Aries, Titan & Me 1: Re-Awakening (1/1)
by Jason Cleaver (argo@easynet.co.uk)

Disclaimer: Whoever owns the TV shows depicted herein
it's not me. More's the pity.

Yes, folks it's crossover time again! The challenge is not
to guess which show it is (Highlander), but which X-Files 
episode this story is an extension of. 

Many, Many thanks to Nancy for coming up with an umbrella 
title for this beastie, and some particularly interesting
ideas! 
*************************************************

The two men steered the gurney through the quiet hospital halls. It 
was the late shift after all, most of the staff had gone home, especially
in the morgue. And that was the most important thing of all.

They reached the right door, pushed them open with the trolley and
continued in. The guard was asleep, leaning back in his chair, snoring.
quietly. The two men pushed past as quietly as possible, heading for the
cold room.

They paused at the entrance. Two men, hardened to their jobs and what
they had done in the pursuit of those jobs, frozen to the spot by the 
presence of the cold dead. Sounds were muted, breath came loud, the 
slight humming of the refrigerated units and the faint buzzing of the
neon lights seeming to fill the world.

One of them, a tall thin man with a pockmarked face, recovered first.
"I'll check this side, you check the other," He said quietly.

Together they began to check the names on the doors, moving slowly
down the room. There was a sense of urgency about them though, even
in their careful movements.

"Got it" The other man, tall and bulky, said quietly, and his pockmarked 
companion  manoeuvred the trolley beside him. The door was opened, 
and the tray within rolled out slowly to lessen noise. The body inside was
covered in a sheet, features reduced to a series of bumps under the fabric.

The tall man lifted the body on the tray up and away. Pockmark moved the
trolley beside the now empty tray and rolled the occupant over to replace the
one removed. He straightened the sheet, made sure the new body was lying
flat, and lifted the sheet to check the face. Then he checked the face of the
body in his partner's arms. He nodded, and the tall man placed the body he 
held onto the trolley.

Together they turned the trolley around, and started towards the door. The 
dangerous part was almost over, it was...

The door opened and a woman entered. She was medium height, brunette 
hair tied back in a bundle, wearing the white coat of a doctor. But both 
men knew with the instinct that came with their jobs, that she was 
anything but. This one was trouble.

And they had specific orders on how to deal with trouble.

Pockmark drew a silenced pistol, while his taller companion did likewise. 
The woman showed no surprise, simply stood where she was, 
watching calmly.

Pockmark fired first, the silenced shot making no more noise than a quiet 
puff of air, The other gun fired a second or so later.

Both bullets hit the woman, blood staining the white coat like a flower. 
She fell backwards, still without a sound, hitting the floor with a dull 
thud. Pockmark knelt beside her, feeling for a pulse. Nothing.

His taller companion picked up the body and placed it on the trolley, 
under the sheet. He didn't need telling that their mission was now twice 
as complicated. One body on a trolley will pass without incident, but 
two will be noticed. But they couldn't leave the new body here, questions 
might be asked. They would dump her in a rough part of town, taking 
money and jewellery. Just another unsolved murder.

They wheeled past the sleeping guard and out into the corridor. From 
there, into the large elevator that would take them to the back entrance 
where bodies came and went. The ambulance would be there, ready to 
take them and their cargo to their destination.

The elevator jerked and began its decent. Both men stared at the changing 
numbers on the readout. Neither heard the intake of breath, but the sight
of his tall companion curling around himself in pain got Pockmark's
attention. The brunette exploded from the trolley, leg extended in a 
perfect kick that impacted with his jaw, sending him slamming into the 
wall and into unconsciousness respectively.

She turned quickly, delivering a blow to the tall man's neck that should 
have knocked him out for hours. Then she climbed down from the 
trolley, stripping off the bloody doctors coat as she did so. The sweater 
beneath was red, and showed no sign of the blood staining to a casual 
glance.

