Thank you, to those of you who have reviewed this story so far. Those reviews have been well appreciated.  The times this story takes place is: Stargate SG-1- during the second season, X-Files- after the last episode. And I do claim ownership over Shelly Avland, she's my character. Here's another chapter for you loyal readers.

It was smack dab in the middle of the night, and they were still on the road. Scully's brain was foggy as she sat, leaned back in her chair, staring out the windshield at what little of the road was illuminated by the headlights. Two paper cups with Starbucks logos on them, one full the other half-full of lukewarm coffee filled the cup holders. She took a long heavy blink as she tried to remember why it was that Mulder was coming out here to the middle of Nowhere, Colorado. Every second, she got nearer to sleep and foggier in the head.

To her left, in the driver's seat, was Mulder. His mental condition couldn't have been further from Scully's. Wide awake, his mind was racing with adrenaline and excitement. The truth was out there. That was his motto, and it looked like he was on the verge of finding out more of it. Someone from Area 51 had contacted him. This person had had a voice changing mechanism, so he couldn't tell if it was male or female, friend or foe (they referred to the contact as male, just to make things easier). He did know that he was as excited as ever. Sometimes he could tell when he was on the verge of finding out something big. This was one of them, so he continued driving on with extreme resoluteness.

He took a glance over at Scully, saw how exhausted she was, and couldn't help but to smile, "Excited, Scully?"

Her eyes opened widely as if his voice had scared her (at that point of sleepiness, it probably had) and he could see how glazed over they were. They didn't move from the road in front of them and in a thick, slurred voice she said, "I was so close."

"So close to what?"

She sighed, "Falling asleep."

He chuckled,"Now, now. We wouldn't want you getting any sleep would we?"

She jerked her eyes from their stare at the road and gave a long-suffering look to Mulder, sighing again.

"And besides, Scully, how can you be tired at a time like this? We're on the verge of a breakthrough of phenomenal magnitude. I could hear it in the guy's voice."

"Mulder, he had a voice changer. How could you hear anything in a computerized voice?" she looked back at the road and her eyes were half-massed again.

"Trust me, Scully. I can tell. We're on to something huge."

"Whatever you say." She closed her eyes and appeared to be asleep.

Several hours later, close to dawn, the two pulled up to the meeting place. A small restaurant called Fast Eats Diner & Bar. They stepped out of the car and walked through the main entrance and looked around. I'll be wearing thick glasses and a light green coat. The mechanical voice had said, and that's exactly what they were looking for now. Scully was the one that spotted it. Lime green coat, coke bottle glasses, brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and stuffed into the jacket's hood a small, fidgety woman sitting in a booth hidden off in a corner. She was glancing around as though someone would pull a pistol out and shoot her at any given moment. She was kinda hard to miss. Mulder and Scully walked up to her booth, and she recoiled from them, her wide green eyes magnified by her glasses, studying them closely.

"I'm Fox Mulder, and this is Dana Scully. I believe you are the one we're supposed to meet?" He smiled.

The corners of her mouth twitched upwards for a moment, and she seemed satisfied that they were who they said they were. "I am. Mulder, Scully," she nodded at them respectively. "Please, have a seat." She swept a white, scrawny hand towards the bench across the table from her, and it was there they sat.

"So, what is it you have for us, Miss…?" Mulder was still smiling.

She seemed a bit reluctant to give her name at first but then, "Avland, Shelly Avland. And, as I'm sure you know, I work at Area 51. What is it you think you know of extraterrestrial life?"

"Well, in a nutshell, that they're trying to colonize the planet, have been experimenting on making alien/human hybrids, and…" he trailed off as he noticed her shaking her head. "What?"

"None of that is even close to the truth, Mr. Mulder. Believe it or not, that is the back-up cover-up story for conspiracy theorists such as yourself. The truth is very different, Mr. Mulder."

He looked about to laugh, thinking it a joke, but her face was dead serious, "You're kidding, right?" She shook her head slowly. Calmly, he said,"My sister was one of those taken for experimentation. I saw it. That can't be a cover up. That wasn't fake."

"True, you have a strange and complicated life, butyour sister's abductionwas simply not real. She was among several taken and trained to act the part of an abductee. It was what the government was doing to mislead conspiracy theorists and keep them away from the actual truth."

Mulder's eyes had hardened. Scully didn't think he was appreciating-- or believing-- what she was saying. His voice was flat,"If that's the case," he said, "then what is the real truth?"

She glanced around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. "The stargate is the truth."

He looked confused. He thought he'd be prepared to hear anything, but this caught him by surprise. Stargate?

"The what?" Scully interjected.

"The stargate. It was found between ninety and a hundred years ago, but only a few years ago did anyone figure out how it worked."

"What's the stargate?" Mulder still didn't seem to believe her. This small woman in front of him was trying to tell him that everything he had worked so hard to prove and unveil was nothing but a lie. Scully didn't think he'd be terribly willing to accept that, even if it wasn't in his nature to be skeptical.

"The stargate is an alien device that allows for wormhole travel to other worlds. The air force has the main jurisdiction over it, and it's been in full operation for the past two years. It's positively top secret."

"Why did you decide to tell me?"

"Because I've read your file, Mulder. You say you're looking for the truth. I'm here to bring it to you. You say it's not right that the government should hide things from its citizens. I'm here to agree with you. You want to reveal the truth of extra terrestrial life to everyone, but before you do, you must know that the aliens that you think you've heard of don't really exist, and the closest things to them are friendly with humans."

His eyes were perfectly icy and his face set. Not a word of this was glibing with him at all. He managed to keep his voice even and tone lowered."You don't understand, Miss Avland. I was abducted by those aliens you just said don't exist. Scully was abducted by those aliens too. Both of us were experimented on. We weren't taken to any camp that was training us to act the part as abductees. I thought you had something real for me." He was about to get up from the table.

"I can prove it, Mulder," she said softly, "I can prove it by showing you things that came from the other side of the stargate. That's what Area 51 is. It's where they take alien technology to be studied, tested, duplicated, and used."

"I've heard of Area 51, yes."

"But the alien technology isn't from crashed spacecraft or dying aliens. It's recovered by means of the stargate."

"Can you show me this stargate?" Mulder still sounded a bitcynical, but at least he wasn't shutting everything she was saying out. That was agood sign.As for Scully, she didn't quite know what to believe now.

"Not right now. No. Maybe in time I'll find a way to, but I can't show it to you now. I can show you pictures though. I can also show you some of the technology and files."

"Now?"

"No, I'll have to have some time to get organized."

"Then when?"

"Meet me here again, two days from now. I'll take you to my house. I'll have the proof you want then."

Mulder eyed her, skeptically.

"Mulder, do we have anything better to do?" Scully said to him in a near whisper.

He sighed and his look softened a bit, "Fine. But you'd best have some pretty incredible evidence."

"I will. I have to go now." She rose from the table, "Two days, same time. Agreed?"

Mulder and Scully nodded, and she walked off, leaving Fast Eats Diner & Bar, leaving the two to mull over all that they'd just heard.