[We hear it before we see it - the steady click-clack of a typewriter. We carefully follow the movement of the words being produced.]

Dear Son,

I hope this letter finds you well. I get reports of you from time.

[Cut to a young BOY, dressed in a heavy snowsuit, steadily making his way through the snow. Then cut back to the typewriter, as we see the typing resume.]

I know these letters come as a surprise. You must wonder about me.

[Now we're back on the boy, as he is huffing and puffing, walking up a hill and passing snow-covered trees. The scenery is, for lack of a better word, outstanding. There is no word known to mankind that can describe this kind of beauty. Cut back to the typewriter, and the typist is pretty much going to town on this one.]

I remind myself of a Navajo story. Twin war gods come to their father, seeking magic and weapons to eliminate the monsters of the world.

[Back on the boy, and the scenery. He is getting closer. We then cut back to the typewriter.]

My hope is the same for you, and that we might reconcile the differences between us.

Your Loving Father,

[But no name is printed. The paper is pulled out of the typewriter. Cut to the boy. Trudging through the white snow, he reaches a cabin and knocks hard on the door. The door opens, and a MAN, whose face remains unseen, hands the boy a red envelope containing the letter he just typed, and some money. The boy takes both.]

BOY: Thanks, mister. I'll mail it right off.

[The man closes the door, and the boy looks at the envelope and reads the address aloud to himself, querying it.]

BOY: "Federal Bureau of Investigation?"

[And with that he begins walking off. Inside the cabin, we see the hand of the man opening a curtain to watch the boy as he leaves. When the boy is out of sight, the curtain closes.]

TAG LINE: RESIST OR SERVE

[Over RUSKIN DAM - the site of the latest mass burnings - a red helicopter soars through the air and gently hovers in line with the bridge.]

CHOPPER PILOT: Heli-Unit Four responding to Ruskin Dam. We have numerous bodies. Repeat, numerous bodies. We're coming in for a closer look. It looks like some kind of incineration has occurred here. We're looking for survivors. Recommend we get emergency response up here on the double. We'll need medivac and triage facilities. Contact state and federal authorities for possible medical quarantine.

[Charred bodies lay on the bridge itself, smoke still rising from them. By the side of one QUIET WILLY's body, we see a gun. The blaring siren of a fire engine arrives on the bridge, followed by police cars and the car of AGENT MULDER. FIREMEN and POLICE run around, trying to help and the helicopter lands on the bridge. Bodies in yellow bags are carried away from the scene as Mulder walks through rows of them, looking for AGENT SCULLY. He sees her, burnt, dead, lying there and quickly makes his way over - only to realise it's not her. The bag over that person is zipped up, and from off-screen, we hear a voice calling Mulder. It is ASSISTANT DIRECTOR SKINNER and Mulder looks up to see him running over.]

SKINNER: Agent Mulder!

[When Skinner arrives, Mulder asks of Scully in earnest.]

MULDER: Was she here? Is she here?!

SKINNER: Yes, and medics are all over her.

MULDER: She's alive?

SKINNER: They're working on her now. Come on.

[Cut to the face of a burnt DMITRI, dead. We are inside a room filled with hurrying people. Skinner and Mulder walk quickly through the chaos.]

SKINNER: An SAR chopper pilot found her huddled in the woods this morning with about fifty other survivors. She has minor burns, but her fluids and electrolytes were abnormally depleted.

[Skinner and Mulder reach Scully, who is lying on a stretcher with a respirator covering her mouth.]

MULDER: Scully?

[She does not respond. An AIDE does.]

AIDE: She's in vasogenic shock. Unless you gents are doctors, you're in the way. This woman needs to get to a hospital. On three - one ... two ... three.

[With that, a number of doctors lift the stretcher and place it in the waiting red helicopter. Mulder watches on and Skinner runs over to him. They shout to be heard above the noise of the chopper blades.]

SKINNER: What happened here, Agent Mulder?!

