The X-Files:
Mesmer
Mulder felt more than angry; he wanted to kick something, anything, but there was nothing for him to kick. He stormed down the hall, dwelling on his latest meeting with Assistant Director Kersche. He'd just been ribbed about another one of his cases even though it wasn't his fault and the stupid man wasn't willing to listen to reason. He pulled out his keys and unlocked the door to his apartment, then kicked it open. As he entered he didn't notice someone sitting at his computer, waiting for him. He turned his back to the mystery person and hung up his jacket then turned to walk to his computer. He froze when he saw someone sitting there in the dark, a shadowed form in his chair. He didn't reach for his gun just yet, but waited to see who it was. "Can I help you?" he said. The lights flickered on as if by magic to reveal a young woman of about eighteen sitting in his chair. She looked vaguely familiar, then he recognized her; "Kathryn?" he said slowly. Kathryn Anne Williams had been a case of his a few years ago; she had the ability to control computers and to read other people's brain waves. The last time he'd seen her she'd been sucked into a computer, and he hadn't seen her since.
She had her legs crossed and her head propped up on one hand, "Who else would it be?" she asked. He sat down on the couch and cocked his head at her, "You've changed a bit. I didn't know that you still grew while you were surfing the Internet." "No pun intended, right?" she said with a roll of her eyes. "Yeah, I didn't know either, but I did. I'm a bit taller, smarter, and of course, prettier now," she said, smoothing a wrinkle in her shirt. "So what have you been doing all these…what, three years?" he asked. "Three and a half," she said, "not much really. I stop by here every once in a while when you're not around just to check up on you. I've been through most of the government databases of the world; you know, Russia, China, Germany, Britain, Japan, and of course, our own home territory," she said off-handedly. "Oh, so you've been all over the place," he said with interest. "Yeah, but I came back here because I picked up on some bad thoughts popping into your head about ten minutes ago. Want me to fry that Assistant Director fellow?" she asked. "No that's all right, even though I appreciate the offer," he said with a shake of his head.
"Suit yourself," she said with a sigh, "So how's things?" He shrugged, "Bad. I've been split up from my partner, I'm no longer on the X- Files, and everything seems to be going downhill." "Mmm," she said quietly, "Too bad. Especially about you and your partner. I've never met Agent Scully but I'd imagine she's a nice person, what with the way you feel about her and all." Mulder felt heat rising to his face, "You might want to stay out of that part of my brain, alright? That's personal stuff."
Just then there was a knock on the door and Mulder checked to see who it was; the Lone Gunmen. They came in and Mulder said, "I don't think you three ever met her but this is the girl who beat you at computer games a few years ago. Remember her? Kathryn Williams?" Langley's eyes narrowed, "You! I lost my perfect standings because of you!" She rolled her eyes, "They were only perfect because you weren't playing a real opponent. You met your match and now you wanna cry home to mama? Fine by me." Frohike, however, was thinking past the game; "You said she could go inside computers. She looks solid to me, Mulder." She let out a sigh and put a hand on Mulder's computer; there was large flash of blue electrical light then she was gone. The monitor came on and words began to scroll across it.
BELIEVE ME NOW?
Frohike gave Langley and Byers a look that said, 'Tell me I'm seeing things.'
YOU'RE NOT SEEING THINGS.
"Oh. That's nice," said Frohike faintly. The monitor flickered off and she appeared back in the chair, "Skeptics," she said with a roll of her eyes. Frohike shook his head rapidly, trying to clear it, "That's…interesting." "Not only that, but now I know how to get inside brain waves and control people," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Let me give you some advice woman," said Langley hotly, "stay the hell out of my head." She stared blankly at him, "What's keeping me from doing that?" "You wanna fight?! Is that it?!" snapped Langley. "As a matter of fact I do! Bring it on you punk!" shouted Kathryn. Byers and Frohike held Langley back while he kicked and punched at the air and Mulder pushed Kathryn up against the wall, "Don't start this please!" he shouted. "Alright! But it was his fault! He started it!" she snarled furiously. Langley's eyes became slits of anger, "Go fry yourself in one of your computers." "I think maybe we'd just better sit down," said Byers, trying to calm the situation. They all sat down, Langley and Kathryn exchanging heated looks.
