X-FILES DISCLAIMER - See end of story.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Avicia (1/5): Combustion
She was hot. She was *burning* hot. Her legs felt as if they were going to explode. She tried to move. Her hands were tied behind her back. She was tied to something solid. She could smell burning. The acrid stench of burning flesh. "Avicia!" She heard a familiar male voice call. "Avicia!"
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Scully's Bedroom
Scully woke up in bed. Her breathing was harsh in the quiet of the room. She was still far too hot, much hotter than the November night warranted. She had long since kicked off the bed covers, which were lying in an untidy heap by the side of the bed. Scully wiped some of the sweat off her forehead and flicked her soaking wet hair back off her face. Damn strands were clinging horribly to her neck. She closed her eyes momentarily and tried to regulate her over-fast breathing. Opening her eyes again, Scully rolled her head to the side and focused on the digital clock.
01:43
Too early to have a shower but she wouldn't be able to sleep if she didn't. Forcing muscles to work, she climbed out of bed and headed for the bathroom. She tried to avoid thinking about the dream. This was the sixth night running that she'd had the same dream - sometimes there was fire and smoke too - but it wasn't about bright lights or anything that seemed related to the missing time in her life and therefore it was just a dream. Why would it be anything else? A thought broke through her structured block. Avicia.
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Thursday 01:50
Scully slipped off the pajamas, absently rubbing an itchy area of her right calf as she did so. Flipping the shower on, she stepped under the soothing stream. To sleep-heavy, sweat-soaked limbs the cool water was deliciously welcome and to the scalp under her clumped-up hair it was a blessed relief. Closing her eyes dreamily and letting the water run soothingly over her body, she let herself drift beyond the reality of it being early in the morning in Alexandria and a workday at that. At length it became too much to stand under the stream anymore and she shut off the water.
The towel was soft but, as Scully rubbed it over her calf, she realised that there was a slow ache building there. Taking the towel away, Scully examined her leg and found a large area of reddened flesh. She racked her brain for when it might have occurred but could think of nothing. As she looked more closely at the irritation it came to resemble a burn, changing and shifting even before her eyes. The skin broke and pus flowed from inside, over the towel and over her hands. The redness stretched over her entire calf now and was still spreading up her thigh and towards her ankle. It was sore and itchy but she fought the urge to scratch it. She could do nothing as the burning seemed to eat through her leg. The pain became indescribable and yet oddly removed from reality. Her breathing became rapid and her heart was pounding against her ribs. Her eyes widened in horror, she could now see bone through the flesh. Stark white bone. Blood and blackened flesh liquefied and poured from her leg across the towel, then in thick drops to the carpet. She could almost smell the charring of the flesh. The bone began to turn black.
Scully thought in panic.
Still clutching the towel like a security blanket, Scully stumbled back into the bedroom. She couldn't feel her right leg anymore. The burning was spreading all over her body. She could feel the heat searing her and roasting the flesh on her bones. It was a long tumble onto the bed and the bouncing of the springs added to her pain. Her head hit the pillow. Although her nostrils were filled with stinking greasy black smoke, she could smell burning material. The sheets. Thought processes shut down in her head and Scully lost consciousness. Her final thought was of Kieron. She didn't have time to wonder what it meant.
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Mulder's Apartment 07:40
Mulder was asleep. It was nice. Sleep was nice. He was dreaming that he was floating above a garden and there were flowers dancing on the breeze around him. Samantha - his little sister still as she had been on that fateful day - smiled at him from her place in the air a few metres away. An awful buzzing noise penetrated the perfect simplicity of the dream. Mulder groaned as he woke up into the deep gloom of his apartment. Reality. Shit. The noise was the phone ringing insistently.
Mulder thought with a start and jumped to answer it. How he knew it was her was something that he never questioned. "Help!" Her voice gasped from the other end of the line before he had a chance to say a word. "Help, please.." "I'm on my way." He replied, already moving to find clothes.
