This story is based on the characters and situations created by Chris
Carter, the Fox Network and Ten Thirteen Productions.  As such, the
characters named are the property of those entities and are used without
permission, although no copyright infringements are intended.

   The following work is for the distribution and entertainment of EMXC 
members only. Any further distribution of this work without the author's 
consent is in violation of federal law.

Crossroads 4/4

by Annie Reed
FancyKatz@aol.com
Completed 4/29/95, submitted EMXC 1/7/96


They weren't going to make it.  Mulder could see the phantom shape of the
Jeep bearing down on them in the darkness.  Unlike the white Jeep he had
seen this afternoon on the ridge, this one looked as black as night,
racing towards them with its headlights off like some giant desert
predator.  Of course, who needs headlights when you have night vision
equipment.

Mulder risked a look at the compound.  Now less than two city blocks away,
it might as well have been on Mars for all the good it was going to do
them.  The Jeep was careening over the desert floor at a good 50 miles an
hour.  They would be intercepted long before they reached the first
building.

"Stop, Scully, stop," Mulder panted as he pulled up.  Dana stopped beside
him, catching her breath.  Mulder stepped in front of her, blocking her
body from the approaching Jeep.  He just hoped now that they were no
longer running the Jeep's occupants would think twice about shooting them
on sight.

As the Jeep closed to within 50 yards of where they stood, powerful
halogen lights mounted on the top of the cab sprang to life, bathing the
desert with a brilliant white light with Mulder and Dana caught in the
center of the beams.  After the near darkness only a split second before,
the bright lights effectively blinded them.

"Hands up!" a voice blared from a loudspeaker.  Mulder heard the Jeep come
to a stop and a door open and close.  He raised his hands above his head,
with Dana following suit.

"We're Federal agents... " Dana began, but the loudspeaker cut her off.

"I don't care if you're messengers from God himself," the voice boomed. 
"You're in a restricted area without permission.  If you two think you
know what trouble is, I'll give you a clue.  You don't even know the
meaning of the word."

With the loudspeaker blaring through his head, Mulder heard the footsteps
behind him a split second too late.  He turned just in time to see a
shadowy figure swing an arm toward Dana's head.  "NO!" he shouted as he
heard the sickeningly dull thump of the impact and watched Dana drop like
a stone to the desert floor.  He moved to grapple with the figure, seizing
the arm of the man who'd gotten out of the Jeep when it first stopped. 
They were still struggling when the Jeep's other occupant struck Mulder on
the side of the head with the butt of his pistol.  Mulder joined Dana in an
untidy heap.

"Load 'em up," the driver said.  As soon as these two were delivered to
the holding area, that was the end of his responsibility.  He had no idea
what would happen to them after that, and quite frankly he didn't want to
know.  Years of working at this installation had taxed his conscience to
the limit, and he was constantly thankful that his need to know wasn't all
that great. Deliberately curbing his curiosity was about the only thing
that let the sergeant sleep at night.

******

Pain.  That was her first conscious thought.  A giant, echoing pain in her
head.  Dana tried to bring her hands up to cradle her aching head, but
found that she was unable to move them.  Her hands had been bound behind
her back.  Not handcuffs, but something that felt like strapping tape.  A
little experimenting told her that her feet were also bound at the ankles
and she'd been left laying on her side.  At first she thought they were
still in the desert darkness, but she realized that she had been
blindfolded.  Curiously, though, she had not been gagged.  Well, at least
she could use her voice.

"Mulder?" she called out cautiously.  "Mulder, you there?"

Her question was met by a quiet groan, and then she felt someone stir
beside her.  "Scully, are you ok?" Mulder muttered.

"Except for my head, I'm fine," she replied.  "How about you?"

"Same here."  Mulder tried to move his arms and legs, repeating the
movements Dana had made only seconds earlier.  "My hands and ankles are
tied and I'm blindfolded.  You, too?"

Dana resisted the urge to nod, and not only because she knew Mulder
wouldn't be able to see her. She figured that any sharp movement of her
head would only increase the headache that had now settled in between her
temples.  "Me, too," she replied.  "Funny.  They don't want us to see
anything, but apparently they don't care if we talk to each other."

"Maybe that's a good sign, Scully.  We can't talk about what we haven't
seen, so we're no threat to them."  Mulder was about to say something else
when he heard something that made him freeze -- another groan.

