Chapter 3

1:10 AM

"I'm really beginning to wonder whether we should have a class photo taken at this point," Cisco said as the group gathered in the main room.

"I think that might be jinxing it," Diggle told them. "Reminds me to much of those pictures they took of divisions going into Afghanistan. You looked back at it later and all you saw was the people who didn't come back."

No one wanted to say that, but everyone was thinking some version of it. No doubt Mulder and Scully were too. The man they were all looking too, however, looked excessively cheerful, almost manic.

"So here we are. The group that's going to save the world. And because this is a government operation, we deal with what they would consider the most important part: what to call ourselves." Mulder paused. "The Society of Justice?"

"That doesn't sound right," Barry said carefully.

"Guardians of the Planet?" Mulder posited.

"Mulder," Scully warned him.

"I know: Superfriends."

"Stop coming up with names!" Oliver and Barry both shouted.

Just like that, the manic grin disappeared. "I'm all about joking at inappropriate times," Mulder said softly. "It just seems more tolerable when the stakes are lower."

"Considering what's going on, I'd be stunned if you weren't nervous," Cat Grant said assuredly.

"So I will cut to the chase and do the other thing the Bureau insists on doing before we get started on a big operation: remind everybody of what the stakes are even though everyone involved has been briefed a dozen times before." Mulder took a deep breath. "Oh for Skinner's utter steeliness in the face of these situations."

He looked at them. "According to the paper that is currently on display, the colonization force that has been scheduled and rescheduled at least a dozen times is finally going to arrive on Earth." He met Cat Grant's eyes. "I'll borrow my high school journalism talking points and break this story down using the six W's."

"What are we facing? I realize these aliens no doubt have a native planet and species, but Scully and I never learned it. For the sake of clarity, we will refer to them simply as the Colonists. What do we know about them: They are built like brick houses. They have enormous physical strength, based on a past incident, at least the equal of Kryptonians. They have the ability to shape shift. Their blood is green and toxic: exposure to it will kill a human nearly instantly." He looked at them. "I speak from experience on that one; it's only due to Scully I'm still alive. They also have the ability to heal any illness or injury with the palm of their hands. There are other versions of them out there – we've met a couple – but right now, we'll just focus on the invading force."

"Who is helping them? A conspiracy of men working in a shadow government was working in alliance with them from at least the 1940s and then formally since the 1970s. Most, if not all of these men were killed with their families in 1999. The conspiracy did not die, however, and as we speak members of this old regime are working with people from corporate and international interests. If this new regime has a different end game it is unknown. But for now, we're assuming they have the same goal as the old. To sell out the human race to save their skins."

"Why are the aliens doing this? This question has been answered by two independent sources." He locked eyes with Kara briefly. "And it's the simplest part of this whole mess. It's what they do. Planet by planet, they have been conquering the galaxy, subjugating the native population into a slave race."

"Where will they come first? Essentially this is the most irrelevant part because there will be nowhere to hide."

"How will they colonize Earth? This is actually the part where Scully and I can fill in the most blanks as members of the conspiracy have told us the basics of this plan on multiple occasions." Mulder looked at them. "It will take place on a weekend; one with a holiday so there will be three days. There will be an attack in one place in which the virus will first be spread, probably by bees. The government will declare a state of emergency under the guise of controlling the incident. The military will move into power. Basic civil liberties will be shutdown. During this period, the alien forces will slowly move in and begin occupation of America. By the time the international community realizes the severity of the situation, it will be too late to act."

"That was the 1990s model. You still think they'll hold to that?" Joe West asked.

"Given the state of technology these days, it would probably be easier to manipulate these events now then it was then," Felicity said grimly. "Hell, all they'd have to do to bring it up to date is throw in a virus on the Internet."

"I really hoped the plot to the fourth Die Hard movie was utterly inconceivable," Cisco said. "I think you're leaving the last W out."

"Indeed. When is it going to happen?" Mulder paused. "Well, we all saw that paper. Hell, we might as well start synchronizes our watches because as I see we've got about three years before we run out of time."

