[two months prior - the Third]
She had finally reached the mountain.
The sharp stone cut her feet, and sometimes the inclination and obstacles would make her fall on her knees and hands.
She saw drops of her blood on the stone beneath her, at some point.
And while the compulsion to go forward no matter what was still unshakable, she was no longer afraid of the force attracting her. Maybe she was getting used to it, or she had simply accepted her faith in this strange, forced journey through the desert, across the stone, up this mountain.
That's when she heard it for the first time.
Running with the wind - which was becoming even more ferocious as she went up, if that was possible -, she heard a faint ring.
A distant bell.
It was unlike hearing the big bells she used to hear when she was a child and the church she went with her family was close enough to go in a five minutes walk.
No.
It was faint and delicate. Like sleigh bells, but very long in duration and many in number. Like the church ones, they tolled. But not, at the same time. It was being carried in the wind, down the mountain and towards her.
It was not only a just a set of ringing bells, and somehow she was aware of that.
The sound was the very force compelling her, making her feet move and her will, disappear.
She shivered briefly but violently, coming out from her sleep.
Her eyes stared at the dark ceiling and it took her a second to remember where the faint, blue light was coming from, dancing in waves above her.
She looked to her right and saw Mulder's concerned eyes, looking like he had just came out of his own sleep just like her.
Did I wake you up...? I am sorry, she instinctively told him mind-to-mind, not wanting to disturb the silence around them. Their faces were so close her voice sounded as clear to him as if she had spoken out loud.
He came closer and embraced her as she snuggled against him under the blanket, his sofa made slightly wider to fit both of them comfortably - she wasn't very fond of his weird water bed that no one really knew where it had came from.
It's okay., he answered, worry in his voice. He then added, hesitating a little. It is no wonder these… these dreams are affecting you so much...
She looked at him, confusion taking her expression , How do you know…?
I saw it too... the stones, the mountain. The music in the wind. And how everything... looked so dead and oppressive. As it happened... I somehow knew the dream wasn't really mine, but yours and that it wasn't the first one, either, he told her. Then, realizing how that sounded, he quickly added , I-I am so sorry. I was asleep too, I swear I didn't mean to pry...
Scully brought her hands to her face and sighed.
No, that's okay Mulder, I believe you. My Occlumency must be very low. , she let another deep sigh out, because she was tired and because she felt bad for letting her guard down so easily.
Can I ask you about them…? About your dreams? , he inquired with a worried mindvoice, taking his right hand away from her waist and caressing her hair softly.
She nodded gently, her head tucked under his chin.
This one I've just had was strange… but not as scary as the previous nightmares. It is almost as if I got used to them...? Or maybe I just didn't care anymore.
When I was seeing it, I had this weird feeling to know more than it was being shown to me, Scully, he explained to her., as if I somehow had memories of what happened before, but I couldn't really tell. What were the other ones about...?
She managed to tell him about her previous dreams in detail - how the first one terrified her so much because the lack of freedom and the invisible force making her do something against her will were sensations too close to home regarding her abduction and kidnapping, years before. But she was fully aware that her dreams related to her past traumas were portrayed with completely different elements: they were always more exaggerated, distorted memories of what had really happened, transforming already traumatic events into something even worse in her sleeping mind. However, this new set of recurring dreams, she was really unsure on what they meant.
Mulder already knew she sometimes had dreams about her traumatic past events, just like he had his' - they had spoken about them before. But she never went into details on how she truly felt about them.
The second nightmare was still scary , she continued, but not as much. Same setting, almost. Except the mountain showed up in the horizon by the end. And finally this dream you just saw, where I felt like… as if somehow, the fear I had in them was gone. Or maybe, the sound of the bells made it feel less intimidating. I can't really explain why, but that's how it felt like.
His fingers coiled her hair absentmindedly as he was lost in his own thoughts for a moment, thinking about all the things she just told him.
Well… bells and chimes are often used in religious ceremonies to expel evil spirits, to connect with god, deities or good-natured spirits. Their sound is also a symbol of the divine in the realm of humans, sometimes they are the manifestation of the voice of god himself. Or, in a more mundane meaning, bells are a messenger: it tells us when we have to wake up, when a class is over, and it serves as a warning for many things, like a war attack or heavy storm that's on its way., Mulder said, trying to find an explanation or answer on his own ways. Do you think your dreams mean something along any of these? I mean, they seem to have some kind of… logic... or strange continuity to them. As if each dream was a part of a larger story.
