DISCLAIMER: The characters in this piece of fiction that are
recognizable from Chris Carter's insane piece of work known as
the X-Files belong to him, his company Ten-Thirteen Productions
and Fox Broadcasting. Anything else, characters, situations or
otherwise, belong to this very insane author.
RATING: PG-13
CLASSIFICATION: SA
KEYWORDS: Mulder/Scully UST
SPOILERS: none
URL: troublexf.homepage.com/dalexander/manipulate/mind02.txt
FEEDBACK: always welcome at dmulder@flashmail.com
ARCHIVE: Anywhere's fine... Gossamer, Xemplary, Ephemeral,
yeah... whatever... *grin*
SUMMARY: Scully's trapped inside the walls of the Project...
********************************
Manipulations of the Mind: Lost
(Part 1 of 1)
by: Diana Alexander
dmulder@flashmail.com
********************************
For one moment, Scully had stood in one of the many hallways
that delved into the Compound before she was thrown back into a
body that knew little else other than pain. Even before she was
truly aware of herself again, she mourned the loss. Yet, as time
passed, she thought about what she had seen before being thrown
back.
The compound itself seemed to be built into a labyrinth so that no
one who even managed to get out of the various rooms without
windows anywhere would never be able to find the light of day.
They knew that that would be the first thing that anyone held
captive here would want.
So, in their fashion, they devised the most subtle torture so far.
They deprive their victims of even the most basic joys of basking
in sunlight, laughing while rain poured over their face, leaving the
hair soaked with the water, and just breathing fresh air. All they
had here were florescent lights, recycled air, and pain.
And almost as though they realised that one of their latest victims
had escaped their pain-cycle and was caught in something pure,
something innocent, they sought to take it away. The spirits of
Mulder and Scully had stood in the hallway, enjoying laughter,
hysterical though it may be, about the situation they had managed
to get themselves into.
A moment that had been stolen from their desperate need to get
out of this place, and if they had had to leave their bodies behind,
they would have done so without a second thought.
Instead, after that moment of laughter there was pain. Pain jolted
through her astral form, and even as she felt it, her body, the body
she had been wearing since leaving her own, shuddered and
started to fade. She was flickering, almost like she had suddenly
become a candle that was about to be extinguished.
[Mulder... something's wrong...]
The words managed to escape her mind past the fear, and he
looked at her. There was a look of sheer terror that crossed his
face as he grasped her hips with both hands and concentrated
although by sheer willpower he could keep her here. Keep her
out of the hands of those who sought to hurt her. Hurt them.
She fed on his willpower to try and keep her there, and for a
moment, she thought that it had worked, but then she was gone,
diving back into a body that knew nothing but pain. and in that
return, the only thing keeping her from losing herself in the nearly
inhuman pain was this connection that she and Mulder had.
This connection... it was strange, but it felt all at once newly
formed and yet something that had been with her most of her life.
She gave herself a mental scowl because of the contradictory
feelings she had about it, but then, conventional science didn't
really have an explanation for anything she had experienced since
this began.
That's when another jolt of pain hit Scully, and deep within herself,
she searched for an escape. That's when she found that the snap
that she and Mulder had felt wasn't a true one. Their connection
was still there, but she had put up a subconscious shielding against
the pain she was in. Even now, she was trying to protect him.
With an inaudible sigh, Scully felt her awareness drifted to the
surface, and she heard people talking above her, and about her.
"...finished with him..." the words flickered in and out, "...do with
him?"
"Dump him on the street."
That voice was clear. Scully could almost feel her eyes narrowing
as she listened. It was that Cigarette Smoking Bastard, and the
knowledge drove her to listen even more carefully to the words
being spoken.
"What if he doesn't survive?"
"He'll survive."
There was a silence before words that were spoken that drove
Scully back into the connection that existed between herself and
Mulder.
"Shall I start the impregnation?"
"Yes."
***************
"Storm?"
Storm Austin shook herself awake and away from the dream that
she'd had. It was like she had been inside Dana's head, and had
had the opportunity to see exactly what was causing Mulder's
pain. An attempt to snap a connection, perhaps? An attempt that
obviously didn't work.
