Chapter 3: Something
Scully’s Apartment
“When?” Scully asked into the intense silence which followed the end of the tape recording.
“After…” Mulder stopped to clear his throat. “After…”
“Melissa Reedell…?” Scully cut in insightfully and Mulder nodded.
“I had to know more…to search for…” He shrugged depreciatively. “…Something.” He pointed to the tape player. “After that one…” He sighed. “I snapped out of it and I couldn’t go back under.”
Scully hung her head. She didn’t want to believe it.
“That’s what the voice was saying wasn’t it?” Mulder asked and Scully looked over at him. “Avicia?” Their eyes locked as he said the word. Scully nodded. “It was your name. Your name in that lifetime.”
“No.” Scully shook her head vehemently denying it. Mulder clasped her shoulders roughly and forced her to look at him.
“You can’t deny it this time.” He stated firmly. “I recorded that tape years ago and you never knew about it. I didn’t know about your dreams until last night. That’s *proof* Scully. It’s absolute proof.”
“Proof of what?” She exclaimed. “Mulder, you claimed you were Merlin!”
“Not The Merlin Scully – not Merlin as in King Arthur – *a* Merlin. It was a title, like a priest or a holy man.” He clarified.
“And the ‘Circle of Truth’? That’s a little convient isn’t it?” She countered sarcastically. Mulder sighed.
“I haven’t been able to find out anything about them but records for non-Christian groups in 1121 are a little patchy! That’s why members of the group would have been burnt, they would have been accused of being witches.”
“You’re seriously saying that you think I was burnt as a witch?” Scully felt her heart sinking. She did not believe. Mulder nodded sadly.
“Yes and I was forced to watch without being able to help you.” He looked so serious when he said it but Scully just frowned and gave a sardonic smile.
“That’s 800 years of guilt you’re claiming there.” She pointed out. Mulder ignored the statement.
“You need to go for regression Scully.”
“No way.” She said immediately.
“You *have* to.” He grabbed her arm and held her wrist in front of her face. The welts were going down but there was still a band of contused tissue around the entirety of her wrist. “That’s gonna keep happening until you face it.” He dropped her arm.
“I don’t believe in regression Mulder.” She sighed. “It’s all fantasy.”
“And I suppose that bruise and those burns are fantasy too.” He shook his head. “Look Scully, what does it matter if it’s fantasy. If you play it out with someone it shouldn’t matter whether it’s the truth or not. It’ll get it out of your system. You *have* to do it because you can’t go on like this.”
“No, I don’t believe in it.” She replied firmly.
“Fine.” Mulder said as he stood up and walked away. Scully was shocked.
“Where are you going?” She demanded.
“Home.” He stated. “Since none of this is real, you don’t need me here to protect you.”
“Mulder…” She called but he left the room. She collapsed back onto the bed, closed her eyes and sighed deeply.
“Oh yeah and Scully,” She opened her eyes to see him in the doorway. “Tomorrow *I’m* gonna get myself regressed. Even if you’re too scared to face the past, I’m not. It’s up to you whether you come with me.” He left again. Scully punched the pillow.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The Offices of Dr. Simon Penderghast
Hypnotic Regression Therapist
Friday
11:11
Watching the bright sunlight streamed in through the plastic strips of the venetian blind Scully felt like she was in a bad movie. Mulder was sat in a leather armchair with his eyes closed whilst Dr. Penderghast spoke soothingly to him. Scully wasn’t listening to what he was saying, her attention was focused entirely on Mulder’s face. Thankfully after he’d left, her sleep had been peaceful and uninterrupted. She’d woken up this morning without a mark on her.
Scully had no idea how Mulder had fixed his presence here with Skinner. She had already been signed off work for a week by her doctor because of the bizarre incident with the burns the day before. Her doctor had given her some pills to take in addition to the usual ones she was taking. The doctor thought it was connected to her cancer. Scully knew that it wasn’t.
“I want you to tell me who you are and what you see.” Dr. Penderghast said at length and Scully began to pay attention. Mulder frowned and sighed.
“My name is Kieron Fox.” He said. “My family have a farm in the vale of Embasingstoc in the Norman manor of Basing.”
“You’re a farmer?”
“Yes, but when the moon is full I am the Merlin of Circle of Truth. It’s the time of the harvest and the Circle is meeting for the festival of praise to the Ancients.”
“What *is* the Circle of Truth?” Penderghast asked and Mulder laughed.
“The Circle is symbol of the power which has existed in the land for all eternity. We preserve the knowledge of the Ancients who built the great stone circle on the Plain.”
“And the people who make up the Circle?”
“We are the Twelve.”
“A jury of twelve.” Scully murmured and raised an eyebrow. “Twelve disciples.” She mused randomly.
“Do you know their names?”
“I can’t say their real names, only they could tell you that.”
“Christian names.” Scully muttered to Penderghast.
“What about their Christian names?”
“As I sit in the meeting place by the waterfall, above the valley, Avicia is on my right; she is Scully.”
Scully dipped her head and bit her lip.
“My sister Anne is next to her; she is Krycek.”
Scully raised her head suddenly to look at him. The truth and Krycek, an odd combination. “Twelve disciples, one Judas.” Under her breath.
“Next is Matthew; he is Scully’s sister, Melissa.”
The air felt jammed out of Scully’s lungs.
“Then John; he is my sister, Samantha.”
The air seemed to grow thinner, starving Scully of oxygen.
“Then Maybelle; she is Melissa Reedell.”
Scully felt dizzy.
“Lea; she is Frohike.”
She felt sick.
“Megan; she is Langley.”
Scully placed her hand over her mouth, desperately wanting him to stop.
