Disclaimer: I don't own any of the X-Files characters or any of the X-Files plot, this is merely an insane teenager's idea for a story.
Further Info: All of the following is fictitious and any similarities between it and real people or ideas were purely unintentional.
Chapter OneIt has been said that the truth is often caught up in a lie and, therefore, to reveal the truth, one must first expose the lie. The truth is like a frightened child, which hides from those who seek it, hiding only behind the greatest lies, the lies that can easily be mistaken for truths. The lies we hope are truths. We con ourselves into believing these lies because we have not the strength to continue searching for the truth. Can it, therefore, be deduced that the truths we cling to so violently are merely lies designed to skew our vision and distort our view of the real truth which lies behind them? Can the ultimate truth, the world's truth, be a lie that was designed in a human mind to hide the end we are truly destined for?
It was late afternoon and Scully sat at Mulder's desk looking out of the tiny window at the world outside. The steady sheet of snow fell and it had lulled her into a dream like state. A sad dream played in her mind, filled with memories of Christmas, of Melissa, of her father and of the life she had led before Mulder. The hopes she had held, that she could make a difference, instead, she was stuck. Her job was to destroy him, to make him a raving lunatic, to make his theories ridiculous. She did her job well according to the outside world. As far as they were concerned, Fox Mulder was all that he was meant to be. Although she could never deny what she had seen, she could never reveal that she now strongly doubted her own words. She could never admit to them that Mulder was, in fact, quite sane and that his theories, however implausible, held some truth. They would rein her in, just has she had tried to do to him. They would turn her into the same raving lunatic that she was to create out of Mulder. She was stuck between her loyalty to public opinion and her loyalty to this mysterious stranger she had, somehow, come to understand. Life had become complicated, more complicated than she could ever have dreamed of. She had learned to be wary of the people she once trusted wholeheartedly and knew the darkness that was waiting for her in every situation. Some call it paranoia; she knew it as a caution that was necessary in her life on the X-Files. She had become a personal guard of the palace of her heart and mind, never trusting fully and being forever suspicious of things that came to easily. A torture to most, but something she had become accustomed to. Her whole world was about the truth and she worried at the lies the people she had trusted, the people who were supposedly the protectors of the nation, were obviously feeding her. She felt vulnerable and unsure. She knew only one thing, one thing that she could undoubtedly trust, one thing that had never lied, science. It was her weapon against these fiends of untruth and she would use it, she had to, she had to protect herself and her beliefs.
Mulder walked into the office with a smile on his face. He noticed Scully sitting at his desk, staring into space, obviously unaware of his entry. He cleared his throat purposefully and she looked up at him. He held a case file in one hand and used the other to secure his coat neatly over his shoulder. His sleeves were rolled up haphazardly to his elbows. This was an image Scully had come to know in their years together, one of the many expressions she could interpret. It meant only one thing, he'd found a case and he was about to share it with her with an enthusiasm that was unnatural.
"What is it this time?" she inquired, sounding unusually enthusiastic herself. She quickly dashed Mulder's hopes of her being interested with a predictable dose of sarcasm, "Did someone see Santa Claus? No, it was a UFO, oddly sleigh-shaped with reindeer attached!" she gasped to add effect, "Don't tell me the Grinch stole Christmas!"
"Ha ha, Scully," Mulder said not allowing her sarcasm to put him off. She smiled, enjoying her playful teasing, "Actually it's got nothing to do with Christmas, except for the snow..." he put the file gently on the desk, "Central Africa, the people are starving to death and now they're freezing too. Hey, at least they'll have a White Christmas..."
"Snow?" Scully paused, looking doubtful, "In Central Africa? They rarely reach less than 30 degrees, other than on the mountain peaks... It doesn't snow in Central Africa."
"It does now..." said Mulder. Scully looked at him for a moment, she sighed, shook her head and asked,
"What do you think the reason is?"
"Well, meteorologists will tell you that it's a result of global warming or a new version of El Nino," he replied.
"You don't believe that?" Scully ventured further.
"Not for a second," he walked over to the projector and put up a photo of a grotesque wooden idol, "Thekishi, mistress of the skies. This girl wasn't popular with the men in her tribe, for obvious reasons... So, she left and began a solitary life in the mountains."