It was her turn to think through that perspective.
I don't believe they have any deep meanings, really., she answered. I think it might be just the stress of the latest weeks: finding Sam in the terrible conditions she was, taking care of her, investigating what had been done to her; being aware that the Purity Control is after her, and after us, in a way... It is probably just my mind rearranging the facts into something fantastical and strange. I felt 'trapped and scared' in my first dream, like Sam felt like when she got to us; I feel like there is a force drawing me to something or somewhere, the same way she was being drawn to you over all these years, or the same way she was being controlled by them for years.
Mulder was not surprised at all at her own practicality, somehow finding a logical explanation even to her own nightmares and fears she couldn't really pinpoint.
It could be. I mean, it kind of makes sense. , he agreed, but not entirely convinced. However, he didn't say anything else for he didn't have any other explanations or ideas of what his partner's surreal dreams could mean.
I'm sorry my thoughts 'leaked' to your mind like that. I should be more careful about it… leaving my mind open can be very dangerous, she said, still feeling guilty for not watching out her own thoughts. Specially now.
That's okay, Scully, he told her, It's understandable. My sister's comeback and everything else around her, around the M-Files, all happening at once, it is no surprise. Not to mention it is not really your fault, when we are more than often in each other's minds than inside our own.
She smiled a little, noticing the tone of humor in his mindvoice, though what he had said was still very true.
And... to be honest I can't really help myself, it is a beautiful mind to be in. , his voice sounded to her like a soft whisper as he moved his head against hers, nuzzling her like a puppy.
You always say that., she teased, the pleased smile evident on her lips and her mindvoice as she held him closer to her.
Only to the ones I love the most, he returned, as he always did in their regular exchange of truths among silly, first-grader quality teasing.
Good to know., she answered, her voice echoing in his mind as the chime that was reverberating inside her dreams - the bells were very haunting, hypnotic, but they also had some kind of dangerous beauty to them.
Very much like Scully herself, he thought before she kissed him.
[present - April 4th, 1996]
When the house expansion was finally done, everyone sat a bit tired and hungry in the main room. But they knew their work was only beginning. Frohike conjured them a late lunch, and when everyone was done, Scully turned to look at Kevin.
"Honey, we will have to work now..."
"Aw, mum. Let me stay, just this time?", he asked hopeful, though he already knew her answer for this kind of situation.
He didn't want to leave, not when hanging around with his mum, her boyfriend and the Uncles had been so fun and interesting to watch, with all that complex magic taking place. And even being kind of silent, observing the strange new witch of the group in action was also very intriguing, to say the least - she was the only one who apparently needed no wand to channel her powers the same way regular wizards and witches do.
For what he knew from his mum telling him about it and from what he was able to read about it so far, that trait was extremely rare - and kind of impossible in the way he saw her do things. Not to mention he could swear he saw her eyes glow sometimes.
"I am sorry Kevin, you know you can't stay.", answered the Healer-Auror, strict with her rules but still gentle in her voice. "You can either go read upstairs, or stay over there in the living room area, but we still have to Silence our voices to you."
The boy just sighed towards the next hours ahead of him in which he would spend all by himself, and his curiosity to know what in the name of Eva Ibbotson (Order of Merlin, Third Class) was going on made it seem even worse, but he did as he was told. At least he had brought all of his stash of readings consisting in both normal and Illusion books, some of his records and the Wizard board games he got for his birthday last September.
"Okay…", he said with a sigh, leaving the table and climbing the stairs.
Mulder, Langly and Frohike watched as Scully pulled out her wand to send the Silence spell upstairs right behind him.
"He is a good kid", said Frohike. The Healer smiled, agreeing with him.
"Yes, he is. I just... think he gets a little lonely sometimes. With all the work at the Ministry we don't really have that much time to spend together. And now with all of what's happening lately... I have the feeling we will have even less time together.", she said, worried about how uncertain everything seemed to be not only in Kevin's future, but in the lives and future of everyone in that room, her included.
