"For the first time..." "I feel time like a heartbeat, the seconds pumping in my breast like a reckoning, the numinous mysteries that once seemed so distant and unreal... threatening clarity in the presence of a truth... entertained not in youth," "but only in its passage." "I feel these words as if their meaning... were weight being lifted from me, knowing that you will read them and share my burden... as I have come to trust no other." "That you should know my heart, look into it, finding there the memory and experience that belong to you, that are you, is a comfort to me now as I feel the tethers loose... and the prospects darken... for the continuance of a journey that began not so long ago," "and which began again with a faith shaken and strengthened... by your convictions." "If not for which I might never have been so strong now... as I cross to face you and look at you incomplete, hoping that you will forgive me... for not making the rest of the journey with you." "Oncology?" "Thanks." "Scully?" "I, uh" "I stole these from some guy with a broken leg down the hall." "He won't be able to catch me." "How you doing?" "I guess that's the question." "Actually, I feel fine." "Good." "What, uh, exactly are we lookin' at here?" "It's what's called a naso-pharyngeal mass." "It's a small growth on the wall... between the Superior concha and the Sphenoidal sinus." " A growth?" " A tumor." "You're the only one I've called." "Okay." "Is it operable?" " No." " But it's treatable." "The truth is that the type and placement of the tumor... make it difficult - to the extreme." "I refuse to believe that." "I" " I" "For all the times I have said that to you," "I am as certain about this as you have ever been." "I have cancer." "It is a mass on the wall between my sinus and cerebrum." "If it pushes into my brain, statistically there is about zero chance of survival." "I don't accept that." "Th-There must be some people... who have received treatment for this who we can" "Yes, there are." "This news comes as the worst kind of surprise, Agent Scully." "I'm very sorry." "Thank you, sir." "I don't mean for this to be awkward, and I would appreciate it if we could keep this confidential." "I understand." "I assume you'll be taking a leave of absence." "No, sir." "I've asked my doctors to hold on to my medical records... until Agent Mulder and I can exhaust a possible avenue of investigation." " Investigation?" " Last year Agent Scully and I... pursued a case in which a number of women, purported abductees, experienced similar symptoms after having implants removed from the base of their necks." "A woman in Allen town, Pennsylvania... named Betsy Hagopian, was undergoing treatment for naso-pharyngeal tumor." "We haven't been able to contact her yet." "I'm sure you're aware we have contacts with the best physicians in the country." "Yes, sir." "But for my own reasons," "I would like to pursue this through the Justice Department, rather than as a personal matter." "I'm sorry." "No early birds." "We're not here for the garage sale." "We're looking for Betsy Hagopian." " No one's returning our messages." " Sorry." "Um, Betsy's passed away." "Just two-and-a-half weeks ago." "Are you a relation?" "No." "We're with the FBI." " Been some kind of trouble?" " Betsy was part of a Mufon Group." "I don't know." "I'm just the realtor." "Do you mind if we come inside and take a look?" "Hey, Scully." "Listen to this." "There are two lines coming in." "I noticed this one was lit." "Somebody's sending a fax or a computer modem." "But who?" "And to send what?" "Somebody must have remote access to the system." "They're downloading data." "Copying files." "Let's get a trace on them before whoever it is hangs up." "Apartment 234 is listed under Kurt Crawford." "I'm gonna check around back." "See if you can get the manager." "Stop!" "Federal agent!" "Hold it!" "put your hands where we can see them!" "Is your name Kurt Crawford?" "Yes." " Scully?" " What?" "I'm fine, Mulder." "Quit staring at me." "I'm fine." "You okay, Scully?" "Yeah." "I'm just washing up." "You took his cuffs off." "He says he's a member of the same U.F.O. Network Betsy Hagopian belonged to." "That he was downloading files for safekeeping, as Betsy had instructed him." " Then why did he run?" " He thinks his life's in danger." "He thinks there's government conspiracy to suppress the information in those files." " You think he's credible?" " He seems to know a lot... about what happened to Betsy and the other women... in the Mufon Group that you met at her house." "That will have to be cross-checked." " We can't." " Why not?" "How did they die?" "Brain cancer." "All within the last year." "All of them?" "From the group you met, there's only Penny Northern." "She's in the hospital, and it doesn't look good." "What makes you think this is a conspiracy, that the government's involved?" "What makes you think it isn't?" "Eleven