Underground Facility 

Mulder led the way back to the central hub. He'd seen the door is his passing, but had no idea what lay beyond it. Moving to the door now, he cussed when it failed to open. 

"It's like the one we came through earlier," Scully said, "only this one has a keypad." 

"How'd you get in?" 

Grant smirked in Scully's direction. 

"Sheer genius, Mulder. It was sheer genius that opened it before." 

"You mean you punched it," Mulder said. 

"I persuaded it." 

"Think you can charm your way through it again, Scully?" he asked, stepping aside and gesturing for her to have at it. 

"Let's see... one three two three..." 

"Four three," Grant reminded her. 

"Right," she said. "Here goes." 

Scully carefully pressed the six-digit code into the entry pad. Without hesitation, the dark metal door slid open revealing a brightly lit corridor, a major contrast to the darkness of the ship. Squinting until their eyes adjusted to the lighting, they welcomed the warm, fresh air. 

"You mind?" Grant asked to take the first step over the threshold into the corridor. 

"Be my guest," Mulder said. "I missed all this first time around," he said, following Grant through the doorway. 

"You missed it how?" Scully asked. 

"My head wasn't exactly attached to the rest of my body thanks to Musgrave." 

"Musgrave!" 

"Living proof that only the good die young." 

"You know the General?" Grant asked. 

"We go way back," Mulder confirmed. 

"He brought Mulder up on a bogus murder charge." Scully added, recalling the fear she'd felt when Doggett relayed the panel's guilty verdict, sentencing Mulder to death by lethal injection. 

"I'd love to take him by the hand down to a nice rock quarry in New Mexico and give him a lesson on the finer points of bio-molecular displacement." 

"I don't follow," Grant said. 

"Super-soldiers don't hold up well against magnetite," Mulder said. 

"It's their one flaw. Magnetite breaks down their biochemistry and tears them apart," Scully confirmed. 

"So he's one of them." 

"You'd think the aliens would have come up with a better alternative for their human replacements seeing as it was probably magnetite that downed their ship at Roswell." 

"Well, let's leave Roswell behind and just get the hell out of here," Scully said, anxious to leave. 

"She's got a point," Grant agreed. 

"She always does," Mulder smiled and pushed his way into the hallway looking left and then right. "What do you think?" 

Grant looked around, familiar with their location. 

"Our only hope is through the transport area. This way," he pointed to his right. "Unfortunately, no matter where we go, we're not going to blend in." 

"Agreed. We might as well be wearing Ralphie's pink bunny suit," Mulder said. 

"A sight to behold, I'm sure," a voice announced from behind them. 

They stopped and slowly turned around to face three armed soldiers. Mulder made a quick assessment of them - one black, one white, one blond. 

"What do ya' know... the Mod Squad," Mulder wise-cracked. 

"A comedian in the ranks," Webster, the large black soldier said while training his M16 on Scully. "Either of you boys so much as breathe, I take her out first. Now lock your fingers behind your heads." 

"Let's just blow them away and get it over with," Crane suggested. 

"Not in here," Stevens replied. "Too much of a mess. We'll waste 'em in the transport area. At least we can hose off the concrete afterwards." 

"I like the way Blondie thinks," Mulder taunted as he obeyed, locking his fingers in place. 

Pissed off by the insult, Stevens started forward, but Webster held out his hand, forcing him to a stop. 

"You'd like that, wouldn't you," Webster moved in front of Mulder and shoved the tip of his M16 under Mulder's chin. "Have us take you to the transport area, so maybe you get the chance to slip away." 

"The thought did cross my mind," Mulder confirmed. 

"Well, this is your lucky day," Webster grinned. "Start walking. Third door on the left. Move," he ordered. 

The three briefly looked at one another before they turned and started forward. If only they had a chance to plan something, but there was no time as they quickly drew near the door and whatever lay beyond. 

Veteran's National Cemetery - Bourne, MA 

Skinner and Doggett forced the rear tanker off the road just after it passed through the entrance into the National Cemetery. Even in his heightened state of rage, the driver was no match for the two FBI agents. After a solid blow to the head, they dragged him into the stand of trees, bound and gagged him. 