"Oh, man, what a king size headache," a man's voice complained softly. 
Mulder recognized it as Gary and his heart sank.  They must have been
waiting for us, he thought.  How stupid to think I could get in here
without being seen.  Mulder just hoped they didn't all pay for his
stupidity with their lives.

"Gary?" Dana called out softly.  "What happened?"

"Somebody grabbed me in the tunnel and drug me out.  Skinny little dude,
but man, that guy was strong.  He cold cocked me as soon as he pulled me
out into the open."  Gary paused for a minute.  "Hey, look guys, I'm real
sorry.  I guess my secret little tunnel wasn't so secret after all."

Any further conversation was interrupted by the sound of a door opening
and footsteps echoing off the hard concrete floor.  Mulder felt himself
lifted bodily off the floor and deposited none too gently on a hard,
straight-backed chair.  His arms were secured to the back of the chair. 
From the sounds he heard, the same process was being repeated with Dana
and Gary.

Without warning his captor ripped off the tape that had been covering his
eyes.  Mulder winced in pain, then found himself squinting up into the
face of the alien bounty hunter.  "You just don't give up, do you?" the
alien commented, shaking his head in mock sadness.  "And here I thought I
killed you the last time we met."

The bounty hunter moved next to Mulder, untaping Dana and Gary's eyes as
he went.  "I don't recognize this one," he said pausing in front of Gary,
"but I do remember the woman.  Feisty little thing.  At least she got me
what I wanted."  Dana watched in amazement as the alien changed shapes
right in front of her eyes, and she found herself staring at an alien
Mulder.  "I don't know why you didn't trust me, Scully," the fake Mulder
purred.  "You're the only one I trust."  

"What the hell are you, man?" Gary cried.  His face had lost all color,
his eyes wide with fright.

The alien turned to look at Gary, and it changed forms once again, only
this time into something not even remotely human.  "I'm what you've been
looking for out here all along," it said, although for the life of her
Dana couldn't see a mouth anywhere in that alien form.  She wondered if
they were finally seeing its true shape.  An appendage snaked out toward
Gary, and horrified, Gary shrunk away from it. "You should be happy.  Most
people don't ever realize their life's ambitions, do they, Mr. Mulder?" the
alien asked as it reshaped itself into the familiar form of Deep Throat. 
It laughed at Mulder's stricken reaction to this latest recreation of
itself.  "You singular shaped life forms are so much fun to play with, so
easy to scare. And now that I've completed my primary mission, I can take
a little time for recreational activities."

The bounty hunter strode back and forth in front of his captives, then
seemed to come to a decision.  "You wanted to know what I am?" he asked
Gary.  Terrified, Gary was unable to shake his head either 'yes' or
'no'.  The alien transformed itself into a well known movie star.  "I'm
your worst nightmare," it said as it pulled a gun from its belt and shot
Gary in the temple at point blank range.  The impact knocked Gary sideways
and the chair tipped over.  Gary was dead before he hit the floor.

"You son of a bitch!" Mulder screamed at the alien, straining at his
bonds.  He knew how to kill it, if he could only get free.

Dana turned her face away from the gruesome scene on the floor next to
her.  She wondered if that was what was in store for her and Mulder.  Her
blood felt like ice in her veins and she tried hard to stop the shaking
that was threatening to overwhelm her.  She and Mulder were inside a crazy
funhouse ride with an alien lunatic at the controls, and any turn could be
their last.  Not since Duane Barry had locked her in the trunk of his car
had Dana felt this helpless.

"Let's see, who's next?" the alien asked, waving the gun back and forth
between them.  "Maybe it should be you, Agent Mulder.  See what happens
when you don't follow the book?"  Mulder found himself staring at an alien
Walter Skinner, without the glasses.  Apparently there were some
limitations to the alien's shape shifting ability.  Mulder had no idea
what good that little bit of insight would do him. 

"Or maybe it should be you, Agent Scully," the alien said, turning its
attention to Dana and changing shapes once again.  My god, Mulder thought,
they even know who Scully's mother is. "Your dad and I never wanted you to
go into the FBI," the false Margaret Scully admonished Dana.  "See what
happens?"  

Dana stared back at the alien, her face ashen with shock, but a terrible
determination was etched in her features.  "You're not my mother," she
hissed.  "Just like you aren't Skinner and you aren't Deep Throat."