"Mulder…the real reason why we came here is actually because of Kathryn," said Frohike. "We weren't too sure about it but we've heard rumors from some inside sources that someone has been leaping into computers," said Byers, "it's some sort of case in Georgia. There have been reports that computer technicians for a company called Future Graphics are getting fried through their computers left and right. Some how, they're getting electrocuted by a machine that can't produce that much power to kill them." Everyone automatically looked at Kathryn; "Hey don't look at me! I don't go around killing fellow brethren just because I can!" she said. "Anyway," said Byers, "there've been three deaths total, and no one knows how or why it's happening. We jumped to the conclusion that Kathryn was doing it but…" "I'm not," she said crossly, "I only kill if I have a reason to." "Oh well that's comforting," snorted Langley. "Well, that's all we stopped by for; we've got to get going," said Frohike.
They were gone a minute later and Mulder turned back to Kathryn, "Do you know anything about this?" She swallowed silently and said nothing; "You do know something don't you?" he asked. She let out a heavy sigh, "Mulder, a few months ago I was…well…investigating, shall we say, in the government database when a huge shock hit my brainwaves. I couldn't explain what it was but it hit me so hard it knocked me out of the nets and back into reality. As in here reality; I was pushed completely out of the computer and into my physical body. At first I was in absolute shock; nothing had ever done that to me before, but then the computer started…flickering. And someone actually came out of it; someone else, whoever it was, leapt out of the Internet and landed next to me and tried to kill me. Now I can't think of who would want to kill me and I don't know who the hell it was, but I came awfully close to a permanent shut down." Mulder looked perplexed, "And you have no idea…?" "I didn't even know anyone else had the same abilities that I did," she said, "and I only just escaped by jumping into another terminal. If I hadn't he would have fried me, and you know how good I am with electricity."
"You didn't come here just because you intercepted my brainwaves, did you?" he said quietly. She shook her head, "No. I came because someone is trying to kill me and it's only a matter of time before I'm caught."
* * *
Mulder and Kathryn agreed that it would be best for her to stay away from computers for a while, and he let her stay there in his bedroom and he slept on the old lumpy couch. They planned on going to Future Graphics the next morning when there was a sharp knock on the door at seven o'clock in the morning. Mulder slept right through the knocking noise and finally Kathryn got up and answered it; Scully was standing there, in shock that there was an eighteen year old girl wearing one of Mulder's work shirts. "Sorry, I'll come back later," she said, trying to hurry away. "Oh! No! It's not what it looks like! Really! I'm a friend of his!" said Kathryn, stepping aside to let her in. Mulder sat up slowly, "Kind of early isn't it Scully?" he asked. She gave Kathryn an odd look, "Apparently yes." "Oh," said Mulder, "this is Kathryn. She's a friend of mine from Maine." "Hi," she said, gave her a handshake. "We're going to visit a computer designing company in an hour called Future Graphics," he said, "she's…helping me with a case." Kathryn seemed to pick up on the idea that perhaps the two of them wanted to talk alone and said, "I have to go get dressed."
"You can't imagine the shock I was in when she answered the door looking like…that," said Scully flatly. "Oh I can well imagine," he said, "but she's in a lot of trouble right now. She has to stay here." Scully became interested, "Why?" Mulder explained to her what had happened and Scully didn't believe a word of it, "The same Kathryn Williams we had as a case three years ago?" she said slowly. He nodded, "Yeah, she looks different, but it's the same person. Anyway, strange things have been happening down at Future Graphics; apparently there have been some electrocution deaths involving computers." Scully nodded, remembering the computer electrocution Kathryn had given to an evil boy in her computer class three years ago. "No, it's not her," said Mulder, reading the look on her face. So he told her of the mystery person that could also leap out of computers as well as Kathryn. "I guess I'm going to Georgia today," said Scully finally.
