The Beginning Before we start I would just like to point out that all lines in purple are comments from me, and to thank the inventor of closed captioning, and also that all this is property of 20th Century Fox and Ten Thirteen Productions. Please don't sue me!

Phoenix, Arizona
5:46 PM

Two grown men run in the desert toward a van parked on the side of the road. It's a company van for Roush Technologies taking employees home. As the two men enter the van, one of their coworkers complains, "Next time maybe take a leak before we leave work. Okay, dipwads?"

One of them replies, "You read sign language, guy?" and holds up his hand beyond the camera's view.

"Is that your IQ or the number of dipwads your mother had?"

He doesn't reply and the unhappy coworker closes the door. As the van continues on its journey, the man looks over at the coworker sitting next to him. "Not you, too, Sandy. Sorry, man, you gotta hold it 'til you get home."

Sandy is shivering and crossing his arms for warmth. His face is wet with perspiration.

The van stops in front of a house in a suburb neighborhood. They let Sandy out, still shivering, and his seat companion says, "See you tomorrow, Sandy."

Sandy doesn't reply. The van pulls away and Sandy goes inside his house. He instantly goes to the thermostat and turns it up as far as it will go, 80 degrees. He sits in his living room on a couch shivering. He starts gasping and holds up his hand. It's transparent and gooie.

The next day
7:04 AM

The company van pulls up as a boy on a bicycle delivers the morning paper. The driver honks but Sandy doesn't come out. His seat partner from the day before gets out and goes to the front door. He knocks and gets no answer, so he opens the door and yells, "Hey, Snady, chop chop!"

No one answers so he lets himself in, noticing the intense heat. He looks at the thermostat and mumbles, "It's an oven in here."

He hears a noise. "Hey, Sandman?"

He walks toward the back of the house. He enters the living room and finds Sandy. He's dead, his torso in shreads like it had blown up. The guy looks in amazement and tries to leave, but something screeches and attacks him. He tries to crawl for the front door, but the creature pulls him back, leaving blood over the door knob.

In Washington, Muler pieces together burnt fragments of X-files. The scene goes to Mulder speaking to a board of directors. "Using a process that restores moisture to the documents and by the reassembling of fragments, I should be able to recover a large percentage of the case material that was destroyed in my office fire several months ago. And while this process will be tedious and ongoing, wht I've already recovered will allow Agent Scully and I to begin work on the X-files immediately."

Scully walks in, fashionably late.

"Agent Mulder," Assistant Director Maslin begins.

Hey, is she the chick from "Just Shoot Me?"

"Agent Mulder, I'm reading here a very pie-in-the-sky report about global domination plans by vicious, long-clawed spacelings? Is there going to be data to back this vague, omnibus account?"

"Yes."

A man, further down the table, asks, "I see your reknowned arrogance has been left quite intact. You're asking us to accept this report of a space ship buried under polar ice and your death-defying escape from it?"

"The ice had become superheated by the ship as it rose beneath us, causing the ice to collapse."

"This entire story is essentially unintelligible and, therefore, it encourages unintelligable analysis."

"Well, I was hoping you would look more closely at the reports of my and Agent Scully's medical conditions."

The man sitting between Maslin and the other replies, "These spacelings, Agent Mulder...they weren't something I saw in Men In Black?"

Here come the men in black! Galaxy defenders!

Mulder pauses. "I didn't see Men In Black."

"Well, a damn good movie."

"Yeah, well, as much as this may sound like science fiction, we can and will prove the validity of our report."

Maslin replies, "And, so the plot, I'm just trying to get this straight, the plot is for these spacelings to take over the planet, aided by a group of men here on Earth?"

"A shadow conspiracy within our own government."

"Who are growing corn in the middle of the desert, which features pollen, which was genetically altered to hold a virus, which will be taken away by bees, whose sting transmits the virus, causing the growth of an extraterrestrial biological entity inside the human host?"

"Which we will prove now that the X-files have been reopened."

One man replies, "Your presumption, Agent Mulder, is far greater than the case you make for that eventuality."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"You're here to justify your reassignment on the X-files with little more than a rattle-trap account with high adventure in the Antarctic."

Another man says, "Not to mention some very questionable travel expenses."