***End of Part one
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Avicia (2/5): Burn Baby
Scully's Apartment 08:01
Mulder didn't bother knocking, he just let himself in. "Scully?" He called as he closed the door after himself. There was no answer. "Scully?" He called, walking through the quiet apartment.
"Kieron!" Scully's voice suddenly screamed. "Kieron! Help me!" Mulder drew his Glock and placed the sound as coming from the bedroom. He crept around the door to find Scully lying naked on the bed with hideous burns covering her body. "Kieron!" She murmured as she writhed against the pain. "Kieron!" Over and over the word was torn from her.
Mulder placed the gun on the table and went over to Scully. Her face was the only part of her that didn't have any burns and so he touched a hand to her cheek. "Scully? Scully, can you hear me?" He asked and her eyes snapped open. They were clear and sparkling, brimming with recognition and yet there was something strange in those depths. "Kieron, don't let them kill me." She begged reaching for him. "Scully, who's Kieron?" He asked, trying not to touch her anywhere that might hurt her. Tears formed in the azure blue eyes. "You're denying me!" She sobbed. "I expected it of the others, but never you..." He almost had the feeling that he wasn't talking to Scully anymore, but to someone else. He placed a hand to her forehead hunting for a fever but, while she was warm, there was no sign of a fever to warrant her behaviour. He looked down her body at the burns, forcing himself to ignore the fact that she was naked and concentrate on the painful wounds instead. They actually seemed to be diminishing in scale - disappearing rather than appearing - but he was no doctor. She needed a doctor. "How did this happen to you?" He asked her desperately, as he began hunting in his pockets for his cell-phone. "They burnt me Kieron. They burnt me." Those eyes were too much for his sanity. It was a relief that he seemed to have forgotten his phone and would have to leave to use hers. He stood up and turned his back on the scene. "I'll get a doctor." He murmured and left the room.
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Northeast Georgetown Medical Centre 10:58
Mulder sat on the brown plastic chair with his head in his hands. "Mr Mulder...?" A voice said from above him and he looked up at a middle-aged woman in a white coat. "I'm Doctor Thorley." She told him. "How is she?" Mulder demanded, standing up. "Miss Scully is in remarkably good health, considering her condition..." She answered. "How bad are the burns...?" He asked. Doctor Thorley shrugged. "Right, the burns." She paused to draw a long breath. "I observed Miss Scully's burns when she was brought in, my diagnosis was that they were first degree, although the paramedics described them as second degree. However..." She broke off and shrugged. "I have no explanation for it. All the burns appear to have healed in the last two hours. I'll be discharging her later today as there's now no reason to keep her in." "Healed?" Mulder asked with a frown. "What do you mean, healed?" "Exactly that. Miss Scully has no burns on her body at the present time. Now, I have not the slightest idea how that can be. If you can offer any explanation I, for one, would be glad to hear it."
Mulder rubbed at his nose in confusion. "Can I see her?" He asked. "Yeah sure. Your name wouldn't be Kieron, would it?" "No, why?" "She's been asking for this Kieron ever since she was brought in."
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Mulder pulled aside the blue curtain, walked through and immediately closed it behind him. "Hi there." Her voice said from the bed. As soon as he looked at her he could see that what the doctor said was true. There was not a mark on her skin. He smiled in response to her smile. "How you feeling?" He asked as he sat on the bed next to her. "Foolish." She replied. "What am I doing here?" "You don't remember?" She shook her head. "You called me this morning, when I got to your apartment you were in bed covered in burns. "Burns? But I'm not burnt." "You also kept asking for someone called Kieron." He stated flatly, upset that she hadn't mentioned someone who was obviously important to her. "I don't know any Kieron." She answered with a frown. "I was burnt?" "You really don't know a Kieron?" Jealously was eating him badly. "No, I really don't know a Kieron." She countered making eye contact. "I really don't." She insisted. "You've been calling for him for hours." "According to you, I've also been burnt but I'm not now." She said sarcastically. "You *were* burnt, the doctor will back me up on that." He paused to chew on his lip. "What do you remember happening last night?"
