Nobody's Children I'm hoping to fall into grace"
"You don't even know who I am.
—"No Talking Just Head" by the Heads
1. KIN AND KIND
"Sometimes I feel like a motherless child"
—"No Talking Just Head" by the Heads
"I think he's coming around," someone said. Mulder could swear
he heard his own voice talking. As he came to and opened his
eyes, everything came rushing back. His clones. Getting knocked
out and presumably captured by someone.
Brian crouched over him and looked worried. Considering the
barred jail cell they seemed to be in, it didn't surprise Mulder at
all.
"You have your scar back," Mulder said.
Brian brushed his facial scar with one finger. "They took the
makeup off, probably to make me easier to identify at a glance."
He also wore his studded leather collar, the one with the chain link
dangling from it. It relieved Mulder to see his clone looking so
much like Brian after seeing Brian wandering around looking
exactly like him for awhile.
Mulder thought that maybe there would come a day when all this
didn't confuse the hell out of him. He didn't see that day coming
soon.
"How is he?" another Mulder voice asked. Mulder turned his head
to the adjacent cell and stared in shock.
The other cell contained eight men who looked like varying
versions of himself. Different clothing, different attitudes, pale or
tanned skin, and different hairstyles made some distinctions, but
the overwhelming similarities made Mulder's mind shake in
atavistic terror. He returned his gaze to Brian, the one he knew
best.
Brian shook his head. "They netted every Kitsune but Dennis
Bryson, the DEA agent. They also killed many of the guardians
Angel assigned."
"The one who just woke up, he's an FBI agent, right? He can get
us out of this?" one of the Kitsunes asked. He wore suit pants and
a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
"Oh, sure, Brad, he can do so much for us. He's in here with the
rest of us, isn't he?" another answered.
"No, he's not; he's in a cell with the other new one. Why the hell
does he rate?"
"I don't think they'll keep Brain and the federal agent separate
from us for long," another answered, looking briefly up from
tending to a clone who seemed to be ill.
"Like you know anything, Eugene. One junkie looking after
another."
Eugene launched himself at Brad and started to pummel him.
"Oh, here we go again!" one of the tanned Kitsunes shouted as he
and the others tried, with little success, to separate the combatants.
"STOP THAT!" Brian shouted with undeniable authority and
menace.
They all went still.
"Good," Brian said. "The last thing we need to do is knock one
another down. We have enough people here willing to do that for
us. Brad, shut the fuck up. You just managed to provoke
Eugene into a fight, and this is a guy who saved the life of the
gangster who'd tried to kill him. In other words, you're way over
the line. Eugene, let Brad be. He has diarrhea of the mouth or
something. He can't help being an asshole. You cool now?"
Eugene breathed out and nodded. "Okay. Let him go, Jake."
Mulder stood back nonplussed and impressed. Only a few months
earlier, Brian wouldn't have thought of stepping in to take
command and calm everyone down. If he had thought of it, he
wouldn't have succeeded.
Brad's eyes glittered with panic. "I don't think they're ever going
to let us out of here. They already branded us like cattle!"
Eugene lightly slapped him across the face. "It's a tattoo, stupid."
"I don't care what it is! They put numbers into our flesh! Do you
really think they'll let us go after that?"
Mulder saw Brian look away and curse under his breath. "Brian,
what is Brad talking about?"
All of the clones except the one lying down presented their left
forearms for Mulder to see. Each one had a number tattooed in
blue into still red and healing skin. He saw 11, 8, 16, 6, 13, 5, 14,
and 17. Brian sighed and presented his arm with its number 3.
Mulder looked at his own. 2. 2?
"I thought I was the original," Mulder said softly to himself with a
growing horror. "I mean, the Kitsunes are also called the Fox
group. I thought—"
"Maybe the first one didn't survive the process," Brain said.
"But—"
"Mulder! Are you doubting that we're people just because none
of us are the first Kitsune?"
"No, but—"
"Then don't doubt yourself. Shit. This isn't the way you should
have found out. Okay, let me give you the whole truth while
you're still knocked low from the first shot. Scientists designed
the Kitsune line. You weren't a natural birth either. All of your
traits were decided on. You have some of your father's and
mother's genetic material, but they weren't your only gene
parents."
"You're kidding me. Please tell me you're kidding me."
"I wish."
