In the Light of the Frozen Moon (10/?)
by Decoyly

Disclaimer: Mulder, Scully aren't mine, they belong to CC 
and Co. Absolutely no copyright infringement is intended! 

Feedback: decoyly@gmail.com 

Rating: PG-13

Classification: MSR

Author's Notes: I know this has been a LONG time coming, and I'm
so sorry it's taken me so long to continue, but I'm finally back
and I thank you ahead of time for not giving up on me! :)


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"Aunt Claire?"  Cook just stared at Agent Dekker.  He was 
seriously starting to worry her and need to get inside before
he got frostbite or pneumonia.  What was he thinking coming
out into a blizzard without a coat?

"I swear, she was right here!"

Searching the whiteout that raged around her, the SAC took 
out her radio again, smacking it against her gloved hand until,
to her great surprise and relief, if finally let out a squawk
of static.  She said a silent prayer of thanks and pressed
the button to talk, keeping a careful eye on Agent Dekker as
she said, "This is Cook, can anyone hear me? Over."

Nothing.

She tried again, shouting to be heard over the wind.  After
the third try, a crackling voice answered, "Hear you--
where--hello?"

At least there was someone else still alive out there.
Still staring out into the snow, Dekker started to take a few
confused steps forward and Cook quickly grabbed his shirt to 
pull him back.  She was notletting him out of her sight.

"Cook?" 

"Yeah, I'm here.  Has anyone seen Aunt Claire?  Over."

There was a lot of loud static and then suddenly a chorus of 
shouted words, only one of which she caught.  "Shed!"

She had no time to ask what was wrong because Agent Dekker
chose that moment to pass out.

~*~*~

Mulder and Scully followed Kaya down another cool glowing-
tracked tunnel, exchanging a look over the little girl's
head.  Had the missing Japanese diplomat's daughter really
just wandered out of a secret underground maze perfectly
fine after all this time? What was she doing down here?
She sure seemed calm for a  kidnapped six-year-old.

"This is a pretty neat place," Mulder said easily, trying 
to keep his voice nonchalant.  "I bet there are some good 
places for hide and seek."  

"Oh yes," Kaya said nodding.  "There are."

He glanced at Scully again and swallowed against a lump
in his throat. Feeling the tiny cold hand in his pulling him
forward, he had to resist the urge to pick the little girl
up and promise her that she would never have to hide again.

"Are we going to one of these hiding places?" Scully asked,
matching Mulder's easy tone.

"Yes," Kaya said, rounding another corner. That was it. She
was a girl on a mission.

"Is there something special about this hiding place?" Mulder
asked, really missing his gun right about now.  In all that
shed chaos, both he and Scully had lost them.  Since neither
weapon had rained down around them with the foosball table,
they were probably out laying in the snow aboveground right
now. Maybe they'd get lucky and someone would find them and
come looking for Mulder and Scully. If the shed even still
existed anymore.

"Yes," Kaya said again then suddenly stopped short.

~*~*~

Another glance was shared between adults and Scully knelt
down next to Kaya. The little girl was frozen to the spot,
face a mask ofpure terror.

"It's okay," Scully said softly, drawing Kaya's attention.
In a sudden jolt as she jumped, seeming to notice Scully for
the first time.  Glancing down the mostly dark tunnel ahead
of them, Scully asked, "Is there something bad down there?"

Kaya nodded sharply, valiantly trying to hold back her tears
as she unconsciously started to inch towards Mulder. Scully
glanced up at her partner and he knelt down next to them.

"It's okay Kaya," he said softly.  "We don't have to go down
there if you don't--"  His words were cut short as the little
girl launched herself at him, wrapping her arms fiercely tight
around his neck like she'd never let go.

Scully swallowed hard, watching Mulder hug the little girl and
sooth her back, promising her that he wasn't going to let
anything bad happen to her.  She looked so tiny in his big
winter coat.  

"Shh, it's okay," he murmured to Kaya, meeting Scully's gaze
over her shoulder.  Scully nodded slightly.  Kaya trusted him
now and she had no problem with letting her partner take over.
Whatever was down that tunnel wasn't something Scully wanted
the little girl anywhere near.

"I don't want you to die," Kaya suddenly said through the tears
she couldn't hold back anymore.  She turned to look at Scully.
"Both of you."

Scully quickly hid her surprise and offered what she hoped 
was a reassuring smile when she said, "Sweetie, what makes
you think we're going to die?" 

Big tears welled up in Kaya's eyes but she bravely held them
back this time even though her lip quivered when she answered,
"Because the masked men just said so."