Scully broke eye contact and shrugged against the pillow. "I watched TV, tried to read a book, then went to bed. I think I took a shower at some point..." "Any dreams? Nightmares?" Mulder cut in. "Are you trying to analyze me?" She asked, eyeing him warily. "Just trying to help." He responded with a laconic smile. "Ok-a-a-y," She drew the word out. "I did have a dream as it happens, but it doesn't mean anything." "Dreams always mean something Scully." Mulder countered with a broadening of the smile. "Even if it's only your subconscious working itself out." "This one is pretty weird..." "Ooooh Good!" Mulder commented, rubbing his hands together with exaggerated glee. "...You're gonna take this the wrong way. I know it." "I promise I wont." He put his hand on his heart and put on the 'puppy-face'. "Promise." Scully didn't buy it because of that. "I'm burning." She stated, her trust in him was more than that silly face he pulled. "What?" His interest was piqued. "In the dreams, I'm burning." "You've had more than one of these dreams?" He asked thoughtfully and she nodded. "Define burning." "Burning, how many ways can you burn? There's flames and smoke. My legs burn first, I remember that. Oh yeah, I'm tied to something, something pretty solid." Her speech stilled as she contemplated what she could remember. "There was a voice in the last one." "Male? Female?" He prompted. "Male." She answered. "It screamed out a word, over and over, but I can't remember the word."
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Scully's Apartment 16:36
"There's no clear definition of what something seen in a dream may actually mean. It's largely based on an individual's own psychological make-up, no matter what the books say." "Darn, you mean I spent $14:95 on 'Dreams: A Practical Guide To Interpreting Your Soul' for nothing." Scully told him sardonically. "There's several ways to approach it Scully." Mulder replied with a smile. "You're tied up in the dream, which removes your ability to control the situation. That could relate to a personal fear of not being in control. Then there's the fire, which can be positive or negative, a cleansing influence or symbolic of a fear of something unknown." He paused to shrug and smile. "Or we could take your dream literally." "Literally?" She questioned with a worried expression. "You wont like my suggestion." He said with a grin. She raised a skeptical eyebrow in anticipation. "Past life memory manifesting itself as a dream having been triggered by a traumatic event in this lifetime." He replied. Scully sucked her breath in over her teeth. "You're right. I don't like it." She broke the eye contact. "Come on..." He began. "So how do you explain the amazing appearing/disappearing burns?" She asked instead. "Psychosomatic." He stated. "Second degrees burns? Psychosomatic?" She was incredulous. "Like stigmata." He answered nodding. "I thought you didn't believe in stigmata." "With regard to their religious significance, I don't, but I believe that some people can bring the wounds on with the power of belief." He replied laconically. "And you think that I might have brought these burns on myself by believing in my dream?" The skepticism was like acid. "Yeah, remember that case with those Vietnam vets who hadn't slept in 24 years. They had internal wounds with no external source. One of the men was *making* the others believe and their beliefs were killing them." "I never completely bought that explaination Mulder." Scully commented. "And what about this Kieron person?" "He could have been responsible whatever happened to you in the past life you're remembering." Mulder suggested. "Mulder, it's impossible." She enunciated the words at him. "You want your medical records from the hospital. You were admitted with first degree burns and discharged four hours later without a mark on you. The paramedics told me here that they were *second* degree burns. It doesn't sound possible, but it happened and the sooner you face up to it, the sooner we can sort it out." "You want me to subscribe to any crackpot theory just to reassure myself!" Their eyes locked into battle. "Why can't you just believe in this? Even when it happens to you, you still refuse to believe." He sounded tired suddenly. "I'm gonna go get some sleep." She said dismissively. "If you wanna stay you know where everything is." She left.
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"Avicia!" The voice called out desperately. "Avicia!"
