From: Ash XF <ashxf@aol.com>
Date: 24 Aug 2002 23:33:57 GMT
Subject: NEW: The Final Stand Pt. 1 (Sequel to Seek and Ye Shall Find)
Source: atxc

TITLE:  The Final Stand
AUTHOR:  Ashley
SUMMARY:  If William is humanity's last hope against alien invasion,
how does an 11-year old kid prevent an invasion when grownups have
tried for half a decade and failed? And what are Mulder and Scully up
to while in hiding? 
KEYWORDS: All of William and Invasion storyline wrapped up 
DISCLAIMER: If these characters belonged to me, they would
have lived happily ever after! But since they are not, no infringement
intended. It would be pointless to sue me anyway, I'm broke.
ARCHIVE:  Gossamer, Ephemeral, anywhere, just let me know first and
keep my name on it
FEEDBACK: Please let me know what you think! Email: AshXF@aol.com
RATING:  PG
SPOILERS:  None unless you don't know what the X-Files is.


The Final Stand Pt. 1

The desert sun was unmerciful as it baked the desert below. Ten year
old William Mulder (II) wiped the sweat from his forehead as he
continued down the sidewalk of his neighborhood in Roswell, New
Mexico. He had lived here for three years now with his parents, Dana
Scully and Fox Mulder, and although he had been raised on a small
midwestern farm in an even smaller midwestern town up until the age of
seven, he regarded the desert city and the sprawling neighborhood as
his home.

William had been given up for adoption by his parents when he was nine
months old, due the the fact that they were both being hunted by
unknown forces and couldn't protect him. In the nine months between
his birth and adoption, he had been attacked twice and kidnapped once,
and it looked like there would be no end to it in the future. With his
father in hiding and his mother at a loss, she had made the heart
wrenching decision to send him away, and he had gone to
live with Bob and Nancy Van de Kamp on a small farm in small town in
the middle of nowhere.

For seven years he had believed them to be his natural parents, even
though he had never called them Mom or Dad and looked nothing like
them. After discovering his adoption, he soon found himself in a chain
of events which led him to discover his real parents and thier
friends, John Doggett and Monica Reyes. However, his search had also
led to the murders of Bob and Nancy and a frantic flight from Midville
with Doggett and Reyes to Washington D.C. There, he had met his
grandmother Maggie Scully and had finally been reunited with his
birth parents. They had brought him to Roswell, a safe haven from
those who were looking for them, and he had lived here ever since.

A small dust devil went dancing across his path as a breeze kicked up
the sand and dirt, but offered little relief from the heat. William
was amazed to find how he had adjusted to living in the desert after a
lifetime of living in the midwest. It never snowed here, although it
did in the mountains nearby, and it was very dry. But the culture
fascinated him. He had been out to visit some friends at the local
Native American reservations several times, and he had an
extensive collection of Zuni animal carvings. Soon he would be leaving
to go on a three day long vision quest at a nearby reservation and he
was excited about it, not to mention honored to be allowed to
participate.

In all outward appearances, William looked like a regular kid, if a
bit tall for ten years old. He had his mother's red hair and blue
eyes, but his father's facial features and photographic memory. But
what couldn't be seen were William's other features. He could almost
hear people's thoughts, could sense others around him, could, on some
occasions, move objects with his mind, and sometimes could even see
events happening in other places. He was exceptionally brilliant,
testing with an IQ of 180. His adoptive parents had suspected, but
had never really known just how different he really was. 

His parents knew, though. They had never really explained everything
entirely to him, but he got the impression that several events
concerning his parents before his birth had contributed to his
strangeness. But they loved him, he never doubted that. And his father
had promised to explain everything to him soon.

He was almost home. It had been a long day at school and he was
anxious to get home. He began to skip and whistle, walking past the
new houses of the neighborhood. They were small, but nice homes with
very little yard space. Instead of trees, mostly shrubbery and a small
cactus here and there made up the flower beds. Suddenly he felt a
prickle on the back of his neck as the hairs rose. Although he could
see or hear nothing, he froze and looked around. Suddenly a white van
came whipping around the corner behind him. It screeched
to a stop beside him and the door opened. Two masked men jumped out,
but William was already running.

He ran between the two nearest houses as the two men chased after him
and the van sped off down the street. He ducked under a hedge row and
into the next yard. He didn't look back but he knew the two men hadn't
slowed down. He felt rather than saw them split up and he was prepared
as he rounded the corner of another house. Sure enough, there was one
of the masked men waiting for him, but William was ready for him.
Using his forward momentum, he ran up and planted a swift jump side
kick into the man's chest, barreling him over to the ground. 

William rolled over, jumped to his feet and kept running. He rounded
the hedges onto the sidewalk but the second man was waiting and the
van pulled to a stop beside them. He grabbed William and wrestled him
to the waiting van as the boy wriggled furiously trying to escape.
Reaching down to his belt, he pulled free the special weapon given to
him by his parents' friend, John Doggett. It looked like a small
cellular phone, which in fact it was, but in true James Bond
fashion, it also housed several small weapons, one of which was a stun
gun device. He activated it with a button, pressed it to the man's arm
and pushed the fire button.

The man instantly dropped him and fell to the ground. William scooted
away up the driveway of the nearest house and ducked into hiding
behind the air conditioning unit and a wheelbarrow. He stayed there,
panting hard, trying to regulate his breathing so he wouldn't be found
out. He heard the first man and the van's driver looking through the
bushes for him. He waited silently, barely breathing, with the phone
gun still in his hand, ready to go. He waited for a half hour, but it
seemed like an eternity. Was it safe to come out? He had
heard the van drive away but it was probably a ploy. His mother would
be wondering where he was, but he wasn't going to come out until he
knew it was over.

Then, he heard a voice calling to him.

"OK, Wil, I quit. Come out now, you win!" One of the masked men, the
one William had knocked over with a kick, had come into the backyard
where he was hiding. He took off his mask, revealing the sweaty but
grinning face of William's father, Fox Mulder.

With a grin, William stood up and Mulder laughed. He came over and
ruffled his son's hair.

"Not bad, kid, not bad at all. Although next time I'd refrain from
actually stunning someone during a practice run, poor Gibson's still
seeing stars."

William flinched a little. He hadn't meant to actually stun anyone,
but you never knew. He followed his father to the van where the
driver, Doug Eagleman and the second attacker, 24 year old Gibson
Praise, were waiting. Gibson was looking green and his friend, Doug
was fanning him.

'Nice move squirt....' William heard inside his head. Gibson was
telepathic and William was one of few people who could actually hear
and respond to him.

He smiled sheepishly and thought back, 'Sorry, man. I didn't mean
to.'

Gibson sighed and smiled. He shook his head and said, "Do you want us
to drop you off?"

Mulder shook his head, "No, thanks guys. It's only two blocks, we can
walk it. And I know you two wanted to go down to the reservation
tonight, so go on ahead."

As Doug and Gibson waved goodbye, Mulder and William started walking
back towards their house on the edge of the neighborhood.

William looked over his and his father's clothes and shook his head.
"Mom's gonna be mad."

Mulder smiled softly. "She doesn't like the way we're training you,
but she of all people knows how important it is. We don't have time to
play around, it's already 2012. This December is it, and I know you've
been training ever since we've had you, but we still don't know fr
sure what to expect."

William felt a small shiver as his father mentioned the impending
date. December 22, 2012, the date on the Mayan calendar that signaled
the destruction of the universe, the date the aliens would come to
invade the Earth. When William had first heard the story, he wondered
if his parents and the others who had settled in this neighborhood
weren't a little off their rockers. But as he had been told more and
more, he came to realize that nobody was playing games. The entire
town of Roswell, New Mexico was built on a large deposit of
magnetite. The aliens themselves were affected in such a way that,
while it wasn't fatal, staying in the area caused an illness in them
similar to radiation sickness in humans. But there were other beings
as well, human-alien hybrids known as "Super Soldiers" that could not
be killed in any way, not by bullets or even being crushed into
hamburger. The only thing that WOULD kill them was magnetite. It
pulled them apart and reduced them to a pile of powdered
metal. Using this information, several scientists who had moved to
Roswell in a growing community of secret specialists,  had developed a
type of dart gun that fired darts of concentrated magnetite. One of
the weapons on William's cellular phone, besides a stun gun, was a
magnetite dart. However, it was only a single shot.

The people of this task force had been working for a decade to develop
weapons against the coming invaders, the dart guns being one.The group
included not just the residents of thier neighborhood in Roswell, but
a network of carefully placed people around the world. After arriving
and setting up a haven in Roswell, safe from the supersoldiers who
could not come near the magnetite thier homes were built on, former
FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully along with several others who
also knew of the impending invasion, had begun to work on a plan to
stop the planned invasion. All over the world, individuals who
were part of their group worked in secret alongside thier regular jobs
to do thier part, developing weapons, vaccines and battle plans to
fight an unknown superior force from another world. Dana Scully had
been working as well, using her degree in medicine and a teaching
position at the local university to develop and reverse engineer the
vaccine Mulder had used on her in Antarctica. It was the only known
defense against the virus that turned human beings into
biological incubators for new alien life forms. It had been Mulder who
had named the group Aegis, after the mythological Zeus' sheild. But it
had been suggested by a group of local teenagers who played a
roleplaying game called Conspiracy X, and Mulder had found it funny
how the kids never knew how close thier game came to the truth.

In the meantime, Mulder and Scully had been trying to raise their son
in the best way they could. They wanted him to have as normal a life
as possible, and to never be afraid, but they didn't want him to be
clueless. They made sure he trained in martial arts and learned all
that he could about how to defend himself. They told him as much as
they could about their operation and the plan going on to stop the
invasion.  But aside from all of that, they still had a
little boy who had lost people he had considered parents in a terrible
way. Like his father, he was very good at blaming himself for things
that were ultimately beyond his control, and both of them had talked
to him at length, even talked to some counselors to make sure he was
handling everything alright.

William looked up at his dad. "Dad, am I going to be able to go with
you and Mom this summer?"

"Sure, you do every year. Don't you want to see your friend Josh
again?" asked Mulder.