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SAC Cook was finally standing back inside after what had felt
like hours of dragging a poor, very confused, Agent Dekker back
to the Inn.  If she hadn't literally run into the missing agents
on her way back, she wasn't sure she could have gotten him
inside. Now she was standing in a room full of tired, angry,
confused  FBI agents all demanding to know what was going on.
Unfortunately, she had no good answer for any of them.

"You're insane!" Stern was shouting at another agent who
looked like, well like he'd been out in a blizzard--cheeks
red, nose running, hair all over the place.

"I'm telling you, that's what I saw!" the other agent
shouted back just as fiercely.  

If she didn't do something soon, Cook was going to have a
full fledged brawl break out right here in Aunt Claire's
cozy lobby.

"Okay everybody just calm down," she said, holding up a
hand to stop all the responses before they could come.  She
sighed internally, feeling like a mom trying to get all her
kids to behave.  Some days, like today, the analogy wasn't
that far off.

"He says the shed exploded," Stern said, letting his obvious
disbelief show through his tone.

"Not exploded so much as--"

"Where's Aunt Claire?" Agent Dekker suddenly said, causing
everyone to look at him as he stood up, letting the blanket
he'd been huddling under fall to the floor.

Cook sighed internally.  "Agent Dekker, you really need to
try and keep warm."

"No!" he shouted, eyes wide.  "If she's out there, we have
to go find her!"

"And where were you?" Stern asked, turning on the now not
so missing agents.

The arguing started up again.  Closing her eyes and counting
to ten, Cook opened her mouth to speak, but realized something.
"Where are Agents Mulder and Scully?" 

~*~*~

Neither Mulder nor Scully knew what to say to that.  They
were alone in the tunnels with Kaya, no "masked men" in sight.

"You heard them talking?" Mulder asked carefully and Kaya
nodded her head. She had stopped clinging to him, but was
still staying close.  "Just now?" 

She nodded again, biting back tears.

"Kaya," Scully said quietly, taking the little girl's hand.
"Do you know what a policeman is?" Another nod.  "Well that's
what we are, and I promise you that nobody is going to hurt
anyone else down here, okay?" 

Kaya studied Scully a moment, then answered, "But you're a
girl."

Both agents had to grin at that and Mulder said, "Yes she
is, and you know what?  She's a better policeman than a lot
of boys I know.  She's even stronger than me."

Kaya smiled shyly at that, looking down at her hands. 
"That's what my daddy says about me."

"And I bet he's right," Mulder said, smiling.  "Now what do
you say we get out of here and find some ice cream?" 

Kaya perked up at the mention of ice cream and for a brief
second she was just a sweet little six-year-old without a
care in the world again.  It didn't last long though, and
his heart ached as he watched her face fall.

"We can't go," she said so softly he almost didn't hear it.
Looking up at him, she added a forlorn, "There's--" She
stopped short and terror flew through her eyes so fast Mulder
actually stood up, instinctively going for the gun he no
longer had.

~*~*~

"What?" Scully asked, suddenly on alert too.

Kaya was so scared she was almost hopping as she
whispered, "They're coming!"

~*~*~

"We can't spend all our time looking for Spooky and his
girlfriend," Stern shouted, glaring at Cook.  "And why's
everyone suddenly looking to them anyway, huh?  It's not
like they know what's happening any better than we do!"

It took all of the Cook's patience not to send him to
his room like the spoiled little brat he was acting like.
Ignoring stern, Cook began splitting teams into thos
looking for Aunt Claire, those looking for Mulder and
Scully, and a few people to hang back and watch poor
Agent Dekker.  How had this mission gone from one
missing little girl to two missing girls, two missing
FBI Agents, and one missing host/Aunt?  Not to mention
the two dead bodies, one of which was also missing.
At this rate, they weren't going to have anybody left
to do the finding. 

Cook glanced out the window at the blowing snow.  The
blizzard looked even worse if that were possible.

"Okay people, let's move!"

"Wait," Agent Winkley suddenly spoke up, and everyone
looked at him.  Being the closest thing they had to a
doctor now, he'd volunteered to stay behind with Agent
Dekker.  Now he was squinting at the far wall like he
was trying to see something that wasn't quit there.
"Do you hear that?"

~*~*~

Mulder didn't wait to ask who, scooping Kaya up in his
arms.  "Scully?" 

"Go," she agreed, and they quickly began heading back
the way they'd come. 

Scully kept a lookout as Mulder led the way and suddenly
an alarm sounded somewhere deep within the tunnels.
She and Kaya grab for their ears.  Mulder winced but
didn't lose his hold on Kaya, who squeezed her eyes shut
and buried her face into his chest, mumbling a scared,
"No, no, no, no," over and over again.