"Don't worry, Scully.", Mulder told her, giving her hand on the top of the table a reassuring squeeze. If Scully was letting herself be so openly worried like that - something so unlike her -, it meant she was not only preoccupied, but also very scared. He also couldn't avoid the thought that her stressful nightmares probably had something to do with that. "We will find a way through this."
She looked back at him for a brief moment.
I really hope we do, Mulder. I really do., and as if she had instantly raised a barrier between her worried thoughts and the rest of the people sitting in that room, she went back to her focused, practical self. With a flick of her wand, she made the lunch dishes disappear and with another, she Summoned from one of the higher shelves the dozens of documents presented to them by Monica Reyes in the previous night.
"Very well. There is a lot to go through here, but most of it are Sam's reports over the years she was with the Purity Control.", the Healer turned to face Sam, on the other side of Mulder. "With your permission Sam, I will be the one reading them. I am a Healer and also the one that's in charge of your treatments since the beginning. Of course you can read them too, if you wish. But I wouldn't recommend you doing that anytime soon, they can contain information that might be… upsetting for you."
Sam didn't need much time to think to know what her answer would be.
"I-I trust you on that, Miss Scully…", she said, having no reason to doubt the Healer's recommendations. "but I'd want you to tell me anything that might be important in there... anything you think I should know. Please."
"Of course, Sam. I promise. I would say you should read it at some point in the future when you feel this is all really in the past, and it won't come back, ever.", the Healer firmly said, touching the documents in front of her with the tips of her fingers.
As much as she wanted to help, Sam wouldn't be reading the reports with them. Scully was very clear that reading all the detailed, vivid descriptions of the abductions and experiments would only harm her more than help the group anyway.
As someone who had studied both Muggle and Wizarding World psychology in his specialized Auror training, Mulder supported Scully's decision on that, for he was more than aware that the physical part of his sister's healing process would be the easier side - the psychological side, on the other hand, would probably take years to heal or even never. It would all depend on how deep her invisible scars would be ingrained in her mind and how she would deal with them from now on.
Sam was upset she wouldn't be able to help make the reading faster, but she couldn't fight against her own terror of the cold details of experiments she was submitted to for years either, so there wasn't much she could do but stay there with them and study her DADA textbooks instead. She convinced herself it would be just as useful on its own, particular ways, with what laid ahead of them.
She then remembered a question she wanted to make since she learned Scully had also been taken.
"Are your files in there too, Miss Scully…?", Sam asked her.
"No.", the Healer answered with a disappointed sigh. "I asked Reyes about it, she said she wasn't able to find them. It's probably still in the Facility, which she didn't have any access to."
The Healer was unsure if finding her files would be a good or a bad thing. It would probably be none and both at the same time, she thought.
"Well, then", said Langly after a moment, cracking his fingers, ready. "Let's do this shit."
Using her wand, Scully separated all the documents referring to Sam's experiments - which pretty much made almost sixty percent of the huge piles, all of them taller than Mulder while sitting by the table.
Langly simply picked the top green folder from the pile closer to him, and so did Frohike and Mulder. Byers was still out working, but they would have plenty to read for days with or without him. Sam simply picked the third grader Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook, opened on the first page and started to read.
Meanwhile, Scully decided to begin right away with Sam's reports - as much as finding out if the facility's location was correct and learning more about the experiments was their priority, Sam's health and past reports on what had been done to her were also of great importance.
As they read through the papers, they discovered that most of them were, as expected, reports on other Abductees - all the experiments performed and what kinds of powers they had. However, the abductions per se, locations or the names of the responsibles for the experiments were not described in any of them.
They eventually found other reports about the facility itself: expansions and needed tools, things to be acquired or inspected. They couldn't get much information from those objects by the reports, however.
"Listen to this one.", said Frohike announced after the first couple of reports "Subject C516, Martina Taylor Glenn. Squib, born in 1967. Blind. Tests made her able to fully connect to other people's sight."
"What does that even mean?", asked Langly, confused.
"It says here that she was able to see through other people's eyes. As if she could 'borrow' their sight somehow, using something in the lines of Legilimency, but not really.", explained Frohike.
"And what happened to her…?", inquired Sam.
"She… hm", he read the report a little further, turning the pages, "she was released. After they couldn't push the tests further on her anymore, they were convinced that that one power she had was pretty much all the 'enhancement' they could do, but they admit here it was still a powerful, rare one and for that she was branded as a Type 4 Abductee."