Sara and Oliver exchanged a glance that seemed to have a silent conversation. Should we tell them now? Sara asked. Not yet. Oliver seemed to answer.

Mulder picked up on the glance, but for all his astuteness at reading body language, couldn't hear the words. Instead, he filed it away for later use. "I get the bullet points right?" he asked Cat instead.

"I might fault you on how you used some of the W's, but otherwise you did fine for an amateur," Cat Grant said. "But now I have to do my job. Now that we've been briefed, how do we make what's on that paper do what it would do in Back to the Future?"

"I guess she really is one of us," Caitlin whispered.

"Old school. Respect," Cisco said admiringly.

"I'll tell you how I hope it doesn't end. With everybody in this room making a final charge towards the alien fleet. I won't lie, it would make an awesome cinematic experience, but that would be the charge of the Light Brigade and that didn't end well for anybody," Mulder told them. "This is where it's going to start getting awkward. The use of a term such as task force seems so benign given the severity of the situation, and that's before you take in to the fact that almost every one I've been in on is like an ant trying to eat a watermelon. That's why we lost the War on Drugs."

"Is that an official FBI statement?" Cat Grant said with a raised eyebrow.

Mulder looked at her. "On the record, the FBI is utterly committed and convinced its methods will lead to victory on the War on Drugs, just the same way as we have won the War on Poverty and are currently winning the War on Terror," he said in an unctuous political tone.

"And off the record?" A smile was playing across Cat's face.

"If we'd gone into every drug corner in the world and handed every addict and dealer a 'Just Say No' T-shirt, we'd probably have a better effect than any method we've used in the past thirty years," Mulder said dryly.

"Damn." Leonard was a little shocked to see a smile crossing Mick's face. "I'm actually starting to like this guy."

"The fundamental problem with those task forces was that it was intrinsically the same approach to a complicated problem over and over again," Scully told them. "I don't have to remind people in this room that's the unofficial definition of insanity."

"To try and solve this problem one way isn't going to work. We should know because that was our approach," Mulder said. "But this is where having several dozen heroes, seven or eight genuine geniuses and at least two major government agencies behind us will help. We're going to use any many different plans as possible. Plan A doesn't work, we move on to Plan B while we're also working on Plan C all the way to Z. You've all heard the phrase 'no idea is too dumb. 'All of us know that's a lie, but for the moment we're going to pretend that it's true. Any potential thread that might lead to stopping this invasion, we will follow it until it runs out."

"He's thinking like I do," Snart whispered. "The Girl of Steel was right."

"Do you have any potential starting points?" Stein, the scientist asked. "It's my understanding from Cisco and Caitlin that you're in the process of trying to synthesize a vaccine for this alien virus."

"We have a couple of samples right now," Scully said slowly. "Cisco and Caitlin have very graciously offered to help try variations on this going forward. But as any scientist can tell you, that has it own risks and even if we do get a working one, there comes the process of trying to make enough for more than seven billion people. All of which assumes this will be the approach the colonists use."

"I was for this idea, but I admit there are flaws, not the least of which that it was one of the Syndicate's plans for going along with the invasion in the first place," Mulder told them. "They couldn't get a workable version in a quarter of a century, I have severe doubts we can do as much in a little more than three years. So for now, it's going to be a fallback."

"What other ideas do you have?" Sara asked.

"The main reason I'm calling it a task force is because the one critical part every task force needs in intelligence gathering," Mulder said. "We have to get all the information we can on this new conspiracy. We already know some of the players involved, so we have to try and figure out what their parts in it are. "

"I've seen some of the names," Ray Palmer said. "It's going to be difficult tracking some of them down. I'm guessing that's where all of us are going to come in."

"Which gets me to the next point. We're going to divide and conquer," Mulder said. "Now I have a definition of 'divide' that you need to know. I know all of you are smart people and that some of you may have ideas of your own. I also know some of you are not used to sharing with others." He paused. "Given how much we're going to have keep things secret going forward, I don't have a real problem with that. What I have however are some conditions."

