Chapter 5: Chronology
Katie looked at Scully.
“You *can’t* shoot him.” She insisted. “His blood is toxic.” ‘Skinner’ took advantage of the women’s abstraction to swing around and push Scully to the floor. The form of Skinner appeared to melt before Scully’s eyes into the form of the assassin – the same one which she remembered had held her hostage. He grabbed Katie and drew out what looked like a pen knife but had a point instead of a blade. Scully scrambled to her feet. Her gun was lying a few feet away from her, she reached for it.
“No.” Fenegold yelled as he jumped the assassin. The man let go of Katie and became engaged in a fierce fight with Fenegold. Scully attempted to get a clear shot on the man but Katie grabbed her and pushed her towards the door.
“Get out of here.” Katie told her.
“But..?” Scully began.
“Leave now.” She pushed Scully out of the door and slammed it in her face. Scully hammered on the door with the butt of the gun in frustration. From inside she heard the sound of a scuffle – and a gun shot. With a clear and focused mind Scully aimed the gun at the lock and fired two shots. She rammed her body against the door and it fell open. She was just in time to see the assassin jump from the window into the night. Scully ran to the window but he was already gone. She turned back to observe the room. Fenegold was lying dead from a gunshot wound to the head but it was Katie’s body which got Scully’s attention at that moment. It was green and disintegrating – in the same way that the body of the woman claiming to be Mulder’s sister had when they’d pulled it from the river. A police officer arrived at the door to the apartment. He took one look at the gun in Scully’s hand and the dead body of Peter Fenegold – with a rather large bullet hole in it – and arrested her.
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“They dropped the charges Scully.” Mulder said, for the hundredth time, a week later. “Ballistics proved that you couldn’t have fired the gun that killed Fenegold.”
“*And* because they couldn’t find *any* record of the corpse ever being born.” Scully returned angrily. “That’s not what I’m angry about. I’m angry that I couldn’t stop that assassin from killing them.” Scully had told Mulder all the details of the scene in his apartment – and the truth about the events of the past few weeks, including Fenegold’s time machine and his future self. He’d loved the whole story, seeing connections where she had seen none. They were in the basement office. Mulder walked over to the chair in which Scully was slumped.
“It’s not your fault.” He told her as he perched himself on the edge of the desk. She looked up at him.
“Of course it is. If I’d just shot the man then they’d still be alive.”
“No!” Mulder exclaimed and moved closer to her. “Then you’d be dead too. His blood would have killed…” A thought occurred to him. “Maybe it did.” Scully looked at him curiously. “Maybe that’s what my future self was warning you about. If Katherine turned up at your apartment, then the man arrived, you shot him and…” The word stuck in his throat.
“Died.” She finished for him. “That’s why he was *so* desperate. I died. You were stuck in that hospital and I died.” Everything was frighteningly clear to her and – at that moment – she believed it. She looked up at him.
Mulder saw the events as she described them. He knew how he would feel losing Scully like that. He looked into her eyes.
“I love you.” He told her.
“I love you too.” The enormity of the emotions sent them into each other’s arms. Their shared kiss was pure desperation at the thought of losing each other. Sanity took a while to return but when it did their sense of place sent them to opposite sides of the room.
“What do we do now?” Scully asked quietly and Mulder smiled lecherously at her – his thoughts on the subject were obvious. “I meant about Katherine.” His face grew serious.
“Did either of them give any clues as it where she might have been brought up?”
“No, but Fenegold talked about a ‘group’ calling themselves ‘The Clones Network’. He said that they were the ones who owned the clinic.” Mulder was shaking his head.
“The day after I was released I went back to the clinic, it was just an abandoned building.” Mulder told her.
“That’s impossible.” Scully insisted but Mulder just shrugged.
“We wont find them that way.” A half-smiled emerged on his face. “But I know who might know about them.”
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“Their site appeared on the Internet last year.” Langley informed Mulder and Scully later that day. Byers tapped a few keys and a web site began appearing on the screen. Scully stared at the logo which formed before their eyes.
“I’ve seen this pattern before.” She exclaimed.
“Me too.” Mulder replied, pulling the ‘alien’ pendant Amanda had given him from around his neck. He pointed out the identical pattern to Scully, before handing the rock to Byers.
“Where’d you get this?” He asked.
“A friend, claimed she took it off an alien skeleton.”
“You think these ‘Clones’ might be aliens?” Frohicke asked, coming over to stand next to Scully.
“Aliens?” Scully said sceptically and earned a long suffering look from Mulder. “What? I haven’t seen *anything* to make me believe that.”
“Scully!” Mulder complained. “We’ll discuss this later.” He promised and turned to Langley. “What do you know about these people?” Langley shrugged.
“No one really knows much about them.”