MULDER: The answer just got loaded onto that chopper!

[The chopper door shuts, and the helicopter takes off. Mulder and Skinner notice AGENT SPENDER talking to some other men. Spender also notices Mulder and Skinner and walks over to them, but speaks only to Mulder.]

SPENDER: Can I talk to you, please? Is she here? Was she found?

MULDER: Who?

SKINNER: Agent Spender?

SPENDER: My mother.

[And he walks off to search for Cassandra. Cut to the inside of a medical room. A female DOCTOR stands over the woman who we will recognise as MARITA COVARRUBIAS, examining her.]

DOCTOR: I'm fairly certain it's not a question of dosage. We've administered three intramuscular injections over the past twenty hours, since we found her on the roadside.

[The man known only as the WELL MANICURED MAN (WMM) stands by, watching, with a medical mask around his neck. He wears a medical gown.]

WMM: And you've seen no effect?

DOCTOR: No. It doesn't look good. At all.

[Marita, whom we now see, lies comatose on the medical bed, with tubes coming in and going out of her. The Well Manicured Man puts his mask over his mouth and open's Marita's eye - black smoke clouds it ... she is possessed by the black oil. He closes her eye and looks up, at ten other men who we know as members of the Syndicate. He makes eye contact with the man called the FIRST ELDER, in particular.

We are inside the hospital in which Scully lays on her bed, asleep. Mulder walks into the room and gently brushes back her hair, waking her.]

SCULLY: Mmmmm ... what time is it?

[Mulder can't help but laugh.]

MULDER: What time is it? It's time to thank your lucky stars.

SCULLY: Why are you laughing?

[Scully sits up, and Mulder presses the button to elevate her bed.]

MULDER: I'm not laughing at you. I'm just very happy to be standing here talking to you, that's all.

SCULLY: Mulder, what am I doing here?

MULDER: You were airlifted here in vasogenic shock.

SCULLY: From what?

MULDER: You've got some first-degree burns and scorching on your hands and face.

SCULLY: From what?

MULDER: You don't remember?

SCULLY: Mulder ...

[Her eye is caught by the television behind him. On it is a scene showing the Ruskin Dam. The volume is down, but supertext tells the story.

THIS SECOND CULT SUICIDE IN SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA -- THE SITE OF OVER 50 DEATHS SO FAR -- WITH MANY MORE MEMBERS IN SERIOUS OR CRITICAL CONDITION. AUTHORITIES ARE STILL ATTEMPTING TO LEARN WHAT WAS BEHIND THIS BIZZARE EVENT.

Mulder turns to face her.]

MULDER: Is any of this coming back to you?

SCULLY: I was there?

[Mulder sighs, indicating that she was.]

SCULLY: Doing what?

MULDER: I was hoping you were going to answer that question for me.

[A NURSE walks into the room, and sees Scully's bed elevated.]

NURSE: You shouldn't be elevated, Miss Scully, not until we get your blood pressure back. She really needs her rest.

[She starts to de-elevate the bed, and Mulder gets up to leave.]

MULDER: I'll come back.

SCULLY: Well, Mulder ...

[Standing outside the doorway, Mulder gives her the thumbs-up. Outside the room, Mulder is confronted by Spender.]

SPENDER: They didn't find her. She wasn't among the victims. They only found her wheelchair.

MULDER: I'm sorry.

SPENDER: What were you doing with her?

MULDER: What was I doing with her? What makes you think we have anything to do with this?

SPENDER: My mom's a cripple. She hasn't driven a car for ... I don't know how long. They found her wheelchair a hundred and thirty miles from the hospital, where I'm now told Agent Scully was meeting with her prior -

MULDER: Look -

SPENDER: No, you look! She's my mother. She's not some test subject of yours.

MULDER: Your mother will be found.

SPENDER: All I want is for you to leave it alone. Is that too much to ask?

