without knowing why, he immediately regretted it. He had just killed another living creature! And one with a mind and intelligence. Even though these beings were plotting the demise of his own people, William felt instant remorse. He hadn't meant to kill the creature, even if it deserved it. It was like hitting a dog with a car. But he tried to force it down. These beings didn't see him in the same light. To him, he was just a talking dog or cat. Maybe not even that. The second being was startled and alarmed.

A red light flashed and pain shot through William. He screamed in agony and the light released him.

'Mom, Dad, where are you? Help me..' he called out.

The second being was furious, You killed him you brutal beast! He was right, you will be destroyed, and your parents along with you.

'You're the brutal beast,' William mentally panted, out of breath, 'You paralyze me and my parents and trap us here, tell me you're going to destroy me and everything I love because you think it's ok to do it as long as the species in question doesn't have six based DNA, but you KNOW we're a sentient race, what's more we're faster learners than you. You screwed with us and you know you weren't supposed to. We're proof and you're going to destroy us to cover your own ass, if you have one. And you're cowards. I can't fight you back, but if you didn't restrain me, I'd easily beat you..'

Of course you're stronger, and of course you're restrained. It would be foolish not to restrain you. You were all bred for strength, your race was needed in the mines. Enough talk...the being made a move towards something William couldn't see.

'We are not your slaves! That planet's ours! YOU LEFT US THERE! You left us! So we made it on our own and we did well. It's not yours anymore, it never was, it belonged to the raptor race first, then to the Atlanteans, now to us. You never belonged here!' William raged.

How could you know a history your race has never witnessed? All was erased. The being stopped, confused.

'I saw it, I saw it all,' said William.

Not possible, it was not recorded. You race had not even existed and they were never told. You could not have seen it. the being said.

'I could see into the past,' said William, 'Many humans can do this if they know how. Time is only a dimension, it can be pierced and looked at.'

Now the being was terribly alarmed! You lie, this is not possible. No being can do this with the mind alone. Special equipment is needed. How could you have knowledge of things you cannot possibly understand?

'You are so sure we're just dumb animals, aren't you,' William said sarcastically, 'What if you're wrong? But you know that don't you? You knew how strong we could be, that's why you limited our brains, right? So we COULDN'T talk and tell your secrets. So we COULDN'T see other dimensions. So we COULDN'T use our minds as I just did and fight back?'

ENOUGH! said the alien, sounding frightened, maybe for the first time since encountering a human. You are an abomination, and will be destroyed at once, and your parents so they may never procreate another like you!

The alien moved again towards whatever he had been moving too and William steeled himself, sure that this was it, he was about to die. He realized he wasn't all that scared. Mostly he was sad. There was so much he wanted to do. For some ungodly reason, he regretted never learning to play music. Why this was coming up now was beyond him, but he remembered watching the bands at the county fairs back in Midville, playing drums, banjos, dulcimers, harmonicas and violins. He had always loved music, and he wondered if humans were the only ones who made music. No, whales do, and dolphins. Was music only an Earthly thing? Would there be any future generations or species who would hear their music? If they all died, only the Voyager spacecraft, floating somewhere beyond the solar system, should carry any remains of human music and whale music. What instrument would he have learned? The violin? The piano? The bagpipes? Yeah, bagpipes. His mother would never have let him, he thought with a smile.

'Well,' he thought sadly, 'At least I took one of them with me. God help everyone else on Earth. I hope they give them a good hell of a fight.' And he relaxed back, waiting for the first shot of pain or darkness that would signify his death.

It never came. Suddenly a strobe light went off and some sound started ringing. The being stopped and looked around startled. Then it rushed towards William, intending to kill him, when the door in the far wall opened and another being came in, followed by several other beings.

William stared. This was no gray alien! It was a little taller than an average human, and looked more human than the grays. It's skin was like human skin, with a pale sort of color, but seemed to have a greenish cast to it, as if it's blood was green. William would have laughed at the irony of bad Hollywood B movies being right about any alien having green blood if he hadn't been so scared, or paralyzed. The new creatures also had amazing eyes, not black like the grays, but not entirely like humans either. William remembered one of his dad's movies, Dune, where the people had blue glowing eyes with blue where the whites should have been. These creatures had eyes like that only they were green, with very large pupils, no irises. Their faces were more like human faces, but without any real defined features, almost like people in old Disney cartoons. They were dressed in iridescent skin suits and they didn't seem to be in a good mood.

Cease at once, said the lead being, with yet a different mind frequency than the grays, but William could hear it.

What business have you here? You have boarded us without provocation. This is a research vessel, you will answer to the Council for this! the gray alien said with pompous indignation.

Keep your lies to yourself, we are hear to place every one of you under arrest. said the green-eyed being to the gray. We are investigating what looks like a gross violation of the species contamination law. You are to desist at once and release this....whatever this is, into our custody.

William wasn't sure this new creature would do any better by him in the long run, since he was no doubt in for a barrage of experimentation, but for now, it didn't seem to want to kill him as the grays did. And he had to find his parents. Maybe they would let him.

'Please Sir," said William, 'Please help me, he was about to kill me! He says I'm proof of species tampering, My race calls themselves human. I called for help, they mean to destroy us all.'

The green-eyed being whirled around, and William could see surprise registered on it's face in expression, similar to humans. They all turned to face him and William could sense panic in the gray.

It speaks! said the green-eyed being, You were performing experimentation on a speaking being!? This is revolting! How dare you? What is this creature?

BE SILENT! yelled the gray to William, and turned to the green-eyed being, Of course, we do no such thing! This species does not speak at all. This one is merely an anomaly. It is being studied as a scientific specimen and will be released...

'YOU LIAR!' yelled William, 'The only reason my species don't 'speak' as you do is because you engineered our brains so we CAN'T. But we could. And I can, and I'm not the only one. Several others can. I have a friend who can. But we can speak to each other using sounds, and we are not animals! We've developed vehicles and spacecraft that have taken us to our moon! You're here to wipe us all out! You were about to destroy me!'