The elevator gave a soft ding and the doors rumbled open, revealing a 
quiet corridor, filled with pipes, and dim lighting. She pushed the 
trolley down it, listening not for movement or unfriendly voices  but 
another sound altogether. And at the same time, hoping she wouldn't. 
The woman's injuries had been too severe, too grim; normally when you 
died for the first time, it took the  presence of another Immortal to revive 
you, at least it did in this century, where there was always someone 
around, friendly or otherwise, to notice you. But if her presence 
awakened the woman too soon, then... She didn't  know. She glanced 
up at the tag on the toe; at least she would know her name if it came 
to that.

She reached the bay, with the ambulance. Beside it, her car stood silently 
waiting. No other movement. No other...

There was a long gasp of air, and the body under the cloth moved. The 
woman cursed under her breath in a language that had been dead before 
God's Son  walked the earth, and moved to the woman's head. Time to 
find out if the damage had been healed.

The young woman sat up, her eyes filled with confusion, her red hair 
catching the dim light.

"Relax," The woman standing by her side said in calming tones, "It's 
all right."

"What's going on? Where am I?" 

<Good, she can talk> "There's no time to explain now, we have to get 
out of  here. Let me help you up."

She helped the red-headed woman to her feet, and helped her towards 
the stairs and her car. The woman stopped dead as they reached it.
"Wait," She said, "There was a man with a gun... my head..." She 
reached up and pulled the last of the bandages off her head, staring at 
the last remnants of  blood.

"Do you know your name?" The woman asked. 

She nodded. "Melissa. Melissa Scully."

"Good. Now get in the car Melissa, and I'll explain everything as we drive."

Melissa hesitated, uncertain, the strangeness beginning to overwhelm 
her. The woman cursed in that strange language again, and came 
around to help her in, and fasten her seatbelt. Then she took her own 
seat and started the car up. They left the hospital at a sedate pace, not 
wanting to attract attention.

Melissa turned to her driving companion. "Look will you please..."

A strange new sensation filled her, swirling around and through her like
an electrical current, filling her with an sense of almost excitement and 
dread. She could see that her companion could feel it too.

"What was that?" She asked

The woman was silent for a moment, looking around as best she could 
while driving. "Another Immortal." She said finally.

"Another *what*?!?"

The woman sighed. "Immortal," She repeated. "Get settled in, Melissa, 
we have a long drive and I have a lot to tell you."


An Undisclosed Location

Cigarette smoke coiled around the man's head like a demonic halo, 
twisting and reshaping itself as it rose. The man himself was training 
his calm gaze on the pockmarked man standing in front of him.
"...And then I woke up." Pockmark finished.

A long silence. The man behind the desk just stared at him, with no 
expression on his face. The only movement in the room was the column 
of cigarette smoke rising from the near-finished tube in the ashtray.

"Very well," He said finally, "Now get out."

Pockmark left hurriedly. As soon as he did so, a side door opened, and a 
tall man dressed in a suit covered by a dark grey overcoat stepped into 
the room.

"What happened?" The man at the desk asked, stubbing out the 
exhausted cigarette.

"Someone got to her first." The second man said.

"Who?"

"I don't know, I didn't see who was driving the car."

He lit another cigarette and took a deep drag, the smoke filling his 
lungs, calming him down.

"Find out."

The man turned to go, then turned back. "Why's this one so important?" 
He asked. "We can find another new Immortal; they would do just 
as well."

He tapped the ash out. "Because someone else knew what she was. And 
you've been close to her the whole time and never felt anyone else. 
Because someone else is recruiting Immortals. And I want to know who."

"And when you do?"

He said nothing, letting the smoke drift upwards.


**TO BE CONTINUED**

argo@easynet.co.uk
naXis#002 (The Brain), M&S, Dragon Posse, EMXC, XFF,
Melissketeer
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it! 

"The Truth is out there - and it's got bloody great teeth!"

"Do not worry about the bullet that has got your name on it. 
It will hit you and it will kill you, no questions asked. The rounds 
to worry about are the ones marked: TO WHOM IT MAY 
CONCERN."