[Off Mulder's look, Spender leaves, and we cut to the UROFF-KOLTOFF STAR OF RUSSIA, NEW YORK HARBOR, where the Well Manicured Man has ALEX KRYCEK handcuffed in the same room where Krycek handcuffed the now-dead Dmitri.]

WMM: You're probably thirsty.

KRYCEK: Remind me to complain to the captain about the service.

WMM: You may have that opportunity. This ship is bound back to Vladivostok tomorrow. I gather there'll be quite an enthusiastic homecoming.

[The Well Manicured Man dips a cloth into a bucket of water and rings it out over Krycek's mouth. Krycek gulps the water down, tastes it, and spits it out.]

KRYCEK: Do you have the boy?

WMM: No. Ms. Covarrubias took him. Your alliance with her was as misguided as ours, but it appears she was unaware of the consequences of her deception. You were clever. Infect the boy to ensure infection of anyone who tried to learn what he knows, who would cheat you.

KRYCEK: Then where's the boy?

WMM: Dead. Victim of another mysterious holocaust. Unable now to tell what he knew or saw.

KRYCEK: Then you got no choice but to deal with me.

WMM: I'm afraid there's no deal to be made.

KRYCEK: I'm the only one who knows what those incidents are. What they mean. I know what that boy saw.

WMM: You've as much as told me what I need to know.

KRYCEK: You know nothing.

WMM: If the boy was your trump card why infect him unless you could also cure him with a vaccine developed by the Russians? One that works. It would mean that the resistance to the alien colonists is now possible.

KRYCEK: You're dreaming.

WMM: Do you have the vaccine?

KRYCEK: You need what I know.

WMM: Do you have the vaccine?!

[The Well Manicured Man kicks the bucket into Krycek.]

KRYCEK: Give you the means to save Covarrubias after what she did?

WMM: The means to save yourself.

Cut to a sign on a wire fence which reads:

WIEKAMP AIRFORCE BASE
NO TRESPASSING
BEYOND THIS POINT
BY AUTHORITY OF
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT

Moving over the fence, topped with barbed wire, we hear the steady whooshing of an aircraft, and suddenly, a huge fireball plummets into the ground and erupts in a gigantic explosion which illuminates the entire area. The aircraft is a UFO, now set ablaze, burning. After a while, we see a man dragging another man from the wreckage, and we hear the faint wailing of army trucks in the background. Four or five of them. From the trucks emerge men with guns, and they point them straight at the man dragging the body - a FACELESS MAN, with another faceless man lying dead on the ground. Cut to pictures of the Ruskin Dam. They are being held by Scully, who is still laying in her hospital bed. Mulder is by her bedside.]

SCULLY: I don't know what to say. I mean, I - I don't have the first clue. There's nothing here.

MULDER: Well, at least you're not alone. None of the other survivors have been able to give a cogent account, either.

SCULLY: Mulder, I have never been here. I couldn't tell you how to get here, let alone drive it.

MULDER: Do you remember when you last saw Cassandra Spender?

SCULLY: She was there, too?

[Mulder nods.]

MULDER: I ran more x-rays. I haven't told anybody yet what I found, though.

SCULLY: You found more implants?

[Again, Mulder nods.]

MULDER: That would explain how you were directed to the site, and why you can't remember. It would explain the sensation Cassandra Spender was describing, her abduction fantasies. It would explain Skyland Mountain.

SCULLY: Yeah, but it wouldn't explain why they would want to kill me. And it doesn't explain why I survived.

MULDER: It all comes down to a question, Scully. One that hasn't been answered or I don't even think honestly addressed. Who made that chip in your neck? That chip was found in a military research facility. Our government made that chip, implanted it in your neck as part of a secret military project to develop a biochemical weapon, to monitor your immunity, or to destroy you like a lab rat, if the truth were to be exposed. Your cancer ... your cure ... everything that's happening to you now - it all points to that chip. The truth I've been searching for? That truth is in you.

