Sorry the last chapter was short, this one is a bit longer again.

X-Files with Disney cross-over. Set after Season 9, closer to Season 10 start.

Please leave feedback if you enjoy.

Dana leaned back and stretched in the car seat. She wound down the window and breathed in deeply, the cool air filling the car and her lungs. It was crisp and the smell of evergreen hung on it reminding her they were in the forest. It helped wake her tired mind and shifting eased her cramped muscles.

She had been sitting for a few hours and knew they were close to the hotel and she was glad. Her legs and back were stiff and she rolled her shoulders before settling back into the car's upholstered seat.

She had been watching as the car moved through the changing landscape. The trees had initially been sparse, but now they were in thick forest, the greens deep and a dark canopy overhead.

The road had begun to slowly rise in a series of switch backs and at each turn in the road when there was a break in the trees she could see clear blue sky, the white clouds sitting suspended looked beautifully simple. The sunlight that occasionally filtered through the trees was bright and dazzling for a few moments before they were back under the leafy foliage.

When the trees fell away for that moment she was treated to a stunning view. Stretching out below them the sun glittered like gold on the surface of the lake, the shoreline quickly rising into flashes of grey and white rock of the mountainside. She glanced over and watched Fox smile at the natural beauty on display. She smiled too, this was going to be a lovely trip, secluded and tucked away in a lakeside cabin retreat.

"Nearly there." Fox said from beside her. And he was Fox and not Mulder today. He was in a sports jersey and jeans, stubble peppering his chin and he was relaxed as he drove the car. Usually as Mulder the FBI agent he buzzed with nervous energy, the inquisitive part inside him always hopeful that they would find something in the case that confirmed his theory about aliens or provided answers that were still illusive to him. Today he was much calmer, he was excited but it was delightful to Dana seeing him happy but not expectant. There was no weight on his shoulders and his boyish smile was charming.

Now they were heading out on a vacation, a retreat away from the hustle and bustle of Dana's city life, from her stressful job as surgeon in the hospital. And a break from the lonely corn fields and isolation Fox had taken upon himself while he thought through the changes that had happened in his life over the last nearly twenty years. While he searched for answers and acceptance and the space to heal from the stresses the X-Files had put him through.

The auburn haired woman sighed contentedly. They were friends, and if she was honest there was no-one else she would want with her on this vacation. She trusted him, confided in him, felt safe with him. They were going to enjoy the picturesque landscape and each other's company.

So they had a week away, booked into a bed and breakfast. The accommodation consisted of a small log cabin chalet nestled in a clearing with a lake view. There were mountain pass walks, involving climbing if they felt brave, swimming both in the complex pool and in the crisp and refreshing lake water and amply time to read, chat, rest and relax together or separately. They could interact with the other holiday makers as much or as little as they wanted, and Dana knew the surroundings would be perfect to help her recharge.

They were sharing a room, it wasn't the first time. They hadn't been intimate for some time, Dana was respectful of Fox's mixed and jumbled emotions, his depression and reclusive behaviour. She knew they both needed time, were both damaged after the rollercoaster that had been the last few years.

With her doctor's experience she understood that sex was just a distraction that interfered with both their therapy and healing. So they had fallen into a strong and solid friendship, not seeing each other every day like they had when they were agents working for the bureau but their relationship was still as strong.

They knew they were both attractive people, and they still had the spark of attraction between them, but it didn't define them or consume them. It had morphed into something else, something built from a pressured past, where they only depended and trusted each other. They were comfortable and content in each other's company which meant despite not sleeping together they were so much to each other. They knew each other as well as any married couple, their quirks and desires easily discussed, their differing beliefs respected and understood. They were the best of friends and that was enough for them both.

But she had to admit she missed him being close, and she missed him again that night when she awoke in the bed alone. She reached out her hand and came away with cool and empty sheets and she felt disappointed. She had fallen asleep soundly encompassed with his strong and warm arms wrapped round her, keeping her safe. They had both been tired after the long journey and his familiar scent had helped her drift off into a deep sleep, but now she had bolted awake and he was gone.