IT LIES! yelled the gray.

SILENCE! said the green-eyed being, annoyed. It is not for me to decide, it is for the Council. And I must say, this creature certainly seems to be the object of what it says it is, or is that death serum you hold meant for another creature?

William noticed that the gray was holding an object he didn't recognize. It seemed embarrassed at having forgotten it held it.

Either way, my orders are to place you under arrest. A distress call was received by an unknown species in the vicinity of this solar system saying its race was under attack and about to be annihilated. It certainly looks that way. Now release this creature! Green-Eyes seemed to have reached then end of its patience.

Sighing, the gray pushed a button and William felt himself regain control of his muscles. Some other Green-Eyes took the gray out of the room.

It called back to the Green-Eyes, Beware! It is dangerous and so are it's kind. You would do well to restrain it!

The Green-Eyes ignored the gray as they led it away. The lead Green-Eyes came up to William as he sat up, but stayed well out of reach.

"Please, Sir,' said William. "I am only a juvenile of my species. My parents are here somewhere, I can sense them. Please can I go to them?'

William saw something that looked like compassion flicker in the creature's eyes, before it answered In a moment. Are you the one who sent the call?

'Yes, I am. Am I in trouble?' asked William.

We shall see. Come, if there are more of your kind on this craft we shall locate them. The being turned and walked off. William jumped down from the table and followed.

---

Fox Mulder was furious. He couldn't move, he couldn't talk. And worse, he had absolutely no idea where his son was. He could hear Scully breathing not far away, and he knew what her breathing sounded like. But they seemed to be the only ones in the room. He knew she was awake and they were able to slowly communicate by snorting Morse code. She didn't know where William was either and she was scared to death.

Why in God's name did he drag his family around out in the open? Why hadn't he left them in Roswell where it was safe and gone alone? Because he knew Scully never would have stayed behind. She always hated it when he took off without her and she hated his "I was just trying to protect you" explanations even worse.

Scully was at a loss. Flashes of her previous abductions came back, even though those had been humans. This was worse. And where was her baby, her son? What were they doing to him? Why wasn't he with them? She had lost Emily, and she had been forced to give up William, she was damned if she was going to lose him to these monsters. Mulder, likewise was thinking much the same thing. He had lost his entire family to these things, he was not going to loose his kid or Scully. He'd give a kidney or something just for the chance to get to these monsters and do to them like they planned to do to all of humanity.

Suddenly the lights flickered, then began to strobe in a sort of alarm. What the hell was happening? Where was everybody? Were they about to die? Mulder strained to reach out to Scully but he just couldn't move. He wished he could at least touch her. It wasn't fair. He wanted to talk to her, to tell her how much he loved her, how he had loved her from the moment she had walked into his office nearly twenty years ago. God damn! Had it been that long ago? It didn't seem so. He realized how much they had done, how much they had lived in those years that followed. Was it all about to end right now? Had he ever really told her what he felt for her and their son? He felt a tear fall from his eye and he closed them, not wanting to see what happened next.

Sure enough, he heard a door open. Against his better judgement, he opened his eyes. If he had had control of his jaw, he was sure it would have been on the floor. A group of beings came in, but they weren't grays! They looked more like humans, but with a weird greenish cast to their skin and Dune-eyes that were green instead of blue. He thought he heard Scully whimper and he fought to turn his head. Were they hurting her?

One of the creatures came and stood beside him, looking at him pointedly. It seemed confused, like it was trying to talk to him but couldn't get through. Another one came up and looked pointedly at him. Mulder wished he could do something other than blink. This seemed to go on forever until finally, one of the beings did something and suddenly Mulder could move. He jumped up off the table and backed away from the beings. They backed away quickly as well, pointing strange objects at him.

"Mulder!" he heard Scully call, She ran over to him and he pulled her into a tight hug, relieved that she seemed to be ok. He could feel her shaking. The beings looked on with interest, they didn't seem to understand what was going on.

Mulder looked at the nearest one and asked, "Where's our son? Our child, where is he?"

The beings seemed a little taken aback by the noises the two humans were making. They backed away, but the one in the lead came forward. He seemed to realize that the two species communicated differently, so they had to be cautious. He could tell the two humans were frightened and angry. According to reports coming in from the rest of the craft, he figured they had a right to be. He didn't know what the strange creatures' noises meant, but he figured they were asking about their offspring which has been found in another part of the craft. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to gather all of the strange creatures together, it might calm them.

The Green-Eyes began leaving one by one.

"Wait a minute!," yelled Scully, "Where's our son? Tell us where he is!"

"I don't think they can, Scully." said Mulder. "They don't seem to have the grays' ability co talk with us."

Finally only the leader was left, he turned to walk out, then looked over his shoulder. He seemed to want them to follow him.

"I think we better follow him." said Mulder.

"I don't know, what if they're leading us to be executed?" replied Scully.

"Well, we can't find Will in here. And if they're going to kill us they will. Let's go and keep a lookout for him, I don't know how we'll get out of this but in here we're sitting ducks." Mulder shrugged.

Scully nodded and they followed the Green-Eyes out of the room.

As they followed the being, Scully couldn't help but notice the strange design of the alien craft they were in. She kept expecting to wake up and find they had been watching some sci-fi movie and this was all a dream. But she knew it wasn't. What she wouldn't give to examine the strange metal of the walls and the technology! The scientist in her was thrilled. Then the mother instinct was yelling loud and clear for her son. As they rounded a corner, they saw another group of Green-Eyes, and with them was William!

Forgetting about any weapons these things had, she flew forward towards him, Mulder right behind her.

"Mom! Dad!" William yelped in joy and ran to his parents. Scully scooped him up and held him tight. Mulder threw his arms around both of them. All three of them were crying, relieved to see the others alive. Mulder took his son into his own arms as Scully checked him out.