SCULLY: Mulder, when I met you five years ago, you told me that your sister had been abducted ... by aliens. That that event had marked you so deeply, that nothing else mattered. I didn't believe you, but I followed you, on nothing more than your faith that the truth was out there, based not on facts, not on science, but on your memories that your sister had been taken from you. Your memories were all that you had.

MULDER: I don't trust those memories now.

SCULLY: Well, whether you trust them or not, they've led you here. And me. But I have no memories to either trust nor distrust, and if you ask me now to follow you again, to stand behind you in what you now believe, without knowing what happened to me out there, without those memories, I can't. I won't.

[Mulder stands and looks out the window.]

MULDER: If I could give you those memories, if I could prove that I was right and that what I believed for so long was wrong ...

SCULLY: Is that what you really want?

[From his expression, we know that he's not sure. We then cut to a black and white photo of the captured faceless man, along with two military officers (one who looks amazingly like Adolf Hitler!) The photo is being held by the First Elder, who then passes it along to the Second Elder. The members of the Syndicate (ie. the "Elders") are standing around a circular table, through which they can see the comatose Marita Covarrubias.]

FIRST ELDER: The facial scarrings appear to be self-mutilation done as protection.

THIRD ELDER: Protection against what?

FIRST ELDER: Infection by the black oil. He was the lone survivor of a crashed spacecraft at a military base in West Virginia.

THIRD ELDER: What the hell is he?

WMM: An alien rebel. This is what the boy saw in Russia. The last face the dead saw at Skyland Mountain, and most surely who killed our man at the dam in Pennsylvania. He's a resistance fighter against the alien colonists. This is what Alex Krycek knew - that a war had begun.

FIRST ELDER: What good was that knowledge? Without the vaccine against the black oil, no one can survive.

WMM: We have a vaccine. Developed by the Russians, stolen by Krycek, given to me.

[They watch as, below, Marita's doctor prepares the vaccine for injection.]

WMM: Do you see what this means? Resistance is possible. We have the weapons and the magic in hand.

FIRST ELDER: We don't know the vaccine works.

WMM: It will. And if it doesn't, we have a new alliance to be made.

FIRST ELDER: Side with the resistance?

THIRD ELDER: Suicide.

FIRST ELDER: They'll squash us as they do them. We must turn the rebel over.

WMM: But first, wait till we know the vaccine works.

[The Well Manicured Man taps on the glass, indicating for the doctor to open Marita's eyes to see the black oil. It is still in her, and the doctor carefully injects the vaccine. Cut to the OFFICE OF DR. HEITZ WERBER, SILVER SPRINGS, MARYLAND. Dr. Werber takes a seat, opposite Scully and Mulder. He reaches out and shakes Scully's hand.]

WERBER: Hi, Dana. It's nice to meet you again. Are you okay with this?

SCULLY: I'm okay.

WERBER: There are a few things I want to say I didn't touch on over the phone. I'm sure Agent Mulder told you about how this works. Have you ever been hypnotized?

SCULLY: Uh, once ... but I have to be honest with you, I didn't have much luck.

WERBER: Well, I hope we can do better today. I'm going to be using something a little different. You may have heard of hypnogogic trance, which is just a light trance state where we relax some of the filtering processes. Okay?

[An ASSISTANT pushes Scully back, relaxing her.]

WERBER: I'm going to ask you to go back to the place we talked about on the phone. Just close your eyes and take long, deep breaths, relaxing all parts of your body. Long, deep breaths. Relaxing your hands and your feet. Relaxing your jaw, your pelvis. Long, deep breaths. Back to the "night place."

[Fade to black]

Scully speaks to us in voiceover:

SCULLY (V.O.): I don't think this is working.

[Suddenly, her face is illuminated with bright, white light.]

SCULLY: Oh, my God!

[We cut to the image of the UFO that she saw, and from now on we continue cutting to and from this "night place" to Dr. Werber's office.]

SCULLY: Oh, my God! Oh, my God!

WERBER: Where are you, Dana?