"First and foremost, and I speak from personal experience on this, no one goes off on their own. I don't care whether you're a lone wolf vigilante or have superpowers. No one goes anywhere without backup and no one goes anywhere without having told someone where they're going."

"Is this an order?" Snart was testing the waters.

"Technically speaking, Scully and I are in charge of this task force." Mulder said. "That said we're going to try and play the role of our old boss who must have gotten so fucking tired of having to pull our asses out of the fire of nine years."

"What do you mean by 'our'?" Scully muttered under her breath before speaking. "We need to know what all of you are doing so that we can serve as a buffer between you and the powers-that-be. That will mean knowing what you're up to so we know what the best lie to tell or how much paperwork to use to keep the bureaucracy tied up long enough to stall."

"I guess they really do work for the government," Jackson said with a smile twitching across his face.

"Hey, it's worked for us in the past, "Alex Danvers said with a smile.

"That said, we're not going to sit on the sidelines ourselves," Mulder told them. "There are angles we're going to want to follow that won't occur to some of you. But we'll avail ourselves of the same measures you do."

"Twenty-three years and you finally see the wisdom of taking back-up," Scully said with an eye roll.

"Hey if I have Kara or Oliver coming with me, you might think twice before kicking my ass," Mulder said with a smile.

"I was dealing with liver-eating mutants and werewolves when most of them were in kindergarten; do you really think they would protect you?" Scully spoke in a tone so sincere that it actually shook up the strongest among them. Mulder openly shuddered before he continued.

"I'm not going to separate all of you on a whim; in this regard you've been doing this longer than I have and I expect you all have a certain comfort within your own…I really don't want to say 'cliques', but I can't think of a more accurate word," Mulder said slowly.

"Team didn't occur to you?" Kara said with a smirk.

"I'd like to think that we're all on the same one, but I know some of you have working relationships that I'm unfamiliar with," Scully said gently. "We also know that some of you aren't wild about being in the same room with other people; we're hoping you can work through that for the sake of the planet."

"That'll work for now," Oliver allowed. "There may be others we recruit who might not be willing to get along. "

Mulder looked at Oliver. "You have lines on other alliances we can make?" he asked.

"I'd prefer if we put a pin in that for now," Oliver said. "Have you got a plan for intelligence that we can use without all of us having to be in the same place at once? That probably won't be practical going forward."

"Nobody here's thrilled about that, but it's true," Scully admitted. "We've asked Felicity and Winn Schott to put together an electronic briefing that will keep everybody up to date where and when everybody should be on a weekly basis. The emphasis is on should ; that said, for the love of God don't force us to send us to come after you to arrange a flight to the Arctic Circle at three AM. The changeovers are a bitch."

"Which one of them went out there to rescue the other?" Ray whispered to Felicity.

"You get to know these guys a bit longer; you'll know the answer to that question without even having to ask," Felicity said.

At this point, Martin Stein who'd been patiently absorbing all this raised his hand like one of the students in his own classes. "Agent Mulder, this seems like a very complicated and detailed operation that will take almost everybody's efforts."

"Is that a question?" Mulder asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I know Barry pretty well and I have a fair appreciation with what Miss Danvers and Mr. Queen have been doing for the last few years. We all realize this is a global operation, but all of them have obligations to the cities they live in, Oliver doubly so." Stein asked. "Are you asking them to surrender the charges they already agreed to undertake?"

Barry, surprisingly, answered the question. "The thought has crossed all of our minds," he told his friends. "And each of us believes we have come up with a solution that will keep things working while we work here."

Kara began. "Just like with my cousin, everyone understands that Supergirl's first duty is to Planet Earth and National City second. People will be more understanding considering the nature of this task force that I spend less time in my adopting home. To pick up the slack, the DEO has agreed to maintain a closer eye on activities there and Alex, a couple of Bureau transfers and some trusted associates will cover the slack. Should things start to accelerate – as they tend to do every few months – I'll step in."