The fire licked around her thighs now. The heat was intense. Unbelievably intense. She struggled, still attempting to free herself. Her flesh was burning. Unpleasant tinglings spread all over her body. She was scalding hot. She was shivering. Gasping for breath, but each inhalation was greasy with her own burning flesh. A familiar voice, different from the one yelling 'Avicia', asked her a question. She couldn't hear it for the roar of the flames. The answer was yes. "Yes!" She yelled at the man, who was a dim grey silhouette beyond the brightness of the red, gold and orange of the fire. He asked the same question again and again, each time she knew the answer had to be yes. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" She repeated endlessly. "Kieron!" She called to another figure she could see now. He was being held back from the fire by two other men. "Avicia!" The voice called and she knew it was him calling. "Kieron!" She called back. The fire was so hot and the pain so constant that she felt detached from it. In an abstract way she could feel it eating through the lower half of her body, sucking the life out of her limbs. Then a sliver of fire jumped up and caught her hair. The new pain was different to before. More real. The thought finally took shape. Death by burning. Eternal damnation. She would never see Kieron or the others again. The shadow man repeated his question. She knew that the answer should be yes. "No!" She screamed instead. "No! I repent! I do not believe! I do not believe!" The sound broke from her throat in harsh sobs as the fire in her hair spread to her scorch a trail across her face and her neck. "Avicia!" The man she knew was Kieron screamed as he fell to his knees, dragging his captors with him. He was crying. "Kieron." She whispered before the fire began to burn away her throat. "I do not believe. I do not believe."
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Scully's Apartment 22:13
Mulder stared at the tape recorder lying on the table. It was exactly what he'd remembered as being on the tape and it scared him more than he'd ever been scared before. Even more than in the box car when the fire was behind him threatening to consume him. Even more than when Scully had been missing. Even more than when he'd found out about Melissa, only to have her die. This was scarier.
"Kieron!" Scully screamed from the bedroom and Mulder's head snapped up. "No! No! I repent! I do not believe! I do not believe!"
The harshly shrieked words were the greatest torture and sent him running into the bedroom.
Inside the room was dimly lit, the drapes closed shut blocking out the moonlight. The only light came from out in the hallway and it meant that Mulder's shadow was cast across the room and across the figure lying on the bed. She held her hands behind her back as if they were tied that way and struggled weakly as if to free them. "I don't believe." She was saying. "I don't believe. I don't believe. I don't believe." Softly whispered over and over as she moved. As he got closer to the bed, Mulder could see the redness spreading across her visible body - she was wearing pajamas this time - and in particular a nasty patch across her throat. He sat next to her and touched her forehead to wake her. She whimpered. "I don't believe." She muttered as he ran a gentle hand over her skin. "Scully?" He said softly to wake her. "Scul..." He paused and thought of the tape. "Avicia?" He said instead. She whimpered once more. "Avicia?" He repeated. The eyes slowly opened and focused on him. "Mulder, what...?" She huskily demanded, sitting up. As she did so she realised the pain she was in trying to speak and clasped a hand to her throat. Mulder's faint intake of breath caused her to look at her hand. Her wrist was encircled with a deep red gash as if her hands had been tied with abrasive rope. The other was the same. "I had the dream." She said flatly. Mulder nodded. "What was I saying?" She asked, although she already thought she knew. He looked away. "You were saying 'I don't believe'." He replied, his hands apparently had become very interesting to stare at. "I think I know what's happening." He said and started to stand up. "I'll be right back." He left.
Scully sat against the headboard staring at the open doorway Mulder had walked out of. She remembered the dream. She remembered all of it this time. The fire. The Shadow Man. Kieron. Her throat was still sore and the abrasions on her wrists were throbbing as if to prove that they were real and not figments of the imagination. She already knew that, she just didn't want to believe it. Suddenly the light in the doorway was blocked off. Scully wasn't scared or surprised to look up and see Mulder towering over her. He sat down again and placed a cassette recorder between them.
"There's no easy way to do this." He said regretfully and sighed deeply. "I want you to listen to this." Scully frowned at him but he didn't look at her. He pressed the button on the tape player.