"This was done by other people, not the ones who are holding us
now?" one of the other Kitsunes asked.
"Yeah, Scott E, that's it," Brian said.
"Great. Wonder if my students are wondering what the hell
happened to me yet? Hell, I wonder if the president is. At least I
left that Chaucer mid-term on my desk just in case— Brian, what
day were you taken on?"
"Tuesday."
"Three days."
"Are they staggering the sleeping periods here to screw you up?"
"They turn the lights on and off at random periods. They don't
feed us at regular intervals either. They took all our watches."
Brian checked his jeans pocket. "Damn, they got my pocket watch
too."
Mulder pushed the new knowledge about himself to the back of his
mind. Right now he had more important things to concentrate on.
He had to get all of them out of here. Everybody.
He finally realized that he didn't know who "everybody" included.
"Anyone else taken with us, Bri?"
"Angel, Douglas..." Brian looked away again.
"And?"
"Krycek." Brian spat the name out.
Mulder took deep breaths and tried to push the morass of tangled
emotions down so he could continue to think. "Okay. We have to
get everybody. Speaking of 'everybody,' can I have some
introductions here? I already know Jake Fleiss and Brian."
Once he got everyone to stop talking at once, Mulder put them
through the "who's who" he needed. The Kitsune who'd been
taking care of the ill one, and who'd attacked Brad was Eugene
Sands, a doctor. Brad said something spiteful about Eugene being
a former doctor, but nasty looks from the others shut him up.
Mulder could swear he knew the name "Eugene Sands" from an
FBI case file, but, if so, it hadn't been one from his jurisdiction.
Brad Keating was a businessman of some sort, but refused to
divulge any more details. Lucas Stewart was a traveling
photojournalist, who probably wouldn't have been caught if he
hadn't gone home to Houston, Texas to visit family. Scott Ebinger
taught English at a university in Chicago, Illinois. Scott Schilling,
the sick one, was, to Mulder's shock, an aging rent boy from
Miami, Florida. From Brad's earlier taunt at Eugene, Scott S had
to be going through withdrawal. Peter Watts was a defense lawyer
from Memphis, Tennessee. Doug Litchke was with the Las Vegas
PD.
"But you don't do profiling work?" Mulder asked him.
Doug shrugged and gave his best wise ass grin. "People keep
wanting to promote me, but my rule breaking keeps getting me
busted back down. I like it better where I am."
And that had saved his life. The other two Kitsunes who had gone
into profiling like Mulder had gone insane and committed suicide.
Only first rate care had saved Mulder from the same fate during his
own brief bout with madness. Doug would never know how close
he came.
Each of the Kitsunes had guardians Angel had assigned to them to
keep them safe. Some of the Kitsunes had been taken before they
had a chance to call, others saw their guardians get slaughtered
right before their eyes. More people dead, and for what? Mulder
really wanted to know.
Mulder wondered where their captors had stashed Dark Angel,
Douglas, and... Krycek.
2. AND ALL THE REST
"I'm feeling small,
—"Dumb" by Garbage
—"Torture" by the Cure
Alex Krycek awoke lying down in deep darkness unable to move.
Walls hemmed him in on all sides. He felt them against his arms,
head, feet, and right in front of his nose. So close... His heart
pounded, and he couldn't breathe. He fought the panic down.
His time locked in the missile silo had left him with a raging case
of claustrophobia. He never let the phobia get the better of him, or
stop him from doing anything he wanted to do, but he still couldn't
control the physiological symptoms.
Krycek suspected that anyone who didn't have claustrophobia
would panic too if put in this dark box.
A voice at his ear said, "Come, now, Alexei. You thought you
could cheat us?"
At least Krycek now knew which of the two sides he'd been selling
secrets to had him. In a way, he felt some relief. Mischa had
torturers who could rip you apart while keeping you conscious and
alive for days.
"Fuck you, Majors." It wasn't bad enough that they put him in a
tiny box, they had to pipe in that bastard's voice too?
"Someone should teach you manners. In case you're wondering,
we put you in one of those drawers that morgues have. We felt
you should have a taste of where you'll soon end up."
(Oooooh, scary. You have no clue some of the places I've been. I
had to claw my way out of a grave once, you idiot. But I wasn't
claustrophobic then...) "You can't kill me yet. I'm still useful."