Maslin replies, "Let us remind you that the FBI is not a school for science or for the grinding of personal axes and hopefully you will be able to present us with some material evidence to support a continued investigation."

"Agent Scully was assigned to the X-files as a scientist, was stung by one of these bees and was infected with this virus. She is here today with hard and incontrovertable evidence, scientific proof that the virus she was infected with is, in fact, extraterrestrial."

Everyone looks at Scully. She says nothing.

I think Scully came to class unprepared.

"Next time, I'll wear a clown suit and do balloon tricks." Mulder and Scully are walking out into the hallway.

"Mulder, I was hoping it wouldn't come up."

"The only reason I was in there is becasue you assured me there was a scientific basis for what we saw."

"Mulder, let me remind you once again that what I saw was very little."

"Look, Scully, that excuse isn't going to work this time. You were there, and you were infected with that virus."

"Mulder, yes, there is a scientific basis for what you thought. Look, I can't identify it, Mulder. I have run three separate tests. But I can tell you without a doubt that that virus is DNA and proteins are very much of this world."

Yeah, I got lost with that sentence too.

"I saw what that virus did. I saw it generate a new being, an alien being inside a human body."

"It attacks and destroys human cells but that's all it does, Mulder. It creates nothing. Look, I don't like telling you this, and I know that you don't want to hear it, not that you question me and what I saw, but what you can't question is the science."

Mulder says nothing and leaves. In New York City, Cancer Man is reporting the recent event to his group, complete with the gory picture of Sandy. "There was some slopiness in Phoenix where they found the body. The local PD got involved. These were taken at the scene by a crime reporter."

Man 1: "These were run in the press?"

"I trumped up a story about a crazy indian on the loose. Never underestimate the public's willingness to blame the redman for anything they can't explain."

Man 2: "How did this happen?"

"He was one of ours. He must have accidentally injected himself while he was working on the virus. It took just 12 hours for the creature to gestate."

Man 1: "This thing's alive?"

"Yes. It's killed a man."

Man 1: "It's out there somewhere?"

"As far as I know."

Man 2: "God almighty, we can't let this thing running loose."

"I'm managing the situation."

Man 1: "Mangage all you want. Someone's got to find this thing."

"Someone has to kill it. The response must be equal to the threat."

Man 1: "Can you dispose of this problem?"

"Yes."

Mulder tediously continues to piece together lost documents when Skinner walks in. "You're wasting your time."

"You need evidence to justify our reassignment. I just got to bring it back from the ashes."

"Nothing you might restore is going to help you, Mulder. It's over and done. Your reassignment on the X-files has been denied."

"How can it be denied? We're the reason the X-files were reoped in the first place! There's no other reason to reopen them!"

Down Mulder.

"I'm not argueing with you."

"Well, then who is?"

"When will you accept that no amount of pressure or reason will bring the heel of the conspriacy whose members walk these halls with absolute impunity?"

Mulder pauses. "Was there a vote?"

"Unanimous against."

Mulder turns the machine he was using off and puts a charred piece of paper in a full box. He picks up the box up and walks up to Skinner in the doorway. "Excuse me."

Skinner lets him by. "I'm no help to you outside the majority, Agent Mulder."

"Inside or out, I don't see that there's a damn thing you can do for me."

"You can break their backs, Agent Mulder, with proof about this virus, proof that what you say it does exist is true."

"I don't have that proof just yet."

"Maybe I can give it to you. There's a file folder on the desk in your old office."

Sure enough, there it is, and Mulder goes to pick it up. His old office is bare and...tacky. As he starts to leaf through the contents of the folder, Agent Spender emerges from the shadows. "Is that something for me, Agent Mulder?"

Mulder turns and looks at him. "Yeah, if you're doing my filing."

"Your filing?"

"What are you doing in my office, Agent Spender?"

"I think there's been a miscommunication. I think someone failed to inform you."

"If you're about to tell me that you were sent down here to work on the X-files, I think the failure is simple judgement. I don't care what patron has got you this job. I put my life in here. I'm not going to let some brown nose just slide in and take it all away from me."

"I don't believe in your work, and the paranormal mumbo jumbo, so don't presume I'm the one taking your place."

"No, who is?"

The sound of high heels is heard and Diana Fowley steps into the doorway.

BOO!!!!

"Fox."