For a few seconds there was silence. Then came the voice of man she didn't recognise. "What year is it?" "By the imposed calendar," Mulder's voice replied steadily. "It is eleven-hundred and twenty-one years after the death of their Christ." "What is your name?" The man asked and there was a long pause. "By my Christian name, I am Kieron." Mulder's voice replied and Scully surpressed a gasp but it wasn't as much of a shock as she pretended. "But in the other language I am the Black Fox, the Merlin of the Circle of Truth." In the room Scully listened intently as the breathing on the tape became ragged. He gasped. "No. No!" "What's happening?" The calm therapist's voice had risen a little. "Avicia!" Mulder's voice gasped and Scully's eyes flew to the Mulder in the room to find him looking at her. Their eyes locked. "Avicia!" The voice on the tape said. "Calm down, you're safe." The soothing voice attempted. "Return to your..." "They're burning her!" Mulder's voice gasped on the tape. Scully's eyes held Mulder's in the dim bedroom. "No! Avicia!" Then there was a single intake of breath, an unsteady gasp of shock. "Scully!" Then there was just the ragged breathing and an attempt to control it. "Are you alright?" The therapist asked. "I...uh..." Came Mulder's voice at length. "I can't...can we stop? I can't do this anymore." The tape ended and Mulder broke the eye contact with Scully to turn it off.
***End of Part Two
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Avicia (3/5): Something
Scully's Apartment
"When?" Scully asked into the intense silence which followed the end of the tape recording. "After..." Mulder stopped to clear his throat. "After..." "Melissa Reedell...?" Scully cut in insightfully and Mulder nodded. "I had to know more...to search for..." He shrugged depreciatively. "...Something." He pointed to the tape player. "After that one..." He sighed. "I snapped out of it and I couldn't go back under."
Scully hung her head. She didn't want to believe it. "That's what the voice was saying wasn't it?" Mulder asked and Scully looked over at him. "Avicia?" Their eyes locked as he said the word. Scully nodded. "It was your name. Your name in that lifetime." "No." Scully shook her head vehemently denying it. Mulder clasped her shoulders roughly and forced her to look at him. "You can't deny it this time." He stated firmly. "I recorded that tape years ago and you never knew about it. I didn't know about your dreams until last night. That's *proof* Scully. It's absolute proof." "Proof of what?" She exclaimed. "Mulder, you claimed you were Merlin!" "Not The Merlin Scully - not Merlin as in King Arthur - *a* Merlin. It was a title, like a priest or a holy man." He clarified. "And the 'Circle of Truth'? That's a little convient isn't it?" She countered sarcastically. Mulder sighed. "I haven't been able to find out anything about them but records for non-Christian groups in 1121 are a little patchy! That's why members of the group would have been burnt, they would have been accused of being witches." "You're seriously saying that you think I was burnt as a witch?" Scully felt her heart sinking. She did not believe. Mulder nodded sadly. "Yes and I was forced to watch without being able to help you." He looked so serious when he said it but Scully just frowned and gave a sardonic smile. "That's 800 years of guilt you're claiming there." She pointed out. Mulder ignored the statement. "You need to go for regression Scully." "No way." She said immediately. "You *have* to." He grabbed her arm and held her wrist in front of her face. The welts were going down but there was still a band of contused tissue around the entirety of her wrist. "That's gonna keep happening until you face it." He dropped her arm. "I don't believe in regression Mulder." She sighed. "It's all fantasy." "And I suppose that bruise and those burns are fantasy too." He shook his head. "Look Scully, what does it matter if it's fantasy. If you play it out with someone it shouldn't matter whether it's the truth or not. It'll get it out of your system. You *have* to do it because you can't go on like this." "No, I don't believe in it." She replied firmly. "Fine." Mulder said as he stood up and walked away. Scully was shocked. "Where are you going?" She demanded. "Home." He stated. "Since none of this is real, you don't need me here to protect you." "Mulder..." She called but he left the room. She collapsed back onto the bed, closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "Oh yeah and Scully," She opened her eyes to see him in the doorway. "Tomorrow *I'm* gonna get myself regressed. Even if you're too scared to face the past, I'm not. It's up to you whether you come with me." He left again. Scully punched the pillow.