Since coming to live with his birth parents, William had stayed in
contact via email with his friend from Midville, Joshua. Every summer
since then, they had made trips to visit Josh and his family, the Van
de Kamp's graves, then on to Washington D.C. to visit the Scully
family. William loved his grandmother and Uncle Charlie, but Uncle
Bill was always a little short with him. And he knew that Uncle Bill
detested his dad. They also made a point of visiting Mr.
Skinner, and Agents Doggett and Reyes, as well as Jimmy and Yves, two
remaining members of a group who called themselves the Lone Gunmen.
The other three of that group, Byers, Langley and Frohike, had been
friends of his parents for years and had died "in the line of duty" as
his mother had said. They visited thier graves in Arlington Cemetary
every summer too, while Mulder would tell William all the crazy
stories the three guys had gotten into.

"Well," said William, "This is it, this is the year."

"That's right," replied Mulder, "And if there was ever a time to see
everybody, this is it. Plus you have a birthday coming up in a few
weeks, right? Mom says we can have any kind of party you want, a real
big one for all your friends. She says you already picked one out?"

William nodded. He heard what his father didn't say. That this might
be the last year they were all alive, so live it up now. He and his
mother had planned to rent out the local Skate Galaxy and have the
blacklight lit skating rink/maze/laser tag facility all to themselves.
William had planned on inviting his entire Little League team and
everyone from karate. He didn't have many friends from school since he
was in the eigth grade and most of his classmates were four years
older than him with entirely different interests. He wished
Josh could come though.

They walked into thier house and paused in the kitchen. Dana Scully
was on the phone, apparently chewing someone out.

"No Richard! You SAID you would have those MagGun proposals sent to
the Pentagon by this past Monday, it's Friday." she said in
exhasperation. She paused and listened, then continued irritated. "OK
then, fine. When Al comes to invade us all, maybe we'll just send up a
radio transmission asking, 'Sorry boys, our Mags aren't going to be
ready for another two weeks, could you come back then?' Think that'll
work?"

Mulder snorted back a laugh and she turned around, and her mouth
dropped at the sight of her son and his father covered in desert sand
tracking into her kitchen. Suddenly her attention shifted back to the
phone. "OK, OK, fine then. Just do it fast, will you?" She hung up
then turned her stern gaze on the two men in her life. They both
grinned identical sheepish grins. She knew it wouldn't do to laugh
right now, she didn't wwant either of them to think she
approved of what she knew they had been doing, but it WAS a funny
sight.

Mulder said almost apologetically, "Umm, Dana, we're um, just going to
go, er clean up, OK?" He hurried out of the kitchen and William
scooted after him after blowing a kiss to his mother. Once they were
out of sight she allowed herself to smile. She knew it was important
for William to be on alert and be trained, she just wished it didn't
have to be so rough. She wished he were still a baby, but in other
ways she was glad he wasn't. While other mothers were worried about
kidnappers, pedophiles and speeding cars, she worried about
super soldiers, UFO's and government agents coming after her kid.

While sitting around the dinner table that night, Scully clued Mulder
in on the latest developments on the homefront. They had worked in
secret until the past year when finally bringing in the military and
the President, with a little help from thier friends still in the FBI
and Congress. It hadn't been easy, especially since you never knew who
to trust, and who could be an alien in disguise. They had relied on
Gibson Praise as a sort of human lie detector to tell if anyone in the
room was an alien or not human in any other way. William
had been learning to do it himself, although his abilities were
different from Gibson's. William had been injected with a form of
magnetite as an infant by his half-uncle Jeffery Spender, who lived
next door with Gibson. He had never been told why, although his
parents didn't seem to mind Uncle Jeff being around, but he sensed his
mother had a bit of animosity towards his uncle. But they needed every
man they could get, even one who had been as weakened and
disfigured as Jeff Spender had been by the experimentation done on him
by the government.

Scully told them that thier contact at the weapons processing factory
had been late on delivering the magnetite gun proposal to the generals
in thier group at the Pentagon. On top of all that, there were some
holdups at the CDC in getting the vaccine out. England had already
begun innoculating thier citizens and most other countries had plans
in place, thanks to the group members already working in those
countries.

"Relax, Scully," said Mulder, "It'll all get going in the next two
weeks like planned. When announcing the need for millions of Americans
to be vaccinated with a new vaccine against an unknown disease, it has
to be done carefully to prevent panic. Besides, no one's going to know
what the truth is, they're coming up with some story about Anthrax or
something."

Scully nodded, "The Aegis group wants to know about the meeting,
people have been calling nonstop."

Mulder sighed. Although he had not asked for the position, he was
considered one of the group leaders, since he had founded the
beginnings of the network during his time in hiding in New Mexico when
William was a baby. He had been reluctant to take on the role though,
since he had a mental image of his father and the men he had worked
with in a similar situation, running the Syndicate in the shadows of
an alien invasion. 

"We'll shoot for July 4th, everyone will be off from work and we can
make it into a sort of neighborhood barbecue or something, we'll avoid
suspicion that way. And it'll give everyone time to get down here." He
picked at his salad slowly.

Scully turned to William. "What about you? Still on for your birthday
party?" she asked with a grin.

He smiled back. "Sure am, and the vision quest too. Who knows, maybe
the spirits will send some huge sign of how we're supposed to win the
invasion." His parents both smiled somewhat sadly.

Later that night, William tossed and turned in his bed. Sleep was
coming more and more difficultly as the months faded away to the
inevitable. He didn't let his parents know he was sleeping badly,
since he didn't want them to worry even more about him, but lately
he'd lie down around 9:30 and stare at the ceiling until 1AM. And when
he DID sleep, his dreams were filled with images of Bob and
Nancy lying dead in different places on the farm, of his family being
frozen in alien pods, of UFO's zooming through the sky spitting fire
like in War of the Worlds. It was getting to the point to where he was
starting to see flashes of daydreams during the day. Once he thought
he saw a UFO overhead, although UFO's couldn't fly over Roswell
without crashing due to the magnetite. Another time he thought he saw
a gray alien in the bushes. He hoped he wasn't losing it so
soon to the time when he might be needed.

Sighing, he got up out of bed and went down the hall towards the
kitchen for some water. He didn't turn on any lights, since both of
his parents were light sleepers. But as he came into the den, he saw
that his father was still up anyway watching television. Fox Mulder
had been an insomniac for years. Mulder looked up and saw his son
standing in the doorway. He grinned and patted the sofa next to him.
William went over and crawled up beside his dad. Mulder
pulled a blanket over both of them and settled back down.

"Can't sleep?" he asked.

William shook his head. Mulder pressed on, "You're worried about
something? You don't have to do the vision quest, you know. Or is it
something else?"

William thought for a minute, then asked, "Dad, are we going to win?"
He had never asked this question right out, knowing his parents were
working as hard as they could to ensure the war would be won, but what
did they really think?

Mulder, for one, didn't quite know how to answer. " I really don't
know son," he said with caution, then decided to continue, "but if you
want absolute honesty, well, the chances aren't good."

"Then we're all going to die anway?" asked William. Mulder smiled.

"Probably not. There are 8 billion people on the planet, even with
the gestating virus, there will always be pockets of people who will
be isolated and will escape it. Plus we have the vaccine and we've
been innoculating people for years, so quite a few will be immune to
it. To the best of our knowledge, Al doesn't know about the vaccine
yet, and thanks to the friends we made at the CDC, the vaccine has
been mass-produced for three years now and shipped out with regular
vaccines given to babies when they're born. As for the older ones,
doctors who are part of Aegis have released announcements saying
previous booster shots were found to be ineffective, to come in and
get the "new improved" one, doctors are giving them during anual
checkups, and all of us here in Roswell and the whole family have had
them. So we're betting the virus thing won't work as well as they'd
hoped. 

Now don't get me wrong, it'll still get alot of people if it's
released. We just can't vaccinate everyone, there's no time. But we
estimated about half the world's population has it by now, and some of
our Aegis crew have been burning those cornfields mom and me showed
you two years ago in Texas and all over the world. Some of our more,
um, enthusiatic crew even blew up some of those huge bee hives with
home made napalm. Managed to get the attention of the local
news."

Mulder paused and sighed. William thought for a minute, then asked, "I
read about all the terrorist stuff at the turn of the century, and
listen to what you and Mom tell me about the Syndicate an Aegis. What
makes us different from those guys? I mean, we operate in small goups
loosely connected to each other, we have ties in the government. We're
going to end up fighting a huge....."

"DON'T compare us to them, William," Mulder said sternly, "Aegis is
NOT like any of those organizations. The Syndicate was only trying to
buy time to save thier own asses while keeping thier unlimited power
over the masses, and the terrorists, well, they didn't care who got
killed, civillians, kids. We're trying to ensure our species will
survive whatever's coming. We're trying to save lives here. Yes we
operate in some of the same ways, groups loosely connected through our
network, all trying for the same goal, but we're not trying to kill
anyone or control anyone, we're trying to keep the planet for
ourselves, which, frankly I think we have a right to. I mean,
apparently they WERE here before us, from what I was told. But they
didn't oringate here, they came to colonize it but it was too cold. So
they left or lay dormant in ice. But when they came back, suddenly
here we were and they don't feel like sharing. Neither do I actually.
Who are they to come and commit genocide? What right do they have to
the planet? None at all. It's ours. 

And you know, I'm not about being heartless. If some catastrophe
destroyed thier world and they needed somewhere to live, and above
all, were more gracious about sharing the planet, I could see letting
them colonize in a few places. If they were at all willing to coexist
and respect our right to live, I wouldn't have a problem with sharing
the planet. But thier constant lies and backstabbing to the Syndicate,
the virus, all of it shows they don't really want to work with us at
all, they just want us to help them kill ourselves."

William snuggled closer to his father and listened. His parents had
told him of past events they had dealt with while working ont he
X-Files, and it was alot to remember. But he had never heard his
father's true feelings about the matter. William knew both of his
parents had suffered terribly to fight the lies and horror they had
found within the cases of the X-Files. Within a space of five years,
his mother's father and both of his father's parents had died or
been murdered. His aunt Melissa had been shot and killed, mistaken for
her sister. His aunt Samantha, for whom his father had searched for 25
years was found to have been eventually killed after years of
experimentation by the Syndicate. His half sister Emily had been
created as a human answer to the super soldiers, without his mother's
knowledge, and she had eventually died from her abnormal blood
condition. The three orignial Lone Gunmen had been killed preventing a
deadly virus escaping, his half uncle Jeff Spender had been
shot by his own father, the Cigarette Smoking Man (William's genetic
grandfather), and when he didn't die, he was left to be experimented
on, leaving him horribly burned and disfigured. Gibson had been forced
into hiding at the age of twelve because of his mental abilites, after
his parents had been found dead.

