9.

#1 watched the scene that was set before him. Mulder and Scully were re-united. Thumping his fist upon the table he yelled with rage. It wasn't ever supposed to happen. This spoilt everything and all of his plans would have to be brought forward. Trust that Mulder creature to ruin the best-laid plans. It had been perfect, lulling Scully into a sense of security and then WHAM! Bring her back to reality and let her be reminded exactly who had the control over her life! Certainly not her, there was only one-way for that to happen and he had to do everything to prevent that from happening!

He was partially glad he had watched her today. Her heart rates had been fluctuating rapidly recently and now he knew the cause. She would have to be careful. Mixing with Mulder was a recipe for disaster yet she hadn't a clue. Something was wrong. She wasn't supposed to react to his kiss like that. Scully should be in pain the fizzing wasn't meant to stop when physical contact was made. That was what the syndicate had promised him. Once the Scully – Mulder son had been born her chip would make her physically ill when in the near vicinity of Fox Mulder, for he could destroy them all. Their union would stop the invasion. They alone could create the vaccine to stop alien inhabitation of the planet. And now that Scully had revealed herself as the Key.

#1 had the sole responsibility of saving his kind and he would do that even if it meant killing one of them.

He looked in on the new scene, Mulder had no idea that Scully had given birth to a daughter, and #1 found it interesting to watch Mulder's reaction. He studied the facial expressions, zooming in on the tiniest detail of the rugged face. Those eyes, they told stories that no one should know; now they were hurting. What were they called? 'Windows to the soul' this man had a soul that was hurting yet when Mulder looked at Scully that hurt disappeared and some other emotion appeared. Humans were strange creatures yet they served the purpose that his kind needed. Their reproductive systems were almost identical to their own apart from their own gestations lasting three Earth days rather than nine Earth months. They were all cloned from the great one and now their way of life was in jeopardy.

The new clones were failing. Their genetic engineering had problems that only one person could answer… Dana Scully. She knew about cloning, he was sure, she could tell them how to stop their 'children' being born without defect. The perfect race was disintegrating before his very eyes and he was powerless to stop it. Damn, damn, damn.

How could he have let it happen, Mulder was not supposed to come back, #8790 was in trouble. His job was to tail Mulder and stop his moving towards Washington. Another one of the clones had to be destroyed.

"Bring me 8790." He demanded his fingers reaching into his pocket and pulling out the silver stiletto. Shaking his head he sighed, killing one of his brothers was never easy.

#8790 entered the room escorted by two guards. Damage was evident to the clone's face. Obviously his escorts, #97546 and #32451 had been having fun, the girls always were more vicious. They both smiled as #8790 struggled, knowing what was to happen, they tightened their deadening grip upon him. Females, were stronger then males, a natural flaw if you could call cloning natural.

"Stop the struggling 8790, you failed, the laws of our kind are specific. If you fail on your assigned mission then you must be exterminated. We, as a race, must not fail. Do you understand?" he watched his brother stop struggling and kneel before him. How he hated to do this. Pressing the release button upon the stiletto he heard the familiar hiss of air as the stiletto extended. Panic was visible in his brother's eyes but instead of fighting, #8790 lowered his head as #1 approached running his fingers across the fine point of the unearthly metal.

"Is there anything that you want to say #8790?" he watched him nod.

"I'm sorry I failed our kind. I die with the dishonour that I have caused our race, our family." #1 touched the clone's head as recognition of the apology and without causing any further agony he thrust the stiletto into his brother's neck. With a crack and splutter they witnessed the death and destruction of one of their kind.

Green ooze and smoke poured from every orifice of the clone's body. #97546 and #32451 watched, as they had so many times, without shock as the body pulsated with death tremors. They stepped back as the blood of their brother began to seep toward their shoes. They knew it could burn right through any human material and they didn't want that to happen. They left the room as silently as they had entered smiling at the death yet realising that one mistake of their own would result in the death penalty.

Within minutes the death was over and taking some water #1 poured it over the green ooze, brushing it away and into the street by their building. The one rule he hated. If you killed one of your kind, then you dealt with the mess! A nasty job but then it was an understandable ruling.

He was amazed that Humans had tried, without much success, to clone themselves. The flaws were numerous yet somehow there was one perfect human clone and he was watching them right now.

#1 turned his attention back to the Scully household. #1 began rewinding the pictures, so to see Mulder's reaction once again, to seeing the girl. He didn't seem to know anything about the child and that puzzled him. Scully didn't appear to be one for keeping secrets, especially, medically based ones of her own. He was still confused how she had done it, how could she? He had to know.

Mother and daughter were perfectly identical and no one suspected a thing. Some children looked more like one parent than the other but this was spooky. Only a clone could look exactly like their Mother and now as he watched the little girl wandering up the pathway to her home he tried to fathom just how Scully had succeeded where so many had failed.

#1 looked at the open folder upon his desk. A photo of Scully and her daughter lay on the top. He had to find out how she had successfully cloned herself.

"If I don't find out, one of you will die!" he said as he picked up the photo then laughed as he chose which of them to kill for fun.