Skinner and Gibson climbed into the tanker and quickly drove off, following after the other tankers. With the doors still open at the mausoleum's entrance, Skinner passed on through. He presumed there was some type of radio frequency ID in the front of the truck, holding the doors in place seeing as no one was present to open or close them. Hugging the rear of the tanker, Doggett and Byers' vehicle entered next while Langly brought up the rear in the fuel truck. 

The communications radio sounded just after the tanker entered the tunnel. Some fast thinking on Skinner's part easily convinced the man on the other end that their delay was due to what he thought was a blowout. Fortunately, it was a good enough excuse and drew no additional questions. 

Fifty miles later, Gibson told Skinner to hang back. 

"What is it?" 

"I'm not sure," Gibson said. "There's something, but it's not Mulder. It's hard to explain. It's above us... and on both sides of us. Thoughts in passing, but..." 

"But what?" 

"They're not human." 

Skinner looked at Gibson, watching the young man's face grow in concern. 

"What is it?" 

Gibson shivered as if something had crawled up his back. 

"Talk to me," Skinner demanded. 

"It's not just one ship, Skinner. It's... it's thousands of ships sucking life from this tunnel." 

"Care to be a little more specific?" he asked, trying to make sense of what Gibson was talking about. 

"There's a ship alright... up ahead, but that's not all. It's like we thought. They're preparing for re-colonization. The tunnel... it's some sort of docking station with smaller ships, one after another... almost like the tunnel's an umbilical cord connected to the mother ship." 

"A bit of an obstacle," Skinner said with an air of optimism. 

"You don't understand... this isn't the only tunnel." 

Level One - Main Transport Area 

As soon as they stepped into the transport area, a half dozen soldiers in the immediate area stopped what they were doing to watch the prisoners being escorted by their comrades. After a brief moment, they resumed their work. 

This being the first time Mulder was in the transport area, he was awed by the sight of the massive ship, and he caught Scully's attention, indicating his recognition of it. It's black hull blocked out nearly everything as high as he could see. How small he suddenly felt. It was so much more oppressive than it had been the first time he witnessed it. This time, the evil surrounding it caused a greater sense of urgency to destroy it, before it had the opportunity to destroy them. 

Ten feet from where an escort truck was parked, Webster called them to a halt. A number of tankers were parked behind the vehicle, waiting to depart. 

"Watch them," he said to Crane and Stevens. 

He walked up to the lead vehicle and peered inside grabbing something before returning to the others. 

"Tell you what," he challenged Mulder, "I'll even the odds a bit before I shoot you," he held out his closed fist, palm down. "Go on," he ordered Mulder to take what he was offering. 

Mulder looked into Webster's eyes and saw something he didn't understand, something he thought he should recognize but couldn't. The two men stood toe-to-toe, staring at one another for a moment before Mulder lowered his hands and opened his palm. Common sense told him the man had nothing more than a bullet with his name on it, but another sense spoke quite the opposite and was confirmed when a key to the lead vehicle hit his palm. 

"I'd say that evens the odds. Don't you?" Webster moved even closer. "Now, let me see you run." 

Without warning, the transport door they had come through only moments before flew open. Four aliens filled the opening, their cries for blood echoing throughout the busy transport area. They struck the first few soldiers they encountered, tearing the flesh and uniforms to shreds, sending panic into the others who had no idea what the creatures were or where they'd come from. 

It was the distraction Mulder needed. He pushed Webster backwards and off-balance, grabbed Scully's hand and pulled her forward in front of him, hoping to block any shot that might be aimed in their direction as they ran towards the driver's side of the truck. 

Gunfire erupted. Feeling the crease of a bullet at his side, Grant ignored the warm blood dampening his shirt. He ran all out behind Mulder and Scully, entering the vehicle on the passenger side. 

"Come on, go!" he shouted at Mulder as the two men slid in, Scully seated between them. 