“They collect reports on UFO sightings, alien abduction stories, things like that.” Byers told them.
“For what purpose?” Scully asked.
“They put people in touch with each other.” Langley replied.
“They’re a dating agency!” Scully explained wryly, and drew a bright smile from Mulder. Frohicke intercepted the warmth in it and sensed a difference in their attitude to each other. No one saw that his eyes became dull with the realisation of the shift in their relationship. He moved away from Scully.
“Where can we find them?” Mulder asked, unlocking his eyes from Scully’s to look at the men.
“Their server’s in Sacramento.” Byers informed them.
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The building was utilitarian in it’s design and the only evidence of it’s usage was a small sign taped to the small glass fronted door. The sign simply said; ‘The Clones Network’. Mulder glanced at it and turned to look at Scully with an expression that was mildly amused. He smiled sheepishly and shrugged. Scully shook her head and stepped past him to knock on the door. The door was answered almost immediately by a woman.
“It’s you.” Scully said in surprise as she recognised the woman. The woman frowned.
“Have we met?” The woman asked in genuine puzzlement. Scully looked to Mulder. He took it in his stride, holding up his ID for the woman’s inspection.
“I’m Special Agent Fox Mulder. This is my partner Dana Scully.” The woman smiled in response and nodded her head.
“We’ve been expecting you.” She said as she motioned them inside. Scully frowned at Mulder, but he just smiled in response and followed the woman inside. She followed reluctantly.
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“What did you mean you were expecting us?” Scully asked as the woman led them into a large open plan office space. The room contained a number of desks – at which were sat five woman – several computers and a number of large filing cabinets. The women all looked up together – as if on cue – and smiled pleasantly at Mulder and Scully.
“Things have gone a little off track.” The first woman responded as she continued through the main office and into a small side office. She sat down and motioned for them to do the same.
“Off track?” Mulder asked as he sank down to sit on the edge of a small couch. Scully sat down next to him, with the woman sat opposite them.
“Yes.” She replied. “My counterpart in Washington contacted me with the news that Dr. Fenegold and Katherine Ickes had been killed. That was unexpected to us.”
“Fenegold worked for you.” Scully stated.
“Not exactly. When he gave up his work on his time machine and ran for his life we picked him up for his own safety, as we were attempting to do with your cousin Miss Scully.”
“Amanda was coming to you when she left that night?” Mulder asked.
“Yes, we contacted her and offered her safety. Unfortunately she never made it to us.”
“So what happened to her?” Scully demanded.
“She was taken by the same people who took you Miss Scully.” The woman stated.
“And who was that?” Mulder responded casually. The woman fixed him with a hard stare.
“Who do you think it was?” She asked in return.
“Why don’t you just tell me?” He demanded – the calm being stretched to it’s limits. The woman smiled infuriatingly.
“It’s not my place to.”
“Who’s place is it?” Scully demanded, pre-empting Mulder’s angry response with her much calmer one. He averted his eyes and bit his lip. The woman ignored her question.
“You are here to fix things to how they should have been.” She answered instead. Mulder and Scully exchanged a glance of incomprehension. “This will be difficult for you to understand despite your previous contact with people from your own future, but the original timeline of your lives has been tampered with.”
“What do you mean ‘tampered with’?” Mulder asked curiously.
“We predict the future.” Scully murmured under her breath and Mulder turned to look at her. “That’s what the man at your father’s funeral told me. They changed our future’s in some way didn’t they?” The woman nodded.
“Katherine helped to arrange deals between the power structures of two different times. They exchanged information about your future in order to silence you.”
“But when? How?” Scully asked.
“Your daughter was tricked into placing that implant into your skull in order to force a sequence of events which would result in your death,” She gestured to Scully. “and your disillusionment and eventual suicide.” She gestured to Mulder. “These events also exposed the people around you, the people helping you. Walter Skinner, your informant, your sister, her husband and your daughters.”
“My sister?” Mulder demanded.
“Daughters?” Scully demanded at the same moment. They glanced at each other in horror. Just at that moment a knock sounded at the door.
“Perfect timing.” The woman commented and called the person in. The woman who entered was in her early thirties – she was tall, with short brown hair that fell onto her face in messy bangs.
“You wanted to see me Lydia?” The new arrival addressed the other woman.
“Sit down dear.” ‘Lydia’ directed her, and the woman chose the chair opposite Mulder and Scully. She smiled at them as she sat down. ‘Lydia’ looked back and forth between them – making them very uneasy – before she finally spoke. “There’s no easy way to break this to any of you.” She said. “Sammy, this is your brother.” The young woman’s hazel eyes flew wide open and locked onto Mulder’s face. His face became set as he returned her look with equal astonishment. “Mr Mulder, this is your sister Samantha.”