Both Mulder and Scully had been abducted for several months, only to
be returned nearly dead. His mother had battled a brutal cancer. And
his own birth, which should have been a joyous miracle, was
overshadowed by the supersoldiers hunting for him, for Mulder's forced
flight underground, attacks and kidnappings which eventually led to
William's adoption to Bob and Nancy Van de Kamp. All these families,
all these lives, destroyed, all because of greedy evil men and
unfeeling creatures from God knows where who couldn't stay off
someone else's planet. The whole thing sucked. And for what? To fight
a losing battle?

"Dad?" William asked slowly. "What if we fail?"

Mulder pulled his son close. "Well, at least we will have tried."

The Final Stand Pt. 2

Dana Scully was having a rare happy day. For today at least, they were
going to forget about the whole mess of alien invasion and Aegis and
whatever. It was William's 11th birthday and since she and Mulder had
missed the first seven years and birthdays of thier son's life, they
were going to make up for it. They had taken over the local Skate
Galaxy so the kids could have unlimted access to the skating rink, the
maze, obstical course, and William's favorite, Laser Tag. He had
already played it three times. And Mulder was thoroughly
enjoying his role as Dad-big kid. Scully had had to fish him out of
the balls pit twice to come help with the cake and ice cream. He had
been through the laser tag twice with William already, reminding Dana
of the time they were caught in the video game at FPS years ago.

After singing happy Birthday, opening presents and plenty of cake and
ice cream, William coaxed his mother into joining them in the skating
rink. She hadn't been on skates in 30 years and felt like a turtle on
wheels, but Mulder came up and, with a wink, took her hand and hauled
her around twice before she laughed and headed for the side. William
was having one of the best brithdays of his life. Earlier that day,
Agents Doggett and Reyes had shown up as a surprise. They were on
thier way back from a case in California and had decided
to swing by New Mexico for William's birthday. (and some cake no
doubt) They had given him a new Virtual Reality Game System game, the
newest one out by Nintendo. Monica had been helping his mother herd
the kids, and Doggett had been switching between the video games and
talking to Mulder. 

After several exciting hours, William convinced both of his parents,
the two agents and the rest of his friends from karate and Little
League to go for one final Lasr Tag game. Everyone agreed and they
headed in. William always felt like an android or something wearing
the cyber vest with light sensors and running around with the light
gun. The object of the game was for the two teams to blast the other
team's four light stations, hidden in rooms and pockets in
the maze. William half wondered if he wouldn't be doing something
similar but for real in the near future.

As the buzzer sounded, the two groups headed into the blacklight
illuminated maze. William watched with awe as his mother expertly
ducked behind a corner. His parents were on his team but Doggett and
Reyes were on the other one to make it more fair. William climbed up
the ramp leading to the upper level and grinned as he watched his
father and Doggett below in a laser shootout. Both men never noticed
William's karate friend, Kyle come up and shoot them both,
even though Mulder was on his team. Both men laughed. William set off
to find the light stations. As he ran into a light station, he blasted
the sensor in the roof and it set off the strobe light indicating he
had destroyed the station. But as the stobing light flashed in his
eyes, suddenly his mind leapt, and he saw an image of a triangular
craft in the sky, strobing lights shining down on him. But as quickly
as it had come, the vision vanished. William stood for a second,
wonering what had happened. Then he shook his head hard and set
off to find another station.

A he rounded several more corners and fought off other team members,
he felt a funny sensation creep into his head. He turned quickly and
stiffled a scream. Right behind him was a gray alien!

'No, no it can't be. It's not real, it's a hallucination...too much
cake, too much sugar, that has to be it!' he thought. He raised his
gun, forgetting it was only a laser gun that shot harmless light. Then
he remembered and felt his belt for his phone gun. It wasn't there. He
remembered, he hadn't brought it. He backed away and blinked hard.
Suddenly the alien was gone. He looked around rapidly. People were
running everywhere, still playing. Derek Sanchez shot him
twice but William never noticed. Derek asked if he was OK, but William
didn't hear. He ran away blindly through the maze, as if trying to
outrun an invisable pursuer. He ran around a corner and saw his
mother. She looked up and froze. Dana registered the look of pure
panic on her son's face and sprinted over to him.

"Wil, what's wrong? What happened?" she asked as she pulled him into a
hug. Safe now in his mother's arms, he burst into tears, not caring if
any of his friends saw him. Alarmed now, Scully asked again what
happened.

"Al...I saw, I thought I saw....Al," he said between sobs, using the
Aegis codeword for alien.

A look of fear came into Dana's eyes as well as resolve. She looked up
and made a move as if to go somewhere, but just then the lights came
back on and the sounds of the other team cheering filled the room.
They had one by one light station. William didn't care, but he dried
up his tears right away, lest anyone thought he was crying because his
team lost. Mulder and Reyes came sprinting over with smiles, but
stopped when they saw William. 

"What's going on?" Mulder asked as Doggett joined them. 

Scully pulled them closer and whispered, "He thought he saw a grey,
back in there somewhere." William nodded confirming.

"OK, get everyone out of here, " said Doggett. He, Reyes and Mulder
turned and went back into the maze. Scully took William's hand and led
him out with the other kids. It was the final game and everyone
started packing up to leave for home. William dutifully said goodbye
to his friends, forced smiles and laughter, and finally, when the last
one had left, went to his mother who held him protectivly close. His
father came out followed by the agents, saying they had not been able
to find anything at all. William insisted he had seen a grey,
but no one knew what to think. They gathered up everything and headed
for home, and the drive back was somber.

Once they got home, the four adults listened again to William's
recount of seeing an alien in the laser tag arena. But no trace had
been found. Plus there didn't seem to have been anyone else who had
seen it.

"I thought they couldn't come into Roswell in the first place because
of the magnetite," said Monica Reyes.

"No they can, they just can't fly over it," Mulder countered. "The
supersoldiers can't come in the town, they'd be pulled apart, but
aliens and humans can. Usually a bullet will take care of an alien
though."

Scully pulled William closer to her and he could feel his mother's
uneasiness and wished he hadn't said anything in the first place. He
was beginning to doubt his sanity and wondered if he should mention
having seen flashes before of aliens on the street.

"Well, aside from all this, we have other problems," said John
Doggett somberly. "Seems our friends in what's left of the Syndicate
know for sure about us now. Jim and Yves sent us an intercepted
downloaded letter detailing certain operations, and you and Dana, so
they know for sure you're alive now. Good thing you were officially
pardoned from that Knowle Rohrer thing, Mulder, or the military'd be
knocking on your door right now."

"Also, if you're ready for more good news," sighed Monica, "Seems the
aliens know about Aegis too. We don't know if they know about the
vaccine, but they do know there's a reisistance movement organizing.
We think  they don't know about you guys or that it's centered here in
Roswell, but they might soon enough. They might step up the
timetable."

"You said the aliens know, do you mean the grays?" asked Mulder.

"Well yeah, who else?" asked John.

"Well," said Mulder, "We know there are actually several different
races, but we aren't sure if they're all connected to the greys, or if
they're at war. We heard something earlier about a war, but it wasn't
confirmed."

"You mean like Jeremiah Smith?" William asked. He had met the
shapeshifting healer alien two years ago, and he had looked perfectly
human to William, although Gibson had pointed out the different
feeling of the man versus a normal human.

"Yes, but we're not sure if the Jeremiah and Gregor race are a race
unto themselves or creation of the greys who are rebelling." said
Dana. "We know the Jeremiahs kow about us, they're part of the Aegis
group. Half of what we've been able to do is with their help."

"This just keeps getting better and better....." John sighed.

Doggett and Reyes stayed for dinner, then a little while afterwards
talking to Mulder and Scully. They left for Washington D.C. after
wishing William a happy birthday again. They'd be seeing each other
again in a few weeks.(William hoped)

As his mom tucked him in, she mentioned that they were thinking of
cancelling William's vision quest at the reservation.

"No! Mom please! I might not get another chance and I was glad to be
asked. Don't make me back out." he pleaded. 

"I just don't think it's safe, William. Out there in the open, no
defenses, plus I'm not sure I like it anyway. No food for three days?
That can be dangerous for an eleven year old kid."

"You decide to bring this up now?" he pouted, "Why not just say no a
month ago? And Dad said it was OK"

"Watch yourself, Mister..." she warned somewhat jokingly but sternly.
She sighed. She knew he wanted badly to go, but if he was seeing
aliens.... And she knew Eric Hosteen, the grandson of Albert Hosteen,
would be there watching him. The person on the vision quest was rarely
left entirely alone these days. There was usually someone nearby in
case of emergency, and the Hosteen family had been a tremendous help
to herself and Mulder through the years. Without Albert's help, before
his death years ago, Mulder would be dead today. Eric had
even chosen to be beaten badly by the Cigarette Smoking Man rather
than give up Mulder's location at the time.

"Let me think about it some more, OK? And I'm coming along if you DO
go." she said.

"Mom, it's supposed to be me alone in great Mother Nature. It won't
work if you're there." he said.

"I'm not leaving you by yourself, even with Eric there. And I'll stay
out of sight, but I want to be there. No discussion. Either I go or
you don't." she said firmly.

William nodded, knowing that since she had made up her mind, either go
along with her or don't go at all. She kissed him good night and gave
him a big hug.

"Thanks for the party, Mom. It was great," he said.

She smiled and pulled him closer, "I'm glad, sweetie. G'night."

She tucked him in, then left turning off the light. William lay back,
steeling himself for another few hours of staring at the ceiling.

The sound of his parents' voices came drifting in. He heard his name
being mentioned and slowly got up and crept to the hallway to listen.
His mother was talking.

"You know, Mulder, if ten years ago someone had told me about what I'd
be doing these days, I would have laughed. And that's AFTER having
been on the X-Files for several years. Who would have thought that
we'd be on the front lines fighting off an alien invasion while trying
to raise a kid?" She sounded almost downbeat.

"I know, Dana, but what else can we do, roll over and let them kill us
all? Why make it easy? Besides, my gut is telling me there IS a way to
win, I really think it can be done. I just wish the world didn't have
to be disrupted to do it." said Mulder.