She sat up and wiped at her eyes, brushing her hair away from her face as she scanned the darkness that shrouded the room. He wasn't in the kitchen area or on the couch in the living area. The final clue that she was alone in the cabin was that his weather proof jacket that should be hanging on the hook next to hers was missing.

She stretched as she sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on her jeans and jumper that were laying in the floor from yesterday. She pulled her walking boots closer and slipped her feet into them and got up, quickly crossing to the door and pulling her own coat on. She opened the door and saw the clearing the cabin was nestled in was bathed in moonlight. It was a cold but clear night, the stars bright in the sky. Fox wasn't on the veranda area that surrounded the cabin, but she thought she could see something in the distance by the lake. She wasn't certain but it looked like the silhouette of him perched on a rock at the water's edge. It was quite some distance away and she wasn't sure, but she was an investigator and wasn't going to wait for him to come back to find out what had happened to make him leave the warmth of the bed.

She stepped onto the grass and began to walk over. The grass was wet with dew underfoot and there was a chill breeze that rouged her cheeks, cutting through her layers of clothes and reminding her she hadn't put on a bra. She pulled the jacket tighter and walked briskly, hoping the quicker pace would warm her body.

In the longer grass ahead of her she saw a family of rabbits out nibbling and foraging. And off in the foliage to her left something rustled and she heard what might have been an owl call. She smiled, despite being cold this place was full of nature, full of life and as she breathed deeply, savouring how fresh and crisp the air was, she knew they were lucky and wondered what wildlife they might be treated to seeing in the daylight of the next week.

The rabbits scattered as she neared them, and a cloud covered the moon making it much darker. She shivered, the grass was damp under foot and making her jeans wet at the cuffs which then sat coldly against the skin of her leg. A breeze caught her hair and she brushed it back behind her ear and carried on walking.

As she drew nearer she saw Fox was transfixed with something in the sky, his gaze was trained upwards where he was following something but she couldn't see what it was. The woman came to a stop next to him and looked out into the sky but couldn't fathom what was out there to draw his attention, he was seeing something that was hidden from her.

"Dana it's amazing" he breathed as she settled next to him.

"What is?" She queried, scanning the sky but still unable to make out anything but stars, some cloud cover and the brightness of the moon. It was beautiful, clear with a breeze blowing in gusts across the open water, but she knew that wasn't what he had meant.

"There are dragons flying over the lake!" He whispered, childlike awe in his voice and excitement clear on his face. "There is a large one and two smaller ones, I think they are being taught as the little ones aren't as confident and seem to get tired out easily. But the big one is magnificent."

The auburn haired woman sat next to him unable to see, not sure if he was hallucinating. She looked in his eyes and saw they were clear, he didn't look like he had been drugged. She also didn't know when someone would have had the opportunity as they eaten from a buffet at dinner and opened their own sealed bottles of drink at the table.

He was awake and lucid, and she stood silently studying him for several minutes. She was confused as he moved his head, watching something unseen to her but she had learned long ago to be patient and that things were often not as simple as a first glance. Slowly as the cold seeped into her and she found herself scanning the skyline and surroundings she felt it. The breeze she had felt coming from the lake wasn't like a breeze, it sometimes came more from above and blew in strange, short gusts, almost like wings were beating the air and moving it. As she stood at the lake's edge she began to see strange shadows that weren't clouds and occasionally they would cross the moon and stars blocking them from view momentarily.

It was disconcerting, like an early astrologer who knew a planet was there because of how it affected either the earth, moon or another astral body, she began to see the ripples on the water and the effects of something large overhead but could not see the actual object.