The others didn't really know what to say, so they just returned to their readings - the absurdity of the situation made everyone feel like there was something wrong in the air only for reading those papers and knowing what happened to all those people. Not to mention it hit really close to home for both Sam and Scully but none of them wanted to say anything about it.
Sam was okay about hearing them discuss on the Abductees, as long as any deep details on experiments were mentioned. Besides, Scully venting earlier on how much she worried about her and her son actually made her feel very guilty - Sam was fully aware all of it was only happening because she showed up out of the blue and what everyone got in return for helping her was getting their lives messed up in serious, life-menacing levels.
The youngest Mulder braced herself, determined to offer as much help she could, so she was decided to stay there, hear about other Abductees and learn more about the P.C., at the same time she learned more on how to fight properly with her magic.
Easily picking up her stress in her body language, her brother's reassurance also helped her a lot to go on with her task. You are alright, and you are safe. Don't worry, Sam. We are here with you., Mulder would tell her from time to time.
"I think... we found one of your friends, Muldo.", said Langly out loud at some point, his back leaving the chair when he leaned forward to place his elbows on the table as he read the papers.
"What…?", the Auror raised his eyes from the report of a Muggle called Pamela Hamilton, a Type 4 who among smaller abilities, also had the skill of traveling time without the use of Time Turners - but she was only able to go back, and only a day each turn. She had been released after her experiments but she didn't end up well.
"Subject C317, Robert Patrick Modell. Type 4, because the power he got was strong but his only manifestation of magic. He was a Muggle before.", he announced, and it was Mulder's turn to shiver. Up to that moment, Scully and him had always thought that Modell was simply a master in performing Imperius Curses without using a wand. Discovering he was actually a Muggle abductee gave an entirely different perspective on his case.
"Well, you don't need to say what his power was. I experienced it first hand.", Mulder said, bitter.
Hearing the conversation, Scully's expression wasn't any better either - remembering how Modell almost forced Mulder to cast a Death Curse on her and on himself was enough to make her hate the man for at least seventeen generations back and forth in his family tree.
"And we know what happened to him, too. He won't leave the prison wing at St. Mungus in this century.", said the Healer. Her tone was clear she would make sure of that. "This also gives another perspective on the brain tumor he had - we thought it enhanced his powers somehow, but I see now it was probably a result of the tests he went through. Brain cancer is also common in Abductees..."
They kept on with their reading on the following days, with them occasionally commenting their findings, and often only hearing the sounds of both Mulder siblings chewing on something - Sam eating an apple or a chocolate bar every now and then to keep her blood sugar levels high, or Mulder munching his sunflower seeds like he was some kind of exotic gerbil.
The pile of empty sunflower seed shells and the list of Abductees only grew up as everyone read and took notes. Some documents were shorter than others because sometimes the experiments wouldn't have a conclusion, for many reasons - most of them because the victim had died mid-experiment.
Among everyone's notes were the following names:
Wilson Pinker Rawls - Muggle, abducted from a prison. He was returned with Apparition abilities. Strangely, his only limitation was Apparating directly behind glass walls and windows. Branded as a Type 3, due to that being his only skill and with strange limitations.
Maximilian Scott Harden - Muggle, abducted from the woods near the small town where he lived. He developed a skill to run as fast as light, as if he had taken several, concentrated Swift Spells, usually cast on high-speed brooms used by professional Quidditch teams. An intriguing skill, but still rare. He was branded as a Type 3, however, because both the experiments and the overuse of his powers wore his body out and he had the bones of a sixty-five year old though he was only sixteen when he was taken and tested.
Patrick Bryan Crump - Muggle, abducted from his home. His experiments went very wrong and it ended up damaging his brain: the pressure from his powers inside his skull had a disastrous result, and by the description, there was a chance someone would still be able to find pieces of his brain in the Purity Control labs.
Karin Melinda Berquist - Muggle, abducted from home and along with magical abilities like moving, Summoning and Transfiguring little objects, she got the Animagus skill. Her animal form was a German Shepherd. She was branded as a Type 3.
Cecil Mark L'Ively - Squib, abducted from his work site, the house he worked as a gardener. His only power was conjuring fire, which very obviously didn't went well once he was returned. Branded as a Type 1.
