Title: Paths That Cross (4/4)

Author: Hansome Alvin (hansomealvin@my-deja.com)

Genre: Slash/Suspense

Rating: NC-17 for sex, language and violence (not nearly as dark as the last one, I promise)

Fandom: X-Files/Millennium/Twin Peaks crossover

Spoilers: The X-Files-episode "Millennium"/Millennium-episode "The Time is Now"/Twin Peaks-whole show

Summary: Sequel to "Angels in Dark Suits." Dana Scully and Lara Means team up to stop a vicious plot against Audrey Horne and Gersten and Donna Hayward.

Distribution: with permission of the author (hansomealvin@my-deja.com) This story will be archived at my website (http://www.oocities.org/hansomealvin/ThinkMeWicked.html).

Disclaimers: Characters from "The X-Files" and "Millennium" are property of Ten-Thirteen Productions. Characters from "Twin Peaks" are property of the Lynch/Frost Company. I imply no ownership of these characters, no do I profit from the use of them in this context. All original characters (including Darla Daley) and the story are copyright 2000 by Hansome Alvin. This is a "slash" story, which means it depicts scenes of a sexual nature between members of the same sex (women, in this case). If this offends you, do not read it.

Paths That Cross

by Hansome Alvin (hansomealvin@my-deja.com)

Part Four

Mulder wasn't quite sure when he lost control of the car. His attention had begun to waver. He knew about the two of them. Just *knew*. The way they looked at each other, the way they disappeared together. The way they they were almost never apart. The way--

And the car began to slide to the left.

Dana was the first to react.

"Mulder--" she managed and the car was spinning, knocking her against the windshield. In the backseat, Lara, seatbelt undone, flew across the seat and caught herself against her right window. Mulder couldn't control the wheel and the car began to flip. Suddenly, the world was turned upside down, then abruptly right side up again. Mulder's head was slammed into the roof and he was out. Dana was jerked around, but remained conscious. Lara was flung about the car, finally resting on the roof as the car came to a rest. It must have flipped about a half-dozen times and was now upside down. Dana looked around. Mulder and Lara looked unconscious. She went to unbuckle her belt and readied herself for the fall, but the catch wouldn't budge.

"Shit," she muttered and tried again.

Still nothing. Think. She had to think. All of the blood in her body was rushing to her head, it wouldn't be long before she passed out. She looked at Mulder. He would probably be in the same predicament as she if he were conscious. She craned her neck and found Lara. She was out, but didn't look hurt, thank God.

"Lara," she shouted. "Lara!"

Lara began to stir.

"Hon, wake up!" Dana prodded.

Lara raised her head, coming back to reality.

"You have to get me free, Lara," Dana said.

Lara touched her head, shook it and sat up. She began to look around.

"Check Mulder," Dana said. "He probably has a Swiss Army Knife in his pocket."

Lara, still disoriented, slowly crawled towards Mulder. She managed, fiddling through the agent's pockets. Mulder's keys jingled as they fell out. Change, his wallet, receipts for various purchases (for porn videos, Dana's mind insisted, incoherently) followed the keys down.

"Got it," Lara said, brandishing the life-saving red-plastic and metal item.

"All right," Dana said, her head spinning, on the edge of passing out, "cut us down."

Lara opened the largest blade in the Swiss Army Knife and went to work on Dana's seatbelt.

Dana braced herself for the fall and came down rather gently. Both women went to work on Mulder a second later.

After freeing him, they crawled through one of the broken windows and dragged Mulder out with them. Dana started to shake her partner, but he wouldn't wake up. Beginning to get frustrated, Dana smacked the man across his left cheek. Mulder's head lolled from side to side, but he didn't wake. A second smack brought him around.

"The hell happened?" he said, groggily, sitting up.

"You wrecked the car," Lara said, resisting the urge to add, "moron."

"Get up, Mulder," Dana said, grabbing her partner's hands and pulling him up. "We have to get moving."

Lara was surveying the damage.

"Trashed," she said. "Looks like we're on foot, boys."

Dana and Mulder looked at her. She was right. A second later, they were on their way.

Reese was watching her, watching the way she walked, the way she moved. Darla moved like a predator, like a hunting animal. She glided across the room, back and forth, back and forth. Reese had come to tell her that everything was in place, the cars were ready, the troops were ready, the only thing they were waiting for was her signal. But, now he waited, wanting to watch her unobserved. She walked into darkness and when he could see her again, she wasn't herself.