women are abducted, all with similar recollections about the experience." "All developing identical brain tumors, and all refused state or federal health care... because of their insistence of the facts." "And all dying within the space of a year." " I want you to listen to me." " About what?" "About what you won't admit to yourself, what you're denying." " What am I denying?" " Where your cancer came from." " It doesn't matter." " It does matter." "If what you have is a result of your abduction, and that is something the government knows," " then those are facts that should be brought to light." " I don't know what happened." "I have no clear recollection, and I don't think these abductions are even abductions." "These women are dead." "No, they are not." "One woman isn't - this Penny Northern." "Mm-hmm." "If you won't listen to me, then you should go talk to her." "About what?" "What it feels like to be dying of cancer?" "What it's like to know there is absolutely nothing you can do about it?" "If that's too hard for you, then go as an investigator." "You have one remaining witness, Agent Scully." "I'd think you'd want to know what her story is." "Dana." "Hello." "I" " I'm sorry." "Did somebody tell you I was coming to see you?" "No." "Then how did you know it was me?" "I recognized you." "I told you when we met last year." "I held you and comforted you in the place... after the tests." "I'm sorry." "I don't mean to be insensitive, but, uh..." "I don't share those memories." "It's all right." "I've come to ask you some questions." " About Dr. Scanlon?" " No." "Who's Dr. Scanlon?" "He's treating the cancer." "He treated Betsy too." "He thinks he might have isolated the cause." "And that if he'd caught it earlier, he might have been able to do more for her." "And for me." " His name's Scanlon?" " Yes." "What did you want to ask me?" " Mulder." " Mulder, it's me." " Where are you?" " I'm at the hospital with Penny Northern." " Where are you?" " I'm at Betsy Hagopian's... going through some hard files before stuff starts disappearing." "Call me an early bird, but I think I've found something." "Some of these women who have died, they're childless." "They've been treated for infertility at a clinic 30 miles from here" " Penny Northern and Betsy Hagopian among them." " Mulder, that's" "I've made phone calls, tried to get some information, but nobody is talking to me." "Mulder, I need you to come up here." "Did you find something there?" "I need you to bring the overnight bag from the trunk of the car." "And I need you to call my mother... and ask her to bring some things up to the hospital." "Is there anything I should know?" "Mulder, whatever you found, or whatever you might find," "I think we both know that... right now the truth is in me." "And that's where I need to pursue it... as soon as possible." "I will be right there." "Agent Mulder?" "Agent Mulder?" "Dana?" "I'm Dr. Scanlon." "We spoke last night on the phone." "Yeah." "Hi." "Sorry." "I was sleeping." "I noticed." "How's your energy level, generally?" "Oh, you know, I" "I don't" " I don't feel sick at all." "Your M.R.I.'s and your charts aren't here yet." "But I have an idea what to expect." "You probably do too, from your medical training." "I know that chemotherapy is going to make me sick." "And the radiation." "They're both part of a high-dose approach to knock your system down... so that we can attempt a gene therapy on p-53." "You're gonna feel like dying." " Dana." " Hi, Mom." "Hi." "This is Dr. Scanlon." " Hi." " Hi." "I, uh" " I drove." "I was gonna take the shuttle, but it's only an hour more by car." " Can you imagine?" " Mom?" "I'm fine." "I'm going to be fine." "I'm just here for treatment." "I'm gonna go." "I've ordered additional blood work." "I'd like to start this afternoon." "Thank you." "Mom, I know what you're going to say, but I don't have any experience being sick." "I promise you, I feel fine." "I feel" "I don't know why you didn't tell me." "I don't know why you didn't tell me immediately!" "I wanted to get all the answers first." "And you found them here?" "I have found some clarity." "And maybe a way to fight back." "I don't want to be kept in the dark." "You'll know, Mom." "You have always been the strong one." "But you're my only daughter now." "I know." "[ Sobbing Oh, Dana." "In med school," "I learned that cancer arrives in the body unannounced- a dark stranger who takes up residence, turning its new home against itself." "This is the evil of cancer- that it starts as an invader, but soon becomes one with the invaded, forcing you to destroy it." "But only at the risk of destroying yourself." "It is science's demon possession." "My treatments - science's attempt at exorcism." "Mulder, I hope that in these terms... you might know it and know me, and accept this stranger so many recognize... but cannot ever completely cast out." "And if the darkness should have