SCULLY: Oh ... I'm, uh ... I'm with the others.

WERBER: Are you in the "night place"?

SCULLY: Yes.

[Cut back to the UFO, which shines a concentrated blue light on CASSANDRA, who is next to Scully, but withdraws the light beam and quickly flies off.]

SCULLY: And then ... and then it was gone. Oh, oh!

[Scully reaches out and Mulder takes her hand.]

WERBER: What is it, Dana?

SCULLY: It's, uh ... they're back.

WERBER: Who?

SCULLY: Oh, they're ... they're on fire!

[People are writhing around on fire.]

SCULLY: They're setting them on fire. I can't ...

WERBER: Who? Who's doing this?

SCULLY: Their faces, I ... they have no faces. I ... they have no eyes. Oh, God! They're coming at us!

[The faceless men move toward Scully. Quiet Willy turns to face her, draws a gun, and races toward the faceless men who are still setting people alight.]

SCULLY: They're surrounding us! They won't stop! They won't stop! There's ... there's another one. There's another ship.

[Another UFO flies over the faceless men and flashes lights over them, blue lights, setting the faceless men alight.]

SCULLY: They see it. They were attacking them.

WERBER: Who were they attacking, Dana?

SCULLY: The ... the faceless men. They're ... oh, my God, I can't -

WERBER: Do you want to stop Dana?

[The second UFO moves overhead now, lights flashing. One particular light in the middle shines down on Cassandra.]

SCULLY: No. Now it's coming at us. Oh, my God! No! Cassandra!

WERBER: Where's Cassandra?

SCULLY: They're ... they're taking her. They're ... oh, my God.

[All the abductees reach their hands into the air as Cassandra closes her eyes and is taken into the air from her wheelchair, until she has disappeared from sight.]

SCULLY: I can't ...

WERBER: Dana? Dana, I'm going to stop now. I want you to open your eyes.

SCULLY: No. I ...

WERBER: I want you to open your eyes, Dana, and come on back. Dana, I want you to open your eyes and come on back to us.

SCULLY: Okay.

[She opens and rubs her eyes, and turns to face Mulder, who is sitting beside her.]

SCULLY: You've been here the whole time?

[He nods, and gets up to leave. We cut to Skinner's office, where Skinner has the tape on his desk. Mulder and Scully sit opposite him.]

SKINNER: I, uh, reviewed the tape of the session as you requested. I have to say, I wasn't prepared for what I heard on this.

SCULLY: No, sir. Neither was I.

SKINNER: Agent Mulder?

MULDER: I'm familiar with the regression process and Dr. Werber's work. I've heard hundreds of those types of abduction scenarios.

SKINNER: Well what do you make of this one?

MULDER: The imagery is startling, but not atypical: bright lights, weightlessness, stolen memory, lost time expressed as a close encounter, an abduction, religious rapture as a kind of dark night of the soul.

SKINNER: Expressed?

MULDER: Described and then interpreted into a linear narrative, a, uh, gestalt impression of a subjective, nonlinear experience.

SKINNER: And your interpretation?

MULDER: That Agent Scully witnessed a very powerful event. Not unlike the one I described on my regression tape of the false memory of my sister's abduction.

SKINNER: Agent Scully?

SCULLY: I've listened to the tape several times, and I don't have a clear recollection of what I hear myself saying, but I also don't see any reason why I'd be saying it.

SKINNER: I've got a problem. And the problem is, I have to head up the investigation into this incident. I don't have the luxury of interpretation. I have to make a report, and that report must state a reason or cite a fact, or at least make an assumption. As I sit here right now, I'm unable to do that. I need to know what happened.

MULDER: It was staged.

SKINNER: To ... ?

MULDER: To test a classified military project, or to cover it up.

SKINNER: Then wha - I wanna know what happened to Cassandra Spender.

MULDER: Cassandra Spender was taken aboard a military aircraft, as part of the staging.

