Title: Spooky and the Ice Queen

© Abbie Layne

Spooky and the Ice Queen

{Beauty & the Beast}

Once upon a time, not so long ago (at least while Mulder was still about the series) there lived an FBI agent who many feared his search of the truth.

Many had visited his dark castle and come back skeptics.

The village people feared this man. Something had to be done. They talked about it all the time, but never came up with a solution.

One day a young woman went in search of her Assistant Director, whom she had heard was being kept in the FBI agent's castle. After a long walk she found herself upon the doorstep of the castle.

She knocked, no answer. She slowly opened the door and creeped quietly in.

"Hello," she called. No answer.

She wandered around until she found the dungeon. She heard moaning and quickly found the Assistant Director. "Skinner," she called to him.

"Scully," came his weak reply. "You shouldn't be here. He's gone mad."

"I'm here to get you out."

"Leave!" a voice roared behind her.

She turned to see the savage, unshaven man behind her. She trembled, but reassured herself by reminding herself it was only Mulder. "Mulder, it's me, Scully."

"Leave!" he repeated.

"No," she said firmly and demanded he release Skinner.

"He is my prisoner!"

"He is your friend!"

Friend, the word sounded familiar but distant. Something in his mind changed. "He is free...if you will take his place as my prisoner."

Scully nodded. "No," Skinner shouted. "Scully, you can't do that. He's not the same man. You don't know what he's capable of."

Mulder pulled Skinner from his cell and shoved Scully in, then disappeared with Skinner.

He returned a bit later and led Scully to a room.

"What are you going to do with me," she asked.

He said nothing and locked her in.

* * *

For two weeks Mulder said nothing to Scully. She only saw him when he brought her meals. Every chance she got she would remind him of who he was.

* * *

After two weeks he came and released her from her room. He led her to the front gate and shut her out.

"Mulder," she cried, but it was useless.

* * *

Late that night she returned to HQ.

"Scully, you're alive." Skinner was much surprised to see her. "Now is Mulder?"

"I don't know," she confessed. "I must have reached him on some level, or else he would not have let me go."

At that moment the Cigarette Smoking Man and Kersh burst into the office. "It's good to see you are alive," Kersh said to Scully. "Now it will be safe to put an end to this mad-man."

"Mad-man," she protested. "That's no mad-man! That is Mulder and you know it!"

"No matter," Cancer-Man replied. "He is a risk that must be ended."

* * *

Scully drove as quickly as she could, she had to warn Mulder. But it was too late, Kersh and Cigarette Smoking Man were already there beating the door down.

They went in and she followed in the shadows. While they searched room-by-room, she knew exactly where Mulder was.

She ran to his den. "Mulder! Kersh and the Cigarette Smoking Man are after you!"

"What did they say? I'm a danger to society? The are correct."

"Oh, Mulder, you are in there! You do know who you are."

"No matter," Cancer-Man said behind her. He dropped his cigarette and stepped on it. He took a gun from Kersh and shot Mulder.

"No!" Scully dropped to the floor beside Mulder's limp body. "Mulder," she sobbed. She closed her eyes and laid her head on his chest, and cried.

The savageness melted from Mulder. Scully sat up and dried her eyes. "Mulder," she whispered.

He took in a deep breath and opened his eyes. "Scully," he asked softly.

"No," Cancer-Man yelled. He ran at Mulder and Scully pulled her gun and shot him. He fell, wheezing, to the ground. Kersh's eyes were full of fear. He ran from the castle and was never seen again.

And so, Mulder and Scully were re-united. Skinner was safe and had returned to his position as Assistant Director.

As for the end of the story, it is not over. The X-Files are still open, and evil alien replicants still roam the earth in attempt to control it.

I cannot say whether they lived happily-ever-after or not, for I do not know. But the belief that they did does exist.

***THE END***