swallowed me as you read this, you must never think there was the possibility of some secret intervention- something you might have done." "And though we have traveled far together, this last distance must necessarily be traveled alone." "I've got a gun pointed at your head." "Turn around very slowly." "Kurt Crawford." "We seem to be traveling in the same circles these days." "Put the gun away." "You disappeared with those files from Betsy Hagopian's." "I called you half a dozen times." "I got to thinking you were a liar." " Tell me I'm wrong." " I'm looking for the same thing that you are." "I've been trying to hack into that system, but I can't seem to make it past the password." " You think you can get access from here?" " I need to find that password." ""Vegreville. "" " We're in." " Huh." "Dana?" "Dana, it's okay." "It's okay, Dana." "You'll be okay." "Where am I?" "You're in your own bed now." "You're safe." "I feel nauseous." "It's the chemo." "The chemo was always the worst." "I had a bad dream." "Some" "Someone was doing something bad to me." "Mmm." "You were there." "I heard your voice." "They let me come to you during the procedures." "I don't know why." "Human compassion is not something that they have." "I'm sorry, Penny." "I can't" "I can't hear this right now." "You've got to try and make sense of it, Dana." "It'll help you through the pain." "To understand why this is- this is happening to you." "I need you to set up a meeting for me." "Hold all my calls." "Where's Agent Scully?" "She's in a hospital in Allentown beginning treatment." "What happened to your investigative avenues?" "They've taken a turn." "A pretty big U-turn, by the looks of it." "This is a file directory from a federally-operated fertility clinic." "Agent Scully's name is on this file." "Although I'm pretty damn sure she's never undergone treatment for infertility." " What's in the file?" " I don't know." "It's just a directory... for a mainframe housed in the Lombard Research Facility." "So you want to set up a meeting." "With whom?" "The Cigarette Man." "I have no doubt in my mind he's behind this." " You've come to me before like this, Mulder." " Well, this is different." " I'm willing to deal now." " Find another way." "No." "No!" "I need that meeting." "You deal with this man, you offer him anything, and he will own you forever." "He knows what they did to Agent Scully!" "He may know how to save her!" "If he knows, you can know too, but you can't ask the truth of a man who trades in lies." " I won't let you." " We are talking about Agent Scully's life." "Find another way." "The Lombard System is a dedicated mainframe... impossible to hack, so they say." " How'd you guys get in?" " A modified Clipper Chip we cannibalized... from a government surplus Army Field Encoder." "We bought it back from the Chinese." "But for all the work it took to get in, what we got on Agent Scully's file, we don't know how much help it's gonna be." " What do you mean?" " It's a gene code we've seen before." " Detected in Scully's blood after her abduction." " Does it tell us anything?" "Normal DNA is inactive when in its helical form." "When it's unwound, or branched like this one," " that's when it's active, when it can mutate." " It's what made her sick." "Why store something like this, and why keep it a secret?" "Scientists get funky about having their research poached." "Somebody might be trying to find a cause." " Or a cure." " Theoretically." "You guys ever been to the Lombard Research Facility?" "Well, pick out something black and sexy and prepare to do some funky poaching." "It's funny." "I always thought of you as Fox Mulder's patron." "You'd think under your aegis, he wouldn't be consigned to a corner of the basement." "At least he doesn't take an elevator up to get to work." "You think I'm the devil, Mr. Skinner?" "I'm not here to talk about what I think about you." "Then why are you here?" "Is it Mulder's partner and her illness?" "Is it terminal?" "Is it cancer?" "You tell me." "Modern medicine today" " I hear they can perform miracles." "I need a miracle." "Well, you think a lot more of me than you let on, Mr. Skinner." " What'll it take?" " For Agent Scully's life?" " What would you offer?" " What'll it take?" "Well," "I'll have to get back to you on that." "Oh, Mr. Skinner." "Which way is the elevator?" "He'll double back in 54 seconds." "Frohike, where are you guys?" "We're in the K-section of the storm drain... where the communications system links up to public power." "Stand by." "Two minutes for a systems check." "We got to go." "We're in motion." "They're in." "Security camera's off-line, patching in now." "Smile, Byers." "You're on Candid Camera." "Exterior security has been breached." "Langly, are you reading this?" "Redundant systems- triple-shut bypass." "This is a toughie." "You guys couldn't spring for two of these?" "What is going on?" "Mulder, this is gonna take