Joining Ties, part 4/4 By Jody (Jody0042.aol.com) See disclaimer and all that junk in part 1. "If I'm on my knees I'm begging now. If I'm on my knees, groping in the dark, I'd be praying for deliverance from the night into the day..." -Natalie Merchant JOINING TIES PART 4 Scully opened her eyes. The world looked unnaturally blurry. She groaned and tried to shift to an upright position. Then, a SMACK! and a searing pain through her entire face. When Jim Harris took his shoe away from her, the toe sole had blood on it. He swiftly kicked her again, in the stomach this time. The blood from her nose and the cut on her forehead was soaked up by the gag. Scully squeezed her eyes shut tight, trying to make it all go away. *** One day later "Jim Harris, Jim Harris, Jim Harris, come on, where are you you son of a bitch?" Mulder mumbled, flipping through the records at the sanitarium. He finally found the one marked, "Harris, Jim Robert." He flipped through the notes. It said the same thing over and over. He said he was abducted, he said he was hurting everywhere, he said he died after two days but they brought him back to life. Duane Barry had returned to the site of his abduction with Scully, as had many other abductees. Perhaps this man was doing the same. He saw a note from a nurse on one page. "Mention Dark Eyes." "Detective? What's the significance of Dark Eyes?" "Dark Eyes are two boulders on a mountain side a couple miles from here. Can only be reached by foot." *** Scully's stomach was no longer growling. She hadn't eaten in over a day, but she didn't have the strength or will power to ask for food or water anymore. Her entire body was covered with cuts and bruises. Perhaps it was better that Mulder wasn't here. But the girl had told her to tell Mulder how much she truly loved him. She hadn't, and now she was going to die here. Her thoughts ceased when Jim's boot came down on the back of her head. And Scully let death take her where it wanted. *** When Mulder returned to his apartment, he found the girl inside waiting for him. "What are you doing here?" "I must come with you. Tonight is the Harvest, tonight Dana will be taken and I must be there. I have alerted everybody." "As in 3% of the population." "Yes." "Is Scully alive?" "Yes, she is alive. But she has given up the fight for it." "For life?" "Yes. She knows that if she dies, you will most likely live. If you were in her position, you would choose her life over your own torture, your own pain, would you not?" *** When Mulder organized an extensive police force, he ordered a separate car for the girl and himself. By the time each car was on its way, the sun was setting. "It will be dark soon. Tonight is the Harvest. Can we arrive at the Dark Eyes before dark, Fox?" "We should be there an hour after the sun sets." The girl paused, staring out the window in thought. "I will be taken tonight, too, Fox. I, alone, know the truth." "And which truth would that be?" "Everything involved with the abductors. I know more than all your government officials. That's why I am a leader, the leader. And I will most likely not be returning alive. And that is why I must tell you the truth. But, I cannot give you anything without your consent." "Why would I NOT give my consent?" Both sighed. "Very well. I suppose I should start with my own project as it is perhaps the easiest to explain. For any one person, I am involved in the most highly classified and perhaps the most important and difficult project yet completed. Of the four most important projects, I am the only test subject for three of them." Right away, Mulder could feel his respect for the girl increase. "My projects are also the oldest still in operation. "You see me here as a fifteen-year old girl. This body is that old. But I, I am truly much older. I do not have any memory of what happened before I was...oh, how can I say it...transferred. I do not even know if I was human before. I could be a truly functional human-alien hybrid, as far as I know. Even I do not have access to the records of my previous existences. "This is my first project. Transmitting the personality of an organism into another living body. That project is closely linked to my second project, actually initiated before the first. And that is cloning an organism without having the same physical features. I am a clone transferred to another body. I know this may seem very incredible to you, but keep in mind, I am only one person among millions. "My third project you may find more interesting. It is implanting, in a way, the abilities of a person gifted with extra-sensory perception and links not yet identified. It was initiated based on the theory that all humans possess this gift, it is a part of their minds. But it takes a long time to develop before birth and only very late children have the gift. "Through many surgeries and multiple implants in the area of my brain associated with ESP, I have been artificially given the gift. It was engineered, however, so that I could only communicate with certain people. All abductees recieve implants. And through those implants, I can send messages. I can send images or words, but through some quirk of nature, my body does not feel emotions. Theoretically, I could send emotions as well, but as I have never experienced them, I have no way of doing this. "Another quirk that was discovered was that the abductees could not respond back to me. It's only one way. And here's where the most interesting part comes in." "Oh, yeah, good. It's been incredibly boring so far," Mulder remarked sarcastically. He could think of many worse things to say and was aching to say them, but by this time, he had grown to fear and respect the child more. "Another branch of the project was initiated 20 years ago. It was to manipulate existing brain tissue to give the subject the ability to recieve and send messages to any living organism. She once joked that now, she