"Once upon a time, maybe, but I don't trust anything you could say
now. Rest in peace until we come for you, Alexei."
Krycek pounded and kicked, but none of the walls gave at all. His
captor had locked him in securely. He tried to slow his heart and
breathing; the air still smelled fresh, but he didn't know if the
supply would last. They might decide to suffocate him. His heart
and breathing wouldn't listen.
He couldn't count on anyone coming to rescue him. He had to
think his way out of this. He'd always escaped before. (I am in
control. I am...)
Krycek ran possibilities through his mind and tried to stop his
phobia from driving him insane.
—"The Thing I Hate" by Stabbing Westward
Douglas stared at the gray ceiling. He had no other choice, not
while he was strapped to the bed with even his head held in one
place. His captors probably thought they could panic him by
leaving him alone with nothing to do beside brood and wonder
about the horrible things they would do to him.
They apparently hadn't listened closely enough the last time they'd
interrogated him.
Not too long ago he had drifted alone in a life raft for about two
weeks on the Java Sea. He had given up all hope of rescue. As he
slowly died of starvation and thirst, the merciless sun baking his
fair British skin, he had looked out at an endless, unchanging vista
of water and infinite sky with nothing to think about aside from his
inevitable death. Not even the horrific hallucinations—like the one
where his dead relatives visited him, or a blazing creature, laid
under his flesh by the sun to incubate, finally hatched and burned
its way free of his carcass—brought on by sunstroke distracted him
from feeling his body die.
Leaving him strapped to a bed and letting him miss a meal or two
had no power over him.
With nothing else to do, Douglas let himself drift into a deep sleep.
In his dreams, Aissa danced, then spoke to him. "You have such
beautiful hands..." Douglas smiled.
—"Orgy" by the Glove
Does it take practice to be as big an ass as you are, Majors?" Dark
Angel asked.
"I would probably find you unbearably annoying if I didn't already
have you in a cage, my dear. Does your straitjacket remind you of
home?"
"Sure, just like my sainted mother used to dress me. The ankle
restraints are a nice touch."
"Once we found out you were the Angel of Death and got our nice
friends in the Consortium to help us out, researching your past
presented no difficulties. I'm only sorry I couldn't recreate either
of the two institutions you spent time in."
"I appreciate your zeal for authenticity."
"The straitjacket, restraints, cage, and five guards should prevent
you from leaving before the party starts."
"Oh, good, I love parties."
Perhaps annoyed by her failure to be intimidated, Majors said, "I
have your lover and all his fellow clones here. I could treat them
well, or make their lives a living hell. Now that we have
identification tattoos on them, Kessler will be easy to single out for
special treatment. Keep that in mind." He walked out the door,
leaving Sera alone with her guards.
"Does anybody have a pack of cards?" she asked. The guards said
nothing and turned away. "Spoilsports."
3. UNDONE
"I'll see you on your way down..."
—"On Your Way Down" by Stabbing Westward
After an interminable amount of time, the guards came for Mulder
and Brian. The other Kitsunes stared in angry silence as Mulder
and Brian let the men cuff their hands in front of them and lead
them away.
As they walked through endless corridors, Mulder kept track of the
turns. Brian probably did too. The guards pushed them into a
room and followed close behind before the door shut.
An officious looking elderly man said, "Mr. Mulder, Mr. Kessler.
I am Mr. Majors. I hope you're enjoying your family reunion."
"I've had better accommodations," Mulder said. Brian kept silent.
"If you're cooperative, we might be able to move you to more
luxurious quarters."
"What do you want?"
"Two nights ago, you visited a certain archive in Washington, D.C.
I want to know what you were looking for."
"I have no idea what the hell you're talking about." [What the hell
is he talking about? I didn't even go out two nights ago.]
Majors rushed forward and slapped Mulder. For such an old man,
he packed some force. Mulder went to his knees. "Don't play
with me, Mr. Mulder."
"I don't know!" Mulder braced himself for the next blow, knowing
that any attempt to resist would have the three guards on him.
"Archive sections B6, E7, and E10," Brian said suddenly, and
Mulder finally understood why his clone had been masquerading
as him.
Majors turned to Brian. "That was you in there."
"Yes."
"What were you looking at?"
"Why do you want to know?"
