The End Is Near...And Purple
By NeoX

Summary: An alternative ending to the X-files, in place of Jump The
Shark through The
Truth
Category: Snark/Angst 
Spoilers: Seasons 1 through 9
Rating: R for violence
Disclaimer: I'm borrowing the x-files cast from Chris Carter, and
claim no ownership to
any of the characters created by 1013 productions

Feedback for this stories, as well as link requests for others by this
author can be sent to
neoxphile@aol.com


**

April 4th, 2002
4am, Baltimore Maryland-

A man dressed in boxer shorts and a too-small tattered blue robe walks
his dog in the wee hours of the morning. The dog, a particularly ugly
shitzu sniffs at the ground, looking for the best place to deposit his
leavings. The man heaves a weary sigh and shakes his head as the dog
shuffles forward once again. The man is thinking about the commercials
with the Jose OLE trucks when he hears a flapping noise. He has the
chance to scream once, then the ground, and the ugly little dog, are
covered in a spray of red blood. The dog, with its leash no longer
being held by its owner, yips and hides under a parked car.

<cue theme song>

April, 8th 2002
FBI Headquarters 
Washington D.C. 
7:00 am. 

Reyes is at her desk, reading a file, with her bare feet up on her
desk when Doggett comes in.

"Agent Reyes, you know they keep sending us memos telling us that bare
feet is a health hazard." Doggett admonishes her.

"John, why do you have to be such a stick in the mud?" 

"I don't know. I suppose it's a mixture of genetics and envi-" 

"That was a rhetorical question." She says, sighing deeply.

"Oh. What are you reading?" 

"A file came in this morning on a strange case. It seems that a man
was walking his dog in the early hours of the morning when he
disappeared."

"Why is that strange?" Doggett asks. "People disappear all the time." 

"It's strange because some of his remains were discovered by three 11
year old boys taking a hike in the woods. They were in what appeared
to be a giant nest of some sort."

"That is strange. Maybe we should call Scully in on this one." 

"Why?" Reyes asks, wondering why he's always so quick to ask her to
come in and consult.

"She has more experience. Or something." Doggett says, reaching for
the phone.

**

Scully's apartment

Scully thinks about throwing her phone through the window, emulating a
scene in If Lucy Fell, but she masters her temper. Why is it, she
thinks, that even though she's no longer at the X-Files she's always
being dragged into cases? Don't Reyes and Doggett realize that she has
a son of indeterminate age who'd like to spend time with his mother
instead of being shipped over to his grandmother's house all the time?
She'd actually like to be around to see his first steps and hear his
first words. She mentally rehearses an ultimatum- either they stop
bugging her all the time, or they pay for a part-time nanny. She
kisses Will on the cheek before handing him over to her mother. Will
uses his mind to heave the phone through the window, and it lands at
Scully's feet as she heads for her car. She shrugs.

Autopsy bay

Reyes and Doggett are waiting for her with the various pieces of the
murdered man nicely wrapped in plastic. She uncovers the remains and
steps back with a hiss.

"Why is the deceased covered in a purple goo?" She asks, and they have
no answer. "
Any idea who this was?" 

"Teddy Fiddlemister, 37, of Baltimore Maryland." Reyes supplies.

"From what agent Doggett told me on the phone he disappeared without a
trace, and was later discovered by cub scouts taking a hike."

"I believe they were boy scouts." Doggett corrects.

"Ok, by boy scouts. Were there any witnesses to the crime?" 

Reyes shakes her head no, but Doggett speaks up. "Just the dog. But
the dog doesn't count, right?"

Scully counts to five mentally before answering him. "Right, the dog
doesn't count as a witness."

"Are you sure? We could bring the dog in for questioning, and maybe
hire one of those pet psychics-" Doggett says, as Reyes grabs at his
arm and pulls him out of the room.

"I'll let you know if I find anything of significance." Scully calls
to the swinging door, shaking her head.

**

Reyes reaches out one arm and fumbles blindly for the phone, knocking
it to the floor before she can haul it up by its cord.

"It's 3am, who is this?" She asks sleepily.

"It's me, Doggett." 

"This better be good, John." 

"There's been another death." 

"And you couldn't wait until 8 to tell me this?" 

"This time there are witnesses. You're not going to believe this, but
they said that..."he trails off.

"What did they say?" 

