Mulder had awoken to the smell of a newly lit cigarette that was all too familiar. He could say where he was, but he felt himself in a blanket of white. Was this what death was and going to heaven was like?

His temple throbbed and the last thing he could remember was being at death's doorstep. He groaned. The back of his eyelids burned fiercely from sickness and exhaustion. He swore he left that cigarette smoking sonofabitch's home.

"What's the matter, Fox?"

"What the hell are you doing here. I don't want you help and I don't need your pity. Go away."

"Should have accepted my offer, Fox. Agent Reyes did. She even went and gave this news to Scully...as I knew she would. It's how your beloved when on a rampage to find a cure. Even tried to create a vaccine using her own alien DNA, it's why we had to stop her. She even tried to save you...but you're too far gone, Fox. No one can save you now."

"What did you do to her?" he demanded angrily. Was he really dead? He did recall Scully coming to him, saying she was going to put an IV in him and then whispering to Miller something about stem cells. Then there was that bright light. In that moment, he couldn't care less what was happening to him if he was really at death's door right now. But Scully deserved none of this. All he wanted was to go back and relive the previous week, where he and Scully had reconciled after all that time apart. Things were finally back in place for them. Now, poof! All gone.

He winced.

"Don't worry, no harm has come to her, yet."

"Why do you think Monica traded her life for this, Fox? Did you think it was just simple devotion for Scully? Though I'm sure that is a big part of it."

"Because knowing you, you sick sadistic son of a bitch manipulated her like a pawn in your little game," Mulder muttered.

Spender chuckled, his son's anger and hatred for him never ceased to amuse him. He flicked away a cigarette butt. "What if I told you that she found out that little boy was her nephew."

Mulder laughed incredulously.

"What, you think this is a joke?"

"The only joke is in front of me right now."

"Did you know Agent Reyes was adopted, Fox?"

"So are a million other people on this planet."

"I swear, I never met someone who reminded me so much of you until I met her. She was the same way when I told her about my offer. Still is...defiant, rebellious."

"Cut the bullshit."

"What if I told you Monica was your sister, Fox? The sister you've been looking for a all these years, in all the wrong places."

Mulder's mind flashed back to a conversation he had with Scully not long ago. "This is about you saving your sister," a slightly younger, longer haired and distressed Scully called to him in the coldest of nights. "My sister is dead."

"That hasn't stopped you from looking for her."

He closed his eyes and sighed.

"My sister is dead. I saw her. She came to me."

"What you saw was your mind playing tricks on you, Fox. That is what we wanted you to believe. So you would give up searching for her."

Mulder lunged at him, angrily...wishing he hadn't left his gun in the man's house. "That's impossible. Why should I believe you?"

Mulder slapped his hand away as he reached for another cigarette.

"Well, you have every reason not to. But I think we both know you don't have the luxury not to believe me."

Mulder, fell to his knees and closed his eyes. "So you planned this. Her coming to the FBI, all of it."

"No, in fact, she had no clue. She didn't even even have any memories before eight. Although when I told her ten years ago, you might imagine the shock."

"Lying piece of shit."

"She uttered similar verbiage, Fox."

"This plague you infected everyone with. She's not affected."

"That was part of the deal...I make her immune, along with Agent Doggett and their daughter...your niece."

Mulder closed his eyes. He could feel the burning behind them. All this time, he had been led to believe he had no family left. Nothing, but Scully...of course.

"Tell me about her."

"Your niece? I would be happy to, Fox. This girl is about 12 years old...she was raised together with William after his adoptive family was killed. I promised Monica that John and Alexis...would be immune to this outbreak as well. Alexis...is the only other child that shares close similarities to William."

"All this time you strung me along, waiting for the right moment. Making me believe I had nothing left."

"I admit I enjoyed seeing you broken and defeated...as I said before. But if I didn't truely love you, Fox...I wouldn't have made everyone you care about immune to the apocalypse. Prices have to be paid somewhere."

To be continued...