FBI Headquarters, Washington DC

Mulder froze. He was unaware of anything other than the voice, the voice of his sister. He took away the phone from his ear and stood. Was she dead? What had happened?
Scully came into the office, scooping up the last of her banana yoghurt. She was about to say something when she saw her partner.
"Mulder, what's wrong?" she asked.
No reply.
"Mulder?" She saw the mobile in his hand and knew it had something to do with a phonecall. "Mulder, who were you talking to?"
Mulder came back to his conscience. "Scully?"
"Mulder, who were you talking to?"
"That was...Samantha."
Scully sighed. "Mulder..."
"No, Scully, that was Samantha."
"How can you be so sure, I mean, we've been tricked times before?"
"I just know!"

Albuquerque Airport

"I don't understand this, Mulder, this place doesn't have a name," Scully said, reading the road atlas. The heat was unbearable but this was all expected in a New Mexican summer.
"Well, where is it?" Mulder asked, almost agitated.
"Um...it's between Roswell and...a place called Corona," she told him.
"Samantha said that she'd been there all this time."
"Do you think she's still alive?"
"I don't know. But it was her on the phone."
Scully sighed. "Do you want to drive or shall I?" she asked. She was still very suspicious of the phone call.
"I'll drive. Your better with the maps."
"Shows." Scully opened the door to the passenger side and got in.
Mulder waited and got in. He twisted the key and turned the car on and sped outdoor airport car park. "So where do we go?" he asked. Scully directed him. She said that the place was 80 miles away from the airport, and predicted that the journey would take just over an hour.
"Listen, Mulder, we are letting ourselves into big danger here. If this place has got your sister, then it's going take less than a friendly encounter to find her," she warned.
"Scully, do you want to back out now? After all we've been through? After all we've fought for?" Mulder asked.
"We can't win this time, Mulder. We know these places. You've been to these places. They are high-security MIB locations. You're risking your life."
"They won't kill me, Scully," he told her. He then thought for a second. They were driving through a small town just pass Albuquerque. "But they might kill you." He pulled up outside a little pub. "Why don't you get a cab back to the airport?"
"No, Mulder. I'll stay with you."
"But, Scully..."
"Mulder, you're right. We've fought these people before, and we've saved each other before. Let's go. Let's go and find out what that call was about. To X51."
They stared at each other. Mulder then put the Ford Taurus in gear and drove off down the road onto the highway.

2 miles from X51

Scully had fallen asleep. The atlas remained on her lap, open at the page but the heat was just too much. She had drifted away. Mulder continued driving. The highway would lead to the point X51, as they had begun to call it. The highway was empty, except for themselves for much of the journey until a black Sedan, emerged behind them, and it was getting faster. Mulder caught the men in suits at the front and began to drive faster. He took his right hand off the wheel and awoke Scully. "Hmm?" she hummed.
"Scully, we're being followed," he told her.
"What?" she got jumped out of her sleeping posture and looked behind. Suddenly, a whole posse of cars and jeeps with armed soldiers appeared from behind. Mulder drove even faster and considered driving off-road into the sandy, deserted plains of New Mexico. Then the cars were coming in from the other direction. Mulder took the off-road option and drove raced through the plain followed by the other vehicles. There must have been twenty of them. He zigzagged and tried to get away but they were getting close. Scully noticed a Sedan was going the cut across them. "Mulder, watch out!" she screamed. Mulder braked quickly and the cars spun into the sand. Mulder got out and ran and Scully followed, aware of the stupidity of what they were doing. The soldiers began to shoot and Mulder and Scully ducked and ran low. The Sedans moved in front of them. They had no other option but to stop. The armed soldiers had their guns poised at the agents.
"Freeze!" one shouted.
Mulder and Scully raised both arms. They were body searched by one of the soldiers and were removed of their weapons. He then handcuffed both of them. In the corner, Mulder could the smoke clouding the air. The smoke cleared the air and the foul sight of Cancer Man was seen. "Take the woman away!" he ordered to the soldiers. "I'll deal with the man."
"Yes, sir!" one of them shouted.
Mulder turned and looked at Cancer Man in disgust. The soldier approached and handcuffed Scully and took her into one of the Sedans. "Let her go!" Mulder shouted.
The men in suits took out their handguns and had them directly set at Mulder. The Cigarette-Smoking Man took out his gun. "Take her away." The soldiers left, the guns still pointed at Mulder. It was the first time that Mulder had seen Cancer Man with a gun and it was pointing towards him. The soldiers and the others entered their cars and drove away, with Scully. The Cigarette-Smoking Man pulled down his gun.
"You..." Mulder said.
"Yes, Agent Mulder. I have to talk to you."
"What about?"
"'Things,'" he said. They walked forward.
"Where are they taking Scully?"
"A place two miles from here called R51C. 51 miles 51 degrees northwest of Roswell. In between Roswell and Corona. It is a top-secret military base. Area 51 is its decoy. This, Agent Mulder, is the real thing."
Mulder turned to look at the old man. "Oh, really," Mulder said, sarcastically. "Cut the crap, why would you tell me that kind of stuff. That's not in your list of duties is it? Isn't that against your list of duties? 'Hide everything from Special Agent Fox Mulder?' Huh?"
The Cigarette-Smoking Man paused and walked on, but Mulder was seeking a reply. "I understand that you received a phone call."
"Yes."
"From your sister."
"It was her," Mulder told him.
They stopped and the Cigarette-Smoking Man looked at Mulder. "Agent Mulder, I have protected you, more so after the death of your father. I have been protecting you for the last 28 years. But in order to protect you, I have had to go against you, to thwart you away from your peril. But, you are award of these perils, and yet you still take the risks. A piece of advice Agent Mulder, spare yourself." He dropped a small key onto the sandy ground and walked away.
"You bastard!" Mulder shouted.
The Cigarette-Smoking Man replied with a cloud of smoke as he walked further and further away.
Mulder stood alone, in the middle of nowhere.

