Standing in front of the nightmare before them, Scully felt the tingling in the back of her neck again. She remembered another time when the chip felt this way; when it unknowingly led her to the rebel aliens who were killing abductees by burning them alive at the Ruskin Dam in Pennsylvania. She nearly lost her life there. Thinking back on this, she knew now what had happened here. The rebel aliens had attacked the Super Soldier aliens. She stood transfixed in a daze as she heard a voice being replayed in her mind. She somehow thought she heard that voice before...someone telling her that her chip must be removed or else they will keep finding her.
Scully absentmindedly reached for the weapon from her pocket that Mulder had given her. The blade popped out with that distinctive "fftttt" sound. She raised the blade to the back of her neck and started slicing an opening around the chip. She didn't care about the pain or the fact that her ruby-red blood ran thick down her slender porcelain neck. She wanted the chip out and she wanted it out NOW.
Mulder's gaze had been riveted to the scene before him; the fires, the parasitic aliens gasping on the ground for air, the vastness and extent of this project which had gone horribly wrong. It wasn't until he heard Scully's sharp cry that he turned his attention to her and was shocked to the core at what he saw her doing.
"SCULLY, STOP! NO!"
He ran to her side and grabbed the metal blade from her hands before she could get any farther with her task. The blood ran down her neck just as fast as her tears ran down her cheeks. She fought Mulder hard for the weapon; she desperately wanted it back so she could finish what she started. She was pounding his chest with her fists. "GIVE IT BACK, MULDER! GIVE IT BACK!"
Mulder threw the bloodied weapon down so that he could grab hold of Scully's arms which were now flinging wildly at him. "STOP IT SCULLY! STOP!" He finally had her in a grip that she could not get out of. She shrunk to the ground while he held her wrists tight and followed her down.
"Give it back Mulder! Please! Give it back!" Her voice was quieter now as she sobbed and muffled those words into Mulder's chest.
He grabbed her face and in wonder and amazement asked her, "Why Scully? Why? What were you thinking?" He could not stop his own tears from falling now. She was truly scaring him.
She was not sorry for what she tried to do. "Oh God, Mulder. I just want this nightmare to end. When will it end?" She buried her head once again into his chest and sobbed uncontrollably. She was falling apart in his arms and he knew that this time there was nothing he could do or say to make it better. He could only let her have this moment to cry it all out. And he needed a moment to gather his nerves back and settle the tight knot in his stomach. He held her tight and tried to stop the oozing blood from flowing out of the fresh incision with pressure from the palm of his hand.
After a while, her sobs subsided into shaky breaths, and he finally found his voice again. "Scully, you have to promise me that you'll never try that again. Scully, your cancer...I can't...please...the chip has to stay in."
She raised her head to meet his gaze. His hand remained pasted to the back of her neck.
"Ruskin Dam. It's Ruskin Dam all over again. They will always be able to find me as long as this chip is in me. Don't you understand? I can't live like this anymore. I want it out." Her eyes were large and glassy, pleading with him to agree with her.
He did not want to have this discussion. He knew he was being selfish. It was her body, after all. It should be her decision. But if the chip was removed and her cancer came back...he could not live with that fear of losing her. But it seemed that this fear that they now faced was equally just as great; that she was constantly in danger of being found by the rebel aliens. He could lose her either way.
He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again. How could he tell her what to do? He helped her to stand back up again.
"Scully...we don't have time to talk about this right now." He looked deep into her eyes with the same pleading look that she had given him. "We have to keep moving. We're not safe here." Mulder tore a scrap off from his T-shirt and made a make-shift bandage for Scully's neck. "Here, hold this on it." He pushed the cotton swatch to the back of her neck and her hand took over from there. Mulder's hands were still covered with her blood. He didn't know how else to clean them other than to transfer the stains to his jeans. He bent down to rub his hands over his thighs.
As he was bent down, he spotted the blade that he had thrown on the ground a few feet ahead of them. He stooped over to pick it up, but Scully beat him to it. She picked up the blade and just for a second he was afraid of what she was going to do with it. But then he watched her as she pushed the blade back down into its base. Without looking at him, she silently placed the weapon in his hand. He returned it to its original hiding place under his sock for safe keeping.