* * *
The staff at Future Graphics was more than grateful to have the FBI involved; "About time we got someone else other than the cops involved," said the head technician. They were allowed into the computer lab where all the deaths had occurred; the computers lay silent, and Kathryn bent over to observe them. "These are nice computers," she said, "wish I'd had one when I was fifteen." Mulder and Scully, in the meantime, were looking around the room, and had just bent to look at one of the victims' computers when they heard a charging sound. They turned to see the computer Kathryn was standing in front of glowing blue; she ran back but was too late; an electrified hand came out and grabbed her by the back. Suddenly an entire man came out of it, and he had Kathryn immobilized with a handgun. Scully and Mulder both pulled out their own FBI issue guns and held him steady; "Drop the gun!" said Mulder. "Ohh, such a warm welcome," the man snorted; he couldn't have been any older than Kathryn. She squirmed against his grip, "Who are you?!" she shouted. "You don't remember me Kathryn?" he asked sardonically as he pressed the gun harder into the small of her back. "If I did I would have said so!" she snapped, trying to free her arms of him.
"Think back," he said, "to all those hours we spent over the Internet, playing games and laughing at the morons in our school. Think back to how much better you were than me and how much I stood in your shadow." A look of realization hit her, "Adam?" "Bergerin?!" said Mulder. This boy had been her best friend back when she'd electrocuted her first victim. "That's right!" he said, "I figured it out! How you were so much better than I was! And then, then I got electrocuted and bam! Suddenly I could program, hack, cheat, and speed my way through games just as fast you could! Then I swore I'd make you pay for all the times you made me look like a poor, pathetic little player." "Adam!" she cried, still squirming, "It was just a game!" "But it meant everything to me because it was all I had," he said, clenching her around the throat, "All I had…and you made me look the fool." Tears of desperation were beginning to show and gradually she gave up moving. "And now," he said, pointing his gun at her head, "I'm going to do what I wanted to do to your game character all the times we played; I'm going to kill you."
Suddenly Mulder had an idea; Adam was still hooked into the computer by brainwaves so…
He leapt at the computer station and ripped out the wires; "NO!" shouted Adam, feeling the tug of electricity on his body. It began sucking him and roared like a vacuum eager to suck up a dust mote; "NO! NOT WHEN I'M THIS CLOSE!" he screamed as it pulled him in. He clawed at the monitor, trying to keep himself out of it but to no avail. Kathryn watched in amazement as her ex-best friend was sucked into the computer, then silence. She let out a sigh of relief, "Mulder…thank-" A hand suddenly popped out of the monitor, clutching a gun, and Adam's head reappeared; "I still win. Game over." A single shot hit Kathryn in the chest and she fell to the ground just as Adam disappeared for good.
Mulder and Scully both ran to her, Kathryn now bleeding severely; the bullet seemed to have hit her in a vital organ. "Go get help!" Mulder said vainly, and Scully ran from the room to get to a phone and alert everyone else. "Damn fool!" cursed Kathryn angrily, clutching at her wound, "How I wish I'd recognized him…so different from what he used to look like…" "Be quiet Kathryn please…you'll waste your strength," said Mulder, not quite sure what to do with her. Kathryn laughed bitterly, "Ah…too late…it's a fatal wound, and Scully won't get back here quickly enough." "If you say that she won't," said Mulder, "so let's just…" "Mulder please…" she said softly, "Don't make this any worse than it already is." She let her head fall back and coughed up some blood, still clutching at her wound. "You know…" she said quietly, "I felt so bad for you after I left the first time. You were on a quest for your own Holy Grail; you wanted to find your sister and every time you tried the opportunity slipped through your fingers. It was a week ago when I began searching the databases for her…I found her Mulder, I found her in New England. It didn't specify where Mulder, but she's somewhere in either New York or Maryland; I haven't figured out where exactly yet.
"I was hoping to find her for you and repay you with that information as a present; it seems to be too late, however…" "No it's not, you still have plenty of time left," said Mulder. "If you call five minutes plenty, then sure. Jesus this hurts so bad…like a thousand white hot knives stabbing you over and over again in the same spot…" she said quietly. Mulder squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to think about it. Suddenly her grip on him grew weak and she shut her eyes, "Kathryn?!" he said, shaking her slightly. No, she wasn't dead…yet. "Mulder…" she said, "Please…do me one favor…" "Anything for you," he said. "Please…please…tell Agent Scully how you feel about her…she feels the same way you do…" she said, "…And I know I promised not to meddle in your private affairs anymore but…I know you'd be so much happier…promise me! Promise! Sometime in the future! You will tell her! You'd both be so much better off…you were the last person on this Earth that I cared about because you and I were alike. We were both taunted for our differences yet respected for our talents…I connected with no one else that way…and I never will again. For all the confidence you put in me…thank you…"
Scully and two paramedics came running into the room, quickly depositing Kathryn on a stretcher. "Promise!" cried Kathryn suddenly, hacking up blood. "I do, I promise," said Mulder. Kathryn gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, "You've made a dying woman happy." Her hand dropped from his and her eyes stopped moving; Scully checked her pulse and squeezed her eyes shut with grim defeat. She was dead.