A scowl crossed her face briefly. They had no idea what they
were dealing with, and if they messed with it any more, she didn't
know if either one of the two would survive it, especially since
they were apart. It seemed like a year ago that they had found
Mulder outside of Arrow's Crossing after everyone else had been
long asleep, despite the fact that it had only been a couple of hours
ago.
His eyes... Storm still shivered as she thought of what they looked
like. They were so empty...
"*Storm!*"
She jolted in surprise to see Daniel standing behind her. Her eyes
narrowed, "I thought you were going to see if'n you could find
Dana."
"We've found her. A few people are trying to figure out whether
it's best to go in after her or wait."
"Wait?!" Storm was on her feet in an instant, eyes blazing and the
irises nearly black with her anger. "You have no idea what she's
going through in there, Daniel Armstrong. No idea at *all*."
He was instantly calm. "What *are* they doing to her, Storm?
That's just the first of a list of questions I have to ask you."
"What right do you have to ask that of me?" she glared at him
while raging inside.
"I need all the information you can give on this matter," Daniel
responded in that same calm voice. "We need to know how best
to treat her after we get her out. You know that as well as we do,
Storm, so why are you acting like this?"
"Because I was inside Dana's head, and you *know* how much I
hate that," Storm responded quickly, suddenly wishing that Flynn
was here. When she and Flynn had taken a hiatus from the
Bureau after the fire, she had no idea where it would have led
them.
The last she had heard from her partner, he was stuck in a
cornfield in Nebraska, and a flicker from his end of their
connection told her that he was still there, thinking that there might
be answers there that couldn't be found elsewhere.
He would be there soon, but until then, she was on her own.
Slowly, she turned, settling her gaze on Daniel's calmness. She
spared a glance to make sure she hadn't awakened Mulder, but it
was like he was unconscious. He was finally in a blissful sleep,
and Storm suddenly knew that Dana was near him somehow.
After the dream she had had, that was the only conclusion she
could draw.
"So? Are you going to answer me?"
She didn't take her eyes off her half-brother as she answered,
"They've impregnated her, Daniel. I don't know whether it's a
entirely human child that's been manipulated genetically or
something... not entirely human..."
"What?"
Storm didn't have to turn to see the shocked look on Daniel's face.
Part of her was childishly glad at that, glad that she was able to
break through that calm facade that he had been showing her.
She also withheld the other thing that she had suspicions about,
especially after the way Mulder felt. His mind was a wreck with
several different abilities being forced open by some sort of device
that affected the brain.
Not that they wouldn't have opened on their own, but those things
happened in their own time. She wanted to kill Them with her
bare hands for the things that had been done. She let out a sigh.
"I respected you once, Daniel. Once you showed that you were a
human being, that you had emotions. Now you've become one
who calculates every move without care for the people involved.
You already knew that at the very least, Dana and Mulder had
had their minds raped, yet you force information out of me. How
did you get to be so much like them, Daniel, overnight?"
"I couldn't deal with what I saw, so I closed out all emotions after
I left tonight. That's the one thing I learned while I was there.
Even empaths have to have an off switch, Storm."
"I wish I could find mine."
"Rickster wanted to be sure, since I left him there to get Dana. I
needed to get all the information I could, Storm, and I'm sorry.
We do what we have to in order to save people, and afterwards,
we heal our own wounds as we try to help them heal theirs. How
could you have forgotten *that*?" his voice was mildly chiding,
and Storm bowed her head slightly.
"I know, but there's so much pain here, and it's been a long time
since it's cut this close. It's drawn blood this time, Danny. My
blood..."
"How did you know?"
"That Mulder was my brother?"
"Yeah..."
"Starr let out a little piece of information the last time Flynn and I
were in town, and we did some DNA typing simply because my
sister is not exactly the most reliable source in the world."
Daniel chuckled at the truth of that.
"So when we got the tests back, they matched. It didn't surprise
our friends, but it surely surprised us. Hasn't changed how we
treat each other very much, but I'm more protective of him, and
vice versa. Mulder is so much a family person..."
"Even after what his father did?"
"Yeah..."