Fox told her in a hushed whisper that their eyes glowed and their scales reflected the moonlight and when he turned to Dana she saw his eyes were dancing with glee but they were clear, he was fully awake and he believed every word he was saying. He was animated, youthful joy had flooded his features, and as he grasped at her hand and entwined their fingers she wanted to believe with him.

She was able to infer there was something out there and she had no explanation, so dubiously she allowed herself to think through the logistics of his description. Was it rational, no, but she had seen so much that defied logic, things that would be classed as fantastical, that she held off from casting judgement and enjoyed the moment and Fox's excitement.

She allowed him to pull her close to him on the rock, so they were huddled, sharing body heat but a companionable silence as they looked out across the lake. As they sat together quietly, slowly things became more defined. She relaxed and with it came the revelation, things swam into focus for Dana. It was like a magic eye picture, the longer she stared eventually a hidden vision exposed itself.

So as she stared intently into the dark night sky, looking into the shadows and through them she began to catch glimpses of things she really couldn't explain. She had to admit she was caught up in Fox's delusion if that was what it was because she thought she could also see the dragons. Not like Fox saw them, but she clearly noticed the odd way light would be reflected or blocked from her sight. She began to believe it had to be light glinting off their scales or the yellow glow of their eyes shimmering briefly out of the darkness.

However crazy it was, this wasn't the craziest theory they had investigated and she had learned over the years to approach things with an open mind. Not as open as Fox, admittedly, but the things she had seen during the X-Files investigations had been pretty unbelievable so she knew not to immediately dismiss a peculiar and bizarre sounding explanation.

If it was true and could be proven, then it might rank pretty high on the weird list, but their past investigations at the bureau had exposed her to lots of things normal people would only think happened in bad horror movies or the twilight zone. A town of Vampires, Voodoo and people coming back from the dead. Real life magic, spells and curses and many things that were dismissed by the general public as folk tales they had seen with their own eyes.

They had seen monsters made of trash, a giant fluke worm, a malicious children's toy and murdering tree bugs to name a few, so an imaginary creature like a dragon that could be a explained as a missed evolutionary step was actually conceivable.

Sitting in the cold, her breath hanging in a cloud with every exhale it dawned on her that the erratic way the light moved was like a classic tale of someone describing an alien UFO. Bright lights floating mid-air and then moving quickly away, blinking in and out of focus.

Her mind span, they had spent so much time chasing unexplained phenomenon. And these lights were unexplained. They had no pattern and if Fox hadn't been there she would have no idea what was causing them. They would have been a mystery, a true unidentified flying object.

She followed the thought, the scientist in her probing it for validity. Could this honestly be what many people thought were aliens? There were so many other things that she had witnessed to do with aliens. Time loss at certain places and false memories that abductees swore were implanted. Things that she herself had experienced, that first case where Mulder sprayed the cross on the ground and they had lost 9 minutes. Dragons didn't explain that.

But she was starting to believe that out on the mountainside and swooping low over the water there were large and majestic creatures. A missing link or just something so unusual that it had passed into myth as they were so rarely to see. That was distinctly possible.

Did believing that make her mad? Was she still asleep and dreaming? Had dinner been laced with a hallucinogen or could she have been exposed to something after the evening meal that was causing them to see things that weren't there?

She shook her head no, she didn't believe that, it all felt too real. From the damp and cold that was seeping into her and giving her a chill to the hard bite of the stone digging into the back of her thighs and numbing her ass. The fact she had neglected to put on socks and the boots had rubbed blisters on her little toes and the damp cuffs of her jeans were soggy from the walk down to the lake. The fact her hair kept blowing in her eyes and the cold was making them water. It was so vivid, too much to be fake.

As she sat, deep in thought there was a shift in the air and Fox moved quickly, protectively. He had stood and pulled at Dana's hand, dragging her a little clumsily to her feet. He moved in front of her, shielding her as he kept her close to him and backed them both up and away from the water edge.

