Redemption (15/26) by GeorgeHale Rating: R Feedback: Classification: Colonization/Mythology/MSR/William, post I.W.T.B. Canon. Spoilers: Left, right, & center. This is best served if you REALLY know your X-Files. Disclaimer: I wish I made this. This has been my catharsis, five years in the making. Maybe it can be one for you, too. Warning: Violence, Gratuitous employment of the 'Our little sailor' clause (swearing,) Fluff with two 'f's, Cheesy dialogue, Friendly Ghosts, Melodramatics, Plot devices, Fiji Mermen (no, not really,) Angst, Blasphemy, Dehydration via crying, Scientific Whammies, Plams, Lots & Lots & Lots of...Bees, Magical Growing Scully Cross Chain, Red Herrings. It's going to get strange and ugly before the end. ------------------------------------------------------------------ XV ------------------------------------------------------------------ "If coincidences are just coincidences, why do they feel so contrived?" - Fox Mulder, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose ------------------------------------------------------------------ Will did not know Rachel very well but was learning how to work with her in tandem to clear the top of the debris pile. It had taken them a while to develop it, but there was a rhythm to the work they fell into for as tedious as it was. His hands clawed away the dirt and ash into piles on a tarp the others rigged and occasionally they dragged it to the edge of the pit and left the debris fall into the abyss below. They had been at it for hours, but it didn't seem like they had cleared much away at all. He thought of the sand ships he worked with Mulder to destroy and how comparably his hands had moved, how similarly the boredom of it all made his mind wonder far from the task at hand. At least the others would be able to help when they worked their way lower to the more stable rocks. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Later, they all awoke disoriented in the near dark, positioned halfway between the abyss they had emerged from and the large debris pile that barred their escape. It had been difficult to rest through the smoke wafting from below, but the teargas and sirens had finally tapered off in the late hours of the morning and they were exhausted enough to pass out in the warm, dry air. They had ate together as a group once awake, dissecting dry MREs Skinner warned them they would have to ration wisely. "Wise decisions will see us through," he said. "Poor planning and logic will get us killed. Even now, we really shouldn't be eating." Scully took the opportunity to give everyone a once over the best she could and was pleased everyone else had escaped with minor scrapes and bruises. "Why?" William questioned, trying not to be annoying but curious as always. Skinner looked to Scully shortly, realizing she would not want him to make light of their situation. "Your body can go a lot longer without food than it can without water. When you eat, your body uses water to process the food. Unless you replace that water, you become dehydrated that much faster." "But, we need to keep our energy up if we're going to think ourselves out of this mess. Turn off your lights a moment and look over there," Kevin countered. He pointed to the distant cord where they should direct their attention. The others obliged, shutting off the flashlights that had illuminated their conversation. "There's light coming from over the abyss," Byers said excitedly as his eyes finally adapted to the dark. "We didn't come this far up with Mulder," Frohike added, "but he said just before we left that he had anchored that cord to an intake. Come to think of it, he also said he left a bag up here with some stuff he didn't want to haul back down and up." "Where would he have put the bag?" Langly questioned standing up, turning his light back on. "It's probably buried. Worry about that later," Skinner said, waving him down. "We need to figure out what we're going to do to get out of here." "Given enough force, we could pull that grate out," Kevin speculated, flashing his light where the cord disappeared into the smaller shaft of the airway. "If we pull out the grate, we won't have anything to climb," Langly pointed out. "Not to mention how much force you'd actually need to tear it loose," Frohike added. "If it didn't come down with Mulder hanging off it, we're not going to be able to pull it out." "You guys go ahead and try to figure this out," Scully said, standing and brushing herself off. "Meanwhile, I think Will and Rachel will be willing to help me start clearing debris over here." She made it clear by the tone of her voice that she felt that would be their best option and the others were wasting their time arguing otherwise. ------------------------------------------------------------------ William sighed as Scully flashed her light over the large pile of rocks blocking their way. Boulders, dirt, and large rocks filled the passageway nearly to the ceiling and the base of the pile appeared as deep as William was tall. "It won't be impossible, Will. Small drops erode mountains," Scully told him. "Yeah, eventually," Will said, flashing his own light at the base of the pile, "Over millions of years." He gingerly tested his foot on one of the boulders to see if they would shift beneath his weight. "Be careful," Scully admonished without thinking, surprised to hear the worlds spill out of her mouth. Will shot her a stubborn look and pouted in a familiar way. Scully repressed a smile even as Rachel looked at her as if she was crazy. "Okay, I'm sorry, go slow," she amended, unable to believe how much she sounded like her own mother. Her thoughts began to drift in that direction, but she forced herself to stay focused on watching Will's footing as he climbed. Will bit the inside of his cheek to keep from saying something mean. He didn't know why he was feeling so angry, thinking of the old man who had disappeared before joining them last night. He was jittery from the strong emotions he was feeling courtesy of the others and upset after thinking about Mulder and the other people lost from below. At least tackling