For each "successful" Abductee, there were at least another set of twenty who were considered - according to what the Purity Control said itself in the papers - "a waste of resources and time" and were returned branded as Type 1 or not branded at all because they wouldn't develop any magical skills, no matter how aggressive the experiments were. That, or they would simply end up dead for not being able to resist through the testing, just like Patrick Crump wasn't.
On April 7th, the third day of reading, it was Mulder who read out loud the one Abductee who really stood out from the others they had seen so far.
"Guys, I think I've found something."
Everyone lifted their eyes from their respective readings to listen - after the first twenty or thirty reports, as gruesome and bizarre the powers and experiments were, they stopped being something new or relevant for their research for no new information was found. Because of that, they all knew that that one document Mulder had in his hands was telling something very specific.
"Cassandra Veronica Spender, witch.", he threw a look at Scully, at the same time she did the exact same thing when she recognized the name. He then continued. "She is unlike any of the others we've seen so far. First of all, she is one of the few 'Pure Bloods' to be taken. She was abducted over the course of twenty years and was branded as a Type 6 - the closest to Sam up to this moment."
Sam widened her eyes and leaned closer to hear more, for she was odd even among the odds - she thought there would be other Type 7 like her somewhere, but the closest to her they have seen was a type 5 homeless man from India who had not been identified by name, whose powers were strong Metamorphic abilities and multiple Animagus forms.
"Cassandra's powers", continued Mulder, "included strong Legilimency, skilled Transfiguration, Summoning, and she is able to Apparate very long distances, but only to places she knew. She is able to set five different Animagus forms, but on the other hand, her attack/defense skills are very poor. She had been returned and taken multiple times, and when Monica was able to steal this report, Cassandra was once more being held by the Purity Control. She cannot walk anymore, as one of the consequences of the tests on her health."
"I think they are getting closer to what they might consider 'perfection' with her, too.", said Scully, thinking. "I don't see why they would keep taking her in again and again, if not for that."
"And they must be taking advantage of her being very… strong against the experiments?", theorized Sam. She looked tired, the dark circles under her eyes even darker for not being able to sleep well on the previous two nights. "I mean... all the others that couldn't stand against that, and hundreds didn't survive. That's what made the P.C. keep searching for more and more people, right?"
"That makes sense.", said Langly. "If the experiments are working on her, why would they stop them? But what intrigues me the most is why they keep returning her at all? Why not just keep her?"
Everyone was in silence, thinking about that for a minute - Langly was right, that detail about Cassandra's case seemed very weird.
"I think… I think they don't want just 'an experiment'. Of course, now it makes sense.", Mulder said slowly, his eyes staring somewhere in an invisible distance as his thoughts ran in his mind, connecting the evidences. "I think they want people to be both powerful, and 'functional ' outside the facility."
"Actually," started Scully, returning several pages in Sam's report. "that might be it. Here, they mention that Sam 'is not yet ready to be returned because she cannot be trusted without constant vigilance and control'. But you were still young, Sam, around ten years old. I didn't really understand what they meant with that, but now with Cassandra's report and Mulder's theory, I think they meant exactly that: they wanted to return you at some point, to make you socialize, interact with people, and live outside as an Abductee."
"Oh well, that's total bollocks.", said Frohike. "Little Mulder here is smart and awesome and powerful. Why they didn't do that, then? I don't know what else they could possibly have wanted from her."
Sam's pale face went red over his words. But she fought her embarrassment to speak up for she knew the answer for that question.
"When I was there, I was never given the chance to be left in peace, without the Imperius a-and… and without the constant pain. You know I didn't even had a name in there, I was just some number. All the times I felt the control cease a little, I would turn... violent and unable to be contained. And that was all they knew of me, the same way all you know from me is this what you've been seeing in the last months. The difference is that the control went away, the pain has stopped, and you are taking care of me instead of testing and controlling and hurting me."
When she finished, they all had bittersweet expressions on their faces as a reaction to the youngest Mulder's words.
It was good to know they were really going to the right direction, and it was easy to understand now she had put it down into words - but it was an aberration to the Wanderers, Mulder and Scully to think that the P.C. didn't even know there was a kind, shy, smart, powerful but controlled side to Sam because she had always been some testing animal to them without anything in her but rage, raw power and a permanently scarred body. She would never be "ready for society" at all by such standards and the P.C. would never see past that anyway - not to mention it only showed they were too stupid to use basic psychology, Muggle or Magical; having knowledge in those fields, both Mulder and Scully just thought what exactly the P.C. was expecting from Sam if they were only inflicting pain on her.