SKINNER: Over the past five years I've doubted you, only to be persuaded by the power of your belief in extraterrestrial phenomena, and I'm doubting you now, not because of that belief, but because extraterrestrial phenomena is frankly the more plausible explanation.

MULDER: Then I suggest you put that in your report.

[Mulder stands up and leaves. Cut to Marita's eye, as it is opened by her doctor. The black oil is still in her, and the Syndicate looks on.]

FIRST ELDER: The vaccine has no effect.

WMM: We must give it time.

FIRST ELDER: We must survive first. Survival means collaboration.

WMM: Turn over the alien rebel, and you turn over any chance of resistance.

FIRST ELDER: It's already been done.

[Cut to Scully walking into the X-Files Office. Spender stands behind Mulder's desk and catches Scully by surprise.]

SPENDER: I heard about this office. Really is in the basement. I'm here about my mother.

SCULLY: Well, we - we don't know anything more.

SPENDER: I spoke with Dr. Werber. He said you'd been to his office.

SCULLY: Did he say why?

SPENDER: No. He didn't have to. I'm assuming knowing the facts I do, that you're wondering about the possibility of alien abduction. I'm sure you know enough about it. Agent Mulder surely pushed the idea.

[Spender takes a video cassette from behind the desk and walks past Scully.]

SCULLY: No, actually, Agent Mulder hasn't.

SPENDER: I find that hard to believe.

SCULLY: I thought you were here about your mother.

SPENDER: You went to see her. I'd like to know what you talked about.

SCULLY: We talked about how she was feeling. We talked about a lot of things.

SPENDER: You talked about abduction, about her experiences? Did you talk about me?

SCULLY: In what way?

SPENDER: I have something here that I think might explain a lot for you.

[He inserts the cassette into a VCR and presses play. The screen on the television flickers to life, with the image of a young boy who is obviously hypnotized. The young boy is the YOUNG JEFFREY SPENDER. He sits on a couch, eyes shut, recalling events.]

YOUNG SPENDER: ... and there's a bright light. There's people standing around.

SPENDER: That's me. I'm 11 years old.

YOUNG SPENDER: They're looking up at something in the sky, where the bright light is. I'm starting to cry. I'm really, really scared and I wanna get back in the car, but I can't find my mom. And ... then I see her. There's something in the sky, and it's got flashing lights, and it's so bright it hurts my eyes. And then she going up in the sky. And I'm yelling, "Mommy ... mommy ... mommy..." And then I feel my feet, and they aren't on the ground. I'm floating up.

SPENDER: Seen enough?

[He hits the "stop" button on the VCR, bringing the tape to a halt.]

SCULLY: Is that what you were afraid people would find out?

SPENDER: Yes. But not because it's true. None of this happened.

SCULLY: I don't understand.

SPENDER: I made it up. Or I should say, my mom did.

SCULLY: She told you to say those things?

SPENDER: Essentially. She told me that story so many times that I believed it. Absolutely. It became a kind of truth and it was really just a substitute.

SCULLY: For what?

SPENDER: For the fact that my dad had left his family and it drove my mom insane. Only, I was eleven years old and I didn't know it.

SCULLY: Why are you here, Agent Spender? Why did you show this to me?

SPENDER: Because I think the process is bogus. Dr. Werber and his whole regression of memory is BS. It's like having a dream and then pretending it's real.

SCULLY: I think that Dr. Werber would beg to differ.

SPENDER: He indulged and infantilized my mother for his own purposes. I think he's dangerous and I think his methods are unsound, and if you went through it, I hope you'd question what came out of it.

SCULLY: I appreciate your opinion, agent Spender, but I don't have a mother feeding me abduction stories.

SPENDER: You've got Agent Mulder, don't you? How many times have you heard the stories he's told? How about the one about his own sister?

[He takes the tape out.]

SPENDER: Don't let yourself be used.