The paramedics wheeled her out of the room silently, and Scully and Mulder were left alone in the room with a million puzzle pieces left to put together. Mulder bowed his head with grief, thinking of how young she was and the incredible bits of information she'd left him. Samantha was alive and well…and Scully…felt the same way he did.
* * *
They drove back to D.C. in silence, rarely speaking, both of them deep in thought. Mulder told Scully about what she'd said, leaving out the bit about Scully. "I hope we can find your sister with the information Kathryn left us," she said quietly. "That's not all," said Mulder, "I made Kathryn a promise. I have to keep it." "What sort of promise?" asked Scully.
* * *
Mulder unlocked his apartment and trudged in, feeling extremely exhausted; he sat down at his computer and noticed the monitor was on. He wiggled the mouse to turn off the screen saver and saw a notice flagging "1 MESSAGE RECEIVED". He clicked it and a screen popped up.
SHE WON THE BATTLE.
SHE LOST THE WAR.
YOU'RE NEXT.
Mulder felt his insides bubble with anger; he was still alive. Then another notice popped up.
WE ARE NOT JUDGED BY HOW WE DIE BUT HOW WE LIVE.
HOW WILL YOU BE JUDGED?
The message came without an addresser, and Mulder had only one guess as to whom it could possible be from.
EPILOGUE:
The coroner pulled the body out from the morgue; a maniac had killed some girl using a gun. 'Can't possibly imagine what the cause of death is,' he thought with a roll of his eyes. He pulled back the sheet to reveal…nothing? "What?" he said out loud, "But there was a body here a minute ago…how could a body just vanish into thin air?!"
Mesmer
Mulder felt more than angry; he wanted to kick something, anything, but there was nothing for him to kick. He stormed down the hall, dwelling on his latest meeting with Assistant Director Kersche. He'd just been ribbed about another one of his cases even though it wasn't his fault and the stupid man wasn't willing to listen to reason. He pulled out his keys and unlocked the door to his apartment, then kicked it open. As he entered he didn't notice someone sitting at his computer, waiting for him. He turned his back to the mystery person and hung up his jacket then turned to walk to his computer. He froze when he saw someone sitting there in the dark, a shadowed form in his chair. He didn't reach for his gun just yet, but waited to see who it was. "Can I help you?" he said. The lights flickered on as if by magic to reveal a young woman of about eighteen sitting in his chair. She looked vaguely familiar, then he recognized her; "Kathryn?" he said slowly. Kathryn Anne Williams had been a case of his a few years ago; she had the ability to control computers and to read other people's brain waves. The last time he'd seen her she'd been sucked into a computer, and he hadn't seen her since.
She had her legs crossed and her head propped up on one hand, "Who else would it be?" she asked. He sat down on the couch and cocked his head at her, "You've changed a bit. I didn't know that you still grew while you were surfing the Internet." "No pun intended, right?" she said with a roll of her eyes. "Yeah, I didn't know either, but I did. I'm a bit taller, smarter, and of course, prettier now," she said, smoothing a wrinkle in her shirt. "So what have you been doing all these…what, three years?" he asked. "Three and a half," she said, "not much really. I stop by here every once in a while when you're not around just to check up on you. I've been through most of the government databases of the world; you know, Russia, China, Germany, Britain, Japan, and of course, our own home territory," she said off-handedly. "Oh, so you've been all over the place," he said with interest. "Yeah, but I came back here because I picked up on some bad thoughts popping into your head about ten minutes ago. Want me to fry that Assistant Director fellow?" she asked. "No that's all right, even though I appreciate the offer," he said with a shake of his head.