She was now a woman with long, dark hair, older, wiser. This wasn't Darla, not now, nor the way she was before, this was someone else. This woman couldn't have been more than forty years old, but her eyes told a different story. They said that she had seen millennia, that she had seen it all, that she knew all. Eyes.

She was looking at him. She knew he was watching her.

She passed into darkness again and when she returned, she was Darla once more. And she wasn't looking at him. She didn't know he was there.

"Darla," Reese said.

Darla turned to him, saying nothing.

"Everything's in place," Reese continued. "We're just waiting for you."

"There's a problem," Darla said.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yes. Those softies, Burton and Annie, are helping the private detective bitch."

"Can't have that."

"No. Take care of it. I'll wait for you. The others can continue on without us. Tell them to head to the location, but wait for us before they do anything. But, most importantly, get rid of this Burton and Annie situation."

"No problem."

He left the room, thinking more about what he had observed than the task before him.

Shovel in the dirt, metal gouging brown flesh. Burton dug with a fury that was impressive. He had already dug three feet and could hear Audrey screaming. She wasn't going to be able to talk for a while after this, he thought. Finally, wood. His shovel hit wood and dropped to his knees, wiping dirt away from the wooden crate they had buried her in. Thank God they had buried her shallow, he thought.

There was a small crack in the crate and he now clearly hear her and thought he could make out her eye peeking through.

"Hold on, Audrey!" he screamed.

He used to his shovel to pry at the rickety wood planks that made up the crate. Soon he had one off and used his hands on the rest. Audrey had stopped screaming and was helping him, pushing on the planks as Burton pulled them off. When enough were cleared, Audrey crawled out, bruised, disheveled, dirty and ready for battle.

"Thank you," she said.

"It was inhuman," Burton said. "What they did to you."

"I need to get to Donna's house."

"My car's parked just down the road," Burton said, handing Audrey his keys. "Take it. Save them."

"Come with me," Audrey said.

"No. I have to get to Annie. She's in her car, waiting for me."

"All right. I can't thank you enough."

"If the Haywards live, that'll be enough. Now get moving."

Audrey left without another word and Burton went in the opposite direction, heading for the rendezvous with Annie.

"We're lost," Mulder said.

Although she didn't want to admit it, Dana suspected he was right. All the roads and all the woods looked the same.

Lara wasn't saying anything. She was looking off into the woods. A bright light was emanating from that direction. And suddenly, in the middle of the light, she saw her angel, beckoning. She was not frightened, like she usually was, she knew he was here to help her. This was a change. Her whole life, she was terrified of him. But now she knew that his appearance was a positive thing.

"It's this way," she said.

"What?" Mulder asked.

"The house is this way."

"How do you know?" Mulder asked suspiciously.

Dana was looking at her.

"She just does," she said.

Dana and Lara started off in that direction, followed a second later by Mulder.

Annie had had enough of waiting. She was growing more scared and nervous by the second. Burton had yet to show up. Where was he?

She was just about to start the car and go looking for him when she saw him. Saw him emerging out of an outcropping of trees and onto the shoulder of the road, where she was parked. She got out of the car and walked towards him.

He was not running, but he wasn't strolling either. He was smiling as he approached her, knowing they were only seconds away from freedom.

Annie smiled wide as she neared him. Then, from behind Burton, a shadow. A spectre. A thing of darkness.

"Behind you!" Annie screamed.

Burton turned and caught the thin, keen blade of Reese's knife in his chest, just below his ribs. A wounded, surprised sound escaped his lips. For a second there was no blood, the knife was just sticking in his chest. Then Reese wrenched the blade from Burton's chest and the dark red liquid began to flow from the hole. Unable to do anything else, Burton turned back towards Annie. He looked at her, his mouth open.

So close, he thought. So close.

The knife pierced his back to the left of his spine. Burton lurched forward a half step. Reese pulled the knife out, grabbed Burton's forehead from behind and stuck the blade in the base of Burton's neck. The blade jutted upwards from the back of his head, entering Burton's skull and brain.

Burton saw Annie's horrified, yet still beautiful, green eyes, her dark blonde hair and the little, half-circle scar just above her left eyebrow. These were the last things he ever saw.

Burton's body fell to the ground, face forward. Reese looked at the body for a few moments, then turned his attention to Annie.

Annie couldn't move, fear had paralyzed her. She looked at Reese, pure horror on her face. Suddenly, the paralyses broke and she turned, running towards the car.

Reese started after her.

A loud, urgent rapping on the door brought Donna out of the kitchen. She approached the door slowly, expecting anything.