"Are you OK? Did they hurt you?" she asked.

"No, Mom, I'm fine really. I've been talking to them. The ones with the green eyes are here to arrest the grays for species tampering. I don't know what they want to do with us but all I know is right now they don't want to kill us." said William.

"You can talk to them?" asked Mulder.

William nodded and explained what had happened. Scully shivered as she listened to him talk about killing a gray with his mind and nearly seconds away from being killed himself. What were the odds of that happening? Would these new green-eyed aliens help them keep the grays from wiping them out? Mostly it seemed to her that they were only interested in the fact that the grays might have broken a law, not so much about the humans themselves.

William turned to look at one of the leaders and they stared at each other for a while. Then William turned back to them.

"I told him you two can't talk the way I can. He seems confused by the whole thing. He wants us to follow him to his craft, this one's being confiscated or something. They want us to testify what we know about what's been done to our race." William paused, then said, "I don't think he was giving us a choice."

"Ask him what they plan to do with us when they're finished." said Mulder.

William turned and regarded the Green-Eyes again for a while, then told his parents, "I convinced him to send us back to Earth. I don't know how they're going to do it. He says they have absolutely no knowledge of us or our civilization, so they don't want to just fly down and drop us off. He says there's rules, kinda like the Prime Directive on Star Trek. You know, not messing with a developing primitive culture. He seems shocked that we don't have anything better than the space shuttle. They have to rely on the grays' information on us for now and he says the grays are being silent."

"So basically we don't know WHEN they're going to send us home," said Scully.

"Well, at least he's going to, he said we wouldn't be killed." said William.

"Yeah," mumbled Mulder, "Unless the grays convince him otherwise. There's no guarantee they won't decide the grays have every right to do with us as they like."

William and Scully didn't answer him. The Green-Eyes turned and they followed him. They wondered amongst themselves how they were going to transfer craft. These creatures and the grays seemed to be oxygen breathing and had the same tolerance to atmospheric pressure, so presumably they had ways of transferring without anyone getting killed, but they were still nervous.

Finally, they came to what looked like a regular wall. A few of the Green-Eyes walked up to it, then walked right though.

"Cool!" said William.

"I don't know about that." said Scully. "We don't know it's safe for us."

The lead Green-Eyes stared at William, who then turned and said, "He says it's safe. He says to go."

Sighing, Mulder took his son's hand, then Scully's. Gritting his teeth, hoping he wasn't getting them all killed, he stepped through the wall. There was a wonderful feeling, like nerve stimulating tingles all over them, and a rainbow of light danced in front of their eyes. Suddenly it was over and they were on the other side.

They were definitely in a new craft. Everything was tinted green in this place, the floors and the wall. Like the other craft, the air was stale, recycled and this craft was colder. The lights were beautiful, however, seemingly white, but with a strange halo of rainbow around them. Also, it felt as if the gravity were not quite right, as if a good jump off the ground would send one straight through the ceiling.

Mulder had once tried out the "Moonwalk" machine at NASA and it felt like that, like walking on the moon but with not as much bounce. Walking seemed to be as normal as before, if a little unsteady. The Green-Eyes leader led them down the hall, and, as they passed a window, William let out an audible yelp of disbelief.

"Dad! Look!" he pointed.

Mulder and Scully froze in awe. Outside of the window was the blackness of space and the Earth spinning on its axis. The image was too clear, to perfect to be a video or even a very high resolution picture. William wanted to reach out and touch the window but Scully frantically pulled him back, reminding him that they had gone through a wall by touching it. They watched as North America spun into view, and Mulder looked for Nevada, and Area 51, wondering if the car was still down there somewhere. He could see New Mexico and roughly where their house was. It was amazing!

The Green-Eyes let them look, seemingly amused by their reaction. Finally, they tore themselves away and followed the alien down the hall. He led them to a room and motioned them inside. He looked at William for a long moment, then turned to leave, the door closing behind them.

William turned back to his parents and said, "He says we'll stay here for the time being, until he makes some, I guess phone calls or something. He says they're looking through the grays' database to see what we eat, since they can't seem order up a pizza up here." His parents smiled forcefully, but didn't laugh.

"Did he say how long?" asked Scully. William shook his head.

Sighing, they looked around. There seemed to be furniture in the room but unlike any they had ever seen before. There were some strange protrusions from the wall that seemed to be like bean bag chairs, that were big enough to lie down in or sit up in. Beyond that, the room was quite bare. Scully cautiously examined one of the bean bag things, then sat on it.

"Hmm, these are kind of comfortable." she said.

Mulder and William sat down on the other ones.

'Well, now what?" asked William.

---

The next few hours were very interesting, for both the family of three humans and the aliens whose craft they were on. It seemed that they had managed to get some information from the grays and were able to adapt the room for the humans. The first thing they needed was a bathroom. After communicating this to a Green-Eyes who periodically checked in on them, William tried not to blush as he described to the alien what they needed and why. Then food became a problem. Translating for his mother, who relied on her doctor skills and knowledge, he told the aliens the basics of human nutrition and what they managed to synthesize had all the calories and vitamins they needed, but looked suspiciously like cold snot. William chose to announce this description right as his mother put some in her mouth. She gagged and barely swallowed it, then informed her son that if they ever got out of this it wouldn't matter, because he was grounded for life for saying that.

William tried not to taste it as he forced himself to swallow it all in three gulps, like his father. They passed the time playing word games, telling stories, even singing songs, but the boredom was hard to manage. Eventually some of the Green-Eyes came in to question them. William translated for his parents and between the three of them, managed to describe the course of human history with the grays. The Green-Eyes made it clear that they were not scientists or researchers interested in the evolution of a new species, that their job was to investigate possible wrongdoing on the grays' part. They, like the grays, were an offspring race of the founding aliens who had spread their DNA throughout the galaxy, and like the grays, believed that all worthwhile life came only from that race.