Stevens had gotten off the round that hit Grant but with the aliens quickly approaching, the three soldiers fired at their new adversaries, avoiding the same fate as those who lay dead and dying on the blood-stained concrete. When the aliens fell to their bullets, Webster swung around, but he was too late. Mulder's truck was tearing up the pavement inside the tunnel. 

"The tanker!" he ordered, climbing up and into the driver's seat. 

Stevens pulled himself up into the cab beside Webster. Crane and another soldier settled for a nearby jeep. The chase was on. 

Mulder punched the accelerator to the floor, trying to get everything he could from the vehicle. Although the tanker was a fair distance behind them, it was gaining. He knew that at some point, it would catch up. With a four hundred mile stretch in front of them, there weren't any options to deviate from the path they were on. 

"You're bleeding," Scully said to Grant, searching for something she could use to press against the wound. 

"I've had worse paper cuts," he joked but winced all the same. 

He found a rag in the door's side compartment and shoved it over the wound. Within minutes, the bleeding had slowed considerably. Grant relaxed. His eyes grew heavy. When he rested his head against the passenger window, it was all over. Scully knew his falling asleep had more to do with a lack of it than with the injury. 

"He okay?" 

"Just a graze. Thank God for small blessings... like the distraction back there." 

"They planned it," Mulder said. 

"How do you figure that?" 

"Something about that guy. It was in his eyes when he handed me the key... like he knew what was coming, and he wanted us to get away." 

"Mulder... they shot Grant." 

"I'm telling you, it was planned. Those men are trained to hit their targets. At that distance, the guy only missed because he wanted to." 

"You don't think the sudden onslaught of aliens had anything to do with his inaccuracy." 

"He missed on purpose." 

"That doesn't make sense. Why would he do it?" 

Mulder checked his mirrors. 

"Maybe they were looking for a way out too." 

Scully considered Mulder's statement as she turned and looked over her shoulder. Mulder might very well be onto something. After all, the three men could have easily killed them, so why hadn't they? And true, Grant's wound was minor - just a scratch really. 

"How do you do that?" 

"Do what?" Mulder asked. 

"All the years we worked for the FBI, how many times did you recognize the obvious when it was staring us in the face, and it took you pointing it out for me to see it? How?" 

"The same way you can perform an autopsy and know exactly how a person died." 

"But Mulder, you're always right." 

"Not always," he swallowed hard as Scully's hand rested on his thigh. "If I were always right... I would have been there." 

"Where?" 

"With you when you needed me to protect you and William. With you when they kidnapped you. Scully I..." his eyes glazed over as he divided his time between her and the pavement. 

"Mulder," she shook her head, her eyes full of forgiveness. 

"This never would have happened if I'd been home that day." 

"It still would have happened." 

"You shouldn't have been alone." 

"I wasn't. You were with me... always." 

He took her words to heart knowing it was the same for him. Through all that had happened, wasn't she in his heart every step of the way? 

"I love you," he said, his words catching her by surprise because he'd always been so guarded where his feelings were concerned. 

She gently squeezed his leg. Like old times with you coming to my rescue. 

"What?" Mulder asked, knowing there was more on her mind. 

"Just thankful, Mulder. Thankful He brought us back together again," she absentmindedly searched for her necklace. 

"William's got it," he said. 

"I was afraid I lost it. I couldn't remember if I'd left it on the vanity or..." her voice trailed off and for the first time in a long time, she let her guard down, unable to stop the tears. 

"It's okay," he took her hand in his. "He knows it's important to you. What it represents. It's important to him too." 

Scully smiled, closed her eyes and rested her head against Mulder's shoulder. As her body relaxed against his, she longed for more. It seemed like forever since they'd been one, and she ached for his touch and for the security of his embrace. As her eyes grew heavy, she settled for his shoulder... for now anyway. 

Mulder felt her body relax against his. He wanted so much to hold her, to reassure her that he was going to protect her and William, but he couldn't take the time to hold her the way he wanted to - not now anyway. Despite his desire to bring normalcy to their lives, he knew it wouldn't happen until re-colonization was no longer a threat. Their personal lives would remain on hold until they saw this through to the end.