"Diana, back on your feet." He picks up his box and starts to leave. "Guess that's the only way you could stab me in the back."

Diana says nothing. Her and Spender walk toward the back to a separate room. The file folder is gone.

Cancer Man walks down a dark hallway to a lit window. He lights a cigarette amidst a No Smoking sign. A team of doctors are hard at work while he walks in, smoking away. He walks up to the doctor in charge. "I need the patient bandaged and dressed. We'll be taking a trip."

"You want him what?"

"I'm sure I don't need to repeat myself. Please get the boy ready."

"But doing that now could kill him."

"Let me put it to you simply. It's him or it's us."

The camera reveals that the doctors are performing surgery on the brain of Gibson Praise.

Mulder and Scully are in Phoenix now, and Mulder enters Sandy's home, sealed for evidence. Scully is right behind him. "Mulder, I just want to remind you that by not informing local PD, we are in violation of state laws prohibiting contamination of a crime scene." Mulder wanders off. Scully mumbles, "Why do I bother?"

She closes the door, noticing the blood coated doorknob covered with plastic. Mulder yells from the other room, "Scully, come here and thake a look at this."

Scully goes to the living room. Mulder is fingering at a long, bloody gash in the wall. "Ever seen anything like this?"

"What are they?"

"According to the investigator's notes in the file, they're from an attack by a native American man on a scientist."

"With what kind of weapon?"

"It says in the file he used his bare hands."

Scully finds a huge claw mark in the floor. "His bare hands? Mulder, this is hard wood."

"Uh huh."

"This kind of gouging didn't happen with anyone's bare hands. Not without the use of some kind of implement."

Mulder is prying something out of the wall. "What is that?"

Mulder takes it out and hands the small object to her. "Somebody broke a nail."

Scully looks over what looks like a claw. "Is it animal?"

"It ain't RuPaul...The body of the other victim was found here on the sofa, his viscera torn from his torso, but the ME's report says that the times of death were hours apart which means that this victim was dead hours before the second attack."

"So the attacker never left."

"There wasn't an attack. I think it was celebrating its birthday. The first victim must have gotten infected witht the virus somehow. Right here on the sofa was where the creature was born."

"Mulder..."

"That would account for the violence done to the man's torso. The virus producing an extraterrestrial biological entity that ripped away his chest as it birthed itself right here. Look."

Mulder shows Scully the gruesome picture. "Mulder, given the scenario that you just described, the rate of gestation would have been less than a day. It would have been about 12 hours, in fact. Okay, forgive the scientific arguement just for a moment, but you're saying that this was done by someting newborn?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

A car pulls up front. Cancer Man and Gibson with blood seeping through his bandages sit in the back. Gibson says, "It was here, but it's gone now."

The driver turns around to look at Cancer Man. "I should take a look."

"It's not here. Why don't you believe me when you're so afraid of me?"

Cancer Man replies, "I'm not afraid of you."

"You think I can destroy you for what I know because of what I am. You're thinking you could destroy me too, and if I don't find this creature, you will."

"You'll find it."

They pull away before Mulder and Scully see them. Mulder says, "I don't see that there's any arguement here. You admit yourself that the crime report is a lie."

"Mulder, that doesn't mean that I can just accept your theory."

They leave the house. "What does it take? For this thing to come up and bite you on the ass?

Mulder, you swear too much.

I saw these creatures. I saw them burst to life. You would've seen them, too, but you were infected with that virus. You were passed out over my shoulder."

"Mulder, I know what you did. I know what happened to me. But without ignoring the science, I can't...Listen, Mulder." She grabs his hand.

YEA!!!!!

"You told me that my science kept you honest, that it made you question your assumptions, that by it I've made you a whole person. If I change now...it wouldn't be right...or honest."

"I'm talking about extraterrestrial life alive on this planet in our lifetime, forces that dwarf and precede all human history.

Shut up and kiss her!

I'm sorry, Scully, but this time your science is wrong."

At a nuclear power plant 60 east of Phoenix, a technician named Homer goes to check a small malfunction in one of the reactors.

Homer Simpson?

He hears a sound inside the rods. He reaches in and...the creature screeches and pulls him in!

Mulder and Scully arrive at the power plant, only to be preceded by every other law enforcement person in the county. They get out of the car and head toward the scene. Agent Spender rushes up to stop them. "Authorized officers and personnel only. This is a closed area."