"And this has what relevance?" Scully stopped him.
"I'm getting to it," he sounded impatient, "One day, a man came walking by her cave where he was attacked by a leopard. Thekishi killed the animal, took the man in and nursed him back to health. What she didn't know was that the man was the son of Jungani, the god who controlled the skies. According to African folklore, Jungani, grateful for the favour she had bestowed on his son, gave Thekishi control of the weather to aid in growing her crops."
"If she helped the man, a stranger, why would she bring down such strife on her own people?" Scully interrupted him. He didn't answer, merely putting his hand up to show her it was coming.
"The god in charge of the animals, Lekanzi, was angry that Thekishi had killed the leopard, the sacred creature of her tribe. So, as punishment, she turned Thekishi into wood. She then used the power in the new idol to exact her revenge on the hunters and poachers in the land by means of bush fires and storms. As long as the idol remained in Thekishi's cave, Lekanzi had control of its powers," he stopped.
"What happens if it's removed?" asked Scully, sure he was going to tell her anyway.
"If the idol is removed, the person who removes it gains the power of Thekishi," he seemed chuffed with himself. Scully thought for a while and then spoke again,
"If the idol was still in its cave, you wouldn't have that photograph," she paused, "You think the person who removed it is causing the weather?"
Mulder nodded, "Well, you must have some idea who you think it was."
Mulder removed the photograph and replaced it with a newspaper article. A picture of a young archeologist, standing with the idol, caught Scully's eye, "that's Dr. Anna Ramone," she said, surprised.
"You know her?" Mulder asked.
"Yeah, we went to high school together," Scully said, "I lost contact with her, but I read somewhere that she'd become an archeologist, we were good friends."
"Well then, we won't waste time with her life story," Mulder began again, "She discovered the idol last week, just North of Kilimanjaro, on the Kenyan side of the border. That happened just a short time before the weather fluctuations began to occur."
"You think it was Anna?" Scully was unsure.
"We had a Rain King Scully, why not a Snow Queen?" Mulder said.
"Thank you Hans Christian Anderson," Scully said. Noticing that Mulder wasn't catching her joke, she started again, "I just don't think Anna would do something like that."
"There's more," Mulder said, "To protect the idol and keep it n her possession, Lekanzi created a group of soldiers. Half man, half beast. The person, or persons, who removed the idol, would have to face these 'Leopardmen' at the cave or later. This deterred anyone from entering. Dr. Ramone didn't believe the myth and entered anyway. Scully, it's possible she doesn't know she's causing the weather."
"Or, the meteorologists are right and the idol doesn't have anything to do with the weather..." replied Scully.
"Five members of the excavation team have been killed since the removal of the idol in, and I quote," he said grabbing the file from her, "'what seems to be an animal attack', sounds to me like Lekanzi's 'Leopardmen' have been busy."
"Perhaps it was an animal attack, they are in the middle of Africa..." Scully argued, grabbing the file back.
"That's an idea that's just too coincidental for me," Mulder said.
"Mulder..." she didn't get any further before he gasped with frustration and interrupted her,
"Can't you just admit that there is something here!" he spat, leaning over the desk, "Isn't it at least worth an investigation?"
"Mulder, you're reading into this," she stood to meet him, "Why does everything have to be an X-File?"
"It's our job to find out if it is, Scully! This is what we do!"
"Our job is to investigate the paranormal, not to invent it..." she challenged, "We investigate strange happenings."
"And snow in Africa doesn't strike you as a little strange?" Mulder challenged back.
"Mulder, millions of weather fluctuations happen worldwide every year. One freak snow storm can easily be explained away!" she stopped, "Stop looking for what isn't there!"
"Maybe you're not looking hard enough!" he paused, "Contrary to your belief, there is life outside your little cloud of science. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, you don't have all the answers! I'm trying to get through to you Scully!" he stopped again, "It's impossible with your stubborn pride and self-righteous arguing."
Scully stood, flabbergasted at what he had said. A moment passed and she surrendered saying,
"I... I don't know what to say..."
"Funny, I thought you always knew what to say," he said quietly before turning and leaving the room.
Scully stood for a moment, wounded by his words. She fell back into her chair and put her head in her hands. She started to cry, mortified at what he thought of her. She was even more mortified to discover that it was true, that she did behave in the manner that he had described. Although she trusted him completely, she never believed him. She always took a superior stance and always acted like a teacher to her student when, in fact, it was often the other way round. She had so much to learn from him when it came to being an agent and the only lessons she had to offer him in return were in scepticism and disbelief. She felt a failure and realised just how alone she was without him. Nothing frightened her more than being alone and now that he had destroyed her with his accusations she feared the worst.
Anger filled Mulder's every movement. He slammed the office door shut and punched the elevator buttons with frustration. He stood for a moment, contemplating what had just happened, then he slammed his fist against the elevator wall, disgusted at his assault on Scully. He had been angry, but nothing warranted the abuse he had hurled at her. She never deserved the things he said to her, as much as she annoyed him at times and as much as he hated to admit it, she was the voice inside his head and her logic and rationalism had saved them more times than he could count. He decided that he needed to apologise, but he knew if he spoke to her, he would only wound her further. As he wrestled over what to do, his feet took him out to his car. He didn't know what to do, so he drove. No destination was planned, but he drove on nonetheless. He passed people on the street, laden with shopping bags, an everlasting reminder that Christmas was approaching and he would, yet again, be alone. He thought back to the Christmas ghosts and the tempting offer they had made. "What if?" he thought. What if he and Scully had fallen for their cunning plans, what if they'd taken those final shots and entered the pact that had been called their destiny, the pact which would have bound them together for eternity. Would he have been able to stand her constant arguing for eternity? Mulder cursed himself for the thought. Other memories of her filled his mind and he began to regret more and more what he had said. His mind told him to go back and face her, but his body wouldn't allow it, so, he drove on.
As darkness settled, he found himself at a bar. A memory struck him, a memory of a time when he had lost her once before. He had ended up in a similar place, depressed, alone and angry with her and himself. He decided not to repeat the episode and returned to his car. He thought of going to see her, sober this time, but he couldn't, he was still angry. He drove a little while longer and then returned home.
The next day dawned bright and Scully felt as dark as ever. She contemplated staying in bed and praying for a quick death, anything that would prevent her going back to work and facing Mulder again. She was still emotional and very much afraid of what he had to say. She crawled slowly out of bed and crept slowly towards the bathroom. Her daily tasks were performed with less effort than she was used to and during her slow beginning to the day, she came up with the perfect solution. She would make a quick stop before going in to work...
Mulder had come in early. He had hoped to see Scully and apologise, but she hadn't arrived. So, he waited. After a while, he took to his old habit of throwing sharpened pencils at the ceiling. This only brought back memories of her vacation and the case they had conducted together, long-distance. He missed her already... He realized his dependency on having her nearby, that the very arguing that drove him insane drove him in another way as well. It drove him to do everything the correct way, never to take shortcuts and to be completely honest, with himself and his superiors. He had thought long and hard about what had happened and he knew what he was going to say.
When Scully finally did arrive, he sat bolt upright in his chair and looked at her. The tension was high and there was an atmosphere so thick he felt it difficult to breathe. They both took a moment and said,
"I'm sorry," at the identical moment. Mulder stood and began his well prepared speech,
"You didn't deserve the things I said to you yesterday and I'm sorry."
"But it was true," she replied with some difficulty.
"What's true is not important, but what's right is. I was wrong to attack you like that," he said.
"I'm sorry," she said again, "I was trying to reason out your theory and I went about it in the wrong way. Ultimately, I agree with you," she put something down on his desk, "Two return tickets to Nairobi, Kenya. One stop in Johannesburg, South Africa."
He picked them up and looked up at her, "You think I'm right?"
"You have one apple, let's not go for the whole barrel..." she replied, breaking the tension.
"Then why the tickets?" he asked.
"Well, I'm inclined to agree with the meteorologists, but I think it is worth the investigation."
Author's Note: Please RR, I want to know what you think. If you think it sucks, flame away... Next Chapter soon.