"Who's there?" she called out.

"Donna! Thank God, open the door," a voice that she recognized said.

Donna reached the door and opened it.

Standing in the doorway were Dana Scully, Lara Means and a man Donna didn't know.

"Dana, Lara," Donna said. "What are you doing here?"

"Darla Daley's back," Dana said, coming into the house. "She's got a few followers and she wants to kill you and your sister."

"I knew it," Donna said, closing the door behind the three of them. "Strange things have been happening all night."

"Do you have a CB radio?" Lara asked.

"Yes. I've already called the police. They said they'd send a car out here."

"Good luck," Mulder said.

"What's going on?" Gersten asked, entering the living room. She had sleep in her eyes and was wearing her night clothes.

"We're in trouble, Gersten," Donna said, walking over to her sister and taking her under her arm.

"I'll get on the CB," Dana said. "I'm sure I can get them down here much faster."

"Who's this?" Donna asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Dana said. "This is my partner--"

"Fox Mulder," Mulder said, extending his hand to Donna, which she took. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Yeah," Donna said.

"Better get on that radio," Lara said to Dana.

"Right," Dana said.

"Uh, down in the basement," Donna said, pointing.

Dana headed in that direction.

Audrey drove the car a little too fast for these roads, but she managed to keep it under control. She saw another car ahead and sped up to it, maneuvering along side it on the left. She looked over and saw that the car was driven by Gale. Sitting in the passenger seat and in the back were two other disciples. Audrey tried to control her rage, but she just couldn't. Checking her seatbelt, she jammed the wheel to the right.

"What the fuck," Hadly, sitting in the passenger seat, said.

Gale looked over just in time to see Audrey slam her car into theirs. Hadley's head smashed into the side window, glass and blood flying everywhere.

Gale regained control of the car and swerved it left, smashing into Audrey.

"Two can play at that, bitch!" she screamed at Audrey, although her window was rolled up.

Audrey kept her ground, staying with Gale's vehicle. The two cars were so close they could have been lovers. Sparks flew from the friction of the two.

"I'll take care of her," Vernon, sitting in the back, said.

He rolled down his window and pointed his gun out. He shot a few rounds into Audrey's car, which wasn't hard, considering it was right there.

Audrey ducked her head, hearing the shots. None of the rounds hit her, but they came close. She looked over her shoulder, saw Vernon's gun hand sticking out the back window and braked. Gale's car kept going forward while Audrey's seemed to be going the other way. Vernon's wrist snapped when Audrey's car rushed past. He began to scream, seeing a shard of bone sticking out of his wrist. His gun had dropped out of the car, forgotten with the pain.

"Shit," Gale said, looking over her shoulder at Vernon.

Audrey accelerated, catching up to Gale. A bridge loomed up ahead and Audrey made her move. Her slowed down until her front bumper was near Gale's rear bumper. Then she swerved the wheel right and pushed the petal down as far as it would go. Gale's car began to spin out of control. Audrey saw Vernon fly from the car out of his open window. He smashed into the concrete ahead of her and Audrey smiled, feeling the bump as she ran him down.

Gale's car hit the bridge, the back end going over the side. The car slid most of the way over the edge, holding on only by the front bumper catching on the railing. Audrey parked her car on the shoulder of the road just before the bridge. She got out and walked over to the precariously balanced car.

She reached it. The driver's side window was broken. Hadley was either unconscious or dead in the passenger seat, blood running down his face from a severe head wound. Gale looked up at Audrey from inside the car. Her nose was broken, it had obviously hit the steering wheel. Blood ran down her face from the pitiful misshapen mess that had been her nose.

"I only wanted to be a part of something," Gale said. Her voice had that nasal quality that everyone who's been hit in the nose has.

"This is not the answer, Gale," Audrey said.

Gale managed a smile.

"Easy for you to say. You're a good person."

"There's no reason why you can't be."

"Yes there is. I'm boring. I'm uninteresting. And I think I'm dead."

A horrible grinding noise accompanied the car as it dropped off the bridge. Audrey reached out desperately for Gale, but she wasn't quick enough. Gale didn't scream. That was perhaps the worst part. The car smashed into the rocks on the river's edge roof first. Hadley's body snapped in half as it came out of the passenger side window and Gale came crashing out of the front windshield, crushed by the car and the rocks. Audrey looked away from the horrible sight of Gale's twisted, mangled body on the rocks, half-covered by the car.