"Obviously," the alien replied.  "But the question is, can you be sure
that they're who they say they are?  And who am I, really?  This form," it
said, changing back into the familiar bounty hunter, "or perhaps this is my
true form."  Taking the place of the bounty hunter was the smaller,
feminine shape that Mulder had come to call his sister, Samantha.  "Is
this really me, Fox?" Samantha asked.  "How can you, with your limited
senses, possibly tell what is real and what isn't?"

Mulder had no answer and he refused to play into the alien's game.  He
merely stared at the vision of his sister with eyes that reflected the
aching emptiness in his heart. 

"I told you she was still alive, and she is," the alien Samantha
continued.  "But she's not here.  Nothing here is going to help you find
her.  It's all been a waste, such a terrible waste."  Samantha shook her
head sadly back and forth, as if commiserating with the futility of his
search and its drastic consequences.  The alien brought the gun up slowly,
pointing it at Mulder's head.

"NO!" Dana screamed.  Her horrified eyes found Mulder's, and he returned
her stare with a quiet resignation.  She wanted to turn away -- she
couldn't watch this -- but she couldn't abandon him.  She knew death was
not the end, but that knowledge gave her little comfort now.

"Stop!" a voice commanded from the doorway.  The alien snarled in
frustration, reverting to the bounty hunter shape.  Almost regretfully it
lowered the weapon to its side and moved away from the two bound humans. 
Mulder closed his eyes and let go of the breath he hadn't even realized
he'd been holding.

"Krycek?" Dana asked in disbelief as the new figure entered the room.  She
felt like Alice through the looking glass.  At this point she wouldn't have
been surprised if Krycek turned into a huge white rabbit with a pocket
watch dangling from his waistcoat.

"You can call me that if you want," the man replied, "but we both know
that's not who I really am."  He walked over to Gary's body, checked for a
pulse even though it was clearly evident that the man was dead, then turned
to the bounty hunter with a look of disgust.  "Leave us," he commanded. 
Without another word the bounty hunter left the room, closing the door
behind him.

Krycek straightened and walked over to Mulder.  "Appearances can be
deceiving, can't they, Mr. Mulder?" he asked.

"You," Mulder breathed, "you were the one who gave me the tape.  But why?"

"I think you can figure that out," the false Krycek replied.  "This
installation was built by the U.S. government, yet we walk around it with
impunity, coming and going as we please."  He gestured toward Gary's
body.  "We kill those who try to gain access to these grounds.   Legends
and folklore abound about this place, but no one knows the truth.  You
have enough information now to deduct the truth, Agent Mulder.  And with
the resources of the Bureau, you have the ability to uncover the truth."

"Is that why you didn't let him kill us?" Mulder asked.

"Even among my species there are those who kill for the sport of it,"
Krycek replied with disgust.  "With no current assignments, he became
bored.  He thinks you are easy prey, but I couldn't allow him to kill
either of you.  You both are much too visible, Agent Mulder.  The Bureau
would have torn this place apart investigating your disappearance and I
can't have that.  The other man?"  Krycek shrugged.  "He was just a
nobody.  Although I would have preferred to let him live to tell stories
that no one would believe, his disappearance will be written off to an
accident in the mines.  The authorities may conduct a cursory
investigation of the mining tunnels, but they'll do little more than that."

"I don't understand," Dana said.  "You didn't kill us because you want to
avoid an FBI investigation, yet at the same time you seem to be inviting
us to investigate."

"Yes, curious, isn't it?" the alien replied.  "Let's just say we all have
superiors, Agent Scully, and I can't afford to take any direct action that
would anger mine."

"You don't like whatever's going on here, do you?" Dana asked with sudden
insight.  "But you're too afraid to do anything about it, so you want us
to do your dirty work for you."  Now that she understood his intentions,
Dana's fear melted into anger.  "You led us around by the nose through
this whole mess, nearly got us killed..."

"You seem to forget that I was the one who saved your lives," Krycek
reminded her.

"Only the 'important' ones," Dana said bitterly, remembering the alien's
description of Gary as a 'nobody'.

"Where is my sister?" Mulder interrupted quietly.  "You must know."

The alien returned Mulder's gaze, and Dana was surprised to see compassion
on its face.  "I have seen her, Agent Mulder, but I don't know where she is
being kept now.  While I do have some authority here, I am not privy to
everything.  I'm sorry."