The Legends could sense that there was something Kara was leaving out, but they decided to let this go for now. "They might understand for Kara, but Star City's going to notice if the Arrow disappears," Sara said.

"Things have changed a lot the past few years but not much," Quentin reminded his daughter gently. "Public opinion on the Arrow is still pretty divided."

"And in either case, it is a moot point," Oliver said slowly. "Because he's not going to."

STAR CITY

ONE WEEK EARLIER

Roy Harper was shaking his head. "I'm not going to lie. When I first signed up to work part of me really hoped that someday you might be willing to pass this down," he told Oliver. "I just didn't think that the 'someday' would involve the possibility of aliens taking over."

"Honestly, I hoped that someday I would be able to give this up." Team Arrow looked at Oliver with equal expressions of disbelief on their face.

"Oliver, I've been with you since the beginning and you've taken every opportunity to keep the suit on," John Diggle said. "After Laurel…some of us thought we might end up burying you in it."

This was a sore subject for all of them, but no one – not even Oliver – could deny there was a fundamental truth to it. No wonder all of them wanted to change the subject as quickly as possible.

"Is this only to distract people who might wonder why you're in the far corners of the world and not in Star City?" Quentin asked.

"The truth is, I was probably going to have to deal with this ever since I was elected Mayor," Oliver admitted. "People might have asked questions if a billionaire playboy kept showing up with strange bruises and scars; a lot more questions were going to come up when I started giving press conferences with black eyes."

"They actually have been asking those questions for awhile, but nobody listened to me," Thea muttered under her breath.

"Glad as I am to be doing this again, part of me still feels like I'm a step behind," Roy acknowledged. "You get to save the world; I'm still just saving Star City."

"I get that," Oliver admitted. "And if it's any consolation, you're going to get at least one aspect of my job. You're going to be a team leader, now."

"Welcome to the party, pal," Rene said. "Not that I wasn't cruising for a promotion."

Roy looked upbeat. "Who else is going to be helping me?"

"Considering that Felicity and Dig are going to be vital going forward, I figured it was time to test out the Next Generation," Oliver told them. "Dinah's been a real asset the last few weeks and Tom's going to be taking over on tech support."

"Some people might consider this a demotion too," Tom looked at Felicity. "Me, I'm just hoping I can fill your really large shoes."

"Besides, we needed you as Overwatch," Felicity reminded him. "Mulder's right, this is going to be about brainpower as much as it will be muscle."

"Does that suit still fit?" Thea asked gently.

"I thought you'd hung it up," Oliver asked.

"If you think I'm going to let my boyfriend go into a battle again and now be able to protect him, you're crazier than the clown freak we dealt with last month," Thea walked over to Roy seductively. "Besides, once we're done fighting, we can sew each others wounds up."

The normally stoic Oliver actually blinked several times. "That was an image I could have lived without," he said slowly.

"We've had some interesting discussions the last few days," Thea said in a vampish tone. "Cosplay never appealed to me when I was a bad girl, but I can see the lure now."

Oliver actually shuddered at this and almost seemed to be pleading at Roy.

"Hey, you just made me the Arrow." Roy had a trace of his old cockiness. "I've already seen the downside of it. I really would like to enjoy the benefits."

PRESENT

Understandably, Oliver didn't go into graphic details of that particular conversation, nor the fact that Thea in particular had been sending him emails the last few days with titles that bordered on the pornographic. The fact that all of them turned out to be Rick Rolling didn't endure his little sister to him, though he was at least glad she had managed to work through some of the conflicts she'd had when she'd hung up her uniform last year.

"And who's going to be handling things in Central City?" Mulder asked.

"The Flash will still be handling things," Joe didn't look particularly happy saying this. It had been bad enough that one of his children was permanent in the superhero business; he hadn't been thrilled when Wally had agreed to take up the mantle as well. He would really have liked if just one of his kids, biological or adopted could just have a safe desk job somewhere. Maybe as an accountant, though given the world he'd been living in the last few years, it would not shock him if somewhere out there, there was now a metahuman called 'The Auditor' that they'd be facing some week.

