Notes: This is a Mulder/Scully/Reyes fic. It's an alternate timeline as well so Reyes has been brought in earlier. This is just the intro. It's been rated M for later chapters. However there is a chance that it might be taken down because as of now they are being completely arbitrary to who gets to keep a story up and who doesn't. If for some reason it gets pulled it's already up on ArchiveOfOurOwn and on my tumblr account at SisterSpookyReyes. Just be warned that though this chapter is tame, it's going to get dark really quick.

"Phoebe Larson is dead." Mulder said, rather matter-of-factly as Scully entered the office that morning. She arched an eyebrow, wondering exactly how she was supposed to know that name just hearing it. They dealt with so many people and so many cases, and though the first name rung a bell, there had to be more than just one Phoebe in the world, and she already knew of one of them. She kind of felt a little happy when she thought he meant the one from his past but then he'd probably be a tad more upset. Then again maybe not, what did that woman really mean to him any more anyway? Instead of trying to play guessing games in her own head for much longer she was sure he'd just tell her if she asked. He probably had a lot of pictures and a whole file to go along with it.

"I'm sorry, who?" She asked. She took a sip of her coffee and sat down across from him. She was tired, but that wasn't exactly new for her. Though there seemed to have been a dry spell between cases, work was never over. There were always meetings and progress reports and papers to file. That was what their days had been like and it was nice to get a new case but it was much more strenuous work. At least now they wouldn't be stuck in a basement office trying not to get sick of spending so much time with each other in close quarters. She did love him, dearly, but even with the ones you loved there was only so much you could put up with in a day.

"What about the name Jade Blue Afterglow?" He asked her with a slight smile, he was probably remembering her as he said the name. It mildly annoyed her and though they weren't official just yet, she knew at that point if there was ever anything between him and that woman it would most likely be a paid transaction, not long term. He couldn't afford a woman like her anyway, not on his salary. The name did, however, trigger her into remembering who Phoebe was.

"She's dead? How?" At that point she was well aware that it would have something to do with the game. They had overlooked something that caused the woman's death and it meant probably having to go back into that world. Not that she was exactly looking forward to it. Though she had been better at fighting off the video game vixen than any of the guys had, she hadn't actually beaten her. They had done the kill switch thing on the game, there was no telling if the avatar of Jade Blue would have been defeated by her or if it would have gone on for all eternity.

"Seems Phoebe had a back up of the wire frame image on her personal computer. She said that it jumped programs right? She never said she got rid of the original. Seems like Matraya made a move of her own last night and killed Phoebe." Mulder said, "We have to get back out to California."

"Go back to FPS? Are you…" Scully was about to complain about this but if she did it would only amp up his ability to tease her about video games and how little she knew. At that point if she never played pac-man again she'd be happy. As it turned out it just meant reinserting herself into an area she knew nothing about. Having to put up with a bunch of horny men drooling over a way more sexualized version of Lara Croft, if that was even something that was possible.

"Am I what?"

"Nothing. The little trio isn't going to be there this time, right?" She asked. Deflecting was the best she could do at that point, complaining wasn't going to help her. "No, but we are meeting another field agent out there. Monica Reyes. She's in charge of the investigation." Mulder said and grabbed his jacket. "Come on it's a long flight and we leave in a few hours."

"Great." Scully muttered and stood up. She hadn't even had time to make a dent in the large coffee she had gotten from Starbucks. Now it seemed most of it would be trashed because it would just end up getting cold as she hurried to get her ass on a flight to somewhere she really didn't even want to go. The day was already horrible and it wasn't even close to lunch.

After a brief stop at the hotel, to just basically drop off bags, the two of them got into their rental car and headed to the defunct loft apartment in a seedy part of Hollywood where Phoebe lived. She apparently had two roommates but no one had seen anything. It seemed that was because they were all stashing drugs before the arrival of the police. The place reeked of marijuana and from the looks of the items on display it was clear some other illegal activities were going on as well. No one in that area should have near the amount of expensive TVs and computers that place had, at least not legally.

"Why did we have to come here?" Scully asked and then the woman appeared, the woman she assumed was Monica Reyes. She was dressed just like a government agent, yet she had this cheery smile that already irked Scully and she hadn't even spoke yet.

"I wanted you to see the symbol on the wall." She said, "Oh, I'm Monica Reyes." She kind of fumbled to get her badge out of her coat pocket. Scully looked at Mulder and arched an eyebrow. This woman was younger, she didn't know if she even trusted her, and as she approached the scent of secondhand smoke was rather obvious. None of this seemed to bode well.

"Agents Mulder and Scully." She said and showed her badge quickly, and in a far more professional manner than Reyes had. "Why did we have to come here to see it?"

"Well I thought it might give you a better sense of things." Reyes said, "I…I know I work better when I'm actually surrounded by the crime scene. Sometimes pictures don't do everything justice." She said and headed back into the room which she came.

"I think I like her." Mulder teased and brushed past Scully to enter the bedroom. She took in a slow deep breath and let it out through her nose before following. The room was rather unremarkable except for the symbol on the wall behind the bed. It was obviously done in blood that had now dried and forever stained the white paint that covered the rest of the area. Scully honestly hadn't ever seen that symbol, it didn't even look like it was pagan. Not even some of the old pagan things she knew. Not that she was an expert by any means, so she looked at Mulder. He looked very intrigued but not like he had any answers. Had they finally found something that even he didn't have an explanation for right of the bat? Not even a theory? Her stomach twisted just a bit.

