The sky was overcast, and the full moon barely snuck out to peek at the woman moving from the sport-utility vehicle parked two blocks from a graveyard. She stifled a shiver, barely, and looked behind her. These night time meetings always made her paranoid, and being around Fox Mulder hadn't helped matters either. After reassuring herself that there was no one behind her, she entered the cemetary.
It was seldom that this informant called upon her. She liked remaining in the dark about the things this government was capable of, although sometimes it was obvious that she wasn't as innocent in these matters as one would think her. The woman shivered and glanced down at the dark clothing. These meetings were always held in the spookiest places in the D.C. vicinity, and both parties involved were overly cautious. The woman known as Dark Angel valued her life much more than her predecessor had.
Scully had been extremely surprised when she was approached by the mysterious informant. She'd always assumed that they tended to gravitate towards Mulder. However, this one seemed to be different. For starters, she was a woman. Check that, a woman with *personality*, unlike Mulder's previous informant.
She had approached Scully in the parking garage one evening after a long day of paperwork. As usual on long paperwork days, Mulder was nowhere in sight. The informant had come up behind her when Scully whirled and pointed her gun between the other woman's eyes.
When the woman started in with the usual "dark and deadly portents" spiel, Scully told her to cut the crap and give it to her straight.
She had quickly acceded to Scully's request, producing credentials that proved she was with a high-ranking section of government, though she preferred not to use her true name.
Ever since then she had been quietly assisting Scully, handing her tips on standstill cases as well as leading her to new cases. Mulder was wondering what was going on but obeyed Scully's request that they not talk about it.
That had been a year ago, if she calculated correctly. The woman was still around, as she had coolly informed Scully, because she didn't get too far into the conspiracy that she and Mulder chased at the risk of their lives. That had been the mistake of the others, that and sheer stupidity. Stupidity was not something that either woman possessed much of.
'In fact,' Scully thought with a wry smile as she stopped under the statue of a proud eagle in the middle of the graveyard, 'that was a trait that only Mulder possessed -- sometimes.' She had to love him, despite of it, even as she cursed him for placing her in a position to save his ass so often.
She leaned against the cool granite of the statue and looked warily around. Sometimes during these meetings, Scully felt like she was in the middle of a battlefield. She had a talent of being absolutely silent when approaching, and had scared her during the first several meetings.
The first time this had happened Scully had almost shot the informant. Subsequently, she had ceased approaching Scully from behind.
After several moments in the creepy silence of the graveyard, she seemed to melt out of one of the tombstones, and Scully stifled a shiver. She knew that that wasn't the case, but the woman's dark hair and clothing helped to create that effect.
After a few moments, Scully broke the charged silence. "You called this meeting," she said cautiously. "What do you have for me tonight?" *God, I really am starting to sound like Mulder,* she thought to herself.
"What do I always have for you, Agent Scully?" the informant asked with a slight smile. "Information."
"You're going to have to be a little more specific than that."
The woman pushed a strand of dark hair out of her face, and unnerved Scully with her intense stare. "I overheard a conversation today that puts you and Agent Mulder in great danger."
"A conversation between who?"
"I'm not at liberty to say, even if I knew who the men were."
"Then what do you expect me to do?" Scully asked impatiently.
"Get to Agent Mulder, and drag him and yourself out of this fucking town," the woman scowled at Scully, her voice like ice. "These people think you are too close to something, and unlike those that you've dealt with before, they have a habit of striking with terminal intensity."
"Hold on. We can't just leave town. We have our jobs to think about."
"I don't think you understand me, Agent Scully. They want to make sure your jobs don't exist. By now, they've figured out that the only way to make sure that happens is to make sure that you and Agent Mulder don't exist. There are people protecting you, but even they can't stop these people."
"Before I can listen to you you're going to have to tell me what you heard."
"Earlier today, two men mentioned a deliberate murder of one of those close to you. Someone by the name of ... Skinner? They are going to want to pin this murder on you and Agent Mulder."
Scully's blood ran cold. Skinner...murdered? "How do you know they were serious?"
"In my business, people do not say such things unless they *are* serious, Agent Scully."
She stared at her, not sure she could believe what she'd just been told. For the first time in the year that she'd been meeting her in secret, Scully wanted to deny any truth in what the informant was telling her and run in the opposite direction.
But her informant had been right too many times for her to immediately discount anything she had to say, no matter how unpleasant.
She swallowed before turning to face her again. "How long?"
"It wasn't mentioned, but I estimate that it will happen before the week is out," the dark eyes narrowed as rain began to fall from the sky in a drizzle. "Like I told you, Agent Scully, you don't have much time."