"You know, when I look at the news and see all the reports of
diferent countries at war, people killing each other over land less
than the size of Maryland, corruption in corporations, it just makes
me want to yell at all of them, 'Hey don't you know you only have
seven months left to live? There's a huge, superior race of beings who
want this planet and they could give a damn about your religion, your
money, whatever. They only want the planet and us off of it. Stop
fighting each other and help us fight THEM!' It's all so stupid and
pointless, fighting each other when we'll need every person we can
get." she paused for a minute.

Mulder knew something was on her mind, so he waited. Finally she said,
"Mulder, what about what happened today? What's going on with
William?"

"What ISN'T going on with him?" he said. "Dana, regardless of what he
appears to be, he isn't your average child, you know that. I don't
think he saw a real grey, but maybe a premonition or vision of one.
With his mental abilities, and we don't even know the extent of them,
it could have been anything. Remember what everyone said about him
when he was born? Even those kooks up in Canada, the cult. William was
destined to turn the tide of the invasion, that whoever's
side he was on would win. That's why the supersoldiers wanted me dead,
probably you too. If we raised him, as we have mostly, he'd side with
us. If they raised him, he'd side with them. I wish I knew what his
part is in all of this, if only to protect him. Whatever he is in the
big picture, he's our little boy and I love him."

Dana said, "I can't believe he's so important to this somehow. I mean,
the Syndicate has been working with Al on colonization for over fify
years. You and I weren't born then, and yet now everything depends on
a child niether one of us even expected to have. I just don't see how
that came about so suddenly, or how all the plans they made centered
on one little boy no one could garuntee would even be born."

"I don't think it did, actually," said Mulder. "Things changed after
our little fiasco in Antarctica.  With the destruction of the
Syndicate and the ship taking off, that turned the tide. Before, the
aliens were going to "colonize", told the Syndicate they would simply
turn humans into a slave race using the black oil. In exchange for
making the preparations for them, the aliens would grant the Syndicate
and thier families amnesty. But lo and behold, the virus
actually turns people into human incubators for the aliens, which
would kill us all and repopulate the Earth with greys. With the
Syndicate dead and the project dying, all bets were off. Now we know
for sure they don't plan on coexisting, they're coming to kill.
Before, the bounty hunter aliens were sent to police the project.
These days, the job seems to be to clean up. They figured out the
Syndicate was working against them, hopefully not about the
vaccine, but the Jeremiahs, Gregors, and.....Samanthas.....were the
Syndicate's attempts to creat a human/alien hybrid who would survive
the plague.

Aparently that didn't go over well with the greys, they sent the
bounty hunter to get rid of them. And Emily.."Mulder paused, not sure
if he should continue, but did, "I think she was an attempt to make
our own super soldier. With that experiment a failure and the
Syndicate dead, all the aliens had to do to ensure the remnants of the
project were carried out was to send in the super soldiers,
human replacements who could not be killed by our weapons. So now here
we are, on the verge of invasion, with only Aegis, a loosely connected
group of resistance cells, the only barrier between humanity and
annhilation."

"But what about William?" Dana pressed.

Mulder continued, "I really think William's the anomaly no one counted
on. Scully....Dana," he seemed to be struggling with his words, not
sure how to say what was on his mind. "You know how it was, how you
thought you couldn't have children, and after what they did to you,
you shouldn't have been able to. The in vitro didn't work, even after
four times, then one night we, um...well you know."

Scully laughed softly, "Yeah I know."

Mulder went on, "And we weren't even TRYING to have a kid then, that
was for us, and after eight years long overdue, in my opinion. But lo
and behold, what happens? It's almost as if whatever God is up there
was just waiting for that one time, after all, the artifical stuff
didn't work. And the night he was born, Dana I swear I saw that light
in the sky leading me to you. It wasn't a UFO, it wasn't a satellite.
It's like, one small miracle after another.  And then when we had to
give him up......only to have him amlost literally drop
back into our lives, old enough to understand what had happened but
still young enough to give us time to raise him...it's all seemed to
work out where William is concerned. Now I'm not going to tell you
that our son is the next Jesus Christ or something, far from that. But
I know he's special, he shouldn't have been able to even be here but
he is. It's almost like, no matter what the archeologist down in the
cell in south Africa say about what was written on the UFO you found
in the sand, about how they think our whole conception of God was
what they aliens led us to believe, I think William is proof that
there really IS a God and we're being watched over."

"I hope you're right, Mulder. I really do. Because if not, we're all
in for a world of trouble." Dana replied.

William slowly closed his door and went back to bed.

The Final Stand pt3

William never knew what kind of persuasion his father employed on his
mother to get her to allow him to go to the vision quest after all,
but he suspected that she was planning on hanging around nearby
anyway, only keeping it a secret from him. Eric Hosteen had offered to
delay the whole thing, but there wouldn't be time later, they were
leaving on thier anual summer pilgrimage to see family and deal with
Aegis business. The only change was that they would set up in
Eric's backyard instead of the wilderness, but since he had a huge
open stretch of land, William didn't mind too much.

He helped Eric set up the tent and the stones set in a circle around
it. Then Eric came to him and handed him a canteen.

"There's some broth in there and another bottle of water inside the
tent, so you're all set. Remember, no cheating. If you have snacks,
turn 'em over now, bud." said Eric.

William turned his pockets inside out with a smile.

Eric laughed and said "OK, well, there's a small two way radio in the
tent, I'll be up at the house and if you need anything just call.
We're still within the boundaries of the safe zone, so you shouldn't
have any problems, but if you do, I know you have your phone gun, but
call right away. I'll be watching you but you won't see me, any sign
that you're getting sick or something I'm pulling you out, got it?"

William nodded, hoping it wouldn't come to that.

"I don't want to have to tell your mother if anything does happen,
like snakebites. Incidently, keep an eye out for rattlers, not common
on my land but not impossible either. Now remember, try to stay in a
clam state of mind. If the spirits have a message for you, and I have
a feeling they do, they'll come. Just let them come."

"How will I know if it's a message or if I'm just tripping out? And
what if I don't recognize it?" asked William.

"You will know." said Eric. "Plus, if you miss it they usually try
again until you get it."

Eric turned to leave and called over his shoulder, "Remember, don't
step out of the boundary stones until I come get you."

"Wait, Eric!" called William, "What about when I have to go to the
bathroom?"

Eric grinned widely and tossed a roll of toilet paper to William. "See
that bush over there?" he pointed, "I dug a hole behind it. That's
rapidly dissolving toilet paper, be sure to bury it good. See you in
three days!"

Eric turned nd started to walk away when William called after him,
"Just how rapidly are we talking about? Am I going to have to play
beat the clock in the bushes?" Eric snorted but didn't turn around.

William shook his head and went about settling in for three days of
soul searching. He arranged his sleeping bag, canteens and rapidly
dissolving toilet paper in a neat order in the tent, made sure the
flashlight and radio worked, then walked the entire perimeter to
explore, which wasn't very far. The only thing in the circle besides
his tent was the infamous bush. He turned a circle and observed the
landscape around him. Flat. A cactus here and there. Tumbleweeds. And
God it was hot. Eric had set him up in what passed for shade
near a stand of some cacti, but the house as the top of the rise about
a hundred yards away looked quite shadier.

He sat down and waited for the expected visit from the spirits. By
late afternoon that same day, William had discovered something about
himself alright. He discovered that, despite his unusual differences,
he definately had the attention span of a normal eleven year old. With
no books, video games, and especially no music, he hadn't realized
just what true boredom was. He half wondered if he'd die of boredom
instead of the elements.

When night fell, he found out something else about himself, that he
was still a child that really, REALLY wanted his mom and dad when it
was cold and dark and god alone knew what was creeping around outside
your tent. He wasn't allowed to make a fire, and had only the big
lantern and a flashlight to push back the darkness. He knew Eric (and
robably his mother) must be nearby and that was some comfort, but
since he could barely see anything part of his mind kept
telling him that he really WAS alone out in the middle of the desert.
As much as he tried, he couldn't keep images of supersoldiers and
aliens and government bad guys sneaking up to his tent and nabbing him
while he slept. Although he had his hand on his phone gun, and he knew
the SS couldn't come onto this land, it still made for a restless,
sleepless night. He had suffered with bouts of insomnia before, but
nothing like this. He doubted he slet more than an hour or
two that first night.

By the time the dawn rolled around, the vision quest was looking less
and less like a wonderful adventure and more like the trial that it
was. He was hungry, having finished off the broth and water the night
before, and he was releived to see Eric had left a new bottle of broth
and canteen of water by the tent. But it didn't do much for him. And
using the hole as a toilet was grossing him out, but he couldn't avoid
it. Finally he told himself to suck it up, he knew his parents had
been through worse, to stop being a baby. He thought about
practicing his karate moves to keep busy, but decided to wait until
later when the sun wouldn't be baking him alive.

Instead he slowly paced the perimeter of the circle. Without outside
stimulus for his mind, he found himself thinking more than he ever had
in his life. He thought about everything he knew about the upcoming
invasion, as well as his parents' conversation that night. He thought
about Bob and Nancy and Midveille and Josh. he thought about his
extended family, about the planet, about the impossible task ahead of
them. It was enough to make a grownup's head hurt, nevermind a kid's.

Why him? Why all of this? How the hell was HE, a kid, supposed to be
the deciding factor between two waring species for control of a
planet? It sounded like a bad scifi movie. It sounded like his
favorite book, Ender's Game. He stopped pacing and thought for a
second. Like the boy in that book, the fate of humanity had rested on
him, a child, over a coming alien invasion. And yet that
boy, who wanted nothing more than to simply be a child, to be loved by
his family and left alone, had basically been forced into his role and
tricked into doing the job that was required of him. And when all was
said and done, the boy was nearly shattered. Was that to be his own
fate?

William sat down on the ground and thought about the Bible school
classes he had gone to in Midville. He absentmindedly hummed "Michael
Row Your Boat Ashore", which had been Nancy's favorite song. He
realized he was about the same age Jesus had been when he learned he
was God's son. William wondered for a second what that would be like,
to be a kid his age and suddenly have it revealed to you that your
father wasn't your father, the creator of the universe was, and that
this would mean a life of hardship, a horrifying death,
ect. ect. That must have really shook Him up. William doubted he would
take such news himself without his head exploding. It was too much,
too big a responsibility, especially for a child. He didn't want this
role that was pre-ordained for him. He doubted he was anything like
Jesus, but it was a huge situation all the same. Jesus had eventually
taken up his role at the age of thirty, and William wanted another
eighteen years to himself to work it all out. But time was up. He had
only six months.

The way he saw it, there was this big bully of a race that simply
wanted to come in and take thier planet with total disregard to thier
race and thier civilization. It reminded him of the stories of the
European conquerors and the Native Americans. The Europeans had the
bigger firepower and technolog and therefore considered it thier right
to invade and overthrow the rich cultures of the people already here.
And due to thier arrogance, untold amounts of data in math, science
and astronomy were lost when the Indians' writings and books
were destroyed by the conquerors. But they survived anyway, although
somewhat diminished. How different would the world be today if the
Europeans had not won, had been driven out? The United States probably
wouldn't be here.

But then there was the example of Hitler invading most of Europe. That
wasn't a good thing at all, millions of people died all because one
dicator thought he had the right to rule the world. So what then? What
was the right thing to do? Restless again, he got up to resume his
pacing.

That night was no better than the first, except pure exhaustion was
starting to catch up with him. He was running out of things to think
about, was sick of pacing the circle, and had figured that the spirits
didn't want to talk to him anyway. He was ready to go home, but he was
no quitter and was determined to stay the whole time. He only had 24
more hours to go. The third day was the worst. He was beyond hunger,
even with the daily supply of broth and water. He knew he was feeling
some dehydration, and he felt weak. He knew he should call
Eric over the radio but kept putting it off, hoping to hold out just a
few more hours. He had barely slept in three days and was starting to
feel like he was dreaming even though he was sure he was awake. It was
around late afternoon on the third day that his eyes started playing
tricks on him. Eric had told him to expect it, it meant the spirits
were coming, but it was still unnerving.

For a second he was sure he saw his father standing by a cactus, but
when he blinked it was gone. He thought he heard his grandmother's
voice once, and another time he thought he heard running water. The
landscape seemed strange somehow, as if the edges weren't clearly
defined and the colors dull. He could feel himself dozing and drifting
in and out, hearing flashes of memory, of his life in Midville,
various songs from "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" and "Shout
to the Lord," to his parents' favorite song, "Joy to the World". He
found himself humming the part "Jeremiah was a bullfrog..." over and
over, thoughtlessly.

"That's a funny song..." came a child's voice to his right.

William about jumped out of his skin! He turned, suddenly alert, to
the sound of the voice and gaped in amazement as a little girl came
out from behind a cactus. Her blonde hair was whispy and she looked to
be about four years old, but William knew her right away. Her blue
eyes were the same as his, her smile just like his mother's. He was
looking at his long dead sister Emily. But that wasn't possible was
it? His father had said something about seeing ghosts before,
something his mother seemed to be prone to despite her skeptic's
approach. Was this real or was he tripping out? Was this his sign or
was he sleeping and dreaming?

The little girl smiled at his and held out her hand. "Come on,
brother. There's not much time. There's alot for you to see."

William shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere, I can't leave the
circle."

Emily said, "What circle?"

William turned to point to the stones, then stared in shock. They had
dissapeared, along with the tent and Eric's house. What the HELL was
going on? He looked at her in confusion. She smiled again. William
felt uneasiness coming over him, although he didn't feel any danger on
his mental radar. She obviously was the sign he was supposed to look
out for, but he didn't want to go wandering off iinto the desert as
out of it as he was. He stood up and looked down at her. She took his
hand. and pointed behind him.

He turned to look, expecting to see a SS or something, but felt the
shock of his life when he realized he was no longer in the desert, he
was floating in outer space!! Panic swelled up in him and he fought
back a scream, but then he heard his sister's voice in his ear.

"Don't be afraid, Wil. It's just a vision, like a movie."

He settled down a little, finding he could breathe, and felt a little
better, realizing that this was just like a VR game or something. They
seemed to be floating over what looked like the Earth, but the
continents were strange. The landmasses were still drifting, Africa
had not joined Europe and the North and South American continents were
not connected. William watched fascinated as what looked like a
spacecraft came into orbit around the primordial Earth. It
was strange, alien, even stranger than the pictures of the alien
spacecraft his parents knew of. Then William knew he was looking at a
totally different race, never seen before, maybe not even by the
greys.

"Watch close," said Emily as the craft fired shot after shot of some
kind of matter into the atmosphere and oceans of the Earth as it
rotated on it's axis. Then, as suddenly as it had come, the craft sped
away into the deep darkness.

"What was that all about?" William asked. Emily didn't answer, but
pointed again and William saw that the perspective had changed, they
were now on the land watching evolution as if on a fast forward. The
masses that the craft had fired into the ocean were changing, DNA
combining, cells forming.

William watched as single celled organisms started to form, joining to
become multicellular. Ther seemed to be something wrong with the DNA,
parts of it seemed to be dissolving. What were once six base pairs now
only had four survive. But the four based pair organisms seemed more
heartier, stronger, than the thier six base pair relatives, who
quickly died out. Ocean creatures formed, fish came out of the water
and breathed with primative lungs. William watched the rise of the
reptiles, the dinosaurs, as they existed on a planet made mostly of
swamp. Mammals suddenly made an appearance, but were small and
weak and lived in hiding.

Then William saw something shocking. The race of the most intelligent
of the dinosaurs, the velociraptors, started evolving even more,
devoloping advanced brains. They started using sticks and stones as
tools, started evolving slowly into an almost primate physiology. They
were destined to become the superior species on the planet. But that
wasn't right, was it? William soon got his answer.

Another craft appeared in the heavens, different from the first one.
William knew it was the greys. He watched as landing parties and small
craft in the air analyzed the air, soil, and lifeforms. Then, William
watched in horror as they greys, without so much as a backward glace,
used what looked like some kind of gravity control to manuver a huge
asteroid onto a collision course with Earth. He felt himself cry out
in disgust and fear, as the asteroid crashed into the Yucatan, sending
up fire and earth into the sky. He watched as the sun was
blocked out and the cold blooded reptiles started dying. The
herbivores went first, when the plants died, soon followed by the
carnivores who had nothing left to hunt and eat. The semi-sentient
descendants of the velociraptors and thier emerging culture were
utterly destroyed. The Earth sunk into a nuclear winter, and fallout
from the asteroid began to settle. Glaciers formed over the
land masses and the Earth became uninhabitable for the greys. It was
too cold.

The ones who were exploring settled into a dormant state of the black
oil deep beneath the surface of the Earth, and the grey's spacecraft
flew off into space. Then the mammals began to rise, the age of the
reptiles having been abruptly destroyed. The DNA which had survived
from the first ship began to reassert itself and primates began to
form. Millenia passed and primitive anscestors of humans began to
form, the species that was known as australopithicus. They were
basically advanced knuckle draggers. They were at the same stage of
development as the raptors had been when once again the greys
came and found the Earth teeming with life.

William turned to Emily. "Why am I watching this? I didn't know about
the raptor civilization, but the rest of this I learned in school."

"Watch," she said, "What you are witnessing will be the only thing
that can save us." 

William was even more confused but if his sister had come with some
message of how to win the upcoming invasion, he would watch and
remember. Were the greys planning on using another asteroid? History
said no, but maybe that's what they were planning in the future
invasion. But not this time, as William watched.

The greys came down and began to study the primative men. Then, as
William watched in disbelief, the greys began to cross thier DNA with
the primatives. Strange new offspring were born, with the physical
attributes of the austrilopithicus, but witht he intelligence of the
greys. The species homo had arrived. Homo habilis walked around,
superior to its parent species, but the greys only produced a few of
them. William fought back anger as he saw the race had been created as
a sort of slave race, being made to dig in quarries for
metals such as gold and silver and other resources. Basically, the
ancestor of modern man was created much as he mule was.

William felt a sense of anger and pride build up. How dare they! They
had no right! But his anger faded into a grin as the greys realized
thier mistake. The new species evolved quickly, much faster than ever
before. What once took several thousands of years was done in only a
hundred. They jumped from homo habilis to homo erectus, then to homo
neadertal with a sub branch of what would become homo sapiens. The
greys kept experimenting, creating new species, trying to get it under
control. The Earth was a mining colony to them, but was fast
developing into a permenant colony as they had always intended. The
early humans saw the aliens as gods, thier ships were firey chariots
in the sky. 

But one race of humans seemed different. It was a species very similar
to modern man, in fact WIlliam couldn't seen any difference, except
that this race had absolutely no psychic ability. While the average
homo sapiens had a certain degree of access to other planes, this
species didn't, but they had far more advanced logical brains. Two
great empires rose up from these people, and William recognized them
as Atlantis in the Atlantic, on the early landmass that
was Cuba, and the one known as Lemuria or Mu on another landmass in
the Pacific.

The greys were alarmed. Thier mule race had risen much faster than
they ever had, they had to be controlled and quickly before they
challenged thier masters. Mu and Atlantis already were developing
aircraft and other vehicles, and had harnessed electricity and sola
energy. Abandoning all experiments and mining, the greys once again
intervened in Earth history, using a strange looking device to focus
the sun's rays on the polar ice caps. They melted rapidly, in only a
week, huge chunks of iceberg breaking off and raising the
ocean level by several hundred feet in only hours. William knew he was
watching the Great Flood of the Bible. This certainly explaiined why
nearly every culture all over the world had a Flood Myth.

William watched, helpless again, as the beautiful civilizations of
Atlantis and Mu were destroyed and humanity plunged into another era
of darkness, technology forgotten, other races destroyed and
forgotten. But the Earth was still not quite inhabitable with all the
water and unusable land mass. So once again the greys left. Over the
next few centuries scout ships returned to check up on things and it
seemed that the human race just didn't want to roll over and die.
They proliferated and rose again in another great civilization.
Finally they arrived in the present era, as scout ships returned to
observe the new civilization.

They greys now realized they couldn't depend on a natural disaster to
claim the planet, they had to wipe out the entire sentient species. In
order to do that, they had to be more covert, in the form of the
virus. But they had to ensure that humanity didn't unite against them,
or the ruse would be useless. By this time humand had devloped nuclear
weaopns and if they used them against the greys, the Earth would end
up useless to any race. Slowly and carefully, they infiltrated the
societies, influencing leaders, mostly through religions,
making sure they were misinterpreted and used as excuses for war and
genocide. Religion and emotions intrigued the greys. They were purely
a human trait. Emotions could be used to divide the huans, but they
could also be used to unite them. The bonds between related humans
were astonishing, even a little frightening. But it was religion that
got the most attention. The humans claimed the one true creator had
talked to them. They tried to verify this, copying down the hnumans'
religious texts on thier ships and computers for study.

William saw the greys' dillema. IF religion truly meant that a higher
power was talking to thier mule race, it changed the whole concept of
taking the planet and destroying them. But the greys convinced
themselves that it was nothing and moved forward with plans to retake
the planet.

"Disgusting isn't it?" said a man behind him. William turned and saw
his grandfather William Mulder, whom he had been named for, standing
behind him. At this point, William was not surprised in the least.

"Hello, Grandpa," he said.

The man smiled, "It's good to hear you say that. But I wish we could
have met under better circumstances."

He came up to William and put a hand on his shoulder. The visions of
the Earth's history faded awy into darkness and he stood there with
his grandfather. He could see vague shapes of people standing in the
distance, and he recognized some of them as his aunts Melissa and
Samantha, his grandfather Bill Scully Sr., and the three Lone Gunemen,
surrounded by several others.

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked his grandfather.

Bill Mulder looked down at his son's son. "It was my hope that my son,
your father, would fight the coming future, and he has, with your
mother's help. But there are places even they can't go. The situation
has changed with the death of the Plan and the Syndicate. Now, a new
route must be taken, one only you can travel. Do you remember the
first ship you saw that fired the DNA into Earth's oceans?"

William nodded and his grandfather continued, "They were a race that
has long since dissapeared, a race no one has ever lain eyes on. They
are known by many names, but they are the life givers, the gardeners
of the galaxy. They traveled from system to system, dropping thier DNA
into planets, hoping life would form. On many different worlds,
species so different from each other you could not believe they had
common ancestory emerged. But one thing they all had in common
remained."

"Thier DNA?" asked William.

"Yes." Bill Mulder continued, "Thier DNA, a six base pair DNA, this
distingushed them from other life forms. They may look different but
all offspring of that original race are bipedal homonids, with two
eyes and a mouth, and above all, psychic, telelkenetic and telepathic
abilities."

"But humans only have four base pairs, and we can't do all that
stuff." countered William.

Bill Mulder smiled a pained sort of grimace, "We could if they had
left us the hell alone. You saw how the raptors were developing.
Another few millenia and they would be a reptillian race capable of
all of that. Yes, they would have only had a four base pair DNA, but
for some reason on this world, the four base pair worked better for
life than the six. This is the reason the greys wiped them out. You
see, in the greater more connected society of the species who are
known decendants of the seeders, they only recognize sentient, or
worthwhile life, as those who are six base paired life forms, because
this is proof that they too are offspring of the seeding race.
Therefore, since the raptor race only had four base pairs, it was
decided that they were not worthwhile life and were open for
destruction so the greys could colonize thier planet. And the
same mentality goes for us, humans are only a four base pair
lifeform."

"But that's crazy!" stormed William. "Look at us! We have spaceships
of our own, we've walked on the moon. We have vehicles and a
civilization, everything! How can they say w're not sentient or
worthwhile to live? Who are they to make that call? They KNOW we're an
advanced civilization, we're around even after they tried over and
over to wipe us out. And if we're so useless and expendable, why
experiment with us in the first place?"

"Because," said Bill Mulder, "As you say, they know damn well what
they're doing. But they can explain it away on the four base DNA
bullshit.' It's ok because they're not one of us, we have six, they
have four.' But they experimented with us for that very reason. You
saw how the Atlanteans and Mu people had no psychic ability? Well, the
reason for that is entirely the greys. You see, humans could do all
the things the greys can do, telekenisis, telepathy, all of that, and
more even. We can connect with the true higher power and heavenly
realms, we can concieve of angels and other unseen beings
beyond anything they can do. The only reason it remains a vestigial
talent, is due to the flow of blood to the human brain. We use only
ten percent of our brains, for everything, from body functions to
thinking. The other ninety percent is the phsychic ability, but it's
not active because the brain doesn't recive enough blood flow and
nutrients to sustain the energy it needs. It's like having a 100 watt
bulb but only enough electricty to put out 30 watts. They altered our
physiology such that we couldn't take in enough food or air to
do all of that, at least now now anyway.

If we were to evolve more, probably. But right now, half the food we
eat and air we breathe goes to power that ten percent. We'd be eating
all day and on oxygen just to stay alive if we used all of our brains.
But you, Wil, you're different."

William shook, not sure he wanted to hear this. His grandfather
continued, "Like your friend Gibson Praise and a few other people on
the planet, you brains are activated in certain areas that normally
aren't. But you are far above them all. You have access to all of your
brain's functions, but on a normal human metabolism. What this means
is, you can use your abiltes, but not all at once. If you decide to
use telekinisis, for example, you would use up so much energy that you
probably wouldn't be able to move for a while afterwards,
and you'd be so hungry you could eat a whale. And it would depend on
how hard you use the ability. Moving a small object probably wouldn't
hurt too much, but moving a truck could knock you out cold."

William took it all in. It made sense, why his unique talent came out
at a time when he was excited or using alot of energy. But while all
of this was very intriguing, it didn't help him know how to stop the
invasion. What was the point in showing him all of this? The only
thing he seemed to have learned was that the greys considered them to
be more worthless than pond scum beause they were short a few DNA base
pairs, and that they wanted the Earth for themselves, had wanted it
for years, and had demonstrated a revolting lack of concern for
life on several occasions, by slamming a meteor the size of Arkansas
down to kill the dinosaurs, and melting the polar ice caps to kill the
humans. None had been entirely successful in that there were still
reptiles and humans, but it had succeeded in wiping out the current
civilization. So how they hell was that supposed to help them win this
time?

If the aliens had that kind of technology back then, how far had it
advanced since then? They had super soldiers running around in
strategic places, a virus ready to be unleashed and if that didn't
work, they could always try the asteroid thing again. What did
humanity have? A space shuttle? What a laugh, it was like trying to
fly a hot air balloon at an F-16 and hope you hit it. Humans
have guns but that would require getting through Al's protecive
technology to use it. Scully had wondered initially if using a virus
of their own might work, as in War of the Worlds, but how to
administer it was another story. It was known from abductees that
there were always decontamination devices all over the alien ships.

William looked up and asked, "How is any of this supposed to help me?
Help us? Knowing all this stuff only makes me see what we're really up
against, ruthless and unfeeling THINGS who could give a damn about our
protests and claims to the planet. They don't care, and we can't beat
them with technology. We're out of options. Yeah the Mag guns might
work, but even Dad says it a 50/50 chance,"

Bill Mulder sighed, and said "Son, don't you get it? Don't you see? Of
course humanity can't stop them. Oh we can give them a good fight,
maybe even hurt them bad enough to where they'll back off for a few
generations, then come back. But for the past few million years they
invested in this planet, for reasons even I don't know. A bunch of
upstart rebells aren't going to make them give up now, and no psychic
kid is going to either. It's not your job to stope THEM, William, but
to summon the ones who CAN."

William's head spun. Summon? What was he, a wizard? No way. And summon
who? Or what? 

"Summon? Summon what?" he asked. "Who the hell could stop them? The
clones and hybrids?"

"No, Wil," said Bill Mulder, "The ones they answer to. Didn't you hear
me say there was a society in the galaxy? The greys aren't the only
race besides us descended from the orignial race, there are others,
many others. And they all live by one code, to leave in peace with
thier brother races. What the greys have done is against thier law.
They've tampered with and altered a race left by the founders, they've
attempted genocide on several occasions, this is not allowed by the
society's law, because they so revere the founder race. To
disturb what the founders had set in motion is the closet thing to a
sacrilege beings without emotions can reach. Because if one race will
treat it's brother race in that manner, nothing would stop that race
from conquering another. It's thier way of maintaining order and
lessening warfare."

"But you said they all share a common 6 base DNA, how could we prove
that we're thier brother race if we only have 4? They may agree with
the greys, that we're expendable animals to be used and discarded. We
could end up with several races coming to do us in instead of one."
protested William.

"Son, when you've got nothing you've got nothing to lose. If you don't
call for help, you WILL be conquered. Humanity can't fight them off
alone." said Bill.

"So how do I call for help?" asked William.

"Just call, with your heart and mind, see if you can't reach them."
Bill replied.

"And what's to keep the greys from intercepting it?" asked William.

"I don't know." Bill replied reluctantly, "But it seems that telepathy
only works if you WANT someone to hear it. What Gibson can do is
unique because he can hear thoughts that are not intended for him to
hear.This could be because the average person does not know how to
direct thier thoughts. But think about when you talk to him
telepathically. You only hear each other when you want to.
 Either that or just pray they aren't listening. Remember, they think
it's an anomaly for a human to be able to talk this way anyway, much
less to send out that kind of signal. But they know it's possible.
Just remember what I told you about what happens when you expend that
kind of energy on a mental task. Remember what it might do to you.
This is your job, William. This is why you're here, because you are
the only human on the planet, even beyond Gibson who could talk the
way the rest of the founder's races can. That's why you're
special, that's why God sent you to the parents He did."

William was thunderstruck! "God sent me?"

Suddenly a woman appeared to his right, and he recognized his mother's
sister, his aunt Melissa. "That's right, baby." She smiled at him.
"The one thing the greys never understood, the one thing they won't
let themselves comprehend. For all that they revere the founding race,
they won't let themselves think about who created the founders, or who
inspired the founders to set off across the galaxy seeding other
worlds. They never stopped to ask why humans have the one
advantage they don't, we live in a world of spirit and emotions, not
logic and material. We recognize the existance of the soul, at least
most humans do. We have access to the plane of the spirit, the
afterlife, and energy. Our race, for all that it's been tampered with,
has also been guided by another force, the same force who sent down
its own wisdom when our creators had abandoned us, the same great
being who gave us the guides that led us to a civilization that
grew faster than any in the galaxy. You see, for all that religion has
been twisted and used for personal gain of various humans through
history, in it's pure form, it tells the only truth. That above the
greys, above all life, is one unmovable being who created everything.
And it doesn't matter which religion you want to look at, they all say
the same thing.

Forget the rules of the Christian church, or the laws of Judaism, or
the beliefs of Islam, even Buddhism. The base of every religion says
the same thing, just in different words. And that is, there is
something greater than ourselves and we are related to it. And that's
who sent you, Wil. You're the one human who is not a part of all this
manipulative mess. You were born to two people who love each other the
same way this being loves all that its created, and they love you.
Through thier example, you'll find the strength to save all
of humanity. I know that doesn't make sense now, but it will."

His aunt gave him a hug and faded back into the distance. His
grandfather smiled and hugged him as well. "Good luck, boy. Just
remember, you're not alone." Then he, too, faded away.

"Time to go, brother," said the small voice behind him. He turned and
saw Emily holding out her hand. He took it and she led him towars the
darkness, which turned into the blackness of space again, the stars
shining like diamonds.

"Go on," she urged, "Call them."

Not knowing exactly what to do or say, William called out, "Hello?
Anyone out there?"

Emily giggled. William sighed a little annoyed, then closed his eyes,
reaching down with ever ounce of will he could muster. He MUST do
this, or they were all dead. 

"Hello? HELL-OOOO!!!! Can anyone hear me?????" he mentally yelled,
praying none of the greys were listening.

'Please, God if you're up there don't let the greys hear.' he asked.
The he resumed calling, "Please, anyone, anyone at all.....can you
hear me? We need help! Someone please help us!" He thought about his
family, his parents, his friends, his world, all dying a slow horrible
death and called again, getting desperate. His grandfather was right
about the energy expendature, he felt himself growing weak.

Suddenly, unbelievably, came a response! It was strange, an alien
mind, but not unkindly, more confused than anything. "Greetings....we
hear you. But who are you? We do not recognize your race mind."

William prayed for the right words, "Please I am called a human. We
are a race that is offspring to the seeders, the founders who spread
life through the galaxy. We're under attack by another race. They will
come to destroy us. They have tried before and succeeded in destroying
another seeder offspring race on our planet. Now they want to destroy
us. I was told this was against the law."

Now the alien mind sounded really confused, "Surely you must be
mistaken. We know of no race called 'human.' And what you are accusing
is very serious indeed, if accurate. Why do we not hear more of your
people at your location?"

William felt himself strining to the breaking pint to keep the
connection, and he didn't have time for a lengthy debate. "We are
still an evolving people. This attacking race has altered us to thier
own purpose, as slaves. But when we grew on our own they sought to
destroy us and take the planet for themselves. We would have the
ability to talk to you if we had not been alterend and limited. I
don't know why I can speak to you, but I can and I'm speaking for my
people. We are a child race still growing but being forced back into
childhood. We haven't got the technology yet to stop them. They are a
much older race than we are. Will you help us? Can you help us? Even
if you can't, know that this race is breaking one of your most sacred
laws. If they do this to us, they could do it to someone else, maybe
you. Isn't it worth even checking out?"

"Agreed." came the reply, "But we still must verify that your race
has a......." The voice faded out and William felt himself falling.
Suddenly he was lying on his back, floating, and Emily stood above
him. 

She smiled at him and bent down and kissed him on the cheek. William
felt a warm glow fill his heart, the same one he had felt when he
hugged his mother for the first time. He smiled sleepily up at his
sister, then faded away into deep slumber.

The Final Stand pt. 4


The first thing William became aware of was the steady beeping sound.
Then he became aware that he was cold. The next thing he felt was a
headache that would make a migraine feel like a paper cut. He groaned
in agony and whimpered. Instantly, he felt his mother's arms around
him and felt her rocking him slowly.

"It's OK, Wil, it's OK. I'm here now.." she whispered.

Slowly he opened his eyes. Everything was a blur and out of focus but
he could see he wasn't outside anymore. He was in a hospital and the
beeping was from the monitors. He felt someone else move in bside them
and heard his father's voice.

"Hey buddy, welcome back. You gave us a hell of a scare. Scared Eric
too, he found you out cold on the ground."

Scully sounded a bit more miffed. "I knew it, I knew it was a bad
idea." She hugged him closer.

"How long was I out?" asked William.

"Almost a day," said his mother. "William, what happened?"

He slowly lay back and smiled at his parents before drifting back off
into sleep. "I called 9-1-1."

Mulder and Scully looked at each other, puzzled. William ended up
staying in the hospital for an extra day for obsevation, then, the
doctors satisfied he was on the mend, was sent home.

In the days that followed, William begun to understand the meaning of
the term "mother-smothered." Dana Scully had been very upset by what
had happened and had to convince herself that her son was really ok.
That involved confining him to bed for the next few days drinking a
gallon of water a day. Mulder had been frightened too, but was more
convinced that William was not going to die from his ordeal. After
arriving back home, and to pass the time, William wrote down
everything he could remember about his experiences and gave them to
his parents to read. They had held off from questioning him for the
most part, but as they read the notes, the questions came pouring out.

Scully seemed to think that it was all a dehydration induced
hallucination, but Mulder, who had himself been through the Navajo
ritual of the Blessing Way, was all too familiar with such
experiences. And the information was intriguing. If it was correct, it
meant that they were all either in deeper trouble than they
thought, or maybe there was a ray of hope for the human race after
all.

On the third day, William was on his computer talking with Josh via
video conferencing. He hadn't given his friend the details of his
vision quest, opting instead to simply tell him that VR games had
nothing on the ancient ceremony. Scully popped in once to gather up
some laundry and to admonish both boys not to try anything like the
vision quest without adults around. After assuring Josh that they
would be visiting later that summer, William signed off
and went out to enjoy the first day outside since his mother sprang
him from his imprisonment.

He walked out into the backyard and saw his mother swinging in the
hammock. He walked over and crawled up next to her.

"Where's Dad?" he asked.

"Finishing up that intersession psychology class he was teaching at
the college. He'll be home later this afternoon." She paused a second,
then said, "We want you to come to the Aegis meeting tonight, you
might need to tell them what you saw."

William was momentarily stunned. Him? An eleven year old kid speak to
all those grownups about his vision? He knew about the meeting, of
course. It would be the first time since its inception that all the
leaders of Aegis would be together in the same room, hell the same
town, for any period of time. They had planned to disuss the final
preparations before the invasion in six months. It would be the last
time they would all see each other alive, probably. Agents
Doggett and Reyes were coming along with Director Skinner, from the
FBI. Lone Gunmen Jimmy and Yves had arrived last night with what
information they had. Several others from various clusters were
arriving either by car or plane all throughout the day. William hadn't
even expected to be there himself, figuring he was going to be left at
a friend's house or with a babysitter. Tomorrow was the fourth of July
and they had been planning a BBQ and fireworks, possibly the
last party or festive time they would ever have as a group. He had
been planning on going to the picnic, but not the actual meeting.

Not knowing what to say, he simply nodded and snuggled close to his
mother. The day was beautiful for a summer day, not too hot and
breezy. They were under the shade of the arbor and could see the
clouds passing by. William relaxed, enjoying the day and wondered if
he would ever have a normal life. It was as normal as his parents
could make it, sending him to Pecos Elelmentary School,
involving him in activities, giving him birthday parties and vacations
to Disney World. But there was always the unspoken invasion
overshadowing it all. Like the way he had to carry his phone weapon
everywhere and be on the lookout not just for strangers following him
but UFO's in the sky. It was in the way that his father always set up
portable motion detectors in the hotel rooms they stayed in, as well
as his grandmother's house. It was the fact that Roswell was
the only place his parents felt safe enough to let him go outside by
himself, which he was never allowed to do at his grandmother's house
or anywhere else also reminded them of the inevitable future.

They stayed outside for a long time, just looking at the clouds, both
wondering about what was to come. Scully knew her son was scared, but
she admired the way he handled himself, never giving in to panic. She
knew it must be a terrible strain on him, and she knew it wasn't fair
that he should have to live like this. She alsmost wished he had never
started searching for her, never started the chain of events that had
alerted those dark forces to his whereabouts, killed his adoptive
parents, and destroyed the safe haven she had made for him.
But she was so glad she had him back now. She knew, as she had perhaps
always known, that no place was really safe, not even Roswell. After
all was said and done, she was his mother and he belonged with her and
Mulder. She felt terrible guilt and sadness for the Van de Kamps and
hoped God would forgive her for putting them in this situation that
had ended thier lives. And speaking of God, where was he right now?
She remembered a vague dream she and Mulder and William
had all had on the night they had brought him home to Roswell, of all
three of them on a beach. The Van de Kamps had been there, and there
had been a voice and a glowing cross in a fog. She had wondered if it
had been a sign from God or wishful thinking. She supposed they were
all about to find out.

**************************************

Later that night, Mulder, Scully and William walked into the giant
meeting hall of the local church that they had rented for the night
for the meeting. William, bowing to his mother's wishes, had put on
his nice shirt and shorts, and his parents had put on thier work
suits. Several people were gaurding the doors and surrounding area,
and William could see the telltale bulge of both MagGuns and regular
guns beneath thier coats. But other than that, it looked
for all the world like a simple large meeting, with chairs set up and
a podium in the front, as well as a table heaped with sandwiches,
punch, fruit and cheeses and cookies. After giving a plaintive look to
his father, William scooted off for the table with Mulder calling
after him not to go too far.

It seemed like all of Aegis was here as well as thier families.
William waved to several children he recognized from his neighborhood
who were the sons and daughters of scientists, government officials,
military personel and other assorted professions, all whose parents
had come to Roswell for the express purpose of joining the underground
resistance against the invasion. Like him, these children had been
raised on the knowledge of the future and he felt a certain
familiarity with them. Gibson Praise came in with his friend Doug
Eagleman, followed by Eric Hosteen and his father, Albert Hosteen's
son. He spotted Reyes and Doggett and Skinner talking to his parents
up front and Jimmy and Yves nearby. He scooped up some more sandwiches
on a plate and grabbed a cup of punch, and turned to go to his
parents. Suddenly he bumped into someone, nearly spilling his drink.He
looked up and felt his mouth drop open.

It was Jeremiah Smith, or one of them anyway. He knew them to be
clones, half alien and half human hybrids created by the Syndicate who
had rebelled against them and were fighting with the resistance now.
William had seen one of them before (or was it this one?) but, knowing
what he now knew, he openly stared. This man was part alien. He could
sense it in the man's thought processes, as Gibson could. Also, he
knew, the man could change physical appearances. He didn't sense any
bad feelings from the man, but was still uneasy with the alien
presence. The man only smiled, excused himself and walked on. William
shook himself and went to sit down next to his parents.

What followed in the next two hours ranged from attnetion gripping
interest to coma-inducing boredom. Several people got up to speak
about the progress of thier particular field in the resistance
movemnt, which would be carried back to the indavidual cells and
clusters of people who had not come to the meeting. A group from the
Center for Disease Control reported that 2/3 of America had
been vaccinated with the vaccine with more every day, that similar
reports from other countries insured that over half of the human
population would survive the virus holocaust. However, they reported,
it was likely that with the death of the Syndicate and the destruction
of the bee fields, the virus would likely be airborne now, as well as
inserted into food and water sources and, thought he vaccine worked on
all forms of the virus, to be on the lookout. A man in a
military uniform reported that several groups within the military had
placed various troops in strategic locations and armed them with the
new MagGuns adpated for tanks and ships. He said that while the
average serviceman didn't know much about the upcoming threat, they
had been told to be on alert for December and any time before that. It
seemed though, that the higher levels of the military were still
operating until vestigial Syndicate orders, and so the bulk of the
resistance in the military were enlisted men, who would do most of
the fighting.

Skinner, Doggett and Reyes spoke about the government itself, and
those they had formed contacts with in Congress and the CIA who could
be trusted. They had extensive information from former Syndicate
sources stating that the aliens knew about Aegis, probably even the
weapons, and were possibly stepping up the timetable, meaning that the
invasion could come at any time, maybe even later than December, just
to throw us off. It wasn't clear if they knew about the
vaccine, though Reyes figured they didn't, otherwise it would be more
likely that they would postpone the invasion until a new virus could
be developed. Jimmy and Yves spoke about the warnings and preparations
they had been putting out on the internet the past decade, avoiding
detection from the government as best they could, warning people about
the upcoming invasion. Groups such as MUFON and NICAP had been sending
out the word, preparing people, anyone who would listen, about what
was coming.

Finally, Mulder and Scully got up to speak about alternatives, and
that was hiding. Scully had been in contact with several groups in
northern Canada, South America and Africa who had built hiding
facilities in the jungles and underground caves where people were
stocking up on everything from food to books and recordings of
everything they could save on the human civilization. It was a sort of
Noah's Ark and was considered a final ditch effort at saving
anyone who  could carry on the present civilization after the
invasion. William was beginning to think that they had forgotten about
wanting him to speak and was just beginning to relax when Mulder
announced that his son would speak about his vision during a vision
quest.

William felt his face turn red as Mulder spoke, "My son is a very
special person. From the moment he was concieved it became apparent
that he was important in the entire business in a way we didn't
understand. We had people telling us he was a miracle, others telling
us to terminate Scully's pregancy, to not let this baby be born. When
he was born, several SS arrived, even though Dana had been hidden. We
knew they were there to take him away from us, but when he was born,
for reasons we still don't fully understand, they left him
alone and left the scene. From that day, it seemed everyone and thier
grandfather wanted him. Members of a strange UFO cult in Canada
kidnapped him, saying that the SS were angels and he was thier leader
who would bring God's kingdom to Earth. This was a quite a
misinterpretation on thier parts about the SS, but it didn't change
the fact that William was important to the Super Soldiers. From what
we heard, whoever raised William would be the ones whose
victory in the upcoming battle would be ensured. This is why I was
marked. The SS figured that if I raised my son to my own values, he
would fight against them. If they took him, he would end up fighting
on thier side. My brother Jeffery decided to end this debate by
hampering William's gifts with a magnetite injection, but this didn't
work as well as he had hoped.

So we did the only thing we could do to keep him safe. Dana arranged
for him to be adopted by an annonymous couple and raised in secret.
This fell apart three years ago following the murders of these people
and William came to be with us again. From an early age, William has
demonstrated amazing abilites, some of which many of you are familiar
with. However, just last week he underwent a special test of the local
Native American tribe, and he saw something  I'd like for him to share
with you."

Mulder beckoned to his son, and, face still on fire, William slowly
went to the podium. He stood on a box to reach the microphone and was
relieved when his parents stayed up there with him. He looked out into
the sea of faces and felt his knees knocking together. Scully put a
hand on his sholulder and whispered, "Don't be afraid, Wil. Just tell
them as best you can."

Gulping, William pulled out the papers he had written for his parents
describing what he saw. In as much detail as he could his wavering
voice described seeing the birth and evolution of all life on Earth
and the creation of modern man from an already evloving species. He
descibed what he had been told by his grandfather Bill Mulder about
other species all arising from one founding species, and that to
tamper with or make war on a brother species was considered against
the law of the galaxy, that it had been ignored in thier
case becuase humans and all life on Earth had only four DNA base pairs
while offspring species of the founders had six. William stressed,
though, that he had been told that life on Earth was also from the
founding species and therefore what had been done to them was wrong,
although it should seem obvious. He also told them abolut sending out
a distress call as best he could and having made contact with some
unknown entity. Coming to a close, William stepped back behind his
mother who leaned into the microphone.

"People," she said, "Niether I nor Mulder can confirm or deny any of
this, but I believe my son. I can't say for sure how much of this I
can accept, and I do not suggest we should change any of our plans,
but I'd like to know how all of you think this might fit into the
whole operation."

Mulder then spoke up, "Also, taking into account that yet another
entity is involved or knows about what's going on, we have no way of
confirming that they'll be any help. Hell, they may agree with the
greys and decide we need to be eradicated. Or they may do nothing at
all. But if they decide to help us, we just might have a real fighting
chance."

William slipped back to his chair as questions broke out and everyone
started speaking at once. William glanced over his shoulder at
Jeremiah Smith, whose expression had not changbed a bit. Then, he
turned and stared at William and winked.

*******************************************

Though the mood of the meeting had ended on a grim note, the family of
three had decided to go ahead with thier anual trip to visit freinds
and family. William was glad to be going to see everybody, but nervous
about leaving the safety of the magnetite zone. he had a bad feeling
that unseen forces were just waiting to pounce like a fox waiting for 
rabbit to come out of its hole in the ground. He knew his parents felt
the same way, but it didn't stop them from flying out of Santa Fe a
week later headed for Des Moines.

William always enjoyed visiting Midville. For the first six years of
his life he had grown up in the small town knowing everybody and,
though Josh's family had really been the only ones he had been close
to, he missed the familiarity of the small town. The first summer he
had visited with his birth parents, they had gone out to the farm
where he had lived with Bob and Nancy Van de Kamp. He had wanted to
see it and so had his mother. But once in sight of it, William
felt a desolate feeling come over him and had wanted to leave. The
farm now belonged to another family and it was someone else's home. He
always left roses on the graves of his adoptive parents and they
managed to squeeze in going to his old church at least once a visit.
But it was visiting with Josh that William really looked forward to.
The boys had remained friends, even with a four year age gap and
several hundred miles between them. Thank God for the internet. Josh's
parents and sister had been equally as glad to see him and
meet his birth parents.

During this year's visit, William had been told not to mention
antyhing to anyone about the upcoming war. There was nothing any of
them could do about it and it was better if they just didn't know, to
let them live out the rest of the few months in peace. What's more, it
was likely that Midville wouldn't be a high priority area in the
invasion anyway, so it was likely everyne would survive the intial
wave of attacks. After that, if the humans were going to win
it would depend on how well the intial attack was diverted anyway.
William found it hard to keep quiet, especially with Josh asking him
every five minutes what was up. William just contented himself with
spending as much time as possible with his friend. After all, even if
Midville survived the invasion, there was no garuntee William himself
would.

It's a strange realization for a child to come to, contemplating his
own immenent death. After all, what eleven year old lived his life as
if he only had five months left? Maybe one with terminal cancer.
William had been surprised with himself at how calmly he was taking
it. The only thing he hoped for was that it wouldn't hurt too much
when his time finally came. He wouldn't allow himself to wonder if he
would survive. he hoped he would, but steeled himself for the worse as
his parents seemed to be doing. They only spent three days in Midville
and William walked to the cemetary with his mother the last
afternoon. She laid a white rose on the Van de Kamps' graves, and
whispered, "Thank you both, for everything."

With a brief hug to William, she turned and walked a few steps away to
give him some time to himself. William looked down at the headstone
marking the graves, remembering three years ago standing here with
Doggett and Reyes. A super soldier had come to get him and he shivered
in memory. He remembered his dream of the beach, with Bob and Nancy
dressed in radiant white smiling at him as they vanished into a
brilliant white fog. He remembered the booming voice and
the glowing cross. The voice had said they were not alone, they were
being protected. Was it true? He had been raised to believe in God,
but did he really?

Had it been God or another force that had spoken to him during his
vision quest? And if there was a God, would He help them? He had
prayed for help as he knew his parents and many other had, but so far
they had not gotten an answer. The aliens were still coming. He closed
his eyes trying to quiet the turmoil of his mind, when he felt the
wind blow his hair. The sun peeked out from behind a cloud nd shone
right down onto his head. As he opened his eyes, he was suddenly
ware of how beautiful a day it was, and how pretty the churchyard was.
Trees, swayed in the wind, a cool breeze swept thorugh the town, the
sun was shining in the most clear blue sky he had ever seen. He let
his mind wander back to Sunday school at this same church, and the
stories they had learned through the songs they had sung. He
remembered the stories telling about how humans were favored best of
all creation, even over the angels, how they had been given
paradise and this beautiful planet. They certainly hadn't done a good
job of showing any gratitude for it, maybe they deserved to loose it?
What would it look like when the grey's got a hold of it?

No, he told himself. It's ours.

He looked into the distance and saw a storm cloud far off. It was
casting a rainbow across the distant sky. Suddenly he remembered the
stoy of Noah, and how the rainbow was the promise that humanity would
never be destroyed again. Was this a sign? A sign form God? He felt
that it was and felt a weight lift from his chest. He smiled.

Looking down at Bob and Nancy's graves, he whispered, "No more. No
more of this. No one else is going to die, no more families are going
to be torn apart. I'm ending this. I promise you."

He turned and wlked back to his mother.

************************************************

Leaving Midville was always hard and waving goodbye to Josh made
William certain he would never seem him or the town again. He didn't
even try to fight back the tears as they drove away. Mulder tried to
lighten the mood by getting them to sing along to old Ray Stevens
goofball songs. William never thought he'd see the day where he and
his parents were singing along to "Osama Yo Mama".....

"Osama, Yo Mama didn't raise you right
When you were young she must've wrapped your turban too tight
She shoulda kept you home on those Arabian nights....."

They sang along to "Ahab the Arab" and "Sitting up with the Dead"
amongst others. By the time they were on the third verse of
"Mississippi Squirrel Revival" William was feeling a little better.