Disclaimer: I don't own the X Files

Note: Huge thank you to Kyouryoku Senshi for being my beta!

The Colonists

Dana was floating in space in a world far from her own. The only thing she saw around her was the blinding light and so she closed her eyes.

The next thing she was aware of, was a small body that was latched on to her.
It was a child, but not her own child.
She wrapped her arms around the mysterious small person and tried to open her eyes again, but pointed them toward the person with her.
Her vision was blurry and the light still stung her eyes, but she could see the little girl she was holding. For a moment she was confused, but then remembered the little girl that William had insisted they save.

What is her name? Scully pondered as she looked at the little one.

The little girl looked so at peace snuggled up against Dana's chest. Her heart broke slightly, as she thought of her own daughter that she had known for such a short time. She had always wanted a daughter.

Scully ran her hand over the little girl's hair and kissed her forehead and the girl's eyes opened slowly.

She didn't seem to be affected by the light and her startling eyes met Scully's with a precision that scared her. Sometimes William would get the same look in his eyes. It felt like he was studying you like a piece of art.

Gabby. She remembered the name. A perfect name for the sweet-faced child in her arms. The girl who was too small for her age, but whose eyes were too old.

"Where are we?" Scully asked thinking for some reason that the child would know. She felt foolish as soon as the words left her mouth. She was the adult, she should be the one with answers.

Gabby glanced around "We are on their ship," she said as if it was the most normal thing in the world..

"The aliens?"

Gabby just nodded and began to move away from Scully. Scully's arms tightened around the girl, she didn't want to let her go.

The little girl just looked at her and began to pull away again. This is when Scully realized that they were actually laying on a floor that was light. Gabby got to her feet and looked at Scully expectantly.

Scully got up and looked around. The light was still blinding, but she was getting used to it.
"Where is everyone else?" Scully asked.

"I don't know. If we walk, we might find them," Gabby answered vaguely.

"Won't we eventually hit a wall?"

Gabby turned to her, " This is a reality that exists unto itself. It doesn't have walls. The floor is just an illusion really. Everything is. We are probably lying on a table somewhere hooked into this reality," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Scully looked around unbelievably, but followed the child as she began to move.

Gabby stopped and waited for Scully and took her hand. For the first time, there was some vulnerability in the girl's face and once again she was just looking for reassurance.

They walked hand in hand, in silence for what felt like a long time. There was no way to tell time as they were walking. Scully felt strange in this place. She felt like she had been there before.

Deep inside herself, she knew that she had been in a place like this when she had been abducted all those years ago, but she refused to entertain any such thought as she had done for years.

On what looked like a horizon, a prone form could be seen. Scully wanted to run to it. It was hard to tell who it was from where they were, but as they got closer, they could see that it was the young woman who had helped them escape.

Gabby bent down over her and touched her face lightly, "Shelly?"

The woman's eyes moved under her lids, but she didn't wake. Gabby tried again and the woman's eyes opened to look at her. She appeared blinded for a moment and then gained her sight and looked around.

"Oh no." She said simply and Scully assumed from that, that she knew where they were.

She stood and they all looked at each other for a moment and decided to keep walking. Gabby kept a strong hold on Scully's hand.

Gibson watched over the sleeping bodies of his friends and was not sure if he felt guilty or relieved. Had he kept them safe from one danger only to hand them into the hands of another?

He knew the colonists and they liked him, but he knew that to them these were just humans, science experiments and zoo animals at best. Except for Shelly and the children. He knew if it came down to it, he could at least save them.

One of the colonists entered the holding center in his human form with a totally neutral look on his face, which was not unusual. They were not an expressive race.
"How are the specimens doing?"

Gibson heard the human sounding voice in his head and once again was reminded of how much he hated the way they referred to human beings.

"The humans are fine. The females have found each other. All of the males are still in deep sleep."

"Interesting. The hybrid females?"

"The hybrids and the human. The child found the human female somehow."

"She is strong. Possibly the strongest we have seen. She may rival you, Gibson. We need to watch her."

"I agree that she is strong, but I do not believe that she possesses a threat. She is just a child wanting comfort right now. If we become her allies and earn her trust, she can be an asset."

"We will see. The boy has potential."