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The Offices of Dr. Simon Penderghast Hypnotic Regression Therapist Friday 11:11
Watching the bright sunlight streamed in through the plastic strips of the venetian blind Scully felt like she was in a bad movie. Mulder was sat in a leather armchair with his eyes closed whilst Dr. Penderghast spoke soothingly to him. Scully wasn't listening to what he was saying, her attention was focused entirely on Mulder's face. Thankfully after he'd left, her sleep had been peaceful and uninterrupted. She'd woken up this morning without a mark on her.
Scully had no idea how Mulder had fixed his presence here with Skinner. She had already been signed off work for a week by her doctor because of the bizarre incident with the burns the day before. Her doctor had given her some pills to take in addition to the usual ones she was taking. The doctor thought it was connected to her cancer. Scully knew that it wasn't.
"I want you to go back to the year 1121 and tell me who you are and what you see." Dr. Penderghast said and Scully began to pay attention. Mulder frowned and sighed.
"My name is Kieron Fox." He said. "My family have a farm in the vale of Embasingstoc in the Norman manor of Basing." "You're a farmer?" "Yes, but when the moon is full I am the Merlin of Circle of Truth. It's the time of the harvest and the Circle is meeting for the festival of praise to the Ancients." "What *is* the Circle of Truth?" Penderghast asked and Mulder laughed. "The Circle is symbol of the power which has existed in the land for all eternity. We preserve the knowledge of the Ancients who built the great stone circle on the Plain." "And the people who make up the Circle?" "We are the Twelve."
"A jury of twelve." Scully murmured and raised an eyebrow. "Twelve disciples." She mused randomly.
"Do you know their names?" "I can't say their real names, only they could tell you that."
"Christian names." Scully muttered to Penderghast.
"What about their Christian names?" "As I sit in the meeting place by the waterfall, above the valley, Avicia is on my right; she is Scully."
Scully dipped her head and bit her lip.
"My sister Anne is next to her; she is Krycek."
Scully raised her head suddenly to look at him. The truth and Krycek, an odd combination. "Twelve disciples, one Judas." Under her breath. "Next is Matthew; he is Scully's sister, Melissa."
The air felt jammed out of Scully's lungs.
"Then John; he is my sister, Samantha."
The air seemed to grow thinner, starving Scully of oxygen. "Then Maybelle; she is Melissa Reedell."
Scully felt dizzy.
"Lea; she is Frohike."
She felt sick.
"Megan; she is Langley."
Scully placed her hand over her mouth, desperately wanting him to stop.
"William; he is..." Mulder said.
"Byers." Mulder and Scully said together.
"Arthur; he is..." Mulder said.
"Max Fenig." Mulder and Scully said together.
"Marius; he is Margaret Scully." Mulder said.
"Mom." Scully said as a sob simultaneously.
"On my left is Lynsey; she is..." Mulder said.
"Skinner." Mulder and Scully said together.
"Are you alright?" Penderghast said aside to Scully. "Should I stop? Do you want to leave?" "No." Scully whispered back.
"Tell me about the Valley." Penderghast instructed Mulder, who smiled. "The ancient wisdom tells the valley was carved from the chalk hills by the rushing water of the Great Flood, when the frozen winter that had covered the land ended. Now there is only a fast flowing river to remind of the Flood. It enters the valley as a waterfall and leaves by entering an underground grotto, from there it joins other rivers to flow to the sea."
Scully smiled at the whimsicality of the words. It was like it was a familiar story that he enjoyed telling and she enjoyed hearing.