Just then, Daniel froze, and his expression went totally blank.
Storm stopped and waited. Somehow, she sensed that there was
not going to be good news coming. After a moment, the
expression that returned to Daniel's eyes confirmed her fears.
"Daniel?"
"She's gone."
"What?!"
***************
It was now that she felt truly lost. Scully travelled the dark
passages that were either dark alley streets or the darkness of her
own mind. She knew what they had done to her, and was trying
to shield herself from it. Sometimes knowledge was power, yet
also that same knowledge could have the power to kill.
Thoughts that weren't her own bombarded her from all sides, and
she forced strength into her waning walls to try and keep those
voices out. She needed control now, since there was no place
safe for her to break down. She sought safety when there was no
safety to be found.
There was a path she was following, a pull that she sensed would
eventually lead her to the safety that she sought. Then she could
heal, and try to figure out what she was to do if what she heard
was correct. Impregnated. It sounded like such a cold term for
something that is usually regarded with love and affection between
two people.
A miracle, only one that was corrupted. She hated them for doing
this to her, and at the first opportunity, she would take all of them
down, in whatever fashion was most fitting. The law enforcement
officer wanted to see justice through the courts while the woman,
the woman held deep inside who is Dana, wanted to see them all
dead before her eyes.
She found the place she sought, and reached up to knock, or to
pull the doors open, only to find that they opened of their own free
will. The pull got stronger and she followed. There was a newly
replaced flight of stairs that she climbed, and as she turned one of
the many corners in this more humane labyrinth, she knew what
the pull was.
Mulder...
Finally, she found him, and pushed open the door. As he lay there
sleeping, she stood watching him from the doorway, feeling the
connection between them leap and buzz into existance once more.
She felt him stir within her mind, but for a few moments she just
watched him lay there. Even in sleep, forced unconsciousness
though it was, he looked lost. As lost as she truly had been when
she had been driven to seek him here.
As lost, even, as she felt now.
She ran a hand through tangled red hair, and felt it fall in wavy
curls around her shoulders. How long had they been gone for her
hair to have grown to this length and in such a fashion? It barely
felt to her to be a day.
Then again, she herself recalled how time seemed to be as twisted
as the place itself. She wrapped her arms around her, seeing the
white thing that she had been clothed in back there. Ever since
this began, she had felt unable to cry, for him, for her, for them...
but in watching him now, she had to resist the urge.
The pain cut so deep, cut both of them to the point where they
were open and bleeding inside, with no knowledge on how to heal
these wounds.
Only together would they find the answers. Only together, would
they be able to heal from this. He was still weak, and for that
matter, she was still elsewhere. However, all that she was,
beyond the physical, sought him here. Needed to be with him,
almost as though deep down inside they were one person and had
just forgotten.
What had they done to her? What had they done to him? Hell,
what had they done to *them*? Would this event break them
apart, or make them stronger?
Stronger... stronger... came a whisper at the back of her mind,
and she knew it was him.
With stumbling steps that felt like she was trying to learn to walk
again, in this form, she made her way to the bed, and then, leaning
in almost as though she were truly physical at this point, she ran a
translucent hand over his arm and watched the gooseflesh rise at
the touch.
[I'm here, Mulder. I'm here.]
She had heard him calling out to her, in the pain, and had felt the
pull. For six years, she had done all that was in her power to
resist the pull to him, fearing that she would get lost in such a way
that she would never find herself.
Over time, though, she had forgotten, that although they were
separate people, without each other, they were truly lost. It had
taken this event to remind her, and now that she had been
reminded, she would not allow it to happen again.
So this time, instead of fighting that pull, she had followed it, and
found herself here.
With a sigh, she crawled into bed behind him, and heard a whisper
of her name. Whether it was purely mental or actually whispered,
she wasn't sure, but it didn't matter. And there, wrapped around
him so tightly that you couldn't tell where he ended and she began,
Scully finally found the release for tears that had been threatening.
There, she found peace, and was finally able to rest. In the
morning, that's where Daniel and Storm found her, laying curled
around Mulder's prone body, almost as though her body had
followed the spirit to where they were both needed.
Now, and only now, could the healing truly start.