"Suit yourself," she said with a sigh, "So how's things?" He shrugged, "Bad. I've been split up from my partner, I'm no longer on the X- Files, and everything seems to be going downhill." "Mmm," she said quietly, "Too bad. Especially about you and your partner. I've never met Agent Scully but I'd imagine she's a nice person, what with the way you feel about her and all." Mulder felt heat rising to his face, "You might want to stay out of that part of my brain, alright? That's personal stuff."
Just then there was a knock on the door and Mulder checked to see who it was; the Lone Gunmen. They came in and Mulder said, "I don't think you three ever met her but this is the girl who beat you at computer games a few years ago. Remember her? Kathryn Williams?" Langley's eyes narrowed, "You! I lost my perfect standings because of you!" She rolled her eyes, "They were only perfect because you weren't playing a real opponent. You met your match and now you wanna cry home to mama? Fine by me." Frohike, however, was thinking past the game; "You said she could go inside computers. She looks solid to me, Mulder." She let out a sigh and put a hand on Mulder's computer; there was large flash of blue electrical light then she was gone. The monitor came on and words began to scroll across it.
BELIEVE ME NOW?
Frohike gave Langley and Byers a look that said, 'Tell me I'm seeing things.'
YOU'RE NOT SEEING THINGS.
"Oh. That's nice," said Frohike faintly. The monitor flickered off and she appeared back in the chair, "Skeptics," she said with a roll of her eyes. Frohike shook his head rapidly, trying to clear it, "That's…interesting." "Not only that, but now I know how to get inside brain waves and control people," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Let me give you some advice woman," said Langley hotly, "stay the hell out of my head." She stared blankly at him, "What's keeping me from doing that?" "You wanna fight?! Is that it?!" snapped Langley. "As a matter of fact I do! Bring it on you punk!" shouted Kathryn. Byers and Frohike held Langley back while he kicked and punched at the air and Mulder pushed Kathryn up against the wall, "Don't start this please!" he shouted. "Alright! But it was his fault! He started it!" she snarled furiously. Langley's eyes became slits of anger, "Go fry yourself in one of your computers." "I think maybe we'd just better sit down," said Byers, trying to calm the situation. They all sat down, Langley and Kathryn exchanging heated looks.
"Mulder…the real reason why we came here is actually because of Kathryn," said Frohike. "We weren't too sure about it but we've heard rumors from some inside sources that someone has been leaping into computers," said Byers, "it's some sort of case in Georgia. There have been reports that computer technicians for a company called Future Graphics are getting fried through their computers left and right. Some how, they're getting electrocuted by a machine that can't produce that much power to kill them." Everyone automatically looked at Kathryn; "Hey don't look at me! I don't go around killing fellow brethren just because I can!" she said. "Anyway," said Byers, "there've been three deaths total, and no one knows how or why it's happening. We jumped to the conclusion that Kathryn was doing it but…" "I'm not," she said crossly, "I only kill if I have a reason to." "Oh well that's comforting," snorted Langley. "Well, that's all we stopped by for; we've got to get going," said Frohike.
They were gone a minute later and Mulder turned back to Kathryn, "Do you know anything about this?" She swallowed silently and said nothing; "You do know something don't you?" he asked. She let out a heavy sigh, "Mulder, a few months ago I was…well…investigating, shall we say, in the government database when a huge shock hit my brainwaves. I couldn't explain what it was but it hit me so hard it knocked me out of the nets and back into reality. As in here reality; I was pushed completely out of the computer and into my physical body. At first I was in absolute shock; nothing had ever done that to me before, but then the computer started…flickering. And someone actually came out of it; someone else, whoever it was, leapt out of the Internet and landed next to me and tried to kill me. Now I can't think of who would want to kill me and I don't know who the hell it was, but I came awfully close to a permanent shut down." Mulder looked perplexed, "And you have no idea…?" "I didn't even know anyone else had the same abilities that I did," she said, "and I only just escaped by jumping into another terminal. If I hadn't he would have fried me, and you know how good I am with electricity."
"You didn't come here just because you intercepted my brainwaves, did you?" he said quietly. She shook her head, "No. I came because someone is trying to kill me and it's only a matter of time before I'm caught."