"Given the level of the task we are facing, it is likely that we will need to call on some of the base teams for support at some point," Scully acknowledged. "We want to hold this off as long as possible but given how much chaos got thrown at us on a regular basis I find it inevitable that they will be called in sooner rather than later."

"I really wish I had something more concrete to offer as an end goal," Mulder admitted. "Some point where we'll know that we have effectively ended the alien threat. But I'm not here to give you false hopes. I'm not the guy of person who will show up on a spaceship with a banner saying 'Mission Accomplished'."

"Do you think this threat can be stopped?" Sara asked.

That was the question Mulder had really hoped to avoid. "For years, I was told over and over 'the date is set'. I never knew when it was. I know it was postponed on at least two occasions, but as we all know, the absence of an event doesn't mean that it's been stopped; only delayed. Scully and I were only able to beat the major representative after six years of trying and even then, it was a lucky shot. Fighting off an invading force, I don't know what that'll take or if that will even then be the end of the story. It's not like we can post a giant sign over Earth saying 'All Hostile Forces Keep Out."

"It's not like that exactly worked before," Kara admitted.

"I really wish I had a more inspirational ending," Mulder seemed a little deflated now. "I understand that most of you are used to hearing some kind of battle-cry or something to fight too. I've always fought 'the truth is out there' was something to believe in, but now that I know the truth, it doesn't guarantee anything."

He then did what he had done so many times over the years when he was in doubt. He looked at Scully. "Will a personal anecdote suffice?"

"Depends on how personal," Oliver said.

"When Scully and I were fugitives, after that kangaroo court, I had what I had hoped the last meeting with that black-lunged son of a bitch," Mulder began.

"How much of a threat is he?" Ray interrupted.

"He's been neutered by the new people, but he's still part of the equation," Scully told them bitterly. "We saw him get blown to pieces and he popped up just a few months ago. I think the Devil doesn't want him. Go on."

"He had taunted me with the information that had lured me to Mount Weather. The supposed date of the final alien invasion. What he'd been holding over me to destroy my hopes and what I hadn't been willing to tell anybody, even if it could have saved me at my trial," Mulder said. "As you can all guess the date has now passed, but at the time it was too painful for me to contemplate. That night, I felt doom circling. And Scully did what she always did. She told me that even though I'd found nothing I set out for, I wouldn't give up. That I wouldn't accept defeat even now. At my absolutely lowest point I looked at her and I managed to say: 'Maybe there's hope.'"

He looked at them. "I still don't know if victory is possible, but I can say with certainty that I refuse to accept defeat. Maybe there's hope. And if there is, it's in this room. With metahumans and aliens and ordinary people who have faced impossible odds and refuse to accept defeat."

There was a long pause. "For someone who says he isn't good at inspirational speeches, that's still better than anything Aaron Sorkin, at his coked up best, could come up with," Cat Grant finally said.

"I never liked The West Wing," Mulder said blithely. "He took far too optimistic a view in the goodness of people in government. I knew better."

That broke the tension in a big way. "All right," Mulder said as the laughter subsided. "I know there are a lot of great minds and strategic thinkers here. Take the next few hours; see if you can come up with anything that might work. And remember, no idea is too stupid."

"We attack the aliens with hummus," Everyone looked at Cisco. "Just trying to prove you wrong."

As they started to break up Oliver pulled Sara aside. "That private conversation I've wanted us to have," he said in a whisper. "We need to have it now."

"Alone?" Sara whispered.

Oliver shook his head. "Ray can come along because he knows some of the details. The rest of the old team is going to need to talk about it too."

The shoe that Sara had figured was going to drop since they got back finally seemed to have. "We're going to have to visit my ex, aren't we?"

Oliver dropped his head. "Need I remind you she's my ex, too? This is going to be all sorts of awkward."

Sara gave a small smile. "There were times I did have certain fantasies that involved the three of us. Then the two of you met."