**********************
-End-
recognizable from Chris Carter's insane piece of work known as
the X-Files belong to him, his company Ten-Thirteen Productions
and Fox Broadcasting. Anything else, characters, situations or
otherwise, belong to this very insane author.
RATING: PG-13
CLASSIFICATION: SA
KEYWORDS: Mulder/Scully UST
SPOILERS: none
URL: troublexf.homepage.com/dalexander/manipulate/mind02.txt
FEEDBACK: always welcome at dmulder@flashmail.com
ARCHIVE: Anywhere's fine... Gossamer, Xemplary, Ephemeral,
yeah... whatever... *grin*
SUMMARY: Scully's trapped inside the walls of the Project...
********************************
Manipulations of the Mind: Lost
(Part 1 of 1)
by: Diana Alexander
dmulder@flashmail.com
********************************
For one moment, Scully had stood in one of the many hallways
that delved into the Compound before she was thrown back into a
body that knew little else other than pain. Even before she was
truly aware of herself again, she mourned the loss. Yet, as time
passed, she thought about what she had seen before being thrown
back.
The compound itself seemed to be built into a labyrinth so that no
one who even managed to get out of the various rooms without
windows anywhere would never be able to find the light of day.
They knew that that would be the first thing that anyone held
captive here would want.
So, in their fashion, they devised the most subtle torture so far.
They deprive their victims of even the most basic joys of basking
in sunlight, laughing while rain poured over their face, leaving the
hair soaked with the water, and just breathing fresh air. All they
had here were florescent lights, recycled air, and pain.
And almost as though they realised that one of their latest victims
had escaped their pain-cycle and was caught in something pure,
something innocent, they sought to take it away. The spirits of
Mulder and Scully had stood in the hallway, enjoying laughter,
hysterical though it may be, about the situation they had managed
to get themselves into.
A moment that had been stolen from their desperate need to get
out of this place, and if they had had to leave their bodies behind,
they would have done so without a second thought.
Instead, after that moment of laughter there was pain. Pain jolted
through her astral form, and even as she felt it, her body, the body
she had been wearing since leaving her own, shuddered and
started to fade. She was flickering, almost like she had suddenly
become a candle that was about to be extinguished.
[Mulder... something's wrong...]
The words managed to escape her mind past the fear, and he
looked at her. There was a look of sheer terror that crossed his
face as he grasped her hips with both hands and concentrated
although by sheer willpower he could keep her here. Keep her
out of the hands of those who sought to hurt her. Hurt them.
She fed on his willpower to try and keep her there, and for a
moment, she thought that it had worked, but then she was gone,
diving back into a body that knew nothing but pain. and in that
return, the only thing keeping her from losing herself in the nearly
inhuman pain was this connection that she and Mulder had.
This connection... it was strange, but it felt all at once newly
formed and yet something that had been with her most of her life.
She gave herself a mental scowl because of the contradictory
feelings she had about it, but then, conventional science didn't
really have an explanation for anything she had experienced since
this began.
That's when another jolt of pain hit Scully, and deep within herself,
she searched for an escape. That's when she found that the snap
that she and Mulder had felt wasn't a true one. Their connection
was still there, but she had put up a subconscious shielding against
the pain she was in. Even now, she was trying to protect him.
With an inaudible sigh, Scully felt her awareness drifted to the
surface, and she heard people talking above her, and about her.
"...finished with him..." the words flickered in and out, "...do with
him?"
"Dump him on the street."
That voice was clear. Scully could almost feel her eyes narrowing
as she listened. It was that Cigarette Smoking Bastard, and the
knowledge drove her to listen even more carefully to the words
being spoken.
"What if he doesn't survive?"
"He'll survive."
There was a silence before words that were spoken that drove
Scully back into the connection that existed between herself and
Mulder.
"Shall I start the impregnation?"
"Yes."
***************
"Storm?"
Storm Austin shook herself awake and away from the dream that
she'd had. It was like she had been inside Dana's head, and had
had the opportunity to see exactly what was causing Mulder's
pain. An attempt to snap a connection, perhaps? An attempt that
obviously didn't work.
A scowl crossed her face briefly. They had no idea what they
were dealing with, and if they messed with it any more, she didn't
know if either one of the two would survive it, especially since
they were apart. It seemed like a year ago that they had found
Mulder outside of Arrow's Crossing after everyone else had been
long asleep, despite the fact that it had only been a couple of hours
ago.
His eyes... Storm still shivered as she thought of what they looked
like. They were so empty...
"*Storm!*"
She jolted in surprise to see Daniel standing behind her. Her eyes
narrowed, "I thought you were going to see if'n you could find
Dana."
"We've found her. A few people are trying to figure out whether
it's best to go in after her or wait."
"Wait?!" Storm was on her feet in an instant, eyes blazing and the
irises nearly black with her anger. "You have no idea what she's
going through in there, Daniel Armstrong. No idea at *all*."
He was instantly calm. "What *are* they doing to her, Storm?
That's just the first of a list of questions I have to ask you."
"What right do you have to ask that of me?" she glared at him
while raging inside.
"I need all the information you can give on this matter," Daniel
responded in that same calm voice. "We need to know how best
to treat her after we get her out. You know that as well as we do,
Storm, so why are you acting like this?"
"Because I was inside Dana's head, and you *know* how much I
hate that," Storm responded quickly, suddenly wishing that Flynn
was here. When she and Flynn had taken a hiatus from the
Bureau after the fire, she had no idea where it would have led
them.
The last she had heard from her partner, he was stuck in a
cornfield in Nebraska, and a flicker from his end of their
connection told her that he was still there, thinking that there might
be answers there that couldn't be found elsewhere.
He would be there soon, but until then, she was on her own.
Slowly, she turned, settling her gaze on Daniel's calmness. She
spared a glance to make sure she hadn't awakened Mulder, but it
was like he was unconscious. He was finally in a blissful sleep,
and Storm suddenly knew that Dana was near him somehow.
After the dream she had had, that was the only conclusion she
could draw.
"So? Are you going to answer me?"
She didn't take her eyes off her half-brother as she answered,
"They've impregnated her, Daniel. I don't know whether it's a
entirely human child that's been manipulated genetically or
something... not entirely human..."
"What?"
Storm didn't have to turn to see the shocked look on Daniel's face.
Part of her was childishly glad at that, glad that she was able to
break through that calm facade that he had been showing her.
She also withheld the other thing that she had suspicions about,
especially after the way Mulder felt. His mind was a wreck with
several different abilities being forced open by some sort of device
that affected the brain.
Not that they wouldn't have opened on their own, but those things
happened in their own time. She wanted to kill Them with her
bare hands for the things that had been done. She let out a sigh.
"I respected you once, Daniel. Once you showed that you were a
human being, that you had emotions. Now you've become one
who calculates every move without care for the people involved.
You already knew that at the very least, Dana and Mulder had
had their minds raped, yet you force information out of me. How
did you get to be so much like them, Daniel, overnight?"
"I couldn't deal with what I saw, so I closed out all emotions after
I left tonight. That's the one thing I learned while I was there.
Even empaths have to have an off switch, Storm."
"I wish I could find mine."
"Rickster wanted to be sure, since I left him there to get Dana. I
needed to get all the information I could, Storm, and I'm sorry.
We do what we have to in order to save people, and afterwards,
we heal our own wounds as we try to help them heal theirs. How
could you have forgotten *that*?" his voice was mildly chiding,
and Storm bowed her head slightly.
"I know, but there's so much pain here, and it's been a long time
since it's cut this close. It's drawn blood this time, Danny. My
blood..."
"How did you know?"
"That Mulder was my brother?"
"Yeah..."
"Starr let out a little piece of information the last time Flynn and I
were in town, and we did some DNA typing simply because my
sister is not exactly the most reliable source in the world."
Daniel chuckled at the truth of that.
"So when we got the tests back, they matched. It didn't surprise
our friends, but it surely surprised us. Hasn't changed how we
treat each other very much, but I'm more protective of him, and
vice versa. Mulder is so much a family person..."
"Even after what his father did?"
"Yeah..."
Just then, Daniel froze, and his expression went totally blank.
Storm stopped and waited. Somehow, she sensed that there was
not going to be good news coming. After a moment, the
expression that returned to Daniel's eyes confirmed her fears.
"Daniel?"
"She's gone."
"What?!"
***************
It was now that she felt truly lost. Scully travelled the dark
passages that were either dark alley streets or the darkness of her
own mind. She knew what they had done to her, and was trying
to shield herself from it. Sometimes knowledge was power, yet
also that same knowledge could have the power to kill.
Thoughts that weren't her own bombarded her from all sides, and
she forced strength into her waning walls to try and keep those
voices out. She needed control now, since there was no place
safe for her to break down. She sought safety when there was no
safety to be found.
There was a path she was following, a pull that she sensed would
eventually lead her to the safety that she sought. Then she could
heal, and try to figure out what she was to do if what she heard
was correct. Impregnated. It sounded like such a cold term for
something that is usually regarded with love and affection between
two people.
A miracle, only one that was corrupted. She hated them for doing
this to her, and at the first opportunity, she would take all of them
down, in whatever fashion was most fitting. The law enforcement
officer wanted to see justice through the courts while the woman,
the woman held deep inside who is Dana, wanted to see them all
dead before her eyes.
She found the place she sought, and reached up to knock, or to
pull the doors open, only to find that they opened of their own free
will. The pull got stronger and she followed. There was a newly
replaced flight of stairs that she climbed, and as she turned one of
the many corners in this more humane labyrinth, she knew what
the pull was.
Mulder...
Finally, she found him, and pushed open the door. As he lay there
sleeping, she stood watching him from the doorway, feeling the
connection between them leap and buzz into existance once more.
She felt him stir within her mind, but for a few moments she just
watched him lay there. Even in sleep, forced unconsciousness
though it was, he looked lost. As lost as she truly had been when
she had been driven to seek him here.
As lost, even, as she felt now.
She ran a hand through tangled red hair, and felt it fall in wavy
curls around her shoulders. How long had they been gone for her
hair to have grown to this length and in such a fashion? It barely
felt to her to be a day.
Then again, she herself recalled how time seemed to be as twisted
as the place itself. She wrapped her arms around her, seeing the
white thing that she had been clothed in back there. Ever since
this began, she had felt unable to cry, for him, for her, for them...
but in watching him now, she had to resist the urge.
The pain cut so deep, cut both of them to the point where they
were open and bleeding inside, with no knowledge on how to heal
these wounds.
Only together would they find the answers. Only together, would
they be able to heal from this. He was still weak, and for that
matter, she was still elsewhere. However, all that she was,
beyond the physical, sought him here. Needed to be with him,
almost as though deep down inside they were one person and had
just forgotten.
What had they done to her? What had they done to him? Hell,
what had they done to *them*? Would this event break them
apart, or make them stronger?
Stronger... stronger... came a whisper at the back of her mind,
and she knew it was him.
With stumbling steps that felt like she was trying to learn to walk
again, in this form, she made her way to the bed, and then, leaning
in almost as though she were truly physical at this point, she ran a
translucent hand over his arm and watched the gooseflesh rise at
the touch.
[I'm here, Mulder. I'm here.]
She had heard him calling out to her, in the pain, and had felt the
pull. For six years, she had done all that was in her power to
resist the pull to him, fearing that she would get lost in such a way
that she would never find herself.
Over time, though, she had forgotten, that although they were
separate people, without each other, they were truly lost. It had
taken this event to remind her, and now that she had been
reminded, she would not allow it to happen again.
So this time, instead of fighting that pull, she had followed it, and
found herself here.
With a sigh, she crawled into bed behind him, and heard a whisper
of her name. Whether it was purely mental or actually whispered,
she wasn't sure, but it didn't matter. And there, wrapped around
him so tightly that you couldn't tell where he ended and she began,
Scully finally found the release for tears that had been threatening.
There, she found peace, and was finally able to rest. In the
morning, that's where Daniel and Storm found her, laying curled
around Mulder's prone body, almost as though her body had
followed the spirit to where they were both needed.
Now, and only now, could the healing truly start.
**********************
-End-