Mulder closed his eyes, his mouth drawn down in a thin line of pain.  Dana
caught the almost imperceptible droop in his shoulders and her heart
tightened painfully in her chest.  She looked away, letting Mulder deal
with his sorrow and disappointment in as much privacy as circumstances
allowed.

"What happens now?" she asked.

"Something unpleasant, I'm afraid," the false Krycek replied. 
"Unpleasant, but very necessary."

Dana tensed as she saw him pull an unfamiliar instrument from his
pocket.  He pointed it at her and touched a button.  Color drained from
the world as an enormous pain lanced through Dana's skull.  She tried not
to scream, but she had no idea whether she succeeded.  Finally even the
greys disappeared from view until all she saw was black.  With her head
threatening to explode, Dana dove for the welcome oblivion of
unconsciousness.

******

They woke up in their own rental car.  It was still parked in the dirt
parking lot outside the Little A Le Inn, right where they'd left it. 
Highly disoriented when they awoke, it took both of them several minutes
to recognize their surroundings, and several more minutes to make sure
they were both in one piece.

Mulder felt like his head was stuffed with fluffy white cotton, and his
usually quick mind was sluggish.  For a moment he couldn't even remember
who he was, and when that fact finally clicked into place, then he
couldn't remember how he'd gotten to the car.  For someone blessed -- or
cursed -- with a photographic memory, being unable to remember something
was the height of frustration.  Dana was pinching the bridge of her nose,
a frown creasing her forehead.  She must be having the same problems I am,
he thought.

"What time is it?" Dana managed to croak.  Every joint in her body ached,
and her throat felt raspy and dry.

Mulder looked at his watch.  "9:30," he replied through a throat that felt
as dry as sandpaper and just as scratchy.  He had to squint against the
bright desert sunshine, so that meant it was 9:30 in the morning.  The big
question was 9:30 on what day.  He felt around in his pockets for the keys
to the car but came up empty.  Then he noticed that the key was in the
ignition.  He turned the key and the motor purred into life.  He left the
car in park and switched on the radio, hoping to find a news channel.  No
luck.  He turned off the car.

"What's the last thing you remember, Mulder? Do you know how we got here?"
Dana asked.

 He frowned, trying to drag the memory to the surface.  "I remember
Krycek, or what looked like Krycek, pointing something at you.  You
screamed and slumped over. He turned the same thing on me and that's the
last I remember."  Mulder felt his back pocket.  At least his wallet was
still there.  "Look, I'm going to go in there and get us something to
drink.  Maybe they'll have a paper and we can find out what day it is."

"Sounds good," Dana muttered, leaning her head back against the seat and
closing her eyes as Mulder left the car.  Her own memories of what had
happened to them were fuzzy and disjointed.  Although she remembered what
Mulder had just described, it seemed unreal, like something out of a
dream, everything except the pain.  That she remembered with crystal
clarity.  The device must have projected directed sound waves at us, the
clinical part of her mind reasoned, strong enough to cause pain and to
make us pass out, not quite strong enough to kill us.  She wondered
whether the device could be adjusted up from 'stun' to 'kill', just like
in the old Star Trek tv shows.

Dana had just started to relax when it all came back in a jumble... all
the sights, sounds, smells, and memories.  She jerked awake, her eyes
flying open, as she remembered Gary being shot dead right next to her,
certain that it would be her turn next, or Mulder's.  She wrapped her arms
around herself and shivered.

Mulder came back to the car looking shaken, and Dana knew that he'd just
experienced his own memory overload.  He produced two cups of coffee and
two muffins from a brown paper bag, and unfolded a Las Vegas newspaper. 
"It's Tuesday," he said.  "All of that happened to us in just one day."

"I remember, too," she said.  She stared down at her coffee.  "No one will
ever find his body, will they, Mulder?"  

He knew she was talking about Gary.  He shook his head.  "It's a big
desert, Scully.  They'll dump him somewhere, or maybe put him in a shallow
grave.  Some other desert rat may find his skeleton in a few years.  They
know we can't talk about it.  Who would believe us?"

"I'm not sure I would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own
eyes."  She looked at her wrists, still rubbed raw in places from the tape
she'd been tied with.  "Even then I might have believed it was a
hallucination except for this.  You know, when you told me what happened
in the Arctic, that the bounty hunter had taken the submarine to make it
back to his ship, I'd convinced myself that it was all over, that he'd
eliminated the colony and left, and that they were all gone."  She peered
out into the flat expanse of desert beyond the tacky little diner.  "But
it's not.  They're still out there, aren't they?"