could be able to apologize to the grass for years of stepping on it. I do believe you know her. Or knew her. She was also involved in another branch of my clone project. Unfortunetely, hers was unsuccessful." "Who is she?" "I believe you are familiar with Samantha Ann Mulder." Mulder froze. "Samantha was being given ESP through highly specialized brain surgery. "Your sister and I are, I suppose, equal in authority among abductees. She communicates with those unreturned, and I am in control of those here. Of course, soon, I will be relieved of my position." "I have a question. If you're so important, why are they killing you?" "They aren't. They're holding me for study and witholding the result from the government here. They're trying to put a damper on technological advancement on Earth, due to the uncooperation from the government. "And, as you could expect, the government is not happy. At this moment, they're kidnapping as many abductees as they possibly can and literally sucking the information from them. Many in major cities are already dead. "What we have here, Fox, is a holocaust. Two powerful forces versus the innocent civilians of this planet." She looked out the window. The sun was gone from the sky. "And it is too late to prevent the slaughter that is to come." Mulder nodded grimly. "What about Scully? What did they do to her?" "Well, they didn't involve her in any big experiments. As you know, she was abducted to anger you, to destroy you. Without her, you would destroy yourself and they know that. She's your greatest soft spot, that's easy to see. And the last thing you would want for her would be to have her in pain. So that's exactly what they did to her." Mulder's eyes were burning already from heartache. "They just wanted more information on the human species. In her case," the girl paused, "pain tolerance. They knew if you ever found out exactly what tests she was subjected to, you would drive yourself mad with rage, fear and guilt. She basically went through every test they could think of testing for physical pain. They then discovered that her DNA contained an amazingly low number of flaws. Her DNA was then experimented upon, trying to find why that was. They found nothing interesting and, being done with the tests, sent her back to you. The government figured she wouldn't live and if she did, she would live terribly. They did not erase her memory. But, by sheer luck, the coma erased most of it. And the rest of it was naturally buried deep inside her. I was very glad to hear that. Few times is anybody subjected to everything she was. You have no idea, Fox. Worst of all," hatred, the first emotion she had displayed, burned in her voice, "even though they have stress and pain monitors and could put her out, they made sure she was fully conscious through the ordeal." Mulder's eyes were glistening with tears. "Perhaps I shouldn't have told you." "No, no. Telling the truth is always better than hiding it, no matter what it does to me." He glanced up the road. "We're almost there." *** Scully's eyes opened slowly. Fire and ice coursed through her, making her writhe on the ground like a fish out of water. Jim Harris looked on without compassion. He rubbed his hands together nervously. Within the hour, he would be gone. But he might not kill her. They might finish the job for him. *** "All right, now you *must* stay in the car. Is Scully awake?" "Yes, she is awake." "Could you send her a message?" "What?" "Tell her..." Mulder paused. There was so much he wanted to tell her. "Tell her I'm right here, and it will be all over soon. Promise her that she'll be okay and that I'll make sure she's safe. And tell her to never give up." *** As Dana's eyes were flickering closed again, the girl was in her mind. **Dana, don't answer. Fox is right outside and he's coming to get you. It'll be all over soon, just hang on. He promises you'll be okay. He promises you'll be safe, Dana. For both your sakes, don't give up. Fight the dark.** And she was gone. Scully forced her eyes open again. She looked up over the top of one boulder to watch the moon drift lazily across the sky. *** Mulder's lungs were screaming at him to stop. But he couldn't. Scully, Dana, she was close. He was so close to her he could almost *feel* it. The branches tore at his face as he and the other police units ran through the trees. He looked briefly up at the sky. he repeated over and over in his mind. A police officer up ahead gave the signal to stop. Mulder drew his gun and stayed below the thick branches as the men moved along slowly. He silently crawled ahead to lay close to the ground by a detective. And he saw the Dark Eyes. They were two boulders, a story tall with a couple yards in between them. They were almost perfectly round, both of them. In between the Dark Eyes, he saw a fire blazing. One figure was pacing nervously. Only one. Mulder looked at the sky. He brought his gun up and aimed carefully at the man. "Agent Mulder, *what* are you doing?" the detective hissed. "Shh!" He looked through his sight again, aiming. His finger slightly trembling, he got ready to pull the trigger. BANG!! The sound echoed throughout the forest. Jim Harris fell down. "GO! GO!" Mulder shouted, racing to the campsite. He was almost there when, to his dismay, Jim picked himself up and limped around one boulder. When Mulder came around, gun in the air, he froze. Jim was standing, holding Scully in front of him. He had a knife at her throat. Her hands were bound behind her back and her feet tied at the ankles. Her gag was soaked with blood, as were her torn clothes. One eye was swollen shut and one side of her face as black as the sky and unnaturally puffy. She was covered with wounds, mostly scratches and bruises. Nothing serious, but as her good eye was squeezed shut with pain, he knew serious injury had not been the intention. "Every test for physical pain they could think of...fully