"They said that they saw what appeared to be a large purple bird
flying down main street carrying the victim's body."

"There aren't birds that large." 

"I know. But five different people swear to it. We've got the body to
examine, perhaps someone can tell us if what the witnesses say they
saw is at all plausible." John tells her.
Reyes hangs up on him, planning to tell him later that it was an
accident.

**

12pm

Reyes sighs to herself and wonders why on Earth the witness insisted
that he'd only meet with her and Doggett in a Burger King. The young
man, who has longish red hair and eyes that seem to be barely
concealing a frantic energy, is enthusiastically eating a whopper. He
looks up at Reyes and smiles. "This is really good, sure you don't
want one?"

"No, I'm fine." 

Finishing his sandwich and crumpling the wrapper, he turns to Doggett
and says, "So you two are the ones in charge of all the weirdo cases
now, huh? Whatever happened to the other agents? They made a cute
couple, though the chick was sort of a skeptic, if you ask me. Nice
hair, though, different shade than mine."

Reyes gives him a startled look. "You knew Mulder and Scully?" 

"Yeah, sure. Didn't know their names, though. They investigated some
strange lights back when I was living in Idaho. They were pretty cool
to hang out with, even though that Mulder dude was more of a
risk-taker type than was good for him-"

"While this walk down memory lane is nice, we should probably talk
about this case."
Doggett says.

"Oh yeah, sure. So I was walking down the street with my girlfriend, a
different one than
I meet the other agents with, though, when we saw the strangest thing
up in the sky."

"What?" Doggett asks.

"Ok, so, given your line of work I suppose you have to believe me,
even though this seems impossible. But I've seen a lot of impossible
things. Anyway, we were walking like I said, and this giant purple
bird flies up over us, holding this guy. I mean, I guess it was a
bird, but it seemed to have had hands instead of talons. The guy
seemed...dead. Is he?"

"Unfortunately yes." Doggett says with a grimace.

"That's too bad. You know, I moved here to escape weird stuff but the
move hasn't helped much..."The man says, toying with his soda cup.

"Well, thank you for your time." Reyes says, standing up and shaking
his hand. "if we need more information, we'll call you."

"Hey, no problem. Tell those other agents I said 'hi' if you see them
though, ok?"

Reyes nods, and she and Doggett exit the burger place.

**

As they walk back to the car, Doggett asks Reyes why she dismissed the
witness. "Don't you think we could have questioned him further?"

"Actually, John, I don't think that talking to a druggie is a good use
of our time on this case."

"What makes you think he is a druggie?" Doggett asks, sounding
puzzled.

"If it wasn't obvious to you, I don't think I could possibly explain
it. I do wonder, though, if he really knew agent Scully." Reyes says,
pulling out her cellphone.

Scully finishes sprinkling fish food into the aquarium before picking
up the phone. "
Scully." 

"Dana, it's Monica. Listen, John and I talked to a really strange
character today, and he claims to have to know you and Mulder."

"Oh? What was he like?" 

"Late 20's, shaggy red hair, claimed to have come from Idaho and met
you and Mulder while you were investigating-"

"- Strange lights that looked like alien space craft." Scully finishes
for her.

"Yeah, how did you know that's what he said?" 

"We did meet him, and his girlfriend, back on one of the very first
cases Mulder and I worked together. I'm surprised he's out here,
though."

"He said something about trying to move away from 'the weirdness'. Do
you consider him a reliable witness, though?"

"More or less. He's a bit of a stoner, but a good-hearted one. He
probably told you the truth."

"Ok. Thanks, Dana." Reyes says, hanging up. Unfortunately, Neither
agent notices that they're being watched.

**

The woman, a reporter from a third-rate liberal newspaper called DC
Diatribes, watches them drive off. She whips out a cell phone and
gushes to her superior "Ed, have I ever got a story for you..."

**

 The headline on the next day's Diatribe reads "Man-bird persuaded by
the FBI in connection to grizzly slayings." The story outlines how a
man-bird, the result of an experiment in human cloning gone wrong,
broke out of the lab several weeks ago and is extracting a cruel
vengeance on its creators. The article ends with several empty-headed,
yet sympathetic, people saying how the man-bird should remain free
since it was basically forced to kill, and one statement from a man
vowing to shoot it with a shotgun if it ever gets in his range.