"They told me that you may be better with this kind of stuff than I am." Reyes said, looking back at Mulder. "I specialize in ritualistic crimes but even I have never seen anything like that." She said, making a vague motion towards the symbol.

It was odd, like someone had a seizure while trying to draw a cross between a pentagram and a serpent. It literally made no sense but it was too organize to just be random blood spatter. In the center of it was an arrow. It was embedded deep into the wall, the only sign that it used to be an arrow were the feathers at the end that would have guided it's flight.

"What's with the arrow?" Mulder asked, getting closer.

"Not sure about that either, and it won't come out of the wall. Nor can anyone seem to cut through it." Reyes said, "In fact, in your report it should have said the body was vivisected but, that's what did it." She replied.

"An arrow split Phoebe down the middle?" Scully asked slowly. "It said cause of death was an impact to her heart, from an arrow, not that cause of death was her being split in half. They said that was post mortem."

"It was post mortem. The arrow pierced her heart, through her chest, into the wall and the rest of it was sharp enough to— DON'T TOUCH IT!" Reyes yelled at Mulder because of course he was about to. Her tone was startling enough that he yanked his hand back before it could make contact. Apparently he had been completely ignoring the conversation her and Reyes were having about what the arrow had done.

"So the weight of her body and the sharpness of the arrow, it kind of just, went through her til she fell?" Mulder asked. Of course now he really did want to touch it but knew that would be the dumbest idea he ever had and Scully would never let him live it down.

"Yeah that's pretty much what happened." Reyes said, she was visibly shaking. Scully wondered if someone had touched it before. She had said that they couldn't remove it, and clearly they had figured this out after a second accident had occurred.

"But that's wood." Mulder said, pointing at the shaft.

"It looks like wood but…no one thinks it is at this point." She tried to assure him. "All of this is very weird. Even with heavy gloves, specifically for sharp objects it was doing damage. Attempts to saw it off, remove it with bolt cutters, nothing at all could damage it. The first guy to grab it to try to remove it for evidence, he just…well his hand is not there any more and I don't see how they'll be able to fix it."

"Were you here when that happened?" Scully asked.

"Yeah, it was like a hot knife through butter. Happened in a flash, as if there were no bones in his hand. No one should attempt to touch that thing." She said seriously.

"Are they saying how the arrow was fired?" Mulder asked her.

"Crossbow, best they can figure. With the impact and trajectory a relatively new one. It's just too accurate to be anything they can match it too. Is this enough to open an X-File yet?" She asked with a bright smile. Scully wanted to role her eyes. There were always going to be these kind of agents, the ones who got way too excited with what her job was. It was usually they were more into Mulder and what he did and she just got to tag along as his groupies fawned over his method of solving a case. She was quite unaware that the look in Reyes's eyes was not fawning for Mulder.

"It was enough to open one when I heard the prime suspect is Matraya." Mulder smiled.

"The prime suspect is Jade Blue Afterglow." Scully said, hating to be the one to put a damper on the party. The two of them looked at her. The very same look. Both telling her she must have lost her mind. Though, they were the crazy ones if they thought a video game character actually came to life. She had jumped into another program last time, not into their universe. Even with as implausible as the last scenario was, this was even worse and she wasn't willing to accept anything as fact.

"Scully you met that woman, you think she could fire a crossbow with those finger nails?" Mulder asked her.

"Maybe a magical one." She said, and her response was only that because if they were all going to go completely nuts and throw logic out the window she'd rather believe there was a magic crossbow than computer programs becoming sentient. "We should put out a bulletin to pick her up."

"Really? You saw how much that helped last time." Mulder told her.

"Jade Blue Afterglow?" Reyes asked, "She's a suspect in this? She was listed as a non entity in the original case file."

"You read all of that?" Mulder asked. Not surprising Phoebe's name came up when Reyes went to do research but Jade Blue had been such a small blip in the grand scheme of things Reyes must have gone over that huge file with a fine tooth comb. Even then, to remember the very few sentences spent on her in the report kind of amazed him.

"Of course. I like to be thorough when I investigate things." She said with a smile. "Some times the things you don't know you are looking for are the smallest." Scully was irritated with that answer, which of course meant Mulder was pleased with it.

"So you believe in all of this stuff?" She asked.

"Lets just say I don't NOT believe in it." Reyes spoke as if she were some sort of new age priestess or therapist. Scully didn't like that either, and she could tell Mulder was eating it up. He approached them again and looked around.

"Well I think the three of us are going to get along just swimmingly." He beamed. At that point Scully did roll her eyes. She was going to feel ganged up on this whole time. A woman who knew a bit more about these things because she was more interested in the possibility of different areas of the universe.

There was always some sort of logical explanation for everything. Until there was 100% hardcore proof that this Matraya character had left the game and become real, Scully was putting all her cards on Jade Blue being behind it. Of course, as usual her very skeptical brain would be the thing to get them into a lot of trouble.