A/N: I was on a writing frenzy all weekend, so here's Chapter 2! Now we actually get to see our old friends Mulder and Scully. It's a bit of a short section, but more is on its way soon.

J. Edgar Hoover Building

Washington D.C.

October 1st, 1996, 2 P.M.

"Planning a European vacation?" Scully asked, looking over Mulder's shoulder at a spread of brochures about hotels in London and offbeat attractions championing the fringes of Greek mythology.

"Better," said Mulder, tapping a file folder next to the tourist information.

"A case? Overseas?"

Mulder nodded. "A team of botanists out of UC Berkeley is in the midst of a year-long study on a remote island in the Mediterranean, here." He tapped a spot on a map, seemingly empty water.

"I didn't know there was an island there."

"This is an old map. Anyway, the team is collecting data on new species of plants discovered on the island. Six months into their study, a series of attacks began on the students." Mulder opened the folder and pulled out a few photos - presumably student ID photos of the team. "First Minh Mai was found on the floor of their cabin, appearing to have been beaten. A week later, she completely disappeared."

"Kidnapped?"

"Seems that way," said Mulder. "And it keeps going. Shortly after Minh Mai disappeared, another team member Jessica Glasser was attacked in the same way, and after another week, she too disappeared. The other girls started to get scared, and called the university to report that their friends were missing. They seemed to be in denial, insisting that they had to be somewhere on the island, but the university called in the FBI to investigate since the attacks before the disappearances sound like definite foul play."

"You think?" said Scully. "I'm surprised they didn't call sooner."

Mulder shrugged. "International calls from the middle of nowhere are pretty expensive."

Scully shook her head. "Still."

"Anyway," Mulder went on, "when the FBI contacted the team September 27th, there had already been another disappearance. A third member of the team, Jackie Leland was missing from her bed that morning. This time no precursor attack."

"Okay," said Scully. "So there's a serial kidnapper preying on a group of young botanists. Any motive? And what's your interest in this case?"

"There have been no signs of struggle, no forced entry, nothing. None of the other girls saw or heard anything up until the night of Jackie's disappearance, when Lani Cho woke up to a deafening humming like a ringing in her ears in the middle of the night. The next morning Jackie was gone.

"Plus, there's barely anyone on the island. There's a pier on the western shore, a small hotel, the cabin near the middle of the island where the team is stationed, and that's it. It's practically uninhabited. Not even a general store."

"Pretty limited suspect pool," said Scully. "Seems one of them is really good at making people disappear. Why do you want to investigate an international kidnapping in the middle of nowhere?"

Mulder smirked. "The island is a hot bed for UFO sightings."

Scully rolled her eyes. "I thought you said it was practically uninhabited."

"It is. By humans."

"Mulder, if you're suggesting that these girls were all abducted by aliens, I'm not flying clear across the world so you can-"

"It gets better," Mulder cut in.

Scully looked at her watch. "Go on."

"One of the two remaining botanists wrote something in a statement that she said she didn't even want to share with her teammates. For every one of the attacks, and the disappearances, she's had an intense sensation of something being horribly wrong even though she witnessed nothing. And then there's this."

Mulder handed Scully a faxed copy of a photo of a jar of leaves.

"Okay..."

"These fell out of Melissa Edenbury's hair," said Mulder dramatically.

"So? They're botany students. I bet they all had leaves in their hair."

"Not in her hair. On her hair."

"On?"

"On. As in, growing from the ends of her hair," Mulder explained. "She pulled them out and sent them to the university."

"Did her hair bleed sap, too? And are you saying the team of botanists is actually comprised of parasympathetic plant people with a penchant for parting from the planet?"

"Or onto an alien ship."

"I'm sure there's a logical explanation. For the disappearances, and the... leaves," said Scully.

"Perhaps," said Mulder. "Either way, Skinner tells me Athens is nice this time of year." He handed Scully an envelope. "Go pack a bag and take a nap. Our red eye to London leaves Dulles at ten p.m."

Scully smiled wryly. "I'll sleep on the plane."