* * *
Mulder and Kathryn agreed that it would be best for her to stay away from computers for a while, and he let her stay there in his bedroom and he slept on the old lumpy couch. They planned on going to Future Graphics the next morning when there was a sharp knock on the door at seven o'clock in the morning. Mulder slept right through the knocking noise and finally Kathryn got up and answered it; Scully was standing there, in shock that there was an eighteen year old girl wearing one of Mulder's work shirts. "Sorry, I'll come back later," she said, trying to hurry away. "Oh! No! It's not what it looks like! Really! I'm a friend of his!" said Kathryn, stepping aside to let her in. Mulder sat up slowly, "Kind of early isn't it Scully?" he asked. She gave Kathryn an odd look, "Apparently yes." "Oh," said Mulder, "this is Kathryn. She's a friend of mine from Maine." "Hi," she said, gave her a handshake. "We're going to visit a computer designing company in an hour called Future Graphics," he said, "she's…helping me with a case." Kathryn seemed to pick up on the idea that perhaps the two of them wanted to talk alone and said, "I have to go get dressed."
"You can't imagine the shock I was in when she answered the door looking like…that," said Scully flatly. "Oh I can well imagine," he said, "but she's in a lot of trouble right now. She has to stay here." Scully became interested, "Why?" Mulder explained to her what had happened and Scully didn't believe a word of it, "The same Kathryn Williams we had as a case three years ago?" she said slowly. He nodded, "Yeah, she looks different, but it's the same person. Anyway, strange things have been happening down at Future Graphics; apparently there have been some electrocution deaths involving computers." Scully nodded, remembering the computer electrocution Kathryn had given to an evil boy in her computer class three years ago. "No, it's not her," said Mulder, reading the look on her face. So he told her of the mystery person that could also leap out of computers as well as Kathryn. "I guess I'm going to Georgia today," said Scully finally.
* * *
The staff at Future Graphics was more than grateful to have the FBI involved; "About time we got someone else other than the cops involved," said the head technician. They were allowed into the computer lab where all the deaths had occurred; the computers lay silent, and Kathryn bent over to observe them. "These are nice computers," she said, "wish I'd had one when I was fifteen." Mulder and Scully, in the meantime, were looking around the room, and had just bent to look at one of the victims' computers when they heard a charging sound. They turned to see the computer Kathryn was standing in front of glowing blue; she ran back but was too late; an electrified hand came out and grabbed her by the back. Suddenly an entire man came out of it, and he had Kathryn immobilized with a handgun. Scully and Mulder both pulled out their own FBI issue guns and held him steady; "Drop the gun!" said Mulder. "Ohh, such a warm welcome," the man snorted; he couldn't have been any older than Kathryn. She squirmed against his grip, "Who are you?!" she shouted. "You don't remember me Kathryn?" he asked sardonically as he pressed the gun harder into the small of her back. "If I did I would have said so!" she snapped, trying to free her arms of him.
"Think back," he said, "to all those hours we spent over the Internet, playing games and laughing at the morons in our school. Think back to how much better you were than me and how much I stood in your shadow." A look of realization hit her, "Adam?" "Bergerin?!" said Mulder. This boy had been her best friend back when she'd electrocuted her first victim. "That's right!" he said, "I figured it out! How you were so much better than I was! And then, then I got electrocuted and bam! Suddenly I could program, hack, cheat, and speed my way through games just as fast you could! Then I swore I'd make you pay for all the times you made me look like a poor, pathetic little player." "Adam!" she cried, still squirming, "It was just a game!" "But it meant everything to me because it was all I had," he said, clenching her around the throat, "All I had…and you made me look the fool." Tears of desperation were beginning to show and gradually she gave up moving. "And now," he said, pointing his gun at her head, "I'm going to do what I wanted to do to your game character all the times we played; I'm going to kill you."
Suddenly Mulder had an idea; Adam was still hooked into the computer by brainwaves so…
He leapt at the computer station and ripped out the wires; "NO!" shouted Adam, feeling the tug of electricity on his body. It began sucking him and roared like a vacuum eager to suck up a dust mote; "NO! NOT WHEN I'M THIS CLOSE!" he screamed as it pulled him in. He clawed at the monitor, trying to keep himself out of it but to no avail. Kathryn watched in amazement as her ex-best friend was sucked into the computer, then silence. She let out a sigh of relief, "Mulder…thank-" A hand suddenly popped out of the monitor, clutching a gun, and Adam's head reappeared; "I still win. Game over." A single shot hit Kathryn in the chest and she fell to the ground just as Adam disappeared for good.