"From where the Circle gathers at the waterfall we can see the entire valley. Since the only way to enter is by climbing over the steep hills and making yourself visible to all within, it has been protected from the enemies without, but it is more difficult to stop the enemies within. The powers of the Circle were driven to retreat here by the Holy Men from the East carrying their new religion. We have nothing against the man whom they worship. He was a good and kind man. The Christ was an honoured guest of the Circle when he came with his uncle to speak with us at Avalon, over a 1,000 years ago, but the men who carried his words from the Ancient East back to our shores have forgotten to carry his meaning with them. They persecute the practitioners of the ancient rites and refuse to believe the origins of all our faiths. They're unwilling to hear the truth regarding the men they call Jesus." He paused. "Not all of them are the same, the Christian priest in Embasingstoc is understanding and searches for the true knowledge. His name is Peter; he is Pendrell."
Scully drew a shaky breath. She was believing Mulder's words at this instant. In her heart she knew them to be true. She couldn't remember the fate of the priest - of Pendrell - but knew there was something bad.
"Peter understands why we do not wish their Christian church built on the left side of the river. Nothing should be built on the left side or the Gods of the Land and the Sky will be angry. Yet Kingsmill insists that the Chapel of the Trinity be built on left, on the bank above the main settlement." "Kingsmill?" "Matthew Kingsmill, the servant of the Lord of the Manor of Basing. Kingsmill is Cancerman."
Scully recoiled visibly. The Shadow Man from her dreams. The Cancerman. She closed her eyes. What *was* the question he kept asking?
"He is drunk on power he doesn't have and sells the names and the souls of his own people into damnation by fire for their beliefs."
Scully sat forward and put her head into her hands.
It wasn't true. It wasn't.
"The Christ will return with the Ancients and the Others to remove vermin such as Kingsmill from the Earth!"
He spat the words with such vehemence that Scully was compelled to look at him.
"Kingsmill will attempt to kill Peter, Avicia has foreseen it."
Scully resisted the urge to laugh at the idea of being someone who predicts the future.
The thought of Cancerman killing Pendrell stopped all laughter before it even had a chance.
"Does Avicia often predict the future?" "We all see fragments but Avicia sees the clearest." "Has she made any other predictions?" "She see the break-up of the Circle and 1,000 years of darkness." "That's a dire prediction." "She tells us that genocide, disease and mass destruction will plague the thousand years."
Scully repeated to herself. She had a ridiculous urge to hum and cover her ears, like a child not wanting to hear something bad.
"This is fascinating stuff." Dr. Penderghast whispered to Scully and she stared at him. He didn't seem to understand. If Mulder was making this up then he was a total loony tune and in need of powerful anti-psychotic drugs as soon as possible. If he was telling the truth then a past incarnation of herself had believed that she saw a pre-ordained future which encompassed everything bad that had happened in the last 900 odd years. That meant everything from the Crusades to Bosnia, by way of every other war and plague that had taken place. "I could make a career out of this." Penderghast didn't notice her stunned expression and went back to Mulder. "Let's move a few days. What's happening now?" "No, Anne." Mulder said angrily as if he was talking a person.
Anne is Krycek, Scully remembered. His sister in that life.
"What's Anne done?" "She wants to leave the Circle. Nobody leaves the Circle, just as nobody joins. We are born and we die and are born. Anne is threatening to expose us to Kingsmill." "Do you let her leave?" "It's not in our power to do that. We were chosen by the Fates and the Ancients." "What does she do?" "She betrays us by marrying Kingsmill in a Christian ceremony."
Scully couldn't resist the urge to smile at thought of Krycek marrying the Cancerman.
"Is the Christian ceremony itself a betrayal?" "It is a chain easily broken because it is made by priests and not by the couple. In our belief souls commit themselves for all their lives and not just 'till death'. Avicia and I walked the hills and woodlands alone for a month, living on what we could find and keeping each other warm through the coldest of nights. Our commitment was made through our endurance together of cold and heat, survival and protection."
Scully bit her lip.
***End of Part Three
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Avicia (4/5): Skeptic
"Anne broke the Circle, just as Avicia predicted." Mulder continued. "She ushered in the 1,000 years of darkness with her foolishness. It is by her hand that we are all damned to walk apart, finding only temporary sustenance with each other, until such time as the Circle can be reconciled and re-created."