a moment." "Boys, we have a problem." "The doctor treating Scully's cancer is on staff here." "More mysteries await." "Bypass is complete." "I need someone to get to Scully to stop treatment." "Right now, you're the only one who can do that." "I have not written to you in thelast24hours... because the treatment has weakened my spirit as well as my body." "Mulder, it's difficult to describe to you the fear of facing an enemy... which I can neither conquer nor escape." "penny Northern has taken a downturn." "I now look at her with a respect that can only come from one... who is about to walk the same dark path." "Seeing her, I can't help but see myself in a month or a year." "I pray that I have her courage to face this journey." "Mulder, I feel you close... though I know you are now pursuing your own path." "For that I am grateful- more than I could ever express." "I need to know you are out there if I am ever to see through this." "Langly, where the hell am I going?" "We're losing you on the video feed, Mulder." "Mulder?" "Did you do anything, Frohike?" "Nada." "I didn't touch a thing." "Down here." "Langly, can you hear me?" "Langly, I can't hear you." "Langly, I can't hear you." "Open the door." "Open the damn door!" "Agent Mulder, come in." " You're hybrids." " Please come in so that we might explain." " You've been using me." " Not at all." "You're arrival was only coincident with the execution of our objective." " What objective?" " To subvert the project." "The project that created us." "I've seen this boy before." "These boys are you." "We're among the end result." " And you want to destroy them?" " No!" "What we want is the same thing that you want." "What are these?" "Human ova." "Taken from whom?" "What?" "Harvested during her abduction through a high-amplification radiation procedure... that caused... super-ovulation." " Why?" " For fertilization." "They constitute one half of the necessary raw materials." "For genetic hybridization." "For reproduction." "These women" "These women are your birth mothers." "Barren now... from the same procedure that caused their cancer." "And now they're left to die, their condition hastened by the man running this project." " You're trying to save them." " They're our mothers." "Mulder, are you there?" "Do you copy?" "Langly, I can't hear you." "You've got a security breach in sectionJ-14." " You sure it's not Byers?" " Nope." "I've got Byers right here on my screen." "Langly, help me out." "I don't know where I'm goin'." "You're in a bio-quarantine wing leading to an exit." "At the end of the hall, you'll access a door to a bio-secure room." "I'm working on the locks now." "Okay, Langly, Frohike, I'm here." "Open the door." "The doors work under redundant systems." "We're working fast." "Work faster!" "Langly, open the door now!" "Get me out!" " Get me out of here now!" " Almost there." "Go!" "Nurse." "Nurse!" "Dana Scully's supposed to be in her room." "Where is she?" " She's not there?" " No." "What happened to her?" " I don't know." "I- - Who the hell does know?" "Mulder!" " What happened to Scully?" " I got to her." "Where is she now?" "Dr. Scanlon isn't coming back?" "No." "I don't think so, Penny." "Dana, I want you to get well." "You've been such a comfort." "You've got to be the one." "You can't give up hope." "I haven't." "I won't." "Is she gone?" "I'm sorry." "I know what she meant to you." "When I came to find you and you weren't in your room," "I got scared that something had happened." "And I read some of what you wrote." "I didn't want you to read that." "I had decided to throw it out." "I decided tonight that, um- that I'm not gonna let this thing beat me." "I came into this hospital able to work." "And that's how I'm leaving." " Byers tell you about Dr. Scanlon?" " Yes." "He may very well have killed those women." "That will have to be proven - if we find him." "When we find him." "Something was done to you - something you're just beginning to remember." "You can't quite figure it out, but it can be explained, and it will be explained." "And no matter what you think as a scientist or doctor, there is a way and you will find it... to save yourself." "Mulder, I can't kid myself." "People live with cancer." "They carry on." "And so will I." "You know, I've got things to finish... to prove to myself, to my family." "But for my own reasons." "Come on back." "The truth will save you, Scully." "I think it'll save both of us." " Skinner." "Oh, I" "I was leaving you a voice mail." " It's 5:30." "What are you- - I'm working." "How can I help you?" "I want you to know that Scully's doing okay." "She says she's coming back to work, actually." "Good." "That's good to hear." "I was calling to thank you for your advice about our chain-smoking friend." "I think you were right." "We have to know what he knows." "We just have to find another way." "There's always another way." "Yes, I believe there is..."