the debris pile gave him something to focus on. He saw Scully pull a tarp from her pack and wondered where she had acquired it. She looked up at him once she saw he was watching. "Do you always come prepared for everything?" he asked. "Mulder and I got trapped in a cave once...twice actually," Scully countered. "Three times if you count-" "Actually? Is there anything you two haven't done?" He reached down to help Scully arrange the tarp so the debris could slide down, the slightest air of unintended nonchalance in his tone. Scully thought a moment of her and Mulder's misadventures through the years as she positioned the rest of the tarp on the ground and smiled, growing more serious. "Lots...actually. Slide everything onto the tarp and we can move it to the edge. We'll need to move all of this away from the door, or at least far enough to force the door open several feet," Scully directed. "Face masks," she said pointing, leveling the Gunmen with an icy glare since they had left theirs slip down around their necks after their meal. "Assuming the doors move outward," Langly said, coming from behind with the rest of the party. "They open inward," Skinner said as a matter of fact. "Let's all lay our tarps out. We can take turns dumping the rocks," Byers said, already digging into his pack once he lifted his facemask back into place. Climbing several feet, William held his hand out to Rachel to help her gain her footing. Her smaller hand in his left him feel an unexpected soothing numbness and he realized she was very different from anyone he had ever met. He wasn't expecting how much she weighed, either, and nearly toppled over with her in his distraction. He left the thought go as he caught himself and helped pull her up, trying not to dwell on how much her hand in his reminded him of his sister's. "I'm really sorry, Rachel," he babbled, apologizing as he recovered. *'You almost dropped me, and my name isn't Rachel!'* Will stopped cold realizing that the girl had spoken to him without using her lips and dropped her hand. *'I'm Joy,'* she told him silently, digging her hands deep into the rubble. Angry with himself, William dug his hands even deeper and willed the rocks below him to move. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Skinner left with Kevin to stand at the edge of the hole where they had emerged, flashing his light down the dark canyon. It was over 500 feet from where they had begun their climb and he hoped there wasn't anyone left at the bottom. "Hold what you're doing and be quiet a minute," he shouted back to the others, needing to be sure of something before they proceeded. "Anyone down there?" he bellowed, waiting through the echo and deafening silence that followed. "Theodore," he yelled, wishing their friend would call back and disprove his prevailing theory on the fate of the old man. "Theo!" Kevin screamed. The echo and dead silence that greeted him almost made him wish for the sounds of the roaring fires and klaxons that had sounded but hours before. They would never know what had kept the old man from joining them in their escape and he didn't want to talk about any of the possibilities. He pondered the drop before them as they mourned their lost friend. "If we could get that cord over here, I could climb to the grate. If there are any other those anchors left, I could-" Skinner placed his hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Stop, Kryder. What you are proposing is out of the question. I know what you're saying and I want to get out of here just as badly as you do, but I don't think you should risk your life to do it unless we can't clear the debris." Kevin looked down at Skinner's hand before looking up into the older man's eyes, nodding a silent assent. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Mulder was stumbling and delirious when he made it back to the Greenbrier, crazed as he vainly tried to locate the area the others would emerge from if they had survived the attacks. He could not stomach the thought that they may already be gone and was feeling desperation that he could not find them. Scully had been right to deride him. There was no one to hear his screams but he was out of control, operating solely on instinct and desire. A small part of his rational brain demanded calm, but the rest of him raged and channeled what adrenaline he had left into continuing the search. "Scully!" he screamed hoarsely at the top of his lungs, not caring so much who heard him, as long as she did. It briefly struck him that he should be concerned with hostiles being nearby, but he no longer cared. They could take him and kill him as a favor if he had left his family and friends to their deaths. "William!" he cried, voice cracking. A small tone from a device on his hip made him jump and told him he was near his coordinates, but he wondered if it was inaccurate. He was climbing over fallen pines coated in ash through an area that looked nothing like the wasteland he had left. He would have chosen to disregard the technological device, but the ache in his knees and elbows had returned in full force and he knew the bunker lay directly over the thickest veins of magnetite in the area. His body moved slowly and then quickly in short bursts, relaying the battle between his exhaustion and overwhelming need to find out what had happened as worst-case scenarios taunted him. He would not have known he had found the grate if he hadn't fallen on it. The grate immediately began to give beneath his weight and he scrambled off it just as it fell several feet and wedged in the airshaft below. ------------------------------------------------------------------ They all heard the thump and the consequential grating of metal against rock as the grate lodged itself at an angle down in the airshaft. "What the hell!" Frohike clamped his hand over his mouth as soon as he shouted, sure it was unwise. ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Frohike?" Mulder yelled, unsure he had heard his friend or not. He scrambled back to the edge of the black hole and coughed on the smoke and fumes wafting through as he called again. "Frohike!" "Mulder! We're down here!" Scully screamed back, unable to keep the wave of relief washing over her from finding itself in her voice. "Are you all right? Do you have everybody?" Mulder strained to see, though he knew it would be impossible from this angle. He was relieved but frustrated by the distance between them. "We lost Theo, but we're otherwise okay!" Scully coughed heavily from straining her voice, her throat still damaged. "I'm going to get you out of there!" Mulder called back. Scully felt absurd and glad, screaming over the dark abyss at the unseen hole in the ceiling as the others looked pointlessly skyward. "Sure, Mulder. Fine, whatever!" Mulder chuckled and grinned as he rocked on his knees, reveling in the coded joke he and Scully used when shared they were miserable but physically okay. The meaning of the words had evolved through the years since they had first used them. ------------------------------------------------------------------ It took several hours for everyone below to pull the grate from the ceiling. Mulder used his advantage with a large branch to move the bottom grate as he could from above. Finally, after a great deal of shoving and heaving, it tore from the ceiling unceremoniously and fell into the abyss with all the other debris followed shortly by the grate Mulder had originally landed on. More light would have streamed into the hole it left, but darkness had fallen by the time they finished. Exhausted, parched, and dirty, they decided to sleep and build their strength to escape in the morning. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Loud gunshots tore everyone from their slumber as a struggle broke out on the surface where Mulder had been resting. Feeling helpless, Scully listened below as shot after shot exploded in different directions. "Mulder! What's going on up there?" Her gut clenched as he expended his clip. She scrambled with her light to her pack, searching for her weapon in the small compartment that housed it. She joined Skinner and the others at the ledge straining to hear in the darkness, but Skinner's hand on her wrist halted her from flashing her light up at the abyss. "Don't let anything up there know we're down here," he demanded in a hushed tone. Mulder's feet scuffled on the ground above and they heard him throw his rifle to the ground when it jammed, cursing as something in the distance emitted an otherworldly moan. Shortly, he appeared from the airshaft, repelling quickly above the abyss where he stopped. "Get ready! They're coming!" Flashlight in hand, William shone it now where the others pointed their weapons. Mulder used the rope he was hanging on as a pendulum and began to give himself momentum. He needed to get to the other side before whatever creatures pursuing him decided to cut his rope or follow him down. He swung hard just as the first clone launched itself down the airshaft at him, catching his legs. The creature's downward momentum combined with his own to send them violently twisting over the hollow below. Mulder had just been able to shake the first free of one of his legs when another came speeding down through the airway and landed on Mulder's shoulders, nearly tearing him off the rope. A loud rapport from Scully's gun accompanied the creature from Mulder's leg down into the pit. Skinner picked off another entering above, but another behind it launched itself from the opening onto Mulder and off him toward the others, ending in a flurry of light and bullets as they backed up from the edge firing. Mulder didn't feel the bite in his shoulder, but the creature terrorizing him stopped suddenly and fell from his back, shot through the neck. When no sound came from above and Mulder was able to gain his sense after spinning so fast, he looked to where the others stared at him with mixed expressions of shock, squinting as one of them pointed their flashlight in his face. He could see one of the clones lay sprawled at their feet, but Kevin moved quickly and placed a few more rounds in its face before kicking it unceremoniously into the pit. "You alright, Mulder?" Byers called out. Mulder looked down at himself, just realizing how tired his arms felt. "I think so," he said. "Swing your way over here then," Skinner instructed, indicating the others should move back as he took his own flashlight from his belt. "Lower your light, Will, you're blinding him." Shock had set in on the frozen boy who had never seen such carnage. Scully moved up behind him quickly and hugged him back against her even as she lowered his light, allowing Mulder to momentarily see the wide-eyed terror that had gripped him. His exhaustion demanded his attention, however, and he climbed down several feet so that he would be able to swing the rope easier. Within several attempts, he maneuvered close enough for the guys to grip him tight enough that he was able to hang onto the ledge where the others pulled him up and secured the rope. On hands and knees, Mulder groaned and coughed as the abuse his body had suffered over the last two days sank in. "I thought you said you were okay," Frohike said, hunkering down beside him. "He's shot," Langly pointed out using his own flashlight to show the tear and wound in Mulder's left shoulder. "Ugh," he grimaced. Acid from the clone's own wound had eaten away some additional skin and muscle, leaving Mulder's arm looking gruesome beneath the shredded cloth of his combat fatigues. Scully had looked up with trepidation at the mention of Mulder being shot from where she had sat with William in her embrace, now wrapped in her blanket. Meeting Mulder's eyes, seeing the love, remorse, and relief that radiated from them at her and their son, melted the anger she had harbored at him since he left. He crawled the several feet that separated them and sprawled on the ground beside her, sighing and resting his head on his arms. "I knew you'd come crawling back," Scully betrayed more emotion than the sarcasm she intended, allowing her free hand to brush tenderly through his hair. Mulder hummed a low affirmative in his throat, freeing a hand to place over her own.