Mulder asks, "What happened here, Spender?"

"You'll have to leave, Agent Mulder."

Scully says, "We recieved a call that a man was killed here."

"A call from whom? Assistant Director Skinner?"

Mulder tries to go through anyway. "Let us through."

Spender stops him. "You're unauthorized to be here. You've ignored your superiors and come here without cause or permission. I'm going to get you cendured for this and demand a review of AD Skinner's actions."

Mulder sees Diana walking toward them. "Diana, let us in here."

"I can't. This facility has been sealed off by the NRC."

"A man was murdered."

"A workman was killed in a accident in ar eactor where there was a systems failure."

"Then why are you here?"

"We were called because of a possible connection to two previous deaths. From a case file that was stolen from our office."

So, wait a minute, Spender is working on the X-files?

Mulder nods his head. "There is a connection."

Scully says, "Let's get out of here, Mulder."

Mulder and Diana look at eash other. "I hope you know what you're doing, Diana. I hope you know whose errand you're running."

"I think I do."

Mulder and Scully go back to their car while Scully says, "You weren't getting anywhere, Mulder. It was only making it worse."

"It's here, Scully, and they know it."

"How do they know? Mulder, how do you know?"

Mulder looks inside the car. "Give me the keys and get in the car."

Scully obeys and looks inside the car. Mulder goes around to the driver's seat while Scully gets in the back seat. "Oh my god."

Gibson is laying in their back seat, unconscious.

They take him back to their motel and Scully removes the bandages from Gibson's head. He's awake now. Mulder's eyes widen while Scully looks down. Gibson says, "Frankenstein? Really?"

Scully replies, "No. No, you've been worked on by some good doctors. They did a fine job on your stitches."

"You think they were butchers."

Mulder replies, "They were butchers."

Scully says, "They should have changed your bandages, Gibson. You've got some swelling and some infection, and you've got a fever. Why did they do this to you?"

"'Cause I can read people's minds."

Mulder asks, "How did you get in our car?"

"When they weren't looking, I snuck away. It's easy when you know what they're thinking."

Mulder smiles a little. "Why are you here?"

"They were using me 'cause I can communicate with it."

Scully asks, "Communicate with what?"

"You already know. You just don't want to believe it."

Scully looks at Mulder. He motions her to follow him. They go to the other side of the room. "The kid could find this thing."

"Mulder, this kid belongs in a hospital."

"We could get his fever down."

"Mulder, you can't just take him on some snipe hunt. He's in no condition. He belongs in a bed under constant medical care. Listen to me. What I'm saying is in your best interest, okay? We have to take every precaution. We have to make every effort to ensure that nothing happens to this boy because whatever he is, whatever gives him the ability to do what he does...he's you scientific evidence. It's just like we said. He could be the key to everything in the X-files."

"But we don't have the X-files."

"No, but what if he could corroborate everything that you're saying? This boy could be our last, best chance."

As Mulder carries Gibson back to the car, Scully waits in the driver's seat and a car pulls up. The headlights prevent them from seeing who it is until the driver says, "Agent Mulder."

It's Diana Fowley.

BOO!!!!

"Fox, I'm going to get out of the car. I'm alone, all right?"

Mulder goes to her. "Diana, what are you doing here?"

"I couldn't say anything to you earlier. I was given this assignment, Fox, okay? They offered it to and I took the chance..."

"I'm listening."

"...to make sure someone served your interests. Someone who believes in the work. Hey, you and I found the X-files together. Don't forget that."

Yeah, but who stuck around?

"Who sent you?"

"I'm here on my own."

"Why? To convince me of your noble intentions?"

"Listen to me. That thing is somewhere inside the numder four reactor building. Now, we can let them find it and destroy it, or go find it ourselves. You need proof, Fox. You're so close. Why can't you see that?"

Scully looks from the steering wheel as Mulder looks at her and then comes back to the car. He opens the passenger door but doesn't get in. "Mulder, what's going on?"

"You take Gibson."

"Where are you going?"

"To find this thng." He closes the door and goes to Diana's car. They screech away.

Women drivers, no survivors.

On the way there, Diana explains to Mulder, "Agent Spender and I got a call. We were on a plane within an hour in constant contact."

"With who?"