Mulder and Scully both ran to her, Kathryn now bleeding severely; the bullet seemed to have hit her in a vital organ. "Go get help!" Mulder said vainly, and Scully ran from the room to get to a phone and alert everyone else. "Damn fool!" cursed Kathryn angrily, clutching at her wound, "How I wish I'd recognized him…so different from what he used to look like…" "Be quiet Kathryn please…you'll waste your strength," said Mulder, not quite sure what to do with her. Kathryn laughed bitterly, "Ah…too late…it's a fatal wound, and Scully won't get back here quickly enough." "If you say that she won't," said Mulder, "so let's just…" "Mulder please…" she said softly, "Don't make this any worse than it already is." She let her head fall back and coughed up some blood, still clutching at her wound. "You know…" she said quietly, "I felt so bad for you after I left the first time. You were on a quest for your own Holy Grail; you wanted to find your sister and every time you tried the opportunity slipped through your fingers. It was a week ago when I began searching the databases for her…I found her Mulder, I found her in New England. It didn't specify where Mulder, but she's somewhere in either New York or Maryland; I haven't figured out where exactly yet.
"I was hoping to find her for you and repay you with that information as a present; it seems to be too late, however…" "No it's not, you still have plenty of time left," said Mulder. "If you call five minutes plenty, then sure. Jesus this hurts so bad…like a thousand white hot knives stabbing you over and over again in the same spot…" she said quietly. Mulder squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to think about it. Suddenly her grip on him grew weak and she shut her eyes, "Kathryn?!" he said, shaking her slightly. No, she wasn't dead…yet. "Mulder…" she said, "Please…do me one favor…" "Anything for you," he said. "Please…please…tell Agent Scully how you feel about her…she feels the same way you do…" she said, "…And I know I promised not to meddle in your private affairs anymore but…I know you'd be so much happier…promise me! Promise! Sometime in the future! You will tell her! You'd both be so much better off…you were the last person on this Earth that I cared about because you and I were alike. We were both taunted for our differences yet respected for our talents…I connected with no one else that way…and I never will again. For all the confidence you put in me…thank you…"
Scully and two paramedics came running into the room, quickly depositing Kathryn on a stretcher. "Promise!" cried Kathryn suddenly, hacking up blood. "I do, I promise," said Mulder. Kathryn gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, "You've made a dying woman happy." Her hand dropped from his and her eyes stopped moving; Scully checked her pulse and squeezed her eyes shut with grim defeat. She was dead.
The paramedics wheeled her out of the room silently, and Scully and Mulder were left alone in the room with a million puzzle pieces left to put together. Mulder bowed his head with grief, thinking of how young she was and the incredible bits of information she'd left him. Samantha was alive and well…and Scully…felt the same way he did.
* * *
They drove back to D.C. in silence, rarely speaking, both of them deep in thought. Mulder told Scully about what she'd said, leaving out the bit about Scully. "I hope we can find your sister with the information Kathryn left us," she said quietly. "That's not all," said Mulder, "I made Kathryn a promise. I have to keep it." "What sort of promise?" asked Scully.
* * *
Mulder unlocked his apartment and trudged in, feeling extremely exhausted; he sat down at his computer and noticed the monitor was on. He wiggled the mouse to turn off the screen saver and saw a notice flagging "1 MESSAGE RECEIVED". He clicked it and a screen popped up.
SHE WON THE BATTLE.
SHE LOST THE WAR.
YOU'RE NEXT.
Mulder felt his insides bubble with anger; he was still alive. Then another notice popped up.
WE ARE NOT JUDGED BY HOW WE DIE BUT HOW WE LIVE.
HOW WILL YOU BE JUDGED?
The message came without an addresser, and Mulder had only one guess as to whom it could possible be from.
EPILOGUE:
The coroner pulled the body out from the morgue; a maniac had killed some girl using a gun. 'Can't possibly imagine what the cause of death is,' he thought with a roll of his eyes. He pulled back the sheet to reveal…nothing? "What?" he said out loud, "But there was a body here a minute ago…how could a body just vanish into thin air?!"