Scully thought.
Mulder was sure to point out that there were altogether too many 1's and 2's recurring here for it to be a coincidence.
"Her leaving broke the Circle?" "Anne didn't just break it, she killed it as dead as she could. She told Kingsmill the names of the Twelve." He sucked in a long and tortured breath. "They came for us early in the morning on a bright spring day, denounced us all as witches and put us on trial. Peter wanted to defend us but he was found dead, nailed to a burning cross outside his tiny Chapel by the river."
Scully looked down at her hands and closed her eyes to hide the pain at the thought; buried alive for hours, disemboweled whilst still alive and then burnt on a cross. Her death had been no where near as bad as that.
"They had buried him inside a coffin, then pulled him out before he was dead. Cut his abdomen open and scattered his intestines for the birds. Only after that did they nail his body to the cross and set fire to it."
Scully raised her head and opened her mouth but couldn't find any words. How did she know how Pendrell/Peter had died *before* Mulder said it?
"Even with Peter's testimony they would have found us guilty. The first stake was set up as soon as the trial was over. They didn't even give me a chance to kiss my Avicia goodbye before they tied her to the scaffold."
Mulder swallowed with difficulty. To Scully's horror he began crying. She was holding back tears herself.
"They tied her...to the scaffold...they held my arms so...so..."
He was rocking slightly as he spoke and the tears fell unchecked on his face.
"...I couldn't move... I tried... I did try... but I couldn't get loose... I wanted... if we couldn't live together... I wanted us to burn in the same fire... our ashes mixing and... our souls intertwined... but they wouldn't let me... they kept me out of the fire... and all the time... him... Kingsmill... asking the question... over and over..."
"What question?" Scully whispered too softly for him to hear. The one to which she should have said *yes* but had changed it to *no*, but *what question*?
"What question?" Penderghast asked him. He may have heard her but Scully wasn't sure.
"Do you believe." Mulder said. "He asked her if she believed... over and over..." "Believed in what?" Penderghast was obviously confused.
Scully wasn't confused anymore. She knew what the question meant. She'd always known deep down. Did she believe in the power of the Circle of Truth? Was it real? The same question today would be; did she believe in the paranormal?
"In the Circle of Truth." Mulder sobbed. "Did she believe in the Circle... in what they called evil... in the way of the land... the energy of the land... in the gift... the second sight... in the herbs we used to heal people... in the Ancients themselves... they called it all evil... dying in fire was supposed to mean damnation... they believed that's what it meant... so did we... they can't destroy your soul unless they burn your body... he said that the fire wouldn't destroy her soul if she repented her sins... if she said that she didn't believe in the Circle... she tried... every time he asked she said yes... yes she *did* believe... but we thought that death by fire meant damnation... I wanted her to say no... so that... we could be together again... we didn't know... she *should* have said yes... but she said no... she said she didn't believe... and she died..."
The words came out like a tide. Wave after wave swept her under and caused her to doubt but to believe and to be skeptical but to accept it all. Her emotions were so confused that she couldn't remember where she was or what she was doing. She rubbed at her wrists without even thinking, barely noticing the welts that were springing up there.
"…and I lost my Truth in the flames that day..."
She felt dizzy and sick and her head was throbbing like a heavy drum beat. But Mulder hadn't finished the story.
"They kept us out there into the night, made us watch the flames spring up to consume my Avicia, and watch them die down again until there was nothing left but ashes to scatter on the wind. Then they began to build another scaffold and stack it up with wood. The Lord of the Manor didn't know who we were - he didn't understand what we stood for - but Kingsmill did. Evil doesn't change. Similar men killed the Little Fishes for the same reason as he had to kill us. One of the Water Born wrote their leader's words in one of their texts; 'If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to this world it would love you as it's own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you'. That is why the world hates you."
Mulder repeated the words as a sigh.