"I lived out similar fantasies," Oliver said with a smile of his own. "They're never as much fun as they seem on paper."

ISOLATION CHAMBER

6:11 AM

"I don't normally disagree with Oliver on these kinds of things," Diggle said slowly. "That being said, I think you are basing a lot on a conversation that Mulder had from a very unreliable source."

"Maybe I am making a hell of a leap," Oliver admitted. "But after hearing what Diana Fowley said to Mulder, you have to admit that speech could have come right out of Ras' playbook."

Ever since Oliver had learned what Diana Fowley had told Mulder about the Syndicate's actions not so much destroying the world but putting a merciful solution to a planet in misery, he hadn't been able to get it out of his head. It didn't just sound painfully close to what Ras Al Ghul used to inspire his own League; it was a modernization of an old creed. And they all knew Ras and the League had been around long enough that might well know about this conspiracy. The problem was it was a shaky foundation to theorize on which was one of the reasons he wanted to talk to one of the former members.

"I'll admit, the speech Fowley gave was one that the Heir to the Demon would have used to motivate his troops," Sara admitted. "Where it starts to fall down is, would a man who spent his life determined to lead be willing to follow, even if it was to realize his greatest goal?"

"And you don't think that's possible," Felicity asked.

Sara shook her head. "The Al Ghuls may all be very different personalities, but the one common trait they all share is that they want to lead and they will never follow. I believe you learned that very painfully when you met Nyssa. She wouldn't even follow her own father's lead. Her father certainly would never agree to follow any group of men."

"So he wouldn't be part of the conspiracy," Oliver hesitated. "But does that mean he didn't know about it?"

"That is a much tougher question to answer," Sara admitted. "I can't believe he would participate unless he was in charge of it. But I find it harder to believe that something of this magnitude could be going around the world and he was oblivious to its existence."

"What were his sources of intelligence?" Thea asked quietly.

"He had connections all over the world. They all seemed to be in the shadows."

"Is it possible my father could have found out about it?" Thea asked. "And that's why the new Syndicate recruited him?"

"You're assuming Ras trusted Malcolm," Diggle reminded him. "And no matter what their relationship was, I can't see Malcolm Merlyn withholding a secret of this immensity and being allowed to live as long as he did."

"You told Mulder and Scully about your connection to the Al Ghuls," Sara asked.

"All they knew was what was in the police reports which were pretty hazy," Quentin told them.

"Is there any chance they could have known about this before this happened?" Sara asked.

"Absolutely not," Oliver said assuredly. "We all know if anyone in the federal government had even a hint of knowledge about Nabat Parda, they'd have died mysteriously. Mulder was protected on high from important people, that much I know but none of them would have enough protection against Ras."

None of them could argue that particular point. "All of this is moot," Ray reminded them. "Ras is dead. We all saw you kill him."

"Yes, but did he leave any record of what he knew behind?" Felicity pointed out. "And if he did, would he have left it to anybody else?"

Sara thought this over. "You want to know if Nyssa has any details," she finally said. "And since she doesn't exactly like you, you thought her ex might be able to smooth things over."

"You were going to visit her at some point anyway," Oliver reminded her. "And if I'm being completely honest, even if she doesn't know anything it would probably be worth our time to tell her about this."

Sara raised her eyebrow. "Nyssa's never been the all is forgiven type."

"Well, Oliver did giver her power she never could get under her father, so you could argue she owes him something," Felicity reminded her.

"And much as I hate to admit it, having the League on our side going forward could help when things go sideways," Diggle acknowledged.

"Thank you for not saying 'if things go sideways'," Thea said with a smile.

"I've been working with your brother for nearly five years; I know better."

Sara considered this. "How exactly would we get there? Because you and I both know showing up uninvited doesn't exactly make you popular."

"They're not thrilled when you're invited either," Felicity countered. "Doesn't the League have some kind of, I don't know, primitive version of communication other than appearing mysteriously on a Star City rooftop?"

"It's not much better than using tin cans on strings," Sara told them. She thought for a moment. "I do know of some people. Unfortunately, the closest known location in the middle of Bangkok. How long will it take to fuel the Queen Private jet?"