As she turned to walk away, Scully was torn between belief in the informant that she had started to trust -- to a degree -- and her own skepticism that insisted that they would never go after Skinner directly. They had always had a more indirect way of going about things. Then again, Dark Angel had said that these weren't the same people...
Scully asked the question that she had posed the first time they had met, though with more worry, "How can I contact you?"
The informant only turned and gave Scully an enigmatic smile over one shoulder. "You don't. I find you. I have my ways."
Then she was gone.
Fox Mulder was in a nice place. He was lying on a huge bed covered with silk sheets and satin pillows. Scully was standing over him smiling, and as he watched she slowly laid down next to him and kissed him. For a moment he couldn't breathe. She smiled again, knowing her power, and said...
"Mulder, wake up."
What the-Scully and the bed had disappeared and he was being shaken. He opened his eyes and there she was again. But there was a difference. Not even counting the change in wardrobe, this Scully looked deadly serious, nervous...maybe even frightened.
"Mulder, wake up," she repeated.
"I'm awake..." he mumbled. He sat up slowly, glancing at his bedside clock radio. "Scully, it's three o'clock in the morning. What's wrong?"
Scully ran her hands through her hair, which he just noticed was wet, as though she'd run from her apartment to his in the rain. She hesitated for a moment, which made him even more paranoid. Scully seldom hesitated except when she was about to tell him something either he wouldn't like or wouldn't believe. Or both.
He guessed it was going to be both.
"Mulder, I received some very unpleasant information tonight," her eyes wouldn't meet his, and that only made things worse. "We need to get out of here, Mulder."
"Very unpleasant information?" He raised an eyebrow. "Scully, news that your cat's been run over by a car is very unpleasant information. If whatever you've learned makes you want to leave town it's got to be worse than that."
She didn't even smile at his comment, and that made him worry more. Even though not all of his comments over the years had gotten a laugh out of his partner, they usually induced a smile at the very least. She sighed and spoke softly, "Yeah, Mulder. I guess you could say that it's worse than that."
"Well, Scully, what is it?" Mulder asked anxiously.
He could tell by her face that she was separating herself from the news she heard. Her voice was one that he'd heard many times in autopsies. Totally professional. It alternately turned him on and scared the shit out of him. The latter definitely applied once her words started sinking in.
"Mulder...I'm not sure how to tell you this." She paused briefly. "I have an informant."
His eyes nearly popped out of his head. "What?! And you never told me about him? For how long?"
"For starters, he's a she. And for about a year now. Mulder, I'm sorry I couldn't tell you before, but she insisted that only I communicate with her. After what happened.."
"After what happened to Deep Throat and X she's afraid of me getting her killed," he finished for her.
"Well...yes."
She sighed. "But it's more than that, Mulder. She's not too involved with the conspiracy and doesn't want to be. She just helps us out when she can. She doesn't have a big agenda."
Mulder arched an eyebrow at his partner, "Scully, they all say that. What has *she* told you that has you running scared like this. I mean, I know I've done some crazy things when my informants told me to jump, but leave town with no proof of a reason?"
Scully was silent for a moment before she spoke.
"She claimed that she overheard some of her superiors talking. They can't seem to stop us with their normal ways so they're going to pin a murder on us."
"A murder? That's an interesting change. Who are we supposed to be killing?"
"Skinner."
"Skinner?" Mulder gave her a doubtful look. "Scully, come on..."
"Mulder, I can't make you believe or trust her. I don't have any proof other than my own instincts. I'm just asking you to please...trust *me*."
Mulder hesitated for the briefest of seconds, then replied in what he knew was the only way he could. "All right. Let's go."
As they left the apartment, Mulder watched his partner carefully. He knew that it was very hard to make her believe anything farfetched without definitive proof, but this informant she mentioned had convinced her entirely. Unlike him, Scully wasn't prone to fits of paranoia, which helped her ground him many times, and from her reactions, Mulder assumed that this woman had been right too many times to discount.
He shook his head, wishing he didn't have to think about it. Scully had her cel phone out, and was dialing the second speed dial number as they headed down the rickety stairs. Neither one of them felt that there was enough time to wait for the elevator to get to the fourth floor. Besides, the damn thing was almost always broken anyway.
"Hey," Mulder listened to her voice echo through the stairwell, "sorry for waking you up, but I know how much you worry when I disappear without any notice. Yeah, I know that there's been good reason for you to worry about my disappearances in the past..."
Mulder shook his head, smiling. He could almost hear the sarcastic response Scully had heard from the person she was speaking with on the phone. He knew without being told who was on the other end. Storm Austin, the other member of the X-Files Trinity of Terror.
With Scully's groan of impatience, Mulder knew he was right.