Dana was surprised but felt the air move violently around them and the gravel by the lake shifted as if something huge and heavy had just settled there. As she looked at the disturbed area she saw a woman shimmer into focus, one with tight black clothing and two horns protruding from atop of her head.

"Good evening." She greeted the two shocked former FBI employees.

Dana felt the change in Fox immediately. He flipped into Mulder, the agent, the charming man who kept asking questions until found the answer or at least understood.

He stepped forward and introduced them with a shake of the woman's hand. Scully stood back and appraised the other woman, noticing her long finger nails that were painted a dark colour, the slim frame and pale skin. She was a confident woman and her strength was mirrored in her stance and cold eyes that swept over them.

"I'm Mulder and this is Scully. That was quite some entrance."

"Maleficent." Came the curt reply and Scully felt she was being studied just as intently, clearly being sized up as the woman raked her eyes over them.

Things had gone from odd to completely outrageous in a matter of a few seconds and Scully didn't know what to think.

As Mulder turned and saw the incredulous look on her face he reached out and placed his hand on her arm.

"She's real Scully, I watched her land as the dragon and then change into the woman in the blink of an eye. It was truly magical. And I've touched her, she isn't an illusion."

"No, I'm not an illusion." The horned woman confirmed. "But you two, you are very rare. People don't see us, not in our natural forms. It takes a great believer to see us like you did."

"How could I see you and Scully could only make out glimpses of you?" Mulder asked.

"We are usually cloaked by magic, you were able to see through the cloak and Scully here, well she could obviously see chinks in the cloaking enough to acknowledge our presence. Even that degree of sight is rare, it doesn't happen often, but to see us completely, Mulder that in a human adult is almost unheard of. You must believe strongly and have a very open mind."

The auburn haired woman watched the dragon praise her partner and she felt something tense inside her. Mulder smiled at the horned lady and Scully tried to push the feeling away. She recognized it as suspicion, but more than that, it was jealousy. This woman was statuesque and stunning and had captured Mulder's interest in her dragon form and she hated it.

As Maleficent stepped forward and Scully watched Mulder follow her with his eyes she battled with the emotions. There was no obvious danger here, and yet she felt the woman could be a threat. Maleficent was intoxicating, possibly it was something close to animal magnetism but Scully felt it and knew Mulder did too. She was a conundrum and Mulder loved them, the fact this one was wrapped up in the skin of an attractive lady made Scully's heart beat faster and her mouth go dry. The auburn haired woman felt envy and mistrust rise from her gut and was amazed at how quickly the emotions washed over her when being close to this magical woman. She tried to stone her face but not before Maleficent noticed.

"Do not fear, My Dear. I have no interest in your mate."

Dana tried to shake her head no, but the dragon stilled her with a piercing look.

"He is certainly fine to look at, but you need not worry, I doubt he has the stamina or likes it as rough as I do to satisfy me. Very few humans do these days." And she sighed theatrically while dropping Scully a wink that the ex-agent felt was wholly inappropriate.

It did little to calm her fears or stop her heart beating quite so quickly.

Thankfully Mulder stepped in with his inquisitive nature, "So children sometimes see you?" He queried, pulling the conversation back to safer topics.

"If we get seen it is usually children as they have yet to have their imaginations stilted by life. They are free thinking and have much less restraining their dreams and are still unbiased. Thankfully most parents just think they are making it up or were dreaming quite a vivid day dream so we rarely have to intervene."

Scully perked up at that. "Intervene?" She asked.

"We have to protect ourselves and our existence." The witch defended. "If we are seen we have to take steps to erase that knowledge, we can't risk exposure."

"You tamper with memories?" Scully felt the danger again, she was suspicious of someone that admitted so easily to invading a person's mind and their most intimate thoughts.

"Only when forced to. It is rare we need to do it and unless the person is particularly obnoxious I never implant anything nasty or traumatic." Again there was a wide grin but Scully failed to see the humour or warm to the other woman. Mulder on the other hand laughed quietly and they shared a conspiratorial smile. Her jealousy rumbled below the surface at the interaction.

