Mulder is by himself. Scully has gone home to make some kind of sense of what Krycek has told them. Doggett has also gone home, to call an old friend of his. Mulder is leafing through some old files concerning the colonists. There is a knock on his door. He looks up and standing there is Nick DeAbalo.

Mulder: *blustering* 'Mr DeAbalo, sir. What... erm... what are you doing here? I didn't expect... I... um didn't know you knew about me.'

Nick DeAbalo: *grins* 'I know everything about everyone - but I want to talk about your favourite subject... aliens.' Mulder's interested now.

Mulder: 'And?'

Nick DeAbalo: 'And I know they're coming and I also know you've been meeting with some pretty unsavoury characters.' *he produces a picture of Krycek leaving the building* 'This guy. He's, if you'll forgive me, a dirty rat. Finger in every pie, changes side to suit himself. Any other cliches I've forgotten?' Mulder shakes his head.

Mulder: 'I think you've just about got it covered. What do you want from me?' Nick takes a cigar out of his pocket and flicks open his lighter.

Nick DeAbalo: 'D'ya mind?' *Mulder shakes his head* 'We all need our little vices don't we.' As he says this he goes to Mulder's filing cabinet and pulls open the bottom draw and pulls out Mulder's 'collection' 'Ah, my kinda guy.'

Mulder: *embarrassed* 'Well, what do you want?'

Nick DeAbalo: 'To stop them invading of course - and I understand your buddy, here, may have the answers.' Mulder eyes him.

Mulder: 'Maybe he does.'

Nick DeAbalo: 'Come on, Mulder, get over the paranoia. I'm the head of the Department for Internal Security for Gods sake.' *Nick winces as he says this* 'C'mon Mulder. I've got the means to help you. I want to save the planet as much as you do. We know they're almost here, we've been tracking them for months...'

Mulder: *splutters 'What!! The govenment knows they're coming? Why hasn't anything been done? Why hasn't the President said anything?'

Nick DeAbalo: 'Panic, Mr Mulder. I advised the President against it. You've seen 'Independance Day'? The population's gonna panic when they get here. What's the point of starting it early? Anyway, where would they go? It's not like they can pack up and move to the moon. No, Mr Mulder, I... erm... we've decided it's for the best
to keep this under wraps.' Mulder considers the options.

Mulder: 'Ok, I'll contact Krycek, Doggett and Scully and we'll come up with a plan.'

Nick DeAbalo: *wheedles* 'You're not gonna regret this and you never know, if you become the hero that Ice Queen partner of yours may just melt a little.' Mulder smiles and just as quickly wipes the thought from his mind. 'C'mon, you know it's what you want, what you've always wanted.' Nick pulls himself up quickly before he gives himself away. 'Ok, I'll wait for your call.'

Nick leaves the Hoover Building looking mighty pleased with himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nick DeAbalo, Krycek, Mulder, Scully and Doggett are in Nick's office. Of course O'Bannion is nowhere to be seen. Krycek is explaining the workings of the Alternative Reality Device. Mulder explains the Syndicate's deal with the aliens. Scully explains about her abduction, the experiments, the cancer and finally her inability to conceive. Nick decides thet he'd like to meet the CSM, his kinda guy. After all the demonstrations, confessions and so on they start to form a plan.

Nick DeAbalo: 'So the devices will be ready in two weeks?' Krycek nods. 'And your 'employer' will be willing to let us use it?' Krycek nods again.

Krycek: 'I'll have to make the plans know to him, but I can't see any problem.'

Nick DeAbalo: 'Ok. I have min... erm... agents that are willing to set the devices off.'

Krycek: 'They do know it's one way only?' Nick nods.

Nick DeAbalo: 'Yep, they've been briefed. They know what's expected of them.'

Scully: 'How are we going to get your agents into the spacecrafts?'

Nick DeAbalo: 'I think your friend here has the answer to that.' He indicates for Krycek to carry on.

Krycek: 'You remember all those chips and metallic implants you been finding over the years?' Mulder nods.

Mulder: 'But they've been lost or destroyed. Whenever we've needed them for evidence, they've mysteriously disappeared.' Krycek smiles.

Krycek: 'But I know where they went and who put them there. I can also get them out. The Smoking son of a bitch has a store of them in the Pentegon vaults. I can get you as many as you need to implant into your agents.' Mulder decides not to question this. As much as he hates to admit it, they need Krycek.

Nick DeAbalo: 'Ok, I'll make the preparations for the initial response, brief the President and make the necessary arrangements for you guys to do whatever it is you do. What do you say? Meet again in a week for an update briefing?' The others agree.

As they leave the building Doggett remarks;

Doggett: 'Does anyone else think that guy's a little to good to be true? I mean, he turns up with just what we need when we need it.' *he shakes his head* 'Nah, I've been hanging around with you guys too long. I'll see you in the morning.'

The others say good night and go their separate ways.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alex Krycek has broken into the vaults with great ease. This has concerned him a little but he thinks maybe Nick DeAbalo has arranged for the light security. He finds the door and opens it cautiously; he remembers the last time he was in an underground vault. He gasps as he begins to grasps the size of it. He begins to look around for the chips and anything else that could be useful to him. He starts to search. He finds the chips with no problems, then he spots some vials containing a dