From: AuroraVer2 Date: 08 Nov 1999 20:43:04 GMT Subject: NEW: Ivory Twilight (1/1) by Aurora Vere Ivory Twilight (1/1) by Aurora Vere Archive: Gossamer, yes. Ephemeral, yes. Anywhere else? Ask and it shall be given. :-) Category: V, VR Rating: PG-13 Spoilers: Biogenesis, Sixth Extinction Keywords: MSR, Post-episode, Sixth Extinction Summary: Scully returns to the Ivory Coast, to show Mulder what she'd failed to discover. As he searches the shore, looking for any trace of evidence, Scully sits at a distance, reflecting upon her discoveries of the heart. A loosely written post-ep vignette to "The Sixth Extinction". Notes and thanks: (Consider all this spoiler space) This was written after "A Dawn of Discovery", as more of a 'sequel' to the ideas presented in it. For anyone who read "The Protector", I'm hoping to gather up everything and turn it all into one big novel -- that is, the next time I'm stranded without wheels and I have nothing but time on my hands. Thanks again to Sabine, who hasn't read this yet but is always telling me to keep writing! Thanks also to Miri for giving this the once-over. And thanks to everyone who's made me feel at home here -- you're the best! -------------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes I feel I speak to your mind. I never imagined it would become truth. * * * * * * The Ivory Coast is beautiful by twilight. Untamed, unspoiled, almost virginal with its white sand bathed in the blue of the approaching night. It is promised by hand to no one, owned by nothing. Kings may claim dominion of its shore, but none can lay claim to the source of its beauty. It will forever remain a mystery, along with the craft which once rested beneath these virginal sands, beneath their veil of water. I wish that you had seen it. I wish you could have been here to find the answers which eluded me. If you had been here, everything would have been revealed in time, to a more worthy seeker than myself. And there you sit, on the rocks above where it once rested, gazing at the emptiness beneath you. Even from this distance, I can see the pain in your eyes, the regret of not being able to have shared this discovery with me. I will keep my distance, if only to dilute my thoughts in your mind. I need the luxury of privacy after hiding them from you on a 22-hour flight. I couldn't even sleep for fear you might somehow hear my subconscious desires. I wonder how you hear them, Mulder. The voices in your head, the thoughts and feelings of people around you. The gift is phenomenal, and God knows I'd love to sit you on an examining table and figure out how the hell you were able to acquire such a gift, how that gift empowers you. But you have taught me that some things are best left without explanation. At least for now. I can't begin to count the times I held that very same rubbing in my hand, hoping I could gain some insight as to how your mind had become affected by it. Nothing. Yet the minute you acquired the rubbing, everything was different. Everything. Your brain began adjusting, your temporal lobe swelled with consciousness beyond your own and led you nearly to destruction, until you learned how to control it, to channel it, to force it into submission. My mind hurts when I even think of the possible reasons, none of them logical or scientifically definable. You never seemed surprised when I told you of the test results, when I showed you the CAT scan and explained the exact match of neural activity to that of Gibson's. It was as if you'd already known. It was as if you'd known everything. And for that reason, for the millionth time in my life, I stand in complete awe of you. For what purpose were you given it? Were you called by the forces at hand? Were you chosen by them to inherit the powers that can only be fully realized in some other consciousness, some other existence? Are you truly the prophet I've theorized in my wildest, most scientifically abandoned hypotheses? And if you are, if you have been chosen, then how? And why? If only we'd acted in time, we could've found the craft. Together. It wanted you, Mulder, not me. It had a message for you. A message which I could neither discover nor find the ability to interpret. We could have worked together, on this ivory sand. You and I, partners, as it should have been. You could've placed your hand to the craft as I've imagined, listening to its words, understanding them, absorbing them into you. I would have helped you in any way I could, documenting the evidence, testing it, analyzing it to confirm without a doubt in my mind that it was truly something beyond the realm of science, something beyond ourselves, yet so deeply connected to us. And then my mind begins to wander, as it has before, and I imagine what also could have been. You would have pried my deepest secrets from the depths of my soul without asking. I would have given them to you willingly, without saying them, knowing that you could read my every thought, my every desire. I would then be naked, exposed, in front of you on this beautiful shore, in your beautiful mind, and I would feel no shame. I would feel no shame in exposing myself even further to kiss you, to show you the emotions you already knew, already under- stood in your heart of hearts. I would feel no shame in reaching for you and holding you close to me, feeling your heat embrace me and warm me from the fierce winds. I would just feel you then, wrapping myself around you, pulling you down with me onto our virginal bed, the white sand burning and scratching my skin as you made love to me in every way imaginable, revealing to me what my limited perception could only comprehend in the sight of your face, your contorted looks of pleasure, the sound of my name on your lips, the taste of your sweat on my lips and tongue, licking, craving more, wanting...the smell of your musk, your sex, our sex, blending in a heady bouquet of essence....and the touch of you, all over me...the muscled strength of your arms supporting your weight, the strain of your hips as they pump and swivel that beautiful hardness in and out of me...filling me, completing me, joining us together as one. And then my senses would overload into true, unblinding consciousness, and I would be there, with you, for that one brief, glorious moment in the sand...deified, glorified with you deep inside me, and I would understand what it truly is to know, to be as gods, knowing the hearts of men. "Scully?" I hear his voice, suddenly, carried by the wind. "Scully, I found something. Come here." You found something...? Mulder, there's nothing there. Everything's gone. Everything. I see him walking toward me, his mouth spread in a boyish grin. "Look, Scully. It left something." He opens his hand, revealing a piece of the craft, pitted and puckered by the waves. "Feel it." It vibrates under my fingers. "It calls to me." For the first time in twenty-four hours, Mulder is smiling. "We have to find more." He points to where the ship had been. "The more we find, the closer we'll be. It's out there somewhere, and I have to find it. I *need* to find it." I feel a tear clouding my eye. "Help me find it, Scully." Our hands wrap tightly together, and I find myself speaking to him without saying a word. Sometimes I feel I speak to your mind. I never imagined how long you'd been listening. ---------------- Liked it? Please send feedback to AuroraVer2@aol.com.