"The nuclear regulatory people. NRC was first on the scene. They found the victim, but by the time we got there it had been removed. We never saw the body."

"Who removed it?"

"I don't know. Couldn't get a straight answer. Then the NRC sealed off the number four reactor due to a problem with the heat transfer sysytems. I beliee that was legitimate."

"Maybe that's why it's there. It wants heat. It needs heat. This thing gestated abnormally fast. What if heat activates it?"

That would account for Sandy putting his thermostat on Turbo Heat...

Diana replies, "It could spur on the virus and the rapid development of the entity."

"But it's still seeking heat. Why?"

"What if it's still developing?" Mulder leans back in his seat. "You're not under the impression what we're looking for makes sense in any conventional way?"

"No."

At the Phoenix Samaritan Medical Center, Scully follows the men wheeling Gibson to a bed. "You're going to be fine, Gibson. You're going to be okay."

"You're going to run more tests."

"We're going to get you well."

"You say that, but you're going to run more tests just like the other doctors."

"We have to run some more tests, Gibson."

"You want to make me well, but you're just thinking about yourself and what you can learn from me."

The orderlies move him onto the bed. Scully says, "You're a very special boy, Gibson. You know that yourself."

"I'm a very special lab rat."

Scully doesn't respond and an orderly pulls the curtain in front of her.

At the power plant, Mulder and Diana sneak past security and go to the crime scene. Diana says as they approach the scene, "According to what little we could gather, the victim's body was found near here."

"It's not in here."

"We're right above the core reactor. This is part of the heat transfer cooling system."

Mulder looks down at the clear goo he just stepped in.

What, not black?

They both kneel down to take a look at it. Mulder gets some on his fingers and looks it over. Diana says, "Looks organic."

Oh, great, now she thinks she's a scientist!

"Maybe somebody's got the flu."

They follow the trail of goo that goes inside the rods. Mulder slowly edges between the rods to get a better look. He sees one completely covered with the substance. He reaches forward to touch it...and jumps back.

Diana says, "What? What is it?"

"There's something in there."

Mulder goes back in.

Isn't the rat supposed to stop going in that direction after being zapped with electricity?

He peels the substance off and it smaps back and onto the floor like rubber. They look at it, until they jump to the sound of Mulder's cell phone. He answers, "Yeah?"

It's Scully. "Mulder, I found something. I found something you're not going to believe."

Mulder glances at Diana. "Ditto."

"We did blood tests on Gibson and, Mulder, there's evidence of the virus in his system."

"The same virus you were exposed to?"

"I'm almost positive." Scully is whispering now.

Talk dirty to him!

"What does that mean, Scully?"

"I don't know. I don't know, but I think we're on to something. We're on to something huge - a link."

"I'll call that bet and raise you."

"What?"

"Nevermind. Just take care of Gibson."

Gibson is asleep in his hospital bed, until he looks up and sees an orderly in front of him. But this is now ordinary orderly. He looks suspisciously like a certain driver...

Scully walks back to where she left Gibson, only to find an empty bed. She instantly starts yelling for information. "There was a little boy in that room and he's gone. Does anybody know what happened to that little boy? His name is Gibson Praise. He was just in that room." Nobody answers, so of course she yells louder and swears. "Does anybody know what the hell is going on?"

One of the orderlies that wheeled Gibson in walks up to her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's just calm down."

"That little boy that I brought in is missing."

"He can't be missing. He should still be in his bed."

"He's not here!"

Yeah, woman! You go!

An ambulance speeds down a dark street. Inside, Gibson is on a gurney. In the power plant, Mulder and Diana wander down a flight of stairs. They hear a door opening and duck behind a big pipe. They watch the driver lead Gibson to a room and follow. They hear a door open and close. They go throught he same door and see...nothing. They run down a pathway in search of him.

The driver takes Gibson to a room where the rods are submerged in a pool of water. Gibson looks at the water. "It's here."

"Where?" The driver takes out his gun.

"Somewhere."

They get closer to the pool. Suddenly, they hear punding. There is a door behind them, with Mulder and Diana on the other side. "Open the door, you murdering son of a bitch! Open the door, god dammit! Open it!"

The driver looks down at the locked handle and smiles. Mulder continues to yell. "Open the door, you-"

"Fox!" He looks at Diana. "I'm going to go see if there's some other way in."