It also deeply pained Sam to be now aware that she could have been returned if she knew how to behave, or what to do.
Mulder held his sister's hand as he was more than aware of how upset she was. He felt her own hand hold it in return.
"The P.C. never saw past Sam's 'shell' of violence and instability... but they were able to see past anything in Cassandra Spender's case…" continued Byers, thinking out loud.
"Well…", continued Mulder. "Maybe in Cassandra Spender's case, she was considered fit to return because she was taken for the first time as an adult, so she was able to understand things a child would never be able to. She also knew how things worked outside the facility, how to behave to please them, etc. Things that you, Sam, didn't have the opportunity to learn for you were taken so young."
"God, it all makes sense.", added Scully. "Of course they didn't want an army of robots, they wanted people behind all this power they are 'bestowing ' to Abductees. I think that's also another reason why they stopped experimenting so much on people after a while, just like Monica told us the other night: not only because they wanted the subjects to live, despite not being able to reach their goals with them, but also because of that: they didn't want to go way too far and destroy people's brains and their personalities."
"First of all, I don't know what a robot is", started Frohike. Langly rolled his eyes at his Muggle ignorance. "but by Patrick Crump's case and others we've seen here, frying someone's brain was something that happened quite often in that place..."
He then realized what he had just said and turned to Sam.
"I'm so sorry, Sammy."
"That's okay, Frohike.", she replied, trying not to think of the mental image it could bring to her.
"Well… yeah, exactly.", agreed Scully, continuing the subject. "Literally and metaphorically. Like in the case of that boy we investigated years ago in Bristol in our first case together..."
"Billy Miles?", he answered her.
"Yes, him. He was returned with little to no sanity left to him…", and after a pause, she added, "And there is another thing about this Cassandra. Smoking Man is also known as 'C.G.B.Spender'. "
The Wanderers widened their eyes.
"Is she his wife?", inquired Langly.
"Or maybe a relative? A sister?", added Byers.
"We are not sure. But you know how I don't believe in coincidences." said Mulder. "And here it doesn't say if she had a husband, but it says she has… had? Anyway, it says she has a son called Jeffrey Spender. We had the displeasure to know him back at school."
"This raises a whole new set of questions." added Scully. She then added, sounding as confused as she sounded horrified, "If she is connected to Smoking Man… why is she involved in the experiments?"
"Maybe she wasn't 'enough of a witch' for him.", answered Frohike, grimly. The hint of anger in his words was also not subtle. "Or maybe dude only cares about himself, would not be a surprise from what we've seen about him so far."
Sam observed as they talked about this man, Spender. She was aware by what they've told her he was the one behind all of this, but for now he was only a faceless character to her, as distant from her as the sun was.
She absolutely hated him, nonetheless.
Without solid answers or any other theories, they all went back to their reading, feeling like they had progressed at least a little. It didn't take much longer for one of them to reach those piles that were now growing smaller and pick up an old report regarding experiments with a child - if the readings were not being pleasant at all up to that point, it became even worse with those.
They were pretty much exactly like the other files they've read previously, but the fact they were kids, and that they also inevitably pictured Sam being in those kids' places made the experience ten times more difficult.
There was a lot they couldn't really understand about what was done to the victims due to the fact the P.C. would often use words and terms in the documents they had no idea what they meant. On the other hand, what they could understand was that Abductee experiments consisted in taking the entire blood out of the person and temporarily replacing it with potions that would act exactly like blood, transporting O2 / CO2 and nutrients around the body; they would alter the blood using both Star Elf magic and instruments, changing the very nature of the human blood and returning it to the person it belonged.
"And that was the main difference between a wizard/witch and a Muggle or Squib - their nature and physiology.", Scully had explained to them once more about how DNA and genetics worked. "Magic is pretty much like someone having blue eyes or dark skin or straight hair: it's something that's passed down to the offspring, and sometimes specific genetic combination can give Muggle parents a child with magic, or to Wizard parents, a child without any magic at all. Magical power isn't something that can be learned or unlearned - one is either born with it, or one isn't. And the most horrifying thing is that the P.C. is somehow succeeding to actually change that , for Star Elf magic apparently has enough power to alter someone's genetic code just like that…"
"And that probably makes it the most dangerous kind of magic we will ever hear of...", Mulder completed her thought, a grim expression in his green eyes.