"At least an hour longer than you think." Everybody looked at Oliver. "You did get the brunt of what Mulder told us about the chain of command and how we're going to do things?"

"Yeah, but we kind of figured you'd just leave a note behind telling them where you when it was too late to do anything," Felicity pointed out. "That has kind of been your MO the last four years."

"And if I were still operating even as just the leader of Team Arrow, I might very well have done that by now," Oliver told them. "But this is a much larger and more important mission. If we don't tell somebody about what we're about to do, there will be consequences far greater than Star City being left to the mercy of Damien Dahrk."

"Oh my God," Thea said delightedly. "You're afraid of pissing off some of the people in charge."

"Have you met these people?" Oliver didn't even bother to deny it. "These are petite, slender woman who have the ability to terrify people with just a mere glance. And that's even before you consider pissing off the Danvers' sisters!"

"The world really is ending," Felicity had a delighted smile on her face. "Finally there are some bad-ass women out there that Oliver Queen himself is afraid of pissing off."

"That's why we're going to tell Mulder first," Oliver was looking everywhere but at all the women in his life who had identical broad grins on their faces. Which didn't leave him with a lot of people to look at.

10:02 AM

"So you and your team are flying to Bangkok to meet a source," Mulder said carefully. "For my own protection, you can't tell me who this source is or what he or she represents. If you are successful making contact, you and your team will be off the grid for several days. You can't tell me where or who or even why you're making this trip in the first place."

"I know we're asking a lot of you," Sara began.

"Actually, you're not," Mulder said. "If anything you're being remarkably considerate of the chain of command. I lost count of how many times I abandoned Scully and Skinner with no clear instructions, leaving them to the mercy of the powers that be, often forcing them to face contempt of Congress citations, get beat up by my own shadowy sources, or having to travel halfway across the globe to rescue me from prison or a hospital bed. "

Sara looked a little astonished by this. "How many times did Scully have to save your ass when you were at the Bureau?"

"How many cases did we work on together?" Mulder responded. "By the way, smart move asking me instead of her. She'd never let you go without getting a detailed itinerary."

"So you don't have a problem with this?" Felicity asked.

"No, I'm actually trying to figure out how Skinner would handle this," Mulder took out a bag of sunflower seeds. "I know that you're not asking permission for this and I remember the speech I gave a few hours ago. But before you disappear halfway around the world, I think I have to know a little more than just that."

No surprise, everybody looked at Oliver. "Your last meeting with Diana Fowley," he said carefully. "It made a couple of bells ring with us. There's a possibility that we may know something that has information about the conspiracy."

Mulder took out a seed and put in his mouth. "How sure are you about this link?"

"Not sure at all," Oliver admitted. "The man who would have been the most direct information has been dead for two years."

"And you're sure he's dead? Please remember the world we inhabit," Mulder reminded him.

"I killed him myself," Oliver said. "Which I realize is no guarantee. But he left people behind who might very well know of what he knew."

Mulder considered this and then looked at Sara. "Oliver deliberately waited until you had returned to go on this journey. Is it safe to say you have a connection to this source?"

"I do," Sara acknowledged. "He waited because it's more likely they'll talk to me then him."

Mulder thought for a moment. "I know you and your friends are more than capable of taking care of yourselves, but just how dangerous is this trek?"

Sara knew only complete honesty would work. "Very dangerous."

"The kind of danger where government involvement would only guarantee a bad outcome."

He was very good at reading people. "I've read about the Syndicate. These people could eat them alive."

"Would they be a problem for Barry or Kara?"

And he knew the right questions to ask. "They don't know about them, but I can't say they wouldn't be prepared," Sara asked.

Mulder thought for a moment. "From the moment you leave Star Labs, you have eight days to return."

None of them had thought he'd respond this quickly. "You're sure of that?"