Audrey stood on the bridge for a few moments, then headed back to her car, got in and drove quickly towards Donna's.

"The police will be here as soon as they can," Dana said, coming up out of the basement. "But I think we should get out of here now."

"Yes," Lara said.

"We'll take your car," Dana said to Donna.

"Of course," Donna said.

They all headed to the front door, Mulder in the lead. He reached it and opened it. A macabre display waited for them just outside the door.

Impaled on a tall wooden spike which had been driven into the ground was a woman's head.

Gersten screamed.

The woman's mouth was open in horror. She had dark blonde hair, luminous green eyes and there was a little half-circle scar just above her left eyebrow. Mulder slammed the door closed and turned to the rest of them.

"I think they're already here," he said.

The picture window at the head of the living room burst open. A man came flying through it and hit the ground. Dana brought up her pistol, but realized before she fired that the man was dead. He was a young man with black hair cut into a crew cut. He had been stabbed in the chest just below the ribs and it looked as if he had also been stabbed in the back of the neck.

Gersten wouldn't stop screaming. Lara walked over to the girl and slapped her.

"Stay calm," she said.

Gersten stopped screaming as Donna looked at Lara, she was not pleased.

"Is there a back way out of this place?" Dana asked.

"Yes," Donna said.

"Let's go," Lara said.

Kurtz and Nails looked on as Reese threw Burton's body through the picture window.

"Jesus," Nails said.

Kurtz said nothing. This was it, they were going through with it. Well, okay. If that was the way it had to be, okay. He started to move towards the house. Nails grabbed him.

"The fuck are you doing?" Nails demanded.

"Goin' in," Kurtz said.

"Are you nuts? There's no way this will work. There's only four of us. Gale, Hadley and Vernon never showed up. They're dead."

"We have him with us," Kurtz said, indicating Reese. "And her."

Nails let go of the other man.

"Comin?" Kurtz asked.

"No," Nails said, sitting down in the snow. He put his head in his hands.

Kurtz nodded and went for the house. He met up with Reese at the picture window. Reese gestured his hands at the picture window. His meaning was obvious: "Go ahead."

Kurtz went in through the window, watching for shards of glass. Reese did not go in behind him. He started around to the back of the house.

The group trekked through the woods behind Donna's house, Mulder in the lead once again, Lara heading up the back. They were making their way towards the back road, where they could double back and grab Donna's car. As passed a little group of big, dense trees, a figure, female, pounced out of the darkness and grabbed Gersten.

Darla backed off from the group, holding a large knife to Gersten's throat.

"Look familiar, cunts?" Darla asked, grinning.

Nails didn't see anyone in the house, so he headed out the backdoor, hoping to catch up with their small group.

"Huh?" Darla continued. "Look fucking familiar?"

Dana, Lara and Mulder all had their guns trained on her.

"Drop the knife!" Mulder screamed.

Darla looked at Lara, unbelief on her face.

"He doesn't get it, does he?" she asked.

"Let the girl go," Mulder said.

"Yeah, that'll work on me."

Lara heard something behind her and she whirled around, catching Kurtz just as he was raising his pistol at the group. She kicked the gun out of his hand, a round going off, and grabbed him. She held her pistol to his head.

"Now, let her go," Lara commanded.

Darla laughed.

"Show her how we deal with these kind of problems, Reese," she said.

"No!" Kurtz screamed.

Lara looked to her left and saw a tall man with light brown hair standing there, a man of darkness and fear. He held a small revolver, which he fired in Lara's direction.

Kurtz' head blew apart, covering Lara in his remains.

"See how you like to be covered in blood and brains," Darla said. "Told you guns are fun, didn't I, Reese?"

Reese nodded.

"I got a spike for each and every one of you," he said.

Darla smiled.

"Hey, bitch!" a voice cried.

Darla whirled and caught the butt of Audrey Horne's revolver in the forehead.

Mulder chose this moment to make his move. He jumped in front of Lara and went for Reese. Reese fired again and took Mulder in the shoulder, making the man fall into the snow. Reese trained on Lara, preparing to fire. Lara pushed Kurtz' body onto Reese, knocking him over.

Darla's grip faltered and Gersten slipped from her grasp, the edge of the knife slicing open her chin. She fell into Audrey's arms. Audrey, now holding Gersten, couldn't get her gun up. Darla began to run into the woods.

"Come on, Reese!" she screamed.

Dana began firing at Darla, just missing her as the evil woman disappeared into the woods.