"Exactly.", she continued. "Human magic also has the power to change the very nature of things - like turning a rat into a teacup and turning it back. But it is a completely different story when it comes to Transfiguring or making someone love you without their consent, trying to bring people from the dead, ripping one's soul into different shards. That's when such powers are just considered extremely dangerous or just plain, strictly forbidden Dark Arts."
The change of blood was the main experiment and the one that would really give someone powers, but they would also use the Star Elf magic by casting it on the subject in different ways and circumstances to "enhance" smaller powers or to bring out any ability that could still be dormant even with the tampering of the blood. The Purity Control would do that by manipulating the magic themselves, injecting alien substances into the body of the victims or making them handle vessel parts and other objects of alien origin - like Max Harden for example, who only got his super speed ability when he was forced to stand on a broken piece of vessel.
To evaluate how powerful the abductees were, the P.C. would force them to perform whatever powers they had in them by the extensive use of enhanced Imperius Curses. If the victim refused to do so or resisted in any way - or was just "being difficult", as the P.C. itself defined it in the documents -, they would resort to enhanced Cruciatus Curses, as Scully learned through Sam's reports.
Everyone felt their eyes burn with tears or even shed a couple of them at some point during the readings, no exceptions. They wished none of that was real, but the evidences were right there in front of them in the form of piles and piles of parchments and documents, and in the form of the youngest Mulder child who was right there next to them.
One of the things Mulder was learning about Sam was how she would just go silent - in real voice or mindvoice - whenever she was feeling really, really upset. He reached his wand and with a wave, a mug of hot cocoa showed up in front of his sister. She seemed a bit pale and tired, but he also wanted to comfort her, knowing how fond she was of chocolate.
She just glanced up at him with a tiny smile of thanks on her lips and reached out to her mug. And once more, Mulder reassured her as he did so many times in the last couple of days.
You are alright, and you are safe.
We are right here with you, Sam.
[three days prior - April 4, 1996]
It didn't take much for Skinner to find out where Ostlehoff was currently living - as the Assistant Director of the Department of Mysteries and also having his own web of secret contacts, even Scott Ostlehoff couldn't hide from him any further.
On the following night of her desertion, Reyes already had his address in hands.
Not surprisingly, it was in a rich neighborhood, where all the rats like him would normally make their nests. She wouldn't have much time, and his place would definitely be heavily secured, so she planned carefully all of her moves.
She sighed in relief once more that Ostlehoff didn't have a family - it was encouraged that a man of his position in the P.C. could have his affairs if he wanted, but not settle with anyone and much less have children. Of course some didn't care and would have families anyway, but she was glad Ostlehoff decided to follow the Purity Control rules.
She Apparated outside his building and observed, smoking a cigarette out of sheer anxiety.
Invading residences wasn't a problem for her, really - in fact, she was trained by his own people to do exactly that years before, which meant she would do anything she had to do in order to achieve her goals and that was probably the biggest irony of the century, in many levels.
But being used to play dirty and resource to violence didn't mean she liked it.
Monica would always hate it the most , actually, no matter how many times she had to torture and kill before. It was almost like trying to decide she no longer needed to breathe, so against her nature it was, but she literally had no choice.
Whether she did it then, or she would be the one resting with the fish.
Whether she did it right now, or everything built for years up to that moment would be in vain. Everything would remain the same, and she couldn't possibly bear that possibility.
That's my only chance to make things right, or at least a little less wrong , she thought to herself.
And that was the last thing that crossed her mind before casting spells of Silence around and inside the building, and breaching all the safety and security spells with ease, exploding Scott Ostlehoff's door.
Needless to say how the Auror would be surprised by how tables would turn that night.
Author's Nothes:
A little side note about Scully's dreams - the bells she hears sound exactly like here in Kalafina's "Into the Water": /watch?v=E0nkZfvoqnc
I thought it would be nice to show one of my major inspirations for the dream parts! Another major inspiration was Journey (the game) and its soundtrack.