Mulder didn't reply; he didn't need to.  He started the car and drove out
of the parking lot, leaving Rachel, Nevada, and Area 51 behind in the dust.

******

Epilog

Excerpt from the field journal of Special Agent Fox Mulder:

"The alien allowed Scully and I to live because of our association with
the FBI, while Gary was callously murdered.  This has caused me to rethink
my decision to leave the Bureau.  While working within the confines placed
upon me by others who do not believe is a constant irritant and the
political games are almost more than I can tolerate, the Bureau allows me
to exercise certain authority and maintain a visibility I would not
otherwise have in civilian life.  Perhaps I can use my family's money to
assist my search while still working within the framework of the FBI.  I
must admit to a small, guilty pleasure at the idea of using the money to
continue my search for Samantha after my parents have all but given up.

"Scully and I will be returning to work within the time frame Skinner
allotted us, so no administrative action should be taken against her.  I
would not want her association with me to affect her chances of eventual
advancement within the Bureau.

"With regard to Area 51, installation personnel have no doubt sealed the
tunnels and caves that we used to enter the grounds.  Even with the use of
underground tunnels to gain access to the base, satellite surveillance and
base security were able to detect us almost immediately.  Unless an
alternative route to the base compound can be found, access to Area 51 in
the future seems doubtful.

"We were given pieces of the puzzle that is Area 51 and told to figure it
out.  Elements which form the solution include evidence that aliens have
begun to colonize our planet, and the certain knowledge that aliens who
can change shapes at will are in positions of authority at Area 51. Is
Area 51 such a colony?  It would seem to be a perfect place to build a
colony, hidden away from the scrutiny of mankind.  Or is it more sinister
than that? Consider - the government does not admit that Area 51 exists,
and in order to protect that secret has authorized the use of deadly force
to defend its boundaries, a clear violation of the constitutional rights of
its citizens.  Perhaps those who built Area 51, who passed the laws and
wrote the regulations for the military to follow in its defense of this
installation, the very people at the highest levels of power, are not who
they appear to be.  It is possible that our alien visitors are not content
to merely wait for us to forfeit our stewardship of this planet.  Maybe
they're trying to help us along down the road to destruction.

"In this country the government has given the military a great deal of
power and discretion in its use of force to keep this nation safe from
those who would harm it.  However, from personal experience I know that
there are beings in this universe who can assume any shape and identity
they want at will, and who are in positions of power at Area 51, and who
may be in positions of power elsewhere in our government.  The question
then becomes exactly which species the military serves."

Mulder closed his field journal and stuffed it in the pocket of his carry
on luggage.  It was dark outside the window of the jet and he could only
see scattered lights on the ground far below, but he figured by this time
they must be somewhere over Tennessee. 

Next to him, Dana let out a soft snore.  Mulder grinned at her, pulling
the blanket up around her shoulders.  In all the time he'd known her,
she'd never slept on a plane.  Trading places, are we? he wondered.  More
than likely it was that she'd finally discovered that there were things in
the universe scarier than flying, and if she could survive that, she could
survive a simple cross-country plane trip.  Dana moved around in her
sleep, ending up with her head pillowed on his shoulder.  At least one of
us can sleep, he thought wearily.

He usually had no trouble sleeping on the planes, especially night
flights, but sleep had eluded him this time.  Maybe he was still too keyed
up from the last couple of days, or maybe, just maybe, the dimensions of
what he'd just outlined in his journal had scared the shit out of him. 
Looking out into the darkness, he wondered if he would ever sleep again.

*******

Author's note: The characters in this story, with the exception of Gary,
are the creation and property of Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen Productions,
and Fox Broadcasting and no copyright infringement is intended.

I want to thank Em for suggesting the locale of this story.  I have to
tell you, writing about Area 51 made me a little nervous.  As with most X
File stories, I took a few facts and added a lot of supposition.  Although
I live in Nevada, I have never been to Rachel, but a few people I know have
been there and I relied on their input (as well as the souvenirs they
brought back with them).  I also relied heavily on the information
contained in "Larry King Live from Area 51".

Finally, I would also like to thank Melissa, Rhoda, and Robert for their
comments and suggestions, not to mention my family for putting up with my
strange writing hours.  Enjoy!