[Cut to Mulder's apartment, dark, as Mulder himself walks in. His eye catches something on the floor ... a note. It reads:

THINGS ARE LOOKING UP

And from out of nowhere, Mulder is pushed to the ground by an intruder who pulls a gun and points it in his face. Krycek.]

KRYCEK: You must be losing it, Mulder. I could beat you with one hand.

[NOTE: Krycek lost his arm in 4X10 Terma.]

MULDER: Isn't that how you like to beat yourself? If those are my last words I can do better.

KRYCEK: I'm not here to kill you, Mulder. I'm here to help you.

MULDER: Hey, thanks.

KRYCEK: You know, if it wasn't in my best interests, I would just as soon squeeze this trigger.

MULDER: What's stopping you?

KRYCEK: Hear this, Agent Mulder ... listen very carefully because what I'm telling you is deadly serious. There is a war raging, and unless you pull your head out of the sand, you and I and about five billion other people are going to go the way of the dinosaur. I'm talking planned invasion. The colonization of this planet by an extraterrestrial race.

[Mulder laughs.]

MULDER: I thought you were serious.

KRYCEK: Kazakhstan, Skyland Mountain, the site in Pennsylvania. They're all alien lighthouses where the colonization will begin, but where now, a battle's being waged. A struggle for heaven and earth. Where there is one law: Fight or die. And one rule: Resist or serve.

MULDER: Serve who?

KRYCEK: No, not who. What.

MULDER: Krycek, you're a murderer, a liar and a coward. Just because you stick a gun in my chest, I'm supposed to believe you're my friend?

KRYCEK: Get up.

[Krycek backs off, and Mulder sits up.]

KRYCEK: I was sent by a man ... a man who knows, as I do, that resistance is in our grasp, and in yours. The mass incinerations were strikes by an alien rebellion to upset plans for occupation. Now, one of these rebels is being held captive. And if he dies, so does the resistance.

[Krycek leans over and kisses Mulder on the cheek. He uncocks the gun and hands it to Mulder, who takes it.]

KRYCEK: <Good luck to you, my friend.>

[And he leaves, with Mulder sitting there on the floor. Cut to Wiekamp Air Force Base, where the man introduced to us as the Pilot but who we have come to know and love as the ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER hops the fence and runs off into the night. Back in Mulder's apartment, there is a knock at the door.]

MULDER: Come in.

[The door is opened by Scully, who is startled to see Mulder just sitting on his couch in the dark.]

SCULLY: Mulder? What are you doing sitting here in the dark?

MULDER: Thinking.

SCULLY: Thinking about what?

MULDER: Oh, the usual. Destiny, fate, how to throw a curve ball. The inextricable relationships in our lives that are neither accidental nor somehow in our control, either.

SCULLY: Well, I've just taken a long walk and I've reconsidered that I may have been wrong about what I believed happened to me.

MULDER: I've been doing some reconsidering of my own.

[He hands her the note which reads THINGS ARE LOOKING UP. she turns it over and on the flip side is written:

WIEKAMP AIR FORCE BASE

A leap.]

SCULLY: What is this?

MULDER: Maybe an answer ... to a question you and I seem to have been destined to ask.

He walks past her, and she turns to follow.

Mulder and Scully pull up at the gate. The gates are opened and they drive in to a toll booth. A young OFFICER who is acting as guard greets them somewhat coldly.]

OFFICER: Yes, sir?

[Mulder shows him his ID.]

MULDER: We're federal agents requesting permission to enter the base.

OFFICER: You have any paperwork to go with that, Agent Muldar?

MULDER: It's Mulder. I wasn't aware that any special authorization was needed to enter.

OFFICER: Well, due to the nature of our facility and the hazardous chemicals on site, I can only allow precleared civilians and military personnel on base.

[A truck pulls up on the other side of the gate, shining its lights in our eyes. Scully watches it.]

MULDER: Are you aware there's been a leak and contamination in one of the labs and the personnel on site need immediate medical attention?

OFFICER: No, sir, I wasn't.