Majors slapped Brian, but Brian remained standing with the same
blank expression on his face. "What were you looking for?"
"I knew the numbers. I took pictures of what I was told to get and
left. I didn't read any of it."
"Then the Angel of Death knows?"
"She didn't get a chance to develop the film, not when you
immediately went after Mr. Douglas. We know nothing, and
there's nothing you can do to change that."
"I can hurt one of your clone brothers for every refusal you give
me. I think that will inspire you to tell the truth."
"You have the truth. Nothing will change that. And I know you'll
hurt us all anyway. You have nothing to bargain with."
Majors put his hands to Brian's neck and tried to squeeze, but
Brian's studded collar ruined his grip. Brian moved so fast Mulder
could barely see what happened until Majors fell backward,
knocked out from the head butt, even as Brian threw himself
backward onto two of the guards. The third guard raised his gun to
fire on Brian, but Mulder leapt at him and knocked his head
against the wall.
Brian already had his two under control. He rummaged for the
keys and undid first Mulder's, then his own cuffs. "Not bad, hey,
Mulder?"
"I'm not normally this slow, but what the hell just happened?"
"It's okay, Mulder; you're having a bad day. It's a jailbreak. We
put the guards' uniforms on and split up. You let the others out,
while I look for our missing folks. Sera may already be free by the
time I get there, but it can't hurt. Oh, and take a second gun for
Doug. He's a cop, so he should know how to use it."
They stripped two of the guards and changed clothes. Anyone who
knew about the Kitsunes wouldn't be fooled close up, but from a
distance Mulder and Brian looked fine, and that would help make
sure no one had to get close.
As Mulder started to walk as slowly and calmly as he could toward
the cellblock the others were being held in, he heard four shots.
He turned back to see Brian walking out of the room. The severe
black uniform made Brian look even more menacing.
"Just making sure," Brian said before he left to find Angel.
Mulder shuddered and added it to the list of things he would brood
on later, then retraced his steps to the cellblock.
"It's always better on the outside"
—"Climbing Up the Walls" by Radiohead
"Hey, boys, I have something to show you," Serafine said. None
of the guards turned around. "Oh, c'mon, what do you have to
lose?" None of them turned to look. "All right, but you asked for
it."
When she head butted the door open, she knocked one guard into
one of the others. In the moment of shock that followed, she threw
herself at another guard, throwing aside the undone straitjacket as
she flew. Dark Angel used him as a human shield when the other
guards started to fire at her and used his gun to return their fire. In
five minutes, only she remained standing.
Serafine felt a bit insulted, really. All that research they
supposedly did on her past should have told them that anyone who
had spent as much time in a straitjacket as she had would be
determined not to stay in one ever again. She'd studied the art of
escape under some truly incredible magicians.
It also annoyed her that equal opportunity employment apparently
hadn't reached the UN's shadow organizations. Not a single one
of the male guards could provide her with a uniform or boots that
would fit. Majors had left her with bare feet and only her black T-
shirt and jeans. She scavenged among the guards and took one
uniform jacket to put on, two of their guns, and all of their keys.
She let herself out and went to look for a terminal she could try to
get information from.
The alarms started to go off, making the hallways a nightmare of
alarms and flashing red. They couldn't have figured out that
she'd escaped yet, so... When Dark Angel found a terminal and
queried the security system, she started to smile. The cavalry had
arrived, if you considered militia units and some really ticked off
monster killers a cavalry.
Despite a few unforeseen hitches, her plan had started to come
through. With a bloodthirsty smile on her face, Serafine ran
toward Douglas' room.
In the Kitsune cellblock, Mulder heard the alarms and told the
others to move faster. He gave Doug the other gun and told him to
guard the rear while he took the point position of their little party.
Ignoring the noise, Brian cut through the last of Douglas' straps
and helped him up. To Brian, the red alert only meant that he had
to be even more on his guard.
Buried in the wall and fighting his own body, Krycek heard
nothing at all.
"All your guilt and the pain and the hurt you cause"
—"Exorcism" by Killing Joke
As she ran, Serafine heard a pounding coming from a nearby room.
The morgue? She opened the door with her gun in hand and tried
to figure out where the noise was coming from. She intended to
rescue everyone she could from this hellhole.
It came from the wall of corpse drawers. Once again, Majors
failed to disappoint. He was a cruel bastard.