conscious through the ordeal..." The girl's words echoed in Mulder's mind. "Put the knife down, Jim." Mulder started walking towards the man. "STOP! One more step and it'll be her blood on your clothes, FBI!" "Jim, you know what's going to happen tonight, don't you?" "SHUT UP or I'll slit her throat, I swear I will!!" He saw Scully's trembling lips move to form one word. "Mulder." All he heard was a ragged gasp, but he knew she was pleading with him. He just didn't know whether she was asking to live or die. "Let her go, Jim," came a voice from behind Harris. Jim's eyes widened. Mulder recognized the voice coming from behind Jim and Scully, even though he couldn't see the girl. "Jim, I KNOW what you went through. And in less than five minutes from now, you will go through it again. Do yourself a favor and let her go." "Do myself a favor?" Jim had moved to position himself further out in waist-high field grass, watching Mulder and the girl at the same time. "Jim, if you let her go, she'll suffer pain. If you slit your throat nice and quick, you'll not go back there again. If you kill her, she'll be in a peaceful place and you...you'll be back on the experimentation table." **Do you understand me, Jim? I have connections. Unless you let her go, I'll have them set you up for much worse than you got last time. No anesthetics this time around, more tests than you imagined existed. All you have to do to avoid that is take your arms off of her, back off and end it all with one quick movement. Right through the windpipe. Or else, the pain you'll have to endure will be much worse than the one second of pain before you die.** Jim looked at the girl, his eyes wide and full of terror. "One last time, Jim, before I tie with them and give them some new requests. LET HER GO." Haltingly, Jim released Scully. She fell to the ground as if she weighed no more than a feather. Mulder felt the impulse to rush to her side, but couldn't until Jim backed off. Suddenly, the entire sky was filled with a bright light. Mulder looked on in terror. "NOO!!!!! SCULLY!!!" He ran forward to her as the knife cut through Jim's throat. Harris wheezed and fell to the ground. Scully lifted her head, fear and anguish in her eyes. Fear and anguish to match Mulder's. Before he could take another step, he felt himself paralyzed. He fell to the ground, as did every police officer in the clearing. "SCULLY!! PLEASE, NO!! *DANA*!!!!!" He was half screaming and half sobbing. Scully stood and the blinding light focused on her. As she felt herself being lifted, invisible being brushing around her, Scully realized that this was her last chance to tell him before she died. "I love you, Mulder. I love you more than anything," she said, simply and clearly. The light filled the clearing, blinding Mulder. He turned to see the girl. The light was starting to surround her, too. She looked up at the sky, then back down at Mulder. And for the first time in her life, she smiled. And then the light was gone and everything was black. *** "...Agent Mulder? Agent Mulder, can you hear me?" Mulder blinked his eyes open and saw a police officer standing over him. "What...what happened?" "I don't know, there was a bright light and then everybody here was knocked unconscious. Nobody has any idea what's going on." And then, the memory came back to Mulder's weary mind. "Scully!!" He leaped up. "Agent Mulder, we've found no trace of Agent Scully." "Are you sure?" "Yes, we're sure. Jim Harris is over there, dead. The girl you brought has disappeared, too." The tears came back to Mulder's eyes. When he spoke, it was barely a whisper. "She's gone. Oh God, she's gone." And he wept. This time, he didn't care who saw him. *** "Agent Mulder, please, we desperately need your help!" "Please, sir, we don't know what to do!" "What the hell is going on?" The police continued to shout at Mulder in the station. As he'd expected, many people in Denver had disappeared, at precisely the same time as Scully. He knew what was going on, but wasn't about to tell them. "There's nothing you can do," he repeated. Then, over the shouts, came one man's distressed plea. "Everybody, PLEASE BE QUIET!! PLEASE! NEWS HAS JUST COME IN ON THE TV!!" The room quieted and the TV was turned up. "...This is Sam Donaldson reporting a worldwide crisis. Every country is in a state of national alarm. Worldwide, in the period of about half an hour, an estimated 159 million people have disappeared, many from their own homes. To put that into perspective, it's as if half of the United States all disappearing at once. The FBI and CIA are already investigating and a member of the United States senate is among those missing. Nobody has an explanation for this bizarre occurrence which has already rocked the world. This is the greatest crisis in the history of man. Almost worse than nuclear war, for in this battle, we cannot see the enemy. Here are some reporters on location..." And then, pictures of frenzied people dashing through the streets of cites such as Tokyo, Moscow, Jerusalem and Washington, DC. They were screaming about "light" and loved ones gone in the blink of an eye. Mulder got up and promptly left the room, leaving the Denver police force to gape at the horrific scene unfolding before them. Mulder couldn't forget her last words to him. "I love you, Mulder. I love you more than anything." Mulder bought a plane ticket back to Washington and found himself staring in an odd way at his gun. He couldn't help but want to be where she was. With her there, Heaven was now complete. END OF PART 4 END OF JOINING TIES There is a sequel, hopefully it'll be out soon. I'm gonna take this opportunity to thank my ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL editors! This story is as much by them as by me, I swear! Oh boy, let's see if I can remember this (I'm awful at names!) Meghan, Steph, Kristen, Jenni, another Kristen, love y'all and infinite thanks!!!!