Lara, momentarily distracted by this action, turned her attention back to Reese on the ground. Except he wasn't on the ground. He was gone.

Dana dropped to the ground at Mulder's side.

"Mulder," she said. "Mulder, are you okay?"

Mulder opened his eyes.

"I think so," he said.

Audrey brought Gersten to her sister, Donna taking the girl into her arms, pulling out a handkerchief and putting pressure on the girl's wound. Dana joined them.

"Audrey," she said. "Take care of Mulder and the Haywards here, we'll catch up to Darla and her crony."

Audrey nodded.

Dana and Lara had been running after the murderous pair for perhaps a minute when they came around a patch of trees and there was Reese, revolver ready. He fired the moment he saw them. Dana was hit square in the chest and flew back, hitting a tree. Lara fired back at Reese and hit twice, center mass. Reese flinched, dropping his gun and, amazingly, started running away. Lara was stunned for a second, then began to fire after him. He disappeared into the trees.

Lara immediately went to Dana, ripping open her suit jacket. The round was imbedded in her bulletproof vest.

"Thank God you remembered to wear your vest," Lara said.

Dana, coming back to reality, touched Lara's chest.

"So did you," she said.

Lara smiled.

"Go get 'em," Dana said.

Lara kissed her briefly before heading in the direction they went.

Darla slowed down a little, letting Reese catch up. She saw his condition. He was holding his stomach, where a massive amount of blood was flowing.

"You shit," she said. "You can't give up yet. It's not your time."

"It's time," Reese said, stopping.

Darla approached him, putting her hand on his shoulder. She didn't see him pull out his thin-bladed knife and plunge it into her stomach. Darla looked at him in total shock, the pain beginning to spread.

"You're an abomination," Reese said, not looking at her, head down. "You can't continue living." He looked up at her.

And she wasn't herself. She was the long-dark-haired woman he had seen in the shadows not long ago. That woman with the timeless eyes.

Then there was another face. This face was a monster, a demonic, primal beast which must have hunted man from time out of mind. The beast twitched and turned it's head to the side.

"God, help me," Reese pleaded, all of his nightmares coming true.

Darla was herself again.

"You wanna die?!" she screamed. "Huh?! You want oblivion??"

She took hold of his head, scratching long strands of flesh out of his face. She was in a frenzy, she couldn't be stopped.

"You want your existence rubbed out?!"

She plunged her thumbs into his eye sockets. His eyeballs flowed out of his head and fell into the snow below him.

"You want the eternal blackness?!"

She thrust her hand into his mouth and tore his tongue from it's rightful place.

"You want Death?!"

And she tore his jaw out of his head, throwing it over her shoulder. Reese dropped to his knees, the life seeping out of his body. Darla kicked him over into the snow, where he was immediately buried, only his legs and arms still visible.

Darla pulled the knife from her stomach, pain blanketing her. She exhaled roughly as it finally came out. She clutched her wound with her left hand and held the knife in the other. She continued on her way.

Audrey heard the sirens and saw red and blue flashing light off behind the trees, back towards the house.

"Here!" she screamed. "Over here!"

Flashlights and spotlights turned in her direction and she heard many officers heading her way.

"Thank God," Donna said, holding Gersten tighter.

"Where's my angel?"

Lara heard Darla say this the moment she found her. A few minutes back, she had discovered the mutilated remains of Darla's crony in the snow. Now, she saw Darla sitting at the base of a tree, facing away from her. Lara walked around her, gun trained. She wasn't going to take any chances.

Darla didn't notice her presence at first. The murderess was a mess. She was sitting Indian-style in the snow, her back resting against the tree, her whole bottom half covered in blood from a nasty stomach wound and she looked frozen. The edges of her hair were covered in frost and her face was blue. She was slowly, rhythmically stabbing her right leg with a thin, sharp knife, making small, shallow wounds in her flesh.

She finally noticed Lara and looked up.

"You're here," she said. "Finally here. My angel has gone. Can you see yours?"

Lara said nothing, still pointing her gun at Darla.

"You can't kill me," Darla said, looking at the gun.

"Why not?" Lara asked. "I'm not a cop."

"You can't kill me," Darla persisted.

"You're evil."

"You can't kill me."

"You don't deserve to live."

"You can't kill me."

"You can't exist on this planet any longer."

"You can't kill me!" Darla screamed. "You can't kill me because I made a deal--"

Three shots, loud and hot in the cold air. All three shots took Darla in the chest and she fell to the left, an expression of profound surprise on her face.