Mulder nods and she leaves. "Open it! Open the door!"

They hear something in the corner and look toward that direction. Mulder stops pounding and yelling. Gibson says, "I told you it was here."

The creature attacks the driver, slamming him into the door, splashing blood over the little window, forcing Mulder to jump back. When the creature is done, it looks at Gibson. Gibson looks at the creature. Mulder yells, "Gibson! Gibson!"

An alarm goes off. Mulder sees Diana come back down the set of stairs she had just gone up. Some men follow her. She stops about twenty feet away from Mulder, and draws her weapon on him. Mulder goes back to punding on the door and yelling Gibson's name. The driver lays dead in front of the door. Gibson and the creature are gone.

Mulder and Scully are before the board of directors, without Skinner and one other member, with Diana and Spender sitting behind them. Maslin is saying, "As I said, the FBI is not here for vendettas or for the grinding of personal axes. Now, this holds not just for you but for everyone at the bureau. You force us to put a point on this. To make some hard changes. You and Agent Scully will cease all material association with the X-files. Refusal to do so will end in immediate dismissal. A probationary period will be set. You will now report to Assistant Director Kersh."

Everyone looks at Kersh. He looks at Mulder and Scully. Mulder and Scully don't look happy. Mulder's face transforms into Spender's. He's in Mulder's old office. "You're not supposed to come here. It's what was agreed to. It's the deal you made."

"I had to congradulate you," Cancer Man says from the shadows. "Commend how you handled things. How you handled Mulder."

"I did what I was asked."

"You did well, son. He's on very thin ice now, you know."

Oh, no, not more with the ice...

"Mulder will be back. As long as he lives, he won't give up."

"Well, there's solutions, of course. Simple but extreme solutions. I've used these methods. They have their place. But not here."

"You've killed men."

"You can kill a man, but you can't kill what he stands for...not unless you first break his spirit. That's a beautiful thing to see."

Mulder continues to piece together the X-files with his high-tech machine. Scully walks in. "It would help if you'd shut the door. It would make it harder for them to see that I'm totally disregarding everything I was told."

She obeys. "Everything we were told, Mulder."

"They can't take away the X-files, Scully. They tried."

"You know, Agent Fowley's report to OPR painted the facts in an interesting way. I hope you haven't been betrayed."

Too late...

"Agent Fowley's report was a means to an end. Trying to protect the work. Protect the X-files."

"Mulder, Agent Fowley's report states that the man you saw attacked was bludgeoned by an unknown subject. She makes no mention of a little boy who as it happens, is nowhere to be found. It would seem that her report protects everything but you."

Mulder shakes his head. "Agent Fowley took my to that plant at great risk to herself where I saw something that you refuse to believe in.

Wake up, Mulder! She's evil!

Saw again, Scully, and though it may not say it in her report, Diana saw it, too. Would that have been before or after she got security to come after you? And no matter what you think, she's certainly not going to go around saying that just because science can't prove it, it isn't true."

"I don't doubt what you saw, Mulder. I don't doubt you. I'm willing to believe, but not in a lie and not in the opposite of what I can prove. It comes down to a matter of trust." They look at each other. "I guess it always has."

Mulder, if you believe psycho-chick over Scully, you need to go back to that doctor to put another hole in you brain because there is something seriously WRONG with you!

Mulder pauses. "You're asking me to make a choice?"

"I'm asking you to trust my judgment...to trust me." Scully holds out a file folder.

"I can't accept that, not if it refutes what I know to be true."

"Mulder, these are test results. DNA from the claw nail we found, matching exactly the DNA from the virus you believe is extraterrestrial."

You know, at the angle Gillian Anderson has her head right now, she kinda looks like an alien...

Mulder is stunned. "That's the connection."

Scully continues, "Which matches exactly DNA that was found in Gibson Praise." Scully lines up the results from the tests.

"Wait a minute, I don't understand. You're saying that Gibson Praise is infected witht the virus?"

"No, it's part of his DNA. In fact, it's a part of all of our DNA. It's called a genetic remnant. It's inactive junk DNA, except in Gibson, it's turned on."

Turned on? Hmmm....

"So if that were true, that would mean that Gibson is in some part extraterrestrial."

"It would mean that all of us are."