Since the founders had been a six based DNA race, it was assumed that all their offspring races would also have six base pairs. The fact that the humans had four seemed to be proof enough that the humans were not even considered worthwhile, despite William's instance that humans were descendants of the founders, he had seen it in his vision. The Green-Eyes accepted that some mutations could have led to a four base pair from six on Earth, but they did not accept William's explanation of visions from the past. It was incredible, but it seemed that no species of the known founders' offspring had the ability to see into the past or future. However, they were intrigued by William's abilities and had him perform several strange tests, like having him control the direction of several floating, glowing balls. He listened to speaking images of several strange looking beings and repeated what they said back to the Green-Eyes. With his parents watching anxiously, one being examined him with a clear rod with a light on the tip, touching it to various muscle groups and places on his head and on his tongue. But mostly they questioned him about what they knew of the grays.

William was complaining to his parents when they were alone about the absurdity of the whole situation. "It's crazy. Can't they SEE that we are a sentient race, with a developing culture and a right to live on our own planet? We have spacecraft of our own! OK, so it doesn't go beyond the moon, but so what, it's a start. They had to start somewhere didn't they? Just because we have four based DNA, not six, they say we're nothing more than parameciums!"

"I think it's paramecia, isn't it Scully?" quipped Mulder.

Scully rolled her eyes, "Well think of it like this, think of how during the days of slavery black people weren't considered human because of the color of their skin. During the holocaust Jews weren't considered human because of their religion and race. Native Americans were called savage barbarians because they didn't have the same clothes and housing and weapons as the white settlers. It's called 'discrimination' and there's never any reason behind it. When you're born and raised believing something, even if it's ludicrous, it's hard to change, even with reason."

The door slid open then and they jumped to their feet as the leader Green-Eyes came in and told William that the Council of races had enough evidence to try the grays on species tampering. William and his parents were to speak for the human race at the trial. His parents were stunned and Mulder made it clear they couldn't go too far. By the time they got home over hundreds of years would have passed on Earth. The Green-Eyes assured him they would not have to go anywhere, their testimony would take place on the craft and be broadcast to the waiting Council. William shivered as he clutched his mother, never once dreaming he would have to be a spokesman for the entire human race at the age of eleven.

For her part, neither had Dana Scully. She hugged him close, wanting to spare him from all this, but it was either testify or let everything they love be destroyed. And somehow she doubted it would be anything like a court back home. Reluctantly, they followed the leader down several winding halls to a strange room with a circle in the middle. He instructed them to step in the middle and they did, Mulder leading. William stood between his parents and held their hands.

Suddenly, what appeared to be a shimmering curtain surrounded them. When it cleared, all three were awestruck at finding themselves in another room entirely! The small room had vanished and they now stood on the floor of a huge hall with several balcony type structures, each containing a strange looking creature. William recognized a few of them from the tests he had taken and he wondered how the hell they had gotten here. There was a shimmer here and there and he heard his father speak up.

"It's not really here, it's like a hologram or a VR game. We're still in the room on the ship, it's like VR phone conferencing." William turned and saw his father had stuck a hand through the circle edge and it vanished as if being thrust through a curtain. He saw his mother visibly relax, for a moment. Then he saw next to them in another circle, three grays looking at them. A voice began to boom and William translated for his parents who could not hear it.

"Representatives of the race of Elohim. You have been brought before the Council to answer to the charges of your race having violated the fourth mandate of the galactic code. That is, 'All sentient and honorable species, being the progeny of the venerable Founders, the noble ones who brought life to all the galaxy, shall be equal in the eyes of their brethren, subject to no oppression by their brethren, subject to no experimentation, nor species altering by their brethren, shall lay claim to no other planet occupied by their brethren without express consent witnessed by this Council, and that all species of the Founders shall be left in peace, their civilization untouched. Likewise, no brethren species shall influence or interfere with the development of a primitive brethren species.' Race of the Elohim, there have been charges that you have repeatedly journeyed to the third planet of the qui'yon sector, 4th division, second cluster, where a race of primitive life forms had evolved, and that you have altered their civilization, altered their bodies, and then attempted to destroy the entire species by genocide, not once but three times, that you have succeeded in destroying a primitive reptilian race on this planet, destroyed a previous civilization, and now threaten to destroy the present civilization to destroy evidence of your tampering and so that you might claim the mineral rich planet. How do you answer?"

The tallest gray answered, Honorable brethren, we are not guilty of these charges.

William clenched his fists to shout back but Mulder clamped a hand on his shoulder. William understood, shouting out of turn could not be good for their case. He forced himself to stay silent. The voice was continuing.

"The Council will now hear the explanation of the Elohim in this matter."

The tallest gray alien stepped forward again and began to speak.

Esteemed brethren and fellow races of the Founders, we, the Elohim, are well aware of the Galactic law and honor it as you do. It is not within us to cause harm to a fellow species of the Founders. However, there is no law concerning the expansion of colonization to ensure the health and well-being of one's own race. We, like several of you, are too, colonists. For several units now, we have searched local star systems for planets that may be of some use to us for raw materials and colonization. Upon arriving at the third planet of the sector in question, we saw that it was ripe with the materials we needed, and yes, it did support life. However, let me say right now, this life is NOT life created by the Founders! Analysis of the DNA showed only four DNA base pairs in all life on this planet. My esteemed brethren, it is well known that the Founders themselves had six DNA base pairs, as do all of their offspring. These life-forms were vicious creatures, with no mind and limited intelligence, who existed only to eat. While we tried several methods of deterring these life-forms from attacking our settlements, nothing worked and we did eventually plan to colonize the planet.