"I've always been a creative personality, so I think I can come up with an explanation to the powers that be as to why Team Arrow has gone AWOL and is not making contact with the Bureau as to where they are. " Mulder told them. "That said I can't stall them for more than a week without someone in one of the three government agencies this task force is a part of asking some serious questions."

This was a lot more than any of them had thought they would get. "The communications aren't going to be easy. We can't guarantee the tech we have will be able to make contact until we're back to something resembling civilization," Felicity told them.

"Remind to tell you about the week I spent in a Russian gulag one time. I get how primitive parts of the world are," Mulder waved it off.

Oliver actually looked interested in this. "Which part?"

"As close as you can get to Siberia without freezing," Mulder said with neither pride nor shame.

Oliver exchanged glances with Felicity and Diggle. "When we get back we'll have a talk with Anatoly," he told them in a whisper. "This might be able to get him on board." He raised his voice. "We should probably get going."

"Not so fast." Mulder said, looking at Sara. "This is going to seem like its transactional, so I need to assure you that I was actually planning to have a talk with you as team leader before you met with me. "

"And that is?" Sara asked carefully.

"Permission to borrow two members of your own team for a mission I'm going to be running," Mulder told them. "I don't think it's as dangerous as yours, but as my medical records at the Bureau can tell you, I truly have no idea how risky any adventure I go on can be before I go on it."

"Which ones?" Sara asked.

"Martin Stein and Jefferson Jackson," Mulder asked. "It's not just because of their combined ability as Firestorm; there are parts of this mission that will probably require each of their individual skills as well."

"You can't go into more detail than that," Sara asked.

"There's a chance this may be more of a snipe hunt then your thing," Mulder told them. "I will give them both a full briefing on what they'll be up against. And trust me, they won't be traveling alone either."

Oliver was looking at Mulder. "You don't believe for a second this is a wild goose chase. Otherwise, you wouldn't have asked for their help."

"I spent so much time on the X-Files chasing my tail I was never sure what I was seeing was the truth or stage dressing on another lie," Mulder said sincerely. "But you do deserve to know more than that. So here's what I'll tell you. Twenty years ago, my mother suffered a stroke. I met a man who I thought might have been able to heal here. He convinced me that he could tell me the whole story behind the conspiracy if I followed him. And I got as close as I had been for years to knowing the truth about the project and what my sister's connection to it was. It was in the palm of my hand…and then it was snatched away."

Some of this was in the files. Some wasn't. "What happened to your mother?" Thea asked

"She recovered, but not because of anything that man did. I never did find out how," Mulder admitted. "Much was lost afterwards and while I did find out some of the truth, that part was never resolved to anyone's satisfaction."

"But you have a lead," Oliver said.

"It's a thread. Maybe it doesn't even have anything to do with our current crisis," Mulder told them. "But if we're going to have any chance to stop this invasion, we need to know what the old plan was."

AUTHOR'S NOTES

For those of you who thought Mulder's reaction was corny, I've had in the back of my mind since the beginning of this entire series.

The colonization plan is canon from the entire X-Files. Why was verified in both the first X-Files movie and the first episode of the reboot.

Mulder was never an idiot. He knew the flaw in the approach to the War On Drugs years before The Wire premiered. And he was cynical about the government on a good day. Mick and Snart would approve.

The story Mulder tells near the end basically relates the central plot point of the original series finale. Flawed as it was (and it was a mess) the last image we saw may have the one good thing about it. I think Mulder would hold to it.

In 'Like A Bolt of Lightning' I hit upon the possibility that Ras might have a link to Diana Fowley. Is it a stretch? Perhaps but I can't think of any other way that the Cigarette Smoking Man could have kept being killed and coming back like clockwork every two seasons. I may deal with that in the next episode.

Mulder is basically Skinner in this new world, and he doesn't like it.

Mulder was in Russia in the fourth series episode Tunguska/Terma which revealed Krycek's connection to the Russians. It hasn't occurred to me until this story that this might be something that Anatoly would be aware of.

Those who are fans of the X-Files know the storyline I'm talking about and where Mulder is going. Details will follow in the next chapter.

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