To divert her attention from the way she was feeling Scully took charge of the conversation and asked, "So there is a world filled with magic out there?" Despite not liking the woman or trusting her Scully found herself fascinated by the concept that fairy tales could be real and magic existed in their reality.

"Yes, magic is real. As real as anything people put faith in." The witch told her.

Scully felt the remark was aimed directly at her and to cement this the two women shared a pointed look, Scully wondering how the dragon woman seemed to be able to read her and know her so well. Then she remembered her chain hanging round her neck but when she went to hold it she only grasped the windbreaker that was done up tightly, hiding the cross she always wore. Maleficent just smiled at her look of confused bewilderment.

The agent guessed that if the other woman had the ability to get inside a person's head and implant false memories she could probably also see thoughts and memories. She felt unsettled as she wondered if the witch was poking about in her head and viewing her most intimate ideas and desires so she changed the conversation away from her personal beliefs by saying, "l have faith in science. Magic isn't something we accept in our way of life."

Maleficent told her, "But the fact you can see magic means you aren't completely shut off from the possibility. And science and magic share common qualities. They both manipulate and mix chemicals, elements, even the molecules. Healing potions that old wives have been making using natural ingredients for years are an example of basic science, early medicine taking form."

Scully acknowledged the truth in that, many people in history had been skilled in providing aid by mixing fruits, roots, minerals and herbs. And they had, more often than not, been persecuted for it, labelled as a witch or devil worshipper. The other woman did understand why the dragon had chosen to hide in the darkness. People reacted in fear to things they didn't understand and could easily hunt or hurt the woman and her young.

The witch continued, "Some of what you consider unbelievable is only a matter of perspective and understanding. There are still gaps in your science, elements missing in your tables and questions about the evolution of the planet and your species. Some of what you think of as magic is just a lack of knowledge. Somethings I do are not magical or fantastical, they just use a level of understanding that you humans haven't discovered yet. Electricity is a normal and regular commodity to you, but to a medieval man electricity is magic. This is the same, you need a revised perspective and different understanding of the universe before you will comprehend what I am able to do. Given time and some breakthrough ideas things will become clear and magic will seem less fantastical."

"As a race we aren't there yet." Mulder nodded his agreement.

"No, I'm afraid humans aren't ready to accept our existence, which means I will have to erase the last few hours for both of you."

And Maleficent was genuinely sad, because she liked these two humans. They were honest and clever, accepting and while intrigued and a little scared, they weren't motivated by fear or anger. She had come across many humans, it was unfortunate that for people to be able to see her they had to have open minds. This often meant they were stupid people who didn't know how to close their minds, their minds were so open they were the guliable and less educated, people who believed in fake news or the latest craze without question. They also lacked the ability to close their mouths too, so she often had them either screaming in fear or testing her patience with stupid or obscene questions before she was able to knock them out and get some blessed silence.

The only bonus with those kind of people were that she was often able to stage a situation where the person appeared to be drunk, rambling about flying shadows, winged creatures or unexplained lights. And the words were dismissed as a by product or the intoxication.

The sadness must have shown on her face because she felt the fear spike in the ex-agents, but they didn't run or try and fight her. They exchanged a look between them and Maleficent wished they could see what was so obvious to her. They might work well together, but it was more than that, they belonged together. They were dancing round something that could be so good for them, between them. She hoped they would soon realise it.

As it dawned on Scully that she would be losing a large chunk of her night to lost memories she thought back to the time loss of alien encounters. She was certain Maleficent wasn't the reason for all of them, but she did think the woman had been able to use the obsession of alien abduction and UFO's to her advantage and used those circumstances in some of her implanted memories.

Mulder was obviously on the same page as he looked Maleficent squarely in the eye and told her, "You'd better not implant any memories with bright light, big black eyes, being experimented on and anal probing!"