After much debate, we decided to leave the planet and return at a later time to see if conditions had improved Several units later we again sought out the planet and saw that the reptiles had perished, but that a new species had arisen, a species that walked upright as we do, but again were only a four base pair species and had very limited intelligence, if any, and no culture or tools at all. They were pack hunters, eating raw meat, and using no tools, they wee not sentient. However, we were reluctant to leave again, to we set about early colonization. We concluded that the species on the planet was not a Founder offspring race, but could still be useful in mining operations.

We crossed the creature with some of our own DNA to give it some intelligence and other traits, but no more. It made a very good work animal, digging in the mines and clearing land for our establishments. However, many in our group wondered on the purity of our race. There were several arguments, from many factions. Some argued that the species we had created evolved to quickly, that soon they would be capable of civilization of their own, that they would rise up and destroy us. Others argued they should never have been created in the first place, that to cross a Founder species with a random species was an abomination, others felt sympathy for them and stated they should be left on the planet to their own devices. In the end, we decided that they should never had been created, that the best course of action was to end the horrific experiment and cleanse the planet. We directed high powered rays at the polar caps, flooding the planet and destroying the species, or so we thought. Again we left and returned several units later to discover the creatures we had named the adama had not perished, but had multiplied and now covered the entire planet.

Naturally colonization would have to be put on hold, so we contacted several of the leaders of the race and began negotiating plans to colonize with the permission of the adama. However, they betrayed us! It became known to us that several attempts to further cross our race with theirs were under way. This further experimentation and gene crossing was their fault! Not only that, we became aware of a global plot to destroy our race on sight and destroy any colonies we might set up in peace, led by the three adama you see standing before you! Yes, brethren, these three conspired in the death of the leaders we had come to agreements with, then proceeded to take over control and plan for war against us, a peaceful colonizing force.

We had planned on studying the race we had created, to see if the influence of DNA from a Founder race could bring order and stability to savages, who seem to grow at an exponential rate. They already have primitive space vehicles. How soon before they develop star drives and then make war on all of us? Let me repeat, these creatures are not offspring of the Founders, their DNA proves it. They are a vicious, bloodthirsty race with limited intelligence and none of the abilities we possess, such as the ability to speak as we do. They make war on each other over bits of land and foolish beliefs in imaginary forces that cannot be seen or tested to prove existence. Only in this juvenile you see before you is there an anomaly, the ability to speak as we do. We had been studying the creature when we were beset upon and arrested.

My brethren, perhaps we, the Elohim, are guilty of irresponsibility with concern to inappropriate tampering of a random species, and perhaps the decision to exterminate them in the past was faulty, but there is no doubt now. They are dangerous and an abomination. They should not exist, and we should not have created them. They are not offspring of the Founders, so they are not a sentient race recognized by this Council. Our race will accept whatever fine is decided for our misconduct with a random species, however, you must see that they must be exterminated. But even if this council does not agree with extermination, know that we do not exterminate on a whim either. They are a danger to not only our race, but to all of you. And as the third planet is within the territory of the Elohim, it is our right to colonize the planet we own as we see fit. I am finished.

The gray alien stepped back and a buzz went up around the hall. Mulder was furious at the arrogance of the creature, assuming it was ok to destroy and entire species of life-forms based on the nature of it's DNA. But what was worse, the war he had fought all his life against these creatures would not be over with him, now it was up to his son, still a child, to fix it. He and Scully would help him as much as they could, but it would depend on how well William could communicate and reason with these aliens so different from them. He stepped forward and hugged his son. Scully stepped forward and gave William a quick kiss. William closed his eyes and thought of the dream on the beach. Despite what the grays said, he knew God wasn't imaginary, and he hoped He would help now. He crossed himself as he had seen his mother do, then, steeling himself, stepped forward and lifted his chin to the aliens who would decide all of their fates.

---

Final Stand Chapter 7

William Charles Mulder had never been so scared in his entire life, and that included the time he had fled from the super soldiers on a slow mini-bike from the farm where his adoptive parents had been killed and ended up hiding out in the dark. He knew deep down that this was why he had been born, this was why he had been sent. It all came down to now, and he prayed for the right words. These creatures thought nothing more of him than a talking animal, like a talking monkey or something. He tried to put himself into their place and speak as best he could.

"Hello," he started. (God that sounded lame) "My name is William and I am, what the grays, um, Elohim, call an 'adama'. My race calls itself 'humans', although we recognized their name for us in our early writings. We called the first human 'Adam'. First of all, I want to clarify some inaccuracies in the gr-Elohim's story. First of all, what your brothers forgot to mention about the reptilian race was that they, the Elohim, are responsible for their demise. Yes it's true. They maneuvered an asteroid into a collision course with the planet and it crashed, destroying all animal and plant life on the planet, including the developing reptilian species. This was senseless destruction of a defenseless life-form that was developing its own civilization. Later, when they returned, they found another species, ones we call mammals, beginning to evolve. Yes, they were little more than animals, but they were developing the use of very primitive tools, despite what the Elohim have said.

Then, the Elohim decided they wanted a slave race, so they decided, without permission, to alter this primitive species, genetically limiting it so that if this species or its descendants MIGHT have developed the ability to communicate as I do, it was now severed and limited. Let me remind all of you, that you now only have the word of the Elohim as to whether or not any life on Earth was or was not descendant from your Founders. By their own admission, they tampered with a primitive species, so now we'll never know for sure what they might have been if they had been left alone. You don't know what we were before the tampering, they never asked for your opinion or sent any samples to you to be tested, they acted on their own. Very convenient, I think. But aside from all of that, when the hybrid race they created started thinking for itself, forming its own civilizations, the Elohim panicked.

They wanted a subservient mule that never questioned and used its brute strength to do heavy labor. Imagine their surprise when they began to think for themselves. Two great civilizations rose from that species, who were called Mu and Atlantis. They developed rapidly, and within a space of a few thousand of our years, they had developed vehicles that used solar energy, aircraft, weaponry and knowledge. They were a threat to the Elohim who wanted the planet for themselves, so the Elohim destroyed them in a cataclysmic flood that wiped out all but a few pockets of people who manages to live on and develop on their own, evolving with the work of a few rebel Elohim who continued to experiment on their slave adama race.

Let me stop here and point out that the actions of the Elohim up to this point are not those of a 'civilized' race. It doesn't matter, ultimately, WHERE life came from. Think about the millions of star systems that exist, of only a few percent of those that have planets, and only a few of those can sustain life, then only a few of those life-forms will rise in a civilization, it's amazing any of us are here at all, even with the Founders. Life is sacred, it should be protected and fostered, not wiped out for any reason, least of all how many DNA base pairs it has. That's a very bad excuse for exterminating an entire species and several other species along with it, not once but twice. And now they want to do it again. Right now, they're planning on releasing a killer virus that will destroy all humans in a horrible way, by having a new Elohim gestate inside the human as a biological incubator. They have sent entities we call Super Soldiers to infiltrate our society and prepare for the day they invade, killing anyone who gets in their way. And they complain when some of us fight back. It's called species survival, did they expect us to roll over and die for them?

Imagine, if you will, that some other race from another galaxy, comes exploring and finds all of you, and decides you're expendable and meant to be wiped out, because you only have six DNA base pairs and not eight, and they only recognize life that has eight base pairs. Does it make you any less worthy, any less sentient, just because you're different? Is your civilization worth less because you wouldn't have the same DNA as those invaders? Are humans any less worthy? And don't be so sure we're worthless life-forms, unable to learn or speak. You never know if sometime in the future you may need us. There was a story on my planet about explorers from one continent who came to colonize another and found a race of people already living there. They considered the natives to be savage brutes, uncivilized and worthy of oppression, because they dressed in animal furs and lived in mud homes and didn't have as advanced weaponry and didn't believe the same things as the settlers. However, the settlers had no idea how to make food grow in this new land and would have died without the help of those very savages they thought were inferior.

Everybody, think for a moment. Is it right for the strong to oppress and exterminate the weak? If that were the case, many of you would not be sitting here because you would have been conquered. If everyone went off and did whatever they wanted to whoever was different, there would chaos and war. The actions of the Elohim only show what they really think of your laws, and that they would do this to one of the Founder races, as long as it was never discovered that the species they destroyed was really one of the Founders.

Everybody, that's what I'm here to tell you now. Humans and all life on my planet ARE offspring of the Founders. because of the type of sun we have, six based DNA was unable to survive on our world until it mutated into a four base. We are at the far end of the galaxy, we were some of the last ones to be seeded. If the Founders were here, they'd verify this. And I know this because my race has one of several abilities, and that is the ability to pierce the wall of time and see into the past and future. I know you think this cannot be done, but my race can. Several individuals have had the ability, and the reason none of our mental abilities are apparent is because, in normal humans, they are dormant and vestigial.

The Elohim realized early on in their experiment that early adama humans could not only speak as they do, but had other abilities they didn't have, like the ability to move objects with the mind, to see through time, to manipulate energy, and many others. This frightened them, so they ensured the human brain would be so limited, even a few anomalies like myself could never use the full range they were born with. Human beings only use ten percent of their brain, the other ninety percent does not receive enough blood flow or nourishment to function at full capacity. And so, the average human only has glimpses of the future in hunches, brief moments of telepathy by finishing each others' sentences, and so on. This is not the fault of our DNA, but tampering by the Elohim, and it's wrong. And how do I know all of this? Because I looked back in time and saw it for myself. I know you think this is impossible but it is not, and what's more, I could do it again, with some work.

Everyone, I am not here to challenge what you believe or what you hold true, or your laws. But when your laws threaten the lives of a race, please stop and think. If you allow the Elohim to go unchecked, they will return to my planet and destroy an entire race of life-forms. To say that we are not sentient is absurd and you all know it. If I were not entient and you could not believe it, you would not have me in front of you now arguing with reason. Whether you believe we are your brother species or not doesn't really matter in the end, you have to decide what is more important, life, in all forms, or your belief that only six based DNA life-forms have the right to live. And remember, think of how you would feel if some eight based pair life-form said your civilization was worthless because you only have six. What if someone told you that everything you worked so hard to build will be destroyed to make way for a more worthy life form that had more DNA than you?

Humans are, yes, a kind of volatile race, I'll admit. We feel very strong connections with our family groups and our tribal groups, and if one member is threatened, then the whole family feels it. It is how we have survived in the past, working together to build. It sometimes gets out of control, but I think reason always wins in the end. We have many colorful civilizations on my planet, music, stories, costumes and so much more. It shouldn't be exterminated just so the Elohim can take the planet. They already have several others they own, why can't they go somewhere else? Give us a chance, won't you? I don't care if they are punished or not, but make them leave us alone. And maybe someday, way into the future, humans will either be accepted in this Council as the Founder offspring we really are, or maybe just friends if nothing more. You may think we're animals or abominations, but we're here, and we have as much right to live as anyone in this room."

William stepped back exhausted. Scully reached forward and grabbed him. Mulder picked him up and held him. Both he and Scully had helped him through his long speech, inserting a point here and there, but a lot of it had been his own words, spoken from his own heart, and Mulder had never been so proud of his son as he was now. The family of three held each other as the buzz went up around the room.

The Green-Eyes leader then got up and reported about what his race had found on the grays' ship, information that had been collected depicting the experiments on humans, and how they had been the ones who had received William's distress call. Finally, the grays, who were called the Elohim, stood up to make their final arguments, which were basically rote from their first ones. William heard his father whisper to his mother that if this were Earth, the argument that "they were just stupid animals" wouldn't get very far. Scully reminded him that this was NOT Earth, in case he had forgotten.

Finally, the voice spoke, "This Council has heard the claims made in all parties and will deliberate on the next course of action. The Elohim are hereby confined to their sector until final decisions are in, the adama, humans, will be given to the Rilans until further notice."

A buzzer sounded and the Green-Eyes leader came to them, saying they would return to their quarters now. So the Green-Eyes were called Rilans. The great hall blinked away and they once again stood in the room with the circle on the floor. They followed the Rilan back to their rooms and sat in the chairs in silence.

---

Dana Scully had been wondering just how long they had actually been gone from Earth and how much longer it would be for the Council to come to some sort of decision. And what would become of them? Would they be sent back to Earth or kept as lab rats or specimens for some weird zoo? And who knew how time was measured around here? Maybe by the time any decision was reached, William would be seventy years old. Mulder had been pacing the room, examining every corner, every detail, as Scully and William dozed, snuggled up on a chair. If this went badly, he had to start thinking about possible escape plans, if any.

The door opened and Scully and William jumped up. A Green-Eyes Rilan had come to get them for the final verdict. Trembling, William followed his parents as they went down the hall to the hologram room. They stepped into the circle and the Council hall appeared in front of them again. The Elohim representatives were standing in their circle, and the hall was silent. Scully grasped Mulder's fingers and reached for her son. William took both of their hands and they stood, lifting their chins to face the crowd of alien beings who would decide their fate.

The voice boomed, "Representatives of the Elohim, representatives of the humans, this Council has considered your case carefully. The laws of the Council of beings of the Founders has its laws in place for the purpose of ensuring order and peace between interrelated species. It has never had to apply to creatures whose origins could not be confirmed as Founder-related. Our laws prohibit species tampering, but only in the case of species who are confirmed Founder-bred. However, the Founders themselves cherished life enough to ensure its growth in many diverse forms all over the galaxy, enough to leave their unknown home world and travel for eons spreading their DNA wherever they could. It has been made clear that perhaps this council will never know the true origins of life on the planet known as Earth, for it has all been tampered with, and this leaves us in a very difficult position.

Do we honor our own laws which only include the Founder species that are known, or do we take the chance for an unknown species based on values the Founders themselves must have cherished? The Elohim have carefully pointed out that since Founder-origin cannot be confirmed in the case of humans, there is no way of proving our law against species tampering applies in this case.."

William felt his heart sinking. Scully bit back a shudder of dismay and Mulder felt his fist clenching in anger. But the voice continued.

"However, the juvenile human has made several interesting points. If this Council was to condone this type of behavior against any species, it would not be long before our laws would be meaningless. We must set an example for our laws, regarding all life, for many of us can see that, Founder-origins or not, This species known as human is in fact sentient with a thriving civilization, and it deserves to grow, or perish, by its own devices, as we all do. Furthermore, the Elohim's own admittance to planning and executing three times the destruction of not just the human civilization of this planet, but also an unknown reptilian race and a now extent pre-human advanced race, shows their gross disregard for all life, whether they be brethren species or random. It is a criminal act to commit mass genocide, and furthermore indicates that the Elohim are in fact hiding the knowledge that they knew full well that the primitive race the encountered on this planet WERE descendants of the Founders, with or without DNA evidence.

It has been discovered, through examination of these humans and of data collected from the Elohim themselves, that the human race has been forcibly tampered with to prevent them from reaching their true Founder race potential, and this is inexcusable.

It is the decision of this Council that the race of Elohim is to depart at once from the appointed sector and that agents of this Council be dispatched at once to remove and dispose of all alien presence on the planet, regarding the ones known as Super Soldier and all evidence of the virus to be used against the humans. The Elohim will cooperate fully or face even further punishment than they will now receive. The sector containing the planet known as Earth is now confiscated and within the jurisdiction of this Council, until such time as when the humans either advance to their full potential and join this Council, or end up exterminating themselves, as it has been known to happen to other races.

The species at this time is still much too primitive and will be kept under close observation. As for the Elohim, for their crimes against life, most likely life seeded b the Founders, they are relived from the last four sectors of their territory and forbidden to enter human space ever again. They will relinquish their seat in the science committee and trade with the Tidaxians is hereby forfeit in matters of gleamstone trading for a period of twelve units. The Rilans will return these three humans to their home world immediately."

The Elohim representatives were furious! Surely you cannot be serious! Such a strong punishment for minor tampering of creatures not even of this council! And to prohibit trade for gleamstones? This will cut our space travels by half without the ability to run half our ships!

"My brethren Elohim, do you not see?" continued the voice, "it is that attitude that has gotten you into trouble. The true measure of a race is how it treats its inferiors, and you have treated your own creation with nothing more that the worse contempt possible. One more misstep and you will no longer sit on this Council, be grateful your race has not been rejected from this assembly entirely. Now be silent. This Council stands at rest."

William stepped forward and bowed, followed by Mulder and Scully.

"Thank you," he called. Mulder and Scully waved as the room once again dissolved in front of them.

---

They didn't return to their holding room, but rather followed a Rilan down yet another winding hall. They came to a wall and the Rilan indicated that they should step through. Mulder turned tot he Rilan and asked, "Is it over then? Will they leave us alone?" William translated.

Yes, replied the Rilan, As we speak special clean up crews have been sent to your world to remove all of the Elohim's projects and presence there. They are confined to territory several light years from your world and the few parsecs surrounding your solar system have been seized by the Council. You will be left in peace, for now.

'Will we see any of you again?' asked William.

He thought he saw the being smile, if only in its green eyes, as it said, Perhaps someday the Council will call your race forward. You have much to learn and grow beyond your primitive ways, but you seem to learn much faster than anyone has ever seen before. If you manage not to destroy yourselves, when you are ready, the Council will make contact with your race. It has still yet to be determined if you truly are a Founder-bred race or not, but even if you aren't, you will be left alone. Unless of course you become a threat.

William nodded and bowed tot he creature, and it bowed back. Mulder took William's hand and Scully's, and together they stepped through the wall, feeling the pleasant tingle and seeing the rainbows of colors dance.