"Yes. His background was perfect for training and it looks like it has taken. How many soldiers survived the attack?"

"Impossible to say. We were able to destroy 53 of them, but we know there are many more."

"Do we have a sufficient supply of magnetite?"

"We are continuing to collect right now. The humans are being gathered into reserves for their own protection, but we have been met with some expected opposition."

"Would these ones be able to gather their belongings before joining the reservation?"

The colonist eyed Gibson critically, "Yes. In this one case we can allow it. Be careful, Gibson, that your human compassion does not outweigh your logic."

Gibson simply nodded at him and the alien left the room without another word. They were a species of few words.

After the alien left, Gibson hung his head and hoped he would be able to save them from the worst of what was to come.

Mulder woke up to the sound of birds and the feel of wind blowing in through a window. He opened his eyes and realized that he was in his own bed. He turned to see Scully's curved back and he wondered if it had all been a dream.

He sat up slowly, not wanting to disturb her and then saw the little girl that was clutching onto Scully.

Mulder knew the girl from what he thought were his dreams. He had not heard her name or anything else, but seeing her here made him assume that it had not been a dream.

He quickly got up and went to William's room. There, sleeping quietly was his son. All Mulder could see was a mess of strawberry blond hair and he smiled. He moved to the other side to see his son's sleeping face.
William looked so at peace. Mulder wished that he could retain that peace. Guilt cut through him as he thought of the peaceful life that William had, that had been taken from him.

He wanted to reach out and touch him, but he did not want to wake him. Instead, he went to inspect the rest of the house.
He walked back into the bedroom to get a shirt and noticed Dagoo lying in his dog bed.

Mulder cocked his head at the dog who looked up at him expectantly. In all of the excitement, he had forgotten about the poor mutt and Mulder wondered how he had survived.

He motioned to the dog as he left the room and Dagoo followed behind happily. When Mulder got to the kitchen, he saw how Dagoo had survived.
It was a mess of food. It looked like someone had been feeding him and had decided to leave out food in case of no return.

Mulder saw Skinner's prone form on the rug of their living room and he realized that he was probably who had taken care of the dog.

The woman who had been with them was lying on the couch sleeping like a baby.

Mulder was confused, tired, and hungry and he wondered which he wanted to take care of first.

"Mulder." He heard quietly and he was not sure if it was in his mind or not.

He turned around to see Gibson standing there looking tired and years older than he should.

"Gibson. Thank you." Was all Mulder could get out. He was not sure what else to say to the young man standing before him. He also didn't know how to fit this image into the one of the little boy he had known so many years earlier.

"Don't thank me, yet." Gibson said not meeting his eyes, "The colonists have come and set up reservations for the humans. They want you all into the nearest one by tomorrow."
Mulder stared at him not comprehending, "Wait… they are moving all surviving humans into these reservations?"

Gibson nodded, "It's estimated that the current population of the earth is around two million but it is hard to tell. Over the past few months, people have been dying. Whoever they don't want, that is."

Mulder didn't say anything and instead walked to the light switch and flipped it, nothing happened. They were driving the human's away from home. Mulder cursed under his breath.

"Mulder, we need to wake everyone up and you need to start packing. You're lucky I could even convince them to let you gather your things."

"What are these reservations for? Some kind of low tech hunger games?"

"No. There won't be modern conveniences though. It will be more like a control zone for the aliens to study humanity."

"And you have known this for how long?"

"It doesn't matter. I couldn't change it if I tried. Mulder this is the new world, you knew it was coming. Frankly, it's amazing that they are letting any human's live. The colonists will populate the rest of the world. They will try not to interfere in the lives of the humans."

"What about the super soldiers?"

"There are still many left. They had a lot more than we originally thought. That air strike was the first against them. It's one of the reasons why they are moving the humans, they want them out of the way of this war."

Mulder looked at the ground and shook his head.

"Mulder, we don't have time to argue about this. If we are not out of the house and on the road by tomorrow they will come here and that is the last thing you want."

Mulder looked up at him with mild anger and just nodded his head, "Fine. You wake them up." He pointed to Skinner and Shelly, "I'll get the kids and Scully."

He stalked up the stairs and left Gibson alone in the kitchen, feeling his friend's pain.