“William; he is…” Mulder said.
“Byers.” Mulder and Scully said together.
“Arthur; he is…” Mulder said.
“Max Fenig.” Mulder and Scully said together.
“Marius; he is Margaret Scully.” Mulder said.
“Mom.” Scully said as a sob simultaneously.
“On my left is Lynsey; she is…” Mulder said.
“Skinner.” Mulder and Scully said together.
“Are you alright?” Penderghast said aside to Scully. “Should I stop? Do you want to leave?”
“No.” Scully whispered back. “I’m okay.”
“Tell me about this valley.” Penderghast instructed Mulder, who smiled.
“The ancient wisdom tells the valley was carved from the chalk hills by the rushing water of the Great Flood, when the frozen winter that had covered the land ended. Now there is only a fast flowing river to remind of the Flood. It enters the valley as a waterfall and leaves by entering an underground grotto, from there it joins other rivers to flow to the sea.”
Scully smiled at the whimsicality of the words. It was like it was a familiar story that he enjoyed telling and she enjoyed hearing.
“From where the Circle gathers at the waterfall we can see the entire valley. Since the only way to enter is by climbing over the steep hills and making yourself visible to all, it has been protected from the enemies without, but it is more difficult to stop the enemies within. The powers of the Circle were driven to retreat here by the Holy Men from the East carrying their new religion. We have nothing against the man whom they worship. He was a good and kind man. The Christ was an honoured guest of the Circle when he came with his uncle to speak with us at Avalon, over a 1,000 years ago, but the men who carried his words from the Ancient East back to our shores have forgotten to carry his meaning with them. They persecute the practitioners of the ancient rites and refuse to believe the origins of all our faiths. They’re unwilling to hear the truth regarding the men they call Jesus.” He paused. “Not all of them are the same, the Christian priest in Embasingstoc is understanding and searches for the true knowledge. His name is Peter; he is Pendrell.”
Scully drew a shaky breath. She was believing Mulder’s words at this instant, although she couldn’t have said why. She couldn’t remember the fate of the priest – of Pendrell – but knew there was something bad.
“Peter understands why we do not wish their Christian church built on the left side of the river. Nothing should be built on the left side or the Gods of the Land and the Sky will be angry, but Kingsmill insists that the Chapel of the Trinity be built on left, on the bank above the main settlement.”
“Kingsmill?”
“Matthew Kingsmill, the servant of the Lord of the Manor of Basing. Kingsmill is Cancerman.”
Scully recoiled visibly. The Shadow Man from her dreams. The Cancerman. She closed her eyes. What *was* the question he kept asking?
“He is drunk on power he doesn’t have and sells the names and the souls of his own people into damnation by fire for their beliefs.”
<Damnation by fire. Recant your belief. Save your soul.>
Scully sat forward and put her head into her hands.
<No. No. No.>
It wasn’t true. It wasn’t.
<Mulder’s making it up. Megolomanicial cosmology. I don’t believe.>
“The Christ will return with the Ancients and the Others to remove vermin such as Kingsmill from the Earth!”
He spat the words with such vehemence that Scully was compelled to look at him.
“Kingsmill will attempt to kill Peter so he can carry out his plans. Avicia has foreseen it.”
Scully resisted the urge to laugh at the idea of being someone who predicts the future.
<Psychic Scully?!>
The thought of Cancerman killing Pendrell stopped all laughter before it even had a chance.
“Does Avicia often predict the future?”
“We all see fragments but Avicia sees the clearest.”
“Has she made any other predictions?”
“She see the break-up of the Circle and 1,000 years of darkness.”
“That’s a dire prediction.”
“She tells us that genocide, disease and mass destruction will plague the thousand years.”
<Megolomanicial cosmology.>
Scully repeated to herself. She had a ridiculous urge to hum and cover her ears, like a child not wanting to hear something bad.
“This is fascinating stuff.” Dr. Penderghast whispered to Scully and she stared at him. He didn’t seem to understand. If Mulder was making this up then he was a total loony tune and in need of powerful anti-psychotic drugs as soon as possible. If he was telling the truth then a past incarnation of herself had believed that she saw a pre-ordained future which encompassed everything bad that had happened in the last 900 odd years. That meant everything from the Crusades to Bosnia, by way of every other war and plague that had taken place. “I could make a career out of this.” Penderghast didn’t notice her stunned expression and went back to Mulder. “Let’s move a few days. What’s happening now?”
“No, Anne.” Mulder said angrily as if he was talking a person.
Anne is Krycek, Scully remembered. His sister in that life.
“What’s Anne done?”
“She wants to leave the Circle. Nobody leaves the Circle, just as nobody joins. We are born and we die and are born. Anne is threatening to expose us to Kingsmill.”
“Do you let her leave?”
“It’s not in our power to do that. We were chosen by the Fates and the Ancients.”
“What does she do?”
“She betrays us by marrying Kingsmill in a Christian ceremony.”
Scully couldn’t resist the urge to smile at thought of Krycek marrying the Cancerman.
“Is the Christian ceremony itself a betrayal?”
“It is a chain easily broken because it is made by priests and not by the couple. In our belief souls commit themselves for all their lives and not just ‘till death’. Avicia and I walked the hills and woodlands alone for a month, living on what we could find and keeping each other warm through the coldest of nights. Our commitment was made through our endurance together of cold and heat, survival and protection.”
Scully bit her lip.
<He’s making it up. It’s not real. I don’t believe. He’s contradicting himself, before he said that of him and Melissa Reedell. Souls mate eternal, he’s said it before, in relation to her. I’m just his friend. He said it himself. I refuse to believe this.>