Suddenly, they landed on the ground as if they had jumped from above about ten feet. William rolled head over heels coming to a stop next to Scully, who had managed to twist her ankle when she landed. Mulder sat up groaning, holding his side. They looked around and saw they were in a desert somewhere. William looked up in time to see a craft in the distance speeding away up into the stars. He grinned.

"Is everybody OK?" asked Mulder, pulling Scully to her feet and supporting her weight from her injured ankle.

"Yeah I think so," she said as William got to his feet and dusted the sand off.

"Mom, Dad, is it really over?" he asked.

"I guess we'll find out, son," said Mulder. "Come on, we have to get your mom to a hospital or something, she might have broken her ankle."

"I'm fine, Mulder," she said.

William and his father rolled their eyes, and they started walking down the hill until they reached a road. Making a decision, they started walking. After what seemed like hours, they rounded a bend and saw, to their surprise, their car on the side of the road. It was still dark, but it seemed as if sunrise was near, because in the growing light, they could see it was in fact their rental car. It was bizarre, it looked like it had simply been parked on the side of the road. For how long? How long had they been gone?

The keys were still in the ignition and they climbed in with relief. Mulder started the car and they drove coming into the town of Rachel, Nevada, right as the sun came up. But even more surprising, the local radio station announced that it was only the next morning. And as his mother's favorite Celine Dion song came on, William couldn't help but notice how appropriate it was.

"Where there was dark now there's light

where there was pain now there's joy

where there was weakness, I found my strength

all in the eyes of a boy"

That could be him, William realized.

"...I see a light in the sky

oh, it's almost blinding me

I can't believe I've been touched by an angel with love

let the rain come down and wash away my tears

let it fill my soul and drown my fears

 

let it shatter the wall, for a new sun

A new day, has come....."

William would have laughed at how ironic it was.

".....I see a light in your eyes, all in the eyes of a boy...."

---

December 25, 2012

The entire Scully family plus a few additions were having the best Christmas of their life, especially following a week long of hiding out in bomb shelters all throughout the neighborhood, waiting for the invasion they had planned for for over a decade.

But it never came. True to their word, the Council had waylaid the Elohim's plan to take Earth and had removed the super soldiers and all traces of the grays from the planet. For several weeks, there were reports of UFO's and disappearances of high level officials, but it had settled. On the actual date of December 22, 2012, the Scully family had congregated in Roswell, New Mexico where it was supposed to be somewhat safe. But the invasion never came. Bill Jr. had been merciless in his torment of Scully and Mulder, but they just laughed, relieved that Bill's ranting was all they had to fight. William would probably have recurring nightmares all his life, and no one in the world would ever know the battle they had fought to save the human race.

Word had trickled down the grapevine of Aegis, of course, and most people now accepted the story of the Council, since the invasion had not come, but several others were remaining vigilant, sure that the invasion was only postponed.

But for the family who had fought it all, they finally were able to rest, although Mulder doubted they would ever really believe it was all over for good. William had emailed Josh but had decided not to tell him anything. His parents had been right, Josh didn't need the added worry of something that might not even happen anymore. Instead, William talked about baseball and the new Nintendo VR game due out for Christmas.

This year, they celebrated Christmas like never before. Maggie Scully had made her best dressing, Tara and Bill Jr. had done the turkey, Charlie and his wife Stephanie had done the pies, and Scully and Mulder had done pretty much everything else. John Doggett and Monica Reyes and Walter Skinner had come down to join them, as well as Jimmy and Yves. Gibson was spending Christmas with his friend Doug, but Jeffery Spender came from next door at his brother, Mulder's, request. He had been especially happy to hear of the diverted alien invasion, since it meant that all of his father's treachery, including his own disfigurement, had all been dealt with justly.

William spent the entire time challenging his cousins to rematches on video games and enjoying being a kid for the first time in a long time. As the family gathered around the table for Christmas dinner, William got the best present he had ever received when his father stood up.

"Everyone, I guess now is a good time to say this," he said looking down at Scully. "I've asked Dana about sixteen times to marry me, and on the seventeenth try, she said yes. We're going to be married this spring."

William jumped up and cheered and jumped into his father's arms. Maggie had jumped up and grabbed Dana in a hug. Everyone at the table was either cheering, applauding or hugging someone. Except for Bill Jr., who remained in his seat scowling until Tara kicked him hard in the shins and he clapped. From that moment on, the holiday got better and better.

Later that night, William, who was sharing a room with his cousins and having trouble sleeping since Matthew snored, slowly crept down the hall to his parents' room and crawled into bed with them. Both were awake instantly, but settled down when they saw it was William.

"Have a good Christmas?" asked Mulder. William nodded and snuggled down next to his mother. She looked at Mulder with a smile.

"Should we tell him now?" she asked.

"Well, I guess we'll have to now that you've said something," quipped Mulder.

"Tell me what?" asked William.

"Well," said Dana slowly, "You're going to be a big brother."

William sat straight up. "What?? You're gonna have another baby?"

"Hey buddy, say it a little louder, maybe your Uncle Bill down the hall will hear you," said Mulder quietly. "And yes, your mom's going to have a baby. We didn't think she could, but then we didn't think she could have you." Mulder ruffled his son's hair.

"That's why we're getting married in March. It's due in August," said Dana.

William settled back down, thinking to himself, 'Wow, Uncle Bill's gonna be pissed. This'll be great! I hope it's another boy, I can teach him to play baseball, and me and dad can take him to Indian guides. That's going to be one lucky kid.'

With a smile, he settled back down drifting into sleep, where he dreamed of his sister Emily running along the beach, of gray aliens in little jail cells, and a sunrise over a beautiful mountain landscape, and he and his parents and a little baby walking along the beach, following Emily's footsteps in the sand.

THE END.

Feedback: Ashxf@aol.com

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