The handcuffs were tight on Scully's wrists, almost painful. She was lead through a high-tech facility, most of the rooms labelled with vibrant signs saying "Danger!" and a lot used fingerprint entry systems. She was led into white corridor and into an empty room, also completely white. The man in the suit un-cuffed her and locked the thick door as he left. Scully peered round and saw another woman sitting on a small bench and a face she had not seen for about six years. "Oh my God!" she whispered, putting her hand on her chest, "Oh my god!" She went up to her and hugged. The woman didn't hug back. "Samantha!" Scully let go. She realised that she wouldn't recognise her.
"Who are you?" the woman asked curiously.
"I'm Dana Scully. I'm here with your brother," she told her.
"Fox?"
"Yeah. You rang him up, and well, he did the expected and he came out here to look for you," Scully said.
"Where is he?" Samantha asked.
"He was taken away."
"Oh no," she said, "they're going to kill him aren't they?"
"I don't know," Scully replied. The thought hadn't crossed her mind, but she was sure that the Cigarette-Smoking Man wouldn't kill him. "I don't think so."
"Why not? They kill everybody else."
"Your brother's 'mission' has been to find you...and the truth. He is involved against these men, but they won't kill him, only to point him in another direction." Scully realised she didn't understand.
There was a pause for a few moments. "Are you his girlfriend...or wife or something?" Samantha asked.
Scully smiled. "No," she said, embarrassed, "I'm his partner..."
"That's what I meant..." Samantha interrupted.
"At the FBI."
"Oh."
Both women laughed. "So...have you been locked up in here for the last 28 years?" Scully asked.
"No, only since after I tried to phone Fox. I was held in the town outside. There was no escape and I was stuck in 1972 almost. Everything around me was so 'now' but I wasn't allowed to use anything. It was like torture," she told her.
"How long are we going to be in here?" Scully asked.
"I don't know, but I have a plan. I can get out of here," she told her.
"Samantha, I've just walked down those corridors, I've seen the type of security..."
"My boyfriend is going to be on patrol tonight and he can get us out of here. He's a figure of high authority and at night time it's all quiet around here so we're going for the great escape then...for good. He was the one that helped my get out and try and contact Fox, he can do anything."
"He must be great," Scully replied. She was relieved that Samantha had a boyfriend, someone she could love although she was being held in one of the most top-secret venues in the world.
"Yeah..."
They continued to chat through the night. They both went to sleep, alert for the great escape.

The big, chunky door opened slowly and the light-switch turned on. Scully awoke and her eyes hurt as the bright light blinked. She sat up from her bench and recognised the figure at the door. He recognised her too. Samantha jumped up and hugged the man. "Darling!" she said.