"I only do that for the obnoxious and really annoying. I think you two are safe." The horned woman told him, and her smile was warm.

Both Mulder and Scully had seen her magic and knew to fight would be foolish. Even if they had been armed and had a gun it was unlikely they could defeat her. And after the discussion they had engaged in it was surprising to them both to find that there was an understanding forged with the witch and they knew she was telling them the truth.

She held out her hand and assured them, "It won't hurt and I'll return you safely to your beds. Please trust me."

Both of them slowly approached her with trepidation but grasped each other's hand before reaching out and taking her hold of her hand. Taking a deep breath and closing their eyes they waited a few seconds. They didn't know it but they went limp as everything went black and Maleficent concentrated on creating the magic and pushing past memories within their heads. She wove and created, spending slightly longer than she would normally before transporting the unconscious bodies back to their cabin.

Dana stood in the dining hall, looking at the breakfast queue and deciding she would wait for Fox.

"I'm Bob." The man came up behind her, leering as he looked over her figure and she shook his hand in a perfunctory gesture. She wasn't in the mood for polite small talk, she felt unsettled about last night and she knew she had some memory loss which was niggling at the back of her mind.

Bob was prattling on about the range of choice at the breakfast buffet and she nodded distractedly. She wondered what was keeping Fox.

As the oblivious man kept talking she zoned back in. "Are you planning on swimming in the lake at all?" he asked. "It is cool and very refreshing, I took the kids yesterday."

"No I think I'd rather use the pool." She told him.

"Frightened what you might find in the water?" the man joked. "There aren't any Lochness type monsters here."

And that resonated inside her somehow, setting off a feeling of déjà vu. But every time she tried to focus on it the memory and thoughts associated with it escaped her.

She tried to tell herself that it was because both her and Mulder had investigated monsters for a living. Whether they were human murders or actual monsters they had come across a variety of weird creatures. But she didn't think that was what she was feeling about the lake.

Even when she thought back and remembered the Big Blue case she knew that wasn't what was bothering her, but she couldn't pin point what it was. Big Blue had been nothing unusual or monstrous in the end, just a large dog eating crocodile. The man's comment made her think of a big, powerful, fictitious creature and her brain was responding, grasping at something just out of reach.

She couldn't focus her mind and as she stopped trying and her conscious filtered back to the dining room she realised the man had stopped talking and was waiting for a response. She had no idea what he had asked, and it was quickly becoming awkward as the silence span out.

Making an excuse she quickly escaped from the conversation saying, "I just need to find out what is keeping my partner, nice to meet you and enjoy your day."

As she walked away mulling over the Lochness comment she felt jealously shaft through her, white hot, spilling through her veins. She recognised it immediately, she had battled with in the early years when Fox had flirted with other women but this was on a scale unlike anything else.

She didn't understand, but she felt the need to find Fox and soon. It was a feral response, a desire to take him, claim him, he was hers. She hadn't felt like that for quite some time and as she tried to push it away it just focused and became more intense.

She had to stop and lean against the wall, taking a deep breath as suddenly she was assaulted with a vision. Her subconscious had her in its grip and as her imagination took hold she had visions of herself in a tight black corset and leather knee high boots. It was a very gothic type outfit, quite different to her usual attire and in her fantasy she was commanding and domineering her man. And Fox looked like he was loving it.

It was so different from the soft and gentle way they had taken to making love in the past. She had no idea what was driving her thoughts at that time, but she hoped Fox was still in the cabin, she was battling arousal and losing, a sensual fog filling her brain.

As she quickened her pace across the clearing and practically broke the door with the forceful way she tore it open a dragon sat on a mountainous ledge and breathed deeply. With her animal senses she caught the very slight hint of sexual need on the air and had seen the way the auburn haired woman had rushed.

The dragon flashed her teeth as she smiled, sometimes she implanted nice visions and memories and she knew now her work here was done.