Smoke trailed from Lara's gun. She stood in that position, pointing the pistol at Darla, for almost a full minute. She didn't know why. Perhaps she was expecting Darla to get up and attack her. She didn't.

Lara dropped the gun to her side but didn't holster it. She stood there in the cold, biting night waiting for the police to arrive.

The police had a hell of a clean-up on their hands. There were bodies everywhere, strewing the house and the woods behind it. Their first action was to arrest Bernard Nails, who was waiting for them, hands raised in the air, in front of the house. He told them about Archangel and her plan. They got the rest of the story from FBI agent Dana Scully.

Dana came and sat down next to Lara, who was sitting in the doorway of the Hayward residence. The head had been removed from the premises earlier.

"Mulder and Gersten went to the hospital," Dana said. "Donna and Audrey went with them. They're doing fine."

"How are you?" Lara asked.

"Fine," Dana said. "No broken ribs or anything. I'll be sore for a while, but other than that..."

Lara just nodded.

"You did the right thing," Dana said, putting her arm around Lara.

"I didn't have the right to execute her," Lara said.

"She just would have gone on killing."

"No, I could have held her there until the police showed up. They were right behind us."

"Lara, she would have gotten out of their custody. If not for legal reasons, let's face it, she was legally insane, then she would have fought her way out. Either way, she would have eventually been back out on the streets."

Lara nodded.

"You okay?" Dana asked.

"Yeah," Lara said.

Two police officers walked by, talking to each other.

"Yeah," the first was saying, "they found eight heads in ice chests. They were in this car back at their headquarters. One of these bodies' must be that freeway killer we been looking for."

"Oh, yeah?" the other said.

Then the two passed out of earshot.

"The police provided us with a car," Dana said. "I'll go get and bring it up here. Then we'll find a hotel in town. They'll want to question us tomorrow. Hotel sound good to you?"

"Sure," Lara said.

Dana kissed her before getting up and going to get the car. Lara continued sitting. After a few moments, a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Where's my angel?" she asked no one.

"Oww," Gersten said as the doctor made another stitch in her chin wound.

Audrey and Donna waited just outside the office that Gersten was being worked on.

"You came back," Donna said.

"Yeah," Audrey said.

"You care about us."

"Yeah."

"I didn't know if you'd want to see us ever again."

"Well, I do," Audrey said, looking at her intently.

"I'm glad."

"What we did last time was wrong."

"Yes."

"Not that the act itself was wrong, just...us."

"Yes."

"And you should have told me," Audrey said.

"Yes," Donna said.

"I'm no longer mad at you."

A few tears escaped Donna's eyes.

"And I want to be your sister," Audrey said.

Donna nodded, hugging Audrey. Audrey hugged back, a single tear running down her cheek.

Gersten came out of the office, her stitches done. Donna broke from Audrey and smiled at her sister.

"Gersten," she said. "You remember Audrey Horne."

"Of course," Gersten said.

"She's my sister, Gersten," Donna said. "So, that means she's our sister."

Gersten just smiled and hugged Audrey, holding her tight.

"Would you like to stay for a few days?" Donna asked Audrey. "As a sister?"

"That would be great," Audrey said, no longer holding back the tears.

Gersten still held onto Audrey as they started down the hallway.

There was a lone policeman at the old hotel which had held Darla's headquarters, which was now a crime scene. O'Bannion was the cop's name and he didn't like the place. It smelled, it was dark and there was something else about it. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on.

O'Bannion had finished wrapping the yellow tape around the premises and was heading towards his squad car. He took a peek over his shoulder at the hotel. Standing in the doorway was a woman. She had long, dark hair, a pale face and eyes which had witnessed millennia. Her stare was constant, unbroken and more unsettling than anything O'Bannion had ever seen. This woman, he understood, represented the Base Sum of All Evil. She would be there always, staring, waiting. Living in the shadows, biding her time. She had existed long before O'Bannion had been born and she would exist long after he was in the ground. She was there on the edge of forever, beckoning him to come to her, tempting him to come into her dark embrace. She knew all.

Then she was gone.

O'Bannion looked on for a few seconds, then sprinted to his car, got in and drove away, much faster then he probably should have.

The entryway was vacant now, but wouldn't always be.

Like all shadow places.

Everywhere.

"If you believe all your hope is gone

Down the drain of your humankind.

The time has arrived

You be waiting here as I was

In a snow white shroud.

Waiting underground."

--Patti Smith

The End.

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Look for further tales concerning Dana Scully and Lara Means.