Reyes and Doggett read the article twice, because they're trying to
delay looking up at
Kersh. Kersh is still glaring hard for their benefit once they've
finished reading. He starts
in full hysterics mode to save time. " Do you have any idea what an
article like this does
to the FBI's image??" He demands.

"I'd hazard a guess that it doesn't make us look good." Doggett says.

"Rhetorical!" Reyes hisses at him, and he shrugs an apology.

"Right, Smartass. It doesn't make the FBI look good. It makes us look
like we're feeding these harebrained theories to the general public."
Kersh growls.

Reyes interrupts his ranting. "To be fair, sir, we did not say a word
about anything that was printed in this article. The witness mentioned
he thought that the bird seemed to have hands, but no one mentioned
the possibility of a man-bird, lab created or otherwise."

"While they may very well be true, it doesn't matter! You should not
be interviewing witnesses in a public place!" Kersh practically
screams, causing Reyes to flinch.

"What if we were investigating something that happened in a public
place and needed to talk to witnesses that there still there?" Doggett
asks, completely in earnest. Reyes covers her face with her hands, and
hopes that Kersh doesn't have a stroke before they leave the office.
The veins throbbing in his neck don't look too healthy.

**

Kersh finished screaming at the two agents twenty minutes later, and
when he was hoarse, he waved them out of his office. He toyed
seriously with firing them both, or maybe having a hit put out on
them, but in the end he just let himself steam for about an hour,
while frequently using a throat spray, before calling up the newspaper
and threatening them with a lawsuit.

Kersh enjoys himself thoroughly as he screams at the paper's editor.
"I don't care who you are, Ed. Printing that sort of thing about the
FBI is libel. Not to mention that your silly story might just tip off
the murder in this case, and compromise our investigation. If you ever
print something said by one of my agents again, even if it's merely
what they say they had for breakfast, you will be slapped with a
lawsuit so fast your eyes will fall out of your head from the force of
the impact. Am I making myself perfectly clear? Well, good. See that
you keep what I've said in mind." Kersh slams the phone down with a
self-satisfied look on his face.

He's actually feeling quite content as he leaves the office at
twilight, because he gets a thrill from terrorizing others. He
whistles to the theme from "lassie"to himself as he walks out to his
car, and he only hears the flapping sound over his own noise at the
last second. Like Teddy Fiddlemister before him, it only takes him one
look before he screams.

There are no witnesses.

** 

April 17th, 2002
Arlington National Cemetery
Washington, DC

The preacher's monotone voice heaps stilted praise on the deceased, a
man the speaker had obviously never met. "Alvin Kersh was a pilot in
Vietnam, and after his military career, joined the FBI..."

Doggett half listens, but is instead looking at his fellow agents.
They both look really good in black, he thinks; he bets if it wasn't a
funeral someone in attendance at there would hit on at least one, if
not both of them. He notices that both women appear as bored as he
does, but considers their expressions to be fairly polite in light of
what a hard*ss Kersh had been. Doggett's thoughts wander farther, and
he mentally makes up his grocery list as the preacher drones on.

Reyes stands next to Scully, and wills herself to feel some sort of
remorse about Kersh's untimely death. She thinks for a moment she
might be able to summon up a measure of pity, but a flash through all
the conversations she had with the man evaporate the impulse. The
kindest feeling she can summon up is indifference, and even that takes
effort.

Scully is having a harder time keeping a straight face than anyone
there realizes. Her bored expression is something she's been
practicing in the mirror for two days straight, because she keeps
bursting into inappropriate laughter when she thinks about how Kersh
died. The purple goo on his remains, or the remains of his remains to
be more accurate, tie him directly to the other two unexplained
deaths. It's with bitter glee that she reflects on the fact that man
who most wanted to shut down the x-files because of his lack of belief
in their validity has become the victim of one of them.

Skinner is having the hardest time of all trying to be respectful,
though. Now that Kersh is dead, all the fire has gone out of his
lapdog Folmer, and Skinner has been promoted to
Kersh's position. Skinner is only in attendance at the funeral because
propriety dictates
that he must. That, however, will not stop him from inviting the
agents out for drinks once the preacher concludes his attempts to put
Kersh in a good light.

Folmer is the only one who sheds a tear during the funeral, and that
might only be because a strong gust of wind throws some of the
graveside dirt into his eye.

**

7pm that night

Folmer is miffed because he wasn't invited to go out drinking with the
rest of the agents.
It's not fair, he fumes to himself, as he takes his daily jog. They
never include me in anything. I keep getting this sidelong glances
from them that all but say that they don't think I'm one of them, and
that I'm not on their side. It's not like they ever even gave me a
chance. Except Reyes, and look where that's got me...a mere two years go
by without us talking, and now she goes home with post-it notes on her
*ss, or I figure she does from the way she looks at Doggett when she's
not pissed at him. This sucks, I'm going to invest in a hooker, I
swear to god. No, not a hooker, an escort. Someone with a little more
class. Reyes and Scully wouldn't know class if it came up and
introduced itself to them-

At that moment he realizes that he's being followed. His eyes nearly
bug out of his head when he sees what is behind them. This is what I
get for not supporting PBS, he thinks for one mad moment, then pulls
out his gun.

The creature either doesn't recognize what a gun is, or doesn't care,
because it keeps advancing on the hapless man. Even Folmer's shout
that he'll shoot doesn't faze it. Folmer only has time to get off one
shot before fingers and razor sharp teeth are all he knows.

**

Frohike is looking something up on his computer when he hears the
front door bang open. "Byers, Langly? That you guys?" He asks, his
hand snaking towards a draw that contains a hammer.

"Yeah, come help us." Langly says.

Frohike gives them a bewildered look, because the two of them are
lugging in something
large and purple. "Did you guys buy a new mattress for the futon?" is
all he can think to
ask. It's only then he notices that the futon mattress seems to be
leaking.

"No. It's a dog." Langly tells him. "And it's hurt." 

"I don't think that's a dog, fellas." Frohike tells them, taking
several steps backwards.

"Of course it is. What else could it be?" Byers asks.

"I don't know. But off the top of my head, I'd say there are three
strikes against it being a
dog. One, it's as big as we are. Two, it's purple. Three, it seems to
have wings."

"Well, whatever it is, it needs help." Langly says, running to get the
first aid kit.

"Shouldn't we bring it to the vet or something?" Frohike protests.

"No. It's taken a bullet and you know how doctors ask questions."
Byers says.

"I don't honestly think that it'd be expected to answer questions."
Frohike says, still
keeping his distance from whatever it is. It seems to be unconscious,
something for which
Frohike is thankful for. He watches as Byers and Langly stretch the
creature out on the
kitchen table. "Or we could call Scully. She's a doctor..."

"Got it." Langly says, holding up a pair of tweezers with a lump of
misshapen lead held
on the tip. He quickly threads a needle, which surprises Frohike.

"When did you become a medic?" 

"We all took a first aid course with our live action role playing club
in high school, so
we'd know what to do if someone got hurt." 

"Wow, you really have been a geek your whole life." Byers quips,
uncharacteristically
flippant.

"Shut up. Maybe calling Scully wouldn't be such a bad idea, though.
This thing is
definitely weird, so she might get a kick out of it or something."
Langly suggests.

"Or something." Frohike agrees.

Before a definitive decision to call can be made, the creature wakes
up and begins
thrashing around. Frohike and Langly freeze, but Byers runs to the
front door and throws
it open. The rampaging creature escapes through it.

"Well, that was strange." Frohike says from the window, watching the
beast chase
someone on the sidewalk. He shrugs and goes back to his computer.

**

April 19th, 2002
5pm, Scully's apartment-

Scully has just laid William down for a nap when the sharp jangle of
the telephone's ring
wakes him and sets him howling. Scully vows to murder whoever it is
who is calling.

"Yes." She growls into the phone.

"Oh hey, this is Langly. I hope this isn't a bad time..."

"You woke the baby, thank you very much." She answers tersely.

"Sorry, I can call back-" 

"So you can get a second crack at waking him?? Just tell me what it
was you're bothering
me for, then I'll try to get him to go back to sleep." 

"The day before yesterday we ran into something weird. Mulder caliber
weird. We found
a hurt animal with a gun shot wound, and patched it up before it when
on the rampage and fled the apartment."

"What was it?" Scully asks, still sounding annoyed.

"Well, that's just it, we don't know what it was. I figured it must
have been a dog,
because what else could it have been? Byers was less convinced, but he
couldn't decide a
better name for it either, so we both called in a "dog." Frohike
though, said it couldn't be
because dogs were neither purple nor winged. So I thought we'd call
you about it."

"And you waited two days to tell me? Great. The thing you're
describing sounds like it
was probably the thing that AD Folmer shot at before it ate him." 

"I thought it was Kersh that got eaten." Langly says, sounding
puzzled.

"Him too." Scully says. "You don't have any evidence for us or
anything, do you?"

"Um...it did bleed all over a towel we haven't gotten around to washing
yet. Would that
do any good?" 

"It might. I might be able to get a DNA analysis done on the blood.
Bring it over to me at
the academy, ok?" 

"Yeah sure, as long as security doesn't kick me out on sight." Langly
jokes.

**

Scully's lab-
Scully gingerly handles the plastic bag that contains the bloody
towel, and is hesitant to
remove the item despite her gloves. The side of the white plastic bag
is smeared with
blood, and the towel is still wet in some spots when she finally
removes it.

Scully squeezes the towel and gets some of the blood into a test tube
while Langly
watches. "Langly...I appreciate that you guys kept this so I could get a
sample,
but...what would you have done with the towel if I hadn't needed it?" 

"We would have washed it. Eventually." 

"Eventually?" 

"Yeah. We do do laundry you know. Every few weeks." Langly says
defensively.

Scully looks away and rolls her eyes. When she looks back she smiles.
"When I'm done
with it, I'll have it return to you so you can wash it." 

"Uh..."That's ok. You can keep it." Langly says as he quickly leaves.

**

When Langly gets back to the apartment, he finds it empty. He looks
for Frohike and
Byers, but they're no where to be found, and even Byers normally neat
room is in disarray.
In his own room, Langly finds a note on his pillow with a plane ticket
paper clipped to it.
The note says: Langly, the shit has hit the fan. That thing we patched
up has been killing
people all over the place. We're taking a vacation in Oregon. Meet you
at the airport. We
took a suitcase for you already, so get to the airport ASAP.
Frohike and Byers

Langly shrugs and grabs his laptop, heading back out to the car.

**

April 22nd, 2002
Scully's office

Scully looks at the lab report and shakes her head. She's already read
it three times, and
she can't make sense of it. The report confirms the blood belongs to a
carbon based life
form, but beyond that it offers no guesses as to what type of animal
it is.

Scully calls Reyes to tell her about it. "It's the strangest thing,
Reyes. The lab claims that
they can't identify what type of creature it is, and can't even hazard
a guess as to whether
it's a mammal or a bird. In fact the only thing it shares any genetic
links with whatsoever is a type of Ameba."

"You're saying they think this is a giant one celled organism?" Reyes
asks.

"No, not at all. They're saying that it isn't a known species." 

"Could it be alien?" Reyes asks.

"Are you sure you're not related to Mulder?" Scully grouses. "I don't
know what to
think. Have you talked to the lone gun men about it, yet? They're the
only living witnesses who have gotten up close and personal to
whatever it is."

"We tried to, but..."Reyes hesitates.

"But?" 

"But they have taken off to somewhere safer, at least according to the
note they were
kind enough to leave pinned to their front door before fleeing." 

"Did they mention where they were going in their note?" Scully asks,
already knowing the answer.

"Funny but no." 

"It figures." Scully says, sighing deeply.

**

May 3rd, 2002

Maggie pushes William in his carriage, and smiles as he babbles
happily at a passing
butterfly. Spring has finally come to the park, and Maggie is
thrilled. Some years it doesn't seem that the flowers will ever bloom,
but this year they have. The butterfly lands lightly on a purple
bloom. Maggie stops the carriage and points at the insect.

"Do you see that William? It's a butterfly. Can you say butterfly?" 

William laughs at her and says "mama, mama," instead.

"Oh, I miss her too, kiddo. She works such long hours. We're going out
to dinner with
her tonight, though, so we've got to get you home for a bath and
outfit change."

At the mention of the word "bath" he claps his chubby hands together
and crows with
delight.

"My little fish." Maggie says to him fondly.

The butterfly flies off suddenly, as if frightened. A huge shadow
engulfs Maggie and
William. When she sees what's casting the shadow, she acts quickly,
and pushes the
carriage into the protection of nearby bushes. William cries at first
as branches invade his
space, but Maggie hushes him before it sees or hears him.

Until this moment she never truly believed that any of the things Dana
and Fox told her
could possibly be true. She takes a deep breath and bravely walks
forward to face it, and
draw its attention to her instead of her grandson. 

**

Scully divides her attention between the latest lab reports on the
creature's blood and an
unappetizing humus sandwich. Eventually she gives up on lunch in
disgust and placates
herself with the thought of the nice dinner she'll be having with her
mother later on.

While it causes her frustration to grow, the report engrosses her
attention completely, so
much so that the door opening startles her so much that she jumps. The
report falls from
her fingers as the police officer approaches her, carrying a
whimpering William.

"Are you Dana Scully?" he asks, his no nonsense tone telling her
nothing about why he's
holding her son.

"Yes." She says frantically.

"And this is your son, William?" 

"Yes, give him to me please!" 

"I need to see some ID first, ma'am." He tells her flatly.

Scully fumbles for the blazer she took off earlier because of the
heat, and finally finds her
ID badge to show him. Seeming satisfied, he hands the unhappy baby
over to her. Scully
holds him tightly and looks over the scratches that cover his arms and
head.

Finally she looks up and asks. "What happen? Why is he covered in
scratches, and where
is my mother? He was with her today..."

At last displaying some semblance of human kindness, the officer
quietly says, "I think
you better sit, I have bad news." 

Scully sits heavily in her chair, and has the sudden urge to cover
William's ears, in case
they're told something too terrible to hear. Instead she rests her
chin on his head.

"We found your son's carriage pushed deep into some bushes, probably
by your mother.
We didn't know he was there until we heard him crying, he was that
well hidden. The tag
you put in his sneaker was a very good idea, because it made finding
you much easier for
us. An EMT looked him over and none of the scratches are deep enough
to have required
more medical attention than being washed with an antiseptic-" 

"And my mother?" Scully interrupts. 

The expression on the officer's face becomes grim. "After she hid your
son she...seems to have been the victim of an animal attack. We're going
to need you to identify the body, ma'am." He says almost gently.

Scully doesn't realize she's crying until William protests that her
tears are falling on his
head.

**

Meanwhile, somewhere in DC

Doggett twined his fingers around Reyes' and listened as she talked to
Skinner on the
phone. They were on the second day of a stakeout and both were eager
to be relieved by
other agents for the day. Doggett lets his free hand pinch a lock of
Reyes' hair, then looks
contrite as she shoots him a disapproving look. As soon as she hangs
up her phone, she
turns to him and says, "You know that it's against bureau policy." 

"This from someone who regularly ignores the policy on bare feet." he
retorts, pulling
both of his hands away.

"Me having bare feet isn't going to cause one of us to be reassigned."
She reminds him.
He doesn't reply but just looks unhappy. "Don't look at me like that,
John. You know
we need to exercise caution." 

"So Mulder and Scully can have a baby, but I can't even hold your
hand? That's fair." He
grouses.

"Be serious, please." She says, rolling her eyes. "In public it is
necessary to be discreet
However, what agents do on their off time is no one's business but
there own..."she trails
off. 

"Oh, is that so?" he asks, rewarding her with one of his rare smiles.

**

Scully balances Will on her hip while he makes unhappy noises, and
then finally convinces herself that she's being ridiculous; he'll be
safe with her there even if she's not holding him. Relieved to be out
of his mother's arms and finally able to move, Will thanks her by
pulling videos out of the entertainment system and scattering them on
the floor.

Scully, however, sees it but doesn't really pay attention because
she's trying to dial a
phone with trembling fingers. Finally she enters the number and hears
the other end pick
up. Without waiting for an answer she speaks in barely more than a
whisper, "My mom's
dead, and I need you to come home, Mulder. Please come back, I'm
afraid for Will."

**

Doggett's apartment 
Several hours later 

When the pounding on the gets more insistent instead of abating,
Doggett sighs and stands up. He quickly smoothes wrinkles out of his
shirt, and casts Reyes an apologetic look before padding to the front
door.

Skinner stands on the stairs with his fist held frozen in the air; he
obviously intended to
keep on knocking. He gives Doggett a scowl. "I'm sorry to be
interrupting your evening,
but something's come up. The thing that's been killing people seems to
be trapped in a
warehouse down town. I need backup so you'll need to come with me." 

Reyes pops her head around the corner. "Do you need me as well, sir?" 

"No, Doggett should suffice, thank you. You ought to get some rest,
I'm going to need
to in first thing in the morning." Skinner tells her. As soon as she
leaves the room, he
looks Doggett over. "I'll wait here while you get some socks and shoes
on...and wash
the lipstick off your cheeks." He says pointedly. Doggett blushes and
rushes off.

**

A DC Warehouse
45 minutes later

Doggett sighs to himself and peers through the gloom and tries to find
Skinner. Things
had begun badly and had gotten worse from there. One of the two other
agents they'd
gone into the warehouse was dead. The other two agents had decided to
go in ahead
rather than wait for Skinner to bring Doggett, so one of the first
things Doggett and
Skinner stumbled over was the man's dismembered corpse. So far they
haven't found any
sign of the other agent, so they had no idea if he was hurt or dead as
well.

At the moment, Doggett would be content to just find Skinner. Ten
minutes ago they
heard something, and Skinner ran in that direction to find it.
Immediately after the power
cut out completely, so Doggett couldn't find Skinner, even by the dim
glow of his
flashlight. He strains his eyes, hoping to see Skinner's flashlight,
but there's nothing.

Suddenly he hears the distant sounds of scuffling feet, and something
that sounds larger
than human. Then there's a shout, "Doggett, we have it cornered!" And
for a moment
Doggett is relieved that both Skinner and the other agent together. He
trains his flashlight
in the direction of the shout and runs in that direction. When there's
an agonized scream,
he runs faster.

**

Reyes's Apartment
3am

Though she'd returned to her own apartment after Doggett had left with
Skinner, Reyes
still hasn't got any sleep. It has been hours since their evening was
interrupted, but she still hasn't heard anything from either of the
men. An hour ago she began to call their homes, but that only resulted
in their answering machines cheerfully informing her that they weren't
home to accept messages, but would call her back soon.

Tired of pacing, Reyes picks up the phone for the last time and
punches in the number of
the only person she feels she can talk to about her fears.

Scully dives for the phone, and hastily mutes the late movie that
she's been watching for
company. "Hello?" she asks, hating the worried sound of her voice.

"Dana, it's Monica, did I wake you?" 

"Um, no." Scully says, feeling bitterly disappointed that it's not
Mulder.

"I'm sorry to be calling you this late, but Skinner had John go with
him to some
warehouse to capture that, um, thing, and it's been hours. I'm getting
really worried, and
I'm thinking of going down there to investigate. Could you come with
me?"

"Agent Reyes, I'd really like to help you out, but that thing killed
my mother, and Mulder
is supposed to be on his way here but hasn't arrived yet. I wish I had
the time to care
about Doggett and Skinner." As soon as the words leave her mouth,
Scully wishes she
could call them back, even before the muffled sound of a sob pours
over the phone line.

"I'm sorry to hear about your mom." Reyes says shakily.

Doubly damning herself for being unkind, Scully quickly says, "As much
as I hate to, I'll
leave the baby with Bill and then meet you at the warehouse, ok?" 

Reyes quickly agrees and gives Scully the address. Scully scribbles a
note to Mulder, then goes to get the baby ready to visit his uncle,
whom she knows is going to be thrilled to be woken up in the middle of
the night.

**

The warehouse

Reyes decides not to wait for Scully to get there before going into
the building. Having
discussed brother Bill with Scully before, Reyes wouldn't be surprised
if Bill decides to
lecture Scully about her job and family obligations before letting her
leave. Reyes takes a
deep breath and quietly opens the door to the warehouse.

Since she doesn't dare to turn on her flashlight yet, it takes her
eyes a moment to adjust to
the dim gloom of the building's interior. After a moment she can see
that there are
randomly stacked boxes all over the floor, piled into less than stable
looking towers. At
first it's not what she can and can't see that spooks her, it's the
utter silence. Nothing
moves, there's no sound at all from within the cavernous depths of the
building. A line
from a Christmas classic pops into her "not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse,"
and the absurdity of it would have made her laugh if she wasn't so
scared.

At the sight of a shoe, her world crumbles. Even as she runs towards
the still form that
becomes more visible with every step, she knows she's walked into a
trap. She just
doesn't care any more. 

The broken bodies of the men, one she respected, the other she loved,
are laying side by
side behind one of the box towers. Fighting tears, Reyes tries to find
pulses, even though
she's sure it's already too late. She turns on the flash light, and
spots the body of the third
agent, a man she'd never met before, lying near by. Somewhere beyond
the range of the
light she hears the stretch of what she thinks is probably a wing.

She twists the light in an arch but sees nothing at all. Dropping the
flashlight, and throwing out her arms, she screams the first thing
that seems appropriate, a bit of dialogue from I Know What You Did
Last Summer. "What are you waiting for, huh?! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING
FOR?!" the silence almost seems amused, which enrages her. "You know
I'm right here, so why don't you come and get me?!"

From within the darkness a voice answers. "Ok." 

 **

Reyes recoils in surprise, realizing she hadn't expected an answer, at
least not one in
words and with what sounded like an English accent. As the thing drags
itself into the
weak spill of light she gets a clear view of it. It is purple and does
have wings, just as
every witness who lived asserted. However, it also has a large horn
growing out of its
forehead, directly above its one unblinking eye. 

It doesn't immediately attack her, which gives her hope. A desperate
hope flutters up in
her chest, and she suddenly wonders if she can reason with the thing.
"Can you at least
tell me why?" she asks it.

A look of disdain fills its eye. "You really don't know, do you." It
says, though its flat
statement is half question.

"No, I don't know. If I knew I wouldn't be asking you." Reyes says,
confusion making
her voice waver.

It sigh deeply, and begins to speak in its polished British accent.
"It's the song, you see."

"The song?" Reyes asks, no less confused. "Do you mean the flying
purple people eater
song?" 

"Of course." It snaps at her.

"How could a song make you kill people? Are you some sort of
representative of a
censorship group or something?" 

A low growl comes from its throat and Reyes cringes. "Since that song,
my kind has been
hunted to the point of extinction. I am the last of my kind. Can you
imagine what that's
like, to be the last one left?" 

Reyes glances back at the bodies, and decides that she might have an
inkling of what that
is like. "I'm sorry for you, terribly sorry, but what does that have
to do with me? With
them?" she asks, pointing.

It laughs, chilling her blood. "The sins of the fathers shall be
visited upon their children
." It intones. "You are all related to the people who are responsible
for making the
murderous song popular." 

"But..but...I was adopted. I don't know my real parents." Reyes blurts
out.

"Do you think I care? This isn't House on Haunted Hill, you know. No,
you too shall pay
retribution." It says, its sharp teeth suddenly in view. 

**

Scully bursts through the door just as she hears a pained scream. She
can hear something
large ram its way through another door at the other end of the
building, but at the moment
her attention is drawn towards Reyes. 

Reyes gives her a weak smile as Scully crouches above her. "I should
have waited for
you." She whispers harshly. Scully whips out her cell phone and calls
for an ambulance.

Scully automatically says, "Don't try to talk," as she examines Reyes'
injuries. They look
horrific to her, so much blood, and she has trouble believing that
Reyes is still alive.

Reyes discards the advice. "I think it's all over. I think people will
be ok now. It was
looking for revenge for what a song had done to its kind, but I think
that it's over." Reyes
trails off weakly.

"You're going to be ok, Monica. You'll be fine." Scully lies to her
friend.

A peaceful look passes over Reyes' face. "Oh, I will. As soon as I go
to John..."

For a second Scully is confused, but when she glances over at
Doggett's body, the other
woman's meaning becomes clear enough to her. She's so caught up in her
grief for all of
the victims that it takes a moment for her to realize that the sounds
of the sirens are
coming from somewhere other than her screaming mind.

**

Daylight bleeds through the night sky as Mulder puts his arm around
Scully and pulls her
across the stair towards him. William, who is sitting on his father's
lap, cuddles towards
his mother once she's huddled up against Mulder. Mulder's hand gently
strokes her hair,
and he tries to tell her that it will all be all right, but since it's
not true it keeps coming out
wrong.

Sighing, Scully dabs at tissue at her red and puffy eyes. "At least
it's all over." She
breathes.

"at least." Mulder agrees, but then looks up at the sky. The faint
sound that caught his
attention is getting louder. He and Scully exchange horrified looks as
the overhead noise
becomes a distinct flapping.

The End