She didn't hear any running feet or shouting yet, but
Scully had a very bad feeling that both would be coming
soon.  She half expected the tracks to start flashing on
and off in some sort of emergency warning light, but
everything stayed eerily the same minus the screaming
alarm.  The acoustics of the cave weren't helping, making
the noise bounce around and echo so loud and chaotically
it was giving her a serious headache.  But that was the
least of their problems right now.

~*~*~

They came to another fork in the road and Mulder was
surprised when Kaya suddenly pointed to the left and
said, "There!"

He began heading towards the left tunnel but she
struggled in his arms, pointing to the wall, "No,
there."

At first he thought she was just distressed by the
alarm, but the closer he got, the clearer it became.
What looked like a solid wall was actually another
passageway, another wall hidden so well behind the
first that you wouldn't see it if you didn't know
where you were going.  He thought about Kaya's sudden
appearance and realized the girl had somehow figured
out the hidden passageways, a subsystem in the maze
that was this strange underground deathtrap.

When the floor gave a slight tremble, he realized
that he could hear a familiar low rumble underneath
the blaring of the alarm.

"Mulder--" Scully said at the same time and he
grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the secret
passage.  The water was back and it was approaching
fast.

~*~*~

"It's just the wind," someone said, but Agent
Winkley shook his head.

"No, it sounds more like...almost like a tornado
siren," he said, brows furrowed as if that helped
him hear better.

There silence for a moment and another agent
finally said, "Yeah, I can hear it too."

Stern let out a disgusted huff, which lasted so
long Cook finally turned to tell him to stop. 
That is, until she saw his face.

"What the--" Caught up in a sudden coughing fit,
Stern grabbed for the back of a chair.

Without warning, the world seemed to go on mute
for a moment.  Even the blizzard paused for a
second as, to everyone's shock, a sound so low it
was more of a feeling deep in the chest whooshed
through the room like an invisible mushroom cloud,
knocking everyone off their feet.

When Cook managed to regain her balance, the
first thing she noticed was the ringing in her
ears.  The second was that Agent Stern was lying
on the floor, passed out.

~*~*~

The secret tunnels weren't lit by tracks like the
others, and Mulder only hoped that Kaya knew where
they were--that she would warn him if he were about
to step off into oblivion.  He was trying to move
as close to the wall as he could, Kaya in one arm,
his other hand locked around Scully's.  He wasn't
about to let either of them go in the dark.

The alarm wasn't quite so loud now, but it was 
getting harder to breathe.  He could hear Scully
struggling behind him.

"Mulder?"

"Yeah?"  He stuck out his foot to test the
ground around a sudden bend in the road, and
satisfied that it was solid, he moved forward.

"I not quite sure.  I think--" 

Without warning Scully's hand tugged on his
hard and Mulder tightened his grip, feeling
his partner fall.

"Scully?"  There was no answer.  "Scully?"

Silence.

Fear surging through his veins, Mulder forced
himself to sound normal as he asked Kaya, "Are
you ok if I set you down for just a second? 
I promise I won't leave."

He felt her nod and set her down carefully,
wishing he had some shoes to give her.  

"Is Miss Scully going to be okay?" she asked,
taking hold of the back of Mulder's shirt to
let him know she was still there.

"She's going to be fine, she's just a little
tired," Mulder answered, glad his voice sounded
a lot steadier than he felt.  

"Scully?" he tried again, kneeling over his
partner, simultaneously trying to find a pulse 
and feel if she was still breathing.

"Mulder?"

He was so relieved he was glad neither Scully nor
Kaya could see his face.  Not wanting to scare
the little girl, he carefully said, "I'm right here."

~*~*~

"Miss Scully?" she heard Kaya asked in a small
voice and Scully fought to sound stronger than
she felt when she said, "I'm okay, sweetie."

"Did you trip?" the little girl asked in that
innocent way of children, and Scully said that 
she had, even though both she and Mulder knew
that wasn't the case.

It was getting harder and harder to breathe and
Scully gripped Mulder's hand tighter.  He squeezed
right back, quietly asking, "Do you think you can
sit up?" 

"I--" She couldn't finish her sentence because with
a horribly dizzying moment, she was overcome with a
coughing fit that made it feel like her lungs were
trying to make a break for the outside world.

"Scully?"  Mulder helped her sit up, hitting her
back the way you do to help someone who's coughing.
It wasn't helping.

Finally with one last violent cough, Scully could
breathe again.  

"Scully?" Mulder tried again, and she could hear the
worry in his voice, everything he wasn't asking because
Kaya was there.

She nodded even though he couldn't see it and made
a move to stand up.  Neither of them were saying what
they both knew.  That hadn't been a normal coughing fit.
Scully had been coughing up blood.

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To be continued...

Author's Notes: If I still have any readers, I'd love
to know. LoL I promise not to make you wait so long
for the next part. :)