Angel unlocked and flung every drawer open, just in case. Finally
she opened one and saw a body. The next moment she was lying
on the floor with her head ringing and her gun across the room.
[Stupid, stupid!]
Krycek rushed her. She didn't see any sense in his dark eyes, just
insane rage. Serafine slid herself out of the way and got to her
feet. She knew she couldn't talk to him right now and get any
logic. On his next pass at her, she stepped to the side, grabbed him
by the hair, and rammed his head into the wall. He slid to the
floor.
She stared down at him and thought of all the things he'd done, all
the pain he'd caused. The betrayals, the murders, the sale of
valued secrets. If not for him, Douglas and the Kitsunes wouldn't
be in this mess right now.
[There are some people so untrustworthy that you have to know,
for your own safety, where they are at all times. Six feet under is
generally good and safe.]
Dark Angel brought her fist up. With her enhanced strength and
speed, if she brought it down hard enough on Krycek's skull his
head would smash open like an overripe tomato.
"Sera!" someone yelled from the hall. Brian.
"Shit." She didn't think Brian or Douglas would let her do this.
Serafine turned away and walked to the door. Let the Rat
Bastard's luck get him through, if it could. She let it pass from her
hands.
Once she stood in the hall, Brian wrapped her in a tight hug.
Serafine melted into it and let herself finally realize how worried
she'd been for him. [Thank God he's learning from me.]
Douglas stood behind them and smiled.
"Where's Mulder?" she asked.
"Getting my brothers. What's up with the alarms?"
"I have a homing implant in my neck. One of the non-cancerous
ones, don't worry. Using our enemies' technology against them. I
have my own army invading."
"Has anyone ever told you you're evil, Peanut?"
"Many times, and I never get tired of hearing it, Bunny."
"We should go look for Mulder," Brian said as he started to turn
back the way he came.
"No, all the guards will be heading this way anyway to repel the
attack. Mulder and the others should have a clear run. I suggest
we go on ahead and try to meet up with the cavalry, picking off
their opponents from behind."
"If you say so. What were you looking at in the morgue, Sera?"
"I thought I heard something in there. I was wrong. Let's go."
"The mind begins to doubt what the heart already knows"
—"Communion" by Killing Joke
"These lies have torn my world apart..."
—"Torn Apart" by Stabbing Westward
Aside from a few guards Mulder and Doug had to take down, the
path they took was fairly clear. Brian had blazed a trail for them to
follow by leaving long scars on the walls, marks too intrusive and
obviously deliberate to have been left by anyone else. They moved
at a slow, even pace to help Eugene, who half carried, half-dragged
Scott Schilling along.
As they moved past one room, Mulder heard a low groan. "Hold
on. Doug, keep the hall covered. I want to check this out. It
might be someone we should be helping."
Mulder carefully entered with his gun drawn. He saw no one until
he looked at the floor where Alex Krycek lay sprawled. Mulder
rushed over and knelt beside him. When the agent checked
Krycek's pulse, the younger man moved a little and moaned.
Mulder tried to swallow. With all he now knew about his lover,
added to the knowledge he'd already had about the triple agent, he
couldn't justify his feelings. Just being involved with Alex made
Mulder feel tainted by his crimes.
Alex only lied to Mulder because the truth would scare him away.
What a joke.
But all that changed nothing. Mulder briefly stroked Alex's hair
before he called the others in and asked them to help him drag
Krycek out.
When they got back out to the hall, with Krycek being carried
between Jake and Luke, an armed force met them, but Brian stood
at its head. "These folks are friends," Brian said. "We've taken
control of the installation. Believe it or not, we're in California."
He looked at Krycek with some confusion.
"What now?" Mulder asked.
Brian grinned. "Well, if our brothers wouldn't mind waiting a day
or two to get back to their regularly scheduled lives, Angel wants
to throw us a party."
Hoping to Fall into Grace III
by Viridian5
"I live like I feel:
Too much
I'll take whatever you're giving:
Not enough
—My misheard lyrics from "6 Underground" by the Sneaker Pimps
Think of the good things, remember the bad,
No illusions"
Climbing the walls.
I don't let it show..."
"It's torture,
And I'm almost there"
"I fight to just hold on to what I believe"
"Back on the rack,
My shape of rage,
Your face is familiar
From another cage."