MULDER: Why don't you go check on that, son? I'd hate for somebody to die because you were uninformed.

[The officer runs off into his booth, and the truck gets closer.

MULDER: Buckle up, Scully.

SCULLY: Mulder, he's armed and well within his jurisdiction.

[Inside the booth, the officer dials a phone number and begins to speak into the phone. The gate opens for the truck to exit, and Scully looks at the driver of the truck. It is the now-dead Quiet Willy.]

SCULLY: I know this man.

MULDER: Who?

SCULLY: That driver. I know his face.

[The officer looks out the window at Mulder and Scully. He speaks into the phone and Mulder watches the truck.]

OFFICER: Yes, sir.

[The officer exits the booth and sees Mulder on the back of the truck. He draws a gun.]

OFFICER: Stop that truck!

[He suddenly turns the gun on Scully.]

OFFICER: Get out of the car! You're under arrest. This is west gate. I've got a breach of security and a possible hijacking of a military vehicle. Repeat, this is w -

[Cut to the truck as Mulder climbs under a canvas and into the back of it. The back is empty, as we can see when Mulder shines his flashlight around. He moves up to a door with a window in it and when he looks through the window he sees ... the captured faceless man. Suddenly, the truck comes to a halt. Inside the driver's compartment, Quiet Willy takes off his gloves and hat and literally changes - morphs - into the alien bounty hunter. Or it should be said that it was the other way around ... the bounty hunter had morphed into Quiet Willy, but now he is back in his natural form. He gets out of the truck and goes around the back, lifts up the canvas, and gets in. There is no-one there, but he moves towards the door behind which is the faceless man. He pulls out a stiletto and flicks the blade open, watching the faceless man look on in unease. The bounty hunter begins to open the door when suddenly there is a BANG - and a blue light engulfs the entire truck. The truck begins to shake, and someone is transported into the truck ... another faceless man, there to kill the bounty hunter. Without warning, Mulder comes out from hiding with his gun drawn.]

MULDER: Nooooooooo!

[He fires, but we do not see who he hits. Cut to Marita's eye, opened. There is no black oil within her. The vaccine worked. The doctor looks up at the Well Manicured Man, who nods in recognition. Cut to Mulder, inside the truck, with no recollection of what happened. MILITARY OFFICERS shine flashlights on him, and he notices that the faceless man - the rebel - is gone. The officers handcuff him and take him away, throwing him into the car with Scully.]

SCULLY: What happened?

MULDER: I don't know.

He covers his face, almost in tears, but she comforts him.

Spender enters Skinner's office.]

SKINNER: Agent Spender?

SPENDER: Yes, sir?

SKINNER: I'm sorry. There's been no news about your mother.

[He hands Spender a case folder, marked X-152830.]

SKINNER: I appreciate your wanting to keep this discreet. I'll try and do that. But you should know Agent Mulder has opened an X-File on this case. This hasn't reflected on you in any way, Agent Spender.

SPENDER: Thank you, sir.

SKINNER: You'll do fine. It seems you have a patron outside this office who thinks highly of you.

SPENDER: Who's that?

SKINNER: I don't know. Someone working with a high level of influence.

[Spender turns and exits. Outside, a MAIL MAN catches him.]

MAIL MAN: Oh, Agent Spender. Got a letter for you.

He takes out a red envelope marked:

R. R. #1
North Hatley, Quebec
JOB 2C0
Canada

and gives it to Spender.

Cut back to the snow-covered cabin from the teaser. The boy trudges through the snow and knocks on the door. It opens, and the boy hands the man inside the same red envelope - it is marked:

RETURN TO SENDER
NO FORWARDING SERVICE AVAILABLE

and with that the boy leaves.

BOY: Sorry about that, mister.

[We pan up to see the face of the man. He holds a cigarette in one hand, and gently takes a puff. You guessed it - every x-phile's favorite fiend, the Cigarette Smoking Man. He's back.]

[THE END]