"Storm, will you shut the fuck up and just *listen* to me?" Scully's voice was so shrill that it made Mulder flinch and her scowl was almost visible, despite the fact that he was walking behind her. "I knew that would get your attention. Anyway, we're leaving town. Yes, me and Mulder both. Think you can hold things up for a while?"
Mulder chuckled as Scully pulled the celphone away from her ear enough for him to hear the response of "Dana, this is *me* you're talking to. Now what the *fuck* is going on?" in a Scottish accent.
"I'm not really sure, Storm. Not yet. All I know is that things are happening that are going to put you under fire a little bit. And before you ask, Storm, no, I'm not getting psychic on you."
After a few moments of talking, Scully finally put away her celphone and stopped near the bottom of the stairs and looked up at him. The door was less than fifty yards away and led directly into the parking lot.
"So, what's the plan, Scully?" he asked her, feeling slightly uncomfortable as she studied him intensely. It was almost as though she was afraid that she'd never see him again.
"Well, we'll leave your car here, Mulder, and take mine. They wouldn't know that either one of us had heard about this yet. But we've got to get out of here fast. I have a bad feeling that all hell's gonna break loose."
Mulder nodded, then said in a teasing tone, "Are you *sure* you're not getting psychic on us, Scully?"
"Oh, shut up, Mulder," she said with a slight smile on her face, the first he had seen since this whole thing began. "And since when do you eavesdrop on my telephone conversations?"
"If they're interesting enough..." he started, but she shook her head slightly.
"I'm not going there," she responded. "Come on, Mulder, we've got to go."
He followed her down the remainder of the stairs, and it was only when they were halfway across the parking lot did it possess him to ask the most important question. "Scully, where are we going?"
"Skinner's office."
Mulder grasped his armsrests tightly as Scully drove them to the J. Edgar Hoover Building. She was usually the more conservative driver, but tonight she was wilder than *he* was.
Yellow lights apparently meant 'speed through the intersection' to her, and stop signs were more like "slow down briefly" signs.
She whipped around a corner and Mulder gulped to keep the nausea down. "Scully, why aren't we going to Skinner's apartment?"
She answered him without taking her eyes off the road. "I called there on my way to yours. No one answered."
"So you conclude that he's just working REALLY late?"
"Do you have a better idea?"
"..."
She smiled tightly. "That's what I thought."
Once they reached the building, the hurried inside. The night staff, used to seeing Mulder at work during odd hours, didn't bat an eyelash.
Once at Skinner's office, Scully marched past the empty secretary's desk. She shoved open the door then stopped short.
"Mulder, I think we're too late," she said softly.
The most remarkable thing was the lack of blood. Mulder's eyes skimmed the office, and the only thing he saw was Skinner's body lying on the floor, as though someone had knocked him. However, there were no signs that he was even breathing. Mulder stopped two steps behind his partner as she stopped in the doorway, and had to agree with her. It did look like they were too late.
He reached out and touched her shoulder. "Scully, we have to get out of here."
"We don't know for sure if he's dead... he could have a pulse," she turned and looked up at him, the certainty of a moment ago tinged with sudden doubt.
"And if you check him, they *will* think we've done this to him. After all, we were seen entering his office by the night staff, and it's possible that the only fingerprints that would be on the body would be yours, when you check for his pulse. Scully, we can't take that chance," Mulder's voice rose slightly, sounding to Scully as though he was on the verge of panic.
She looked into his eyes and saw it confirmed. Mulder's eyes glittered greenly as he displayed his 'panic face'.
"Mulder, you're not thinking clearly," she said calmly, though inside she was anything but. "Our fingerprints are most likely all over him right now. They wouldn't plan to fake our involvement in this without some pretty convincing evidence. And tell me, honestly, could you really leave him like this?"
After a moment Mulder shook his head as Scully knew he would. Mulder was by no means a callous person, just a man unaccustomed to being woken at 3 in the morning to discover a murder that *he* had supposedly committed.
Without another word, he followed her inside the office, watching Scully with respect as she moved in a professional manner to check the body laying on the floor. He had to admire her actions, since it was as though she had never stood before the man in defiance of decisions he'd made before and screamed at him with her eyes by the way she was clinically examining the body.
Slowly, her eyes met his as she rose from her kneeling position. "I hate to admit this, Mulder, but I was right. It is too late."
"We need to get out of here, Scully."
"Where will we go?"
"I don't know. Really, I do not know. All I know is they can't find us here. If they truly seek to destroy us this way, we can't be found here. Maybe hide out with the Gunmen for a while. See if they have any suggestions."
Scully nodded slowly, then allowed Mulder to escort her away from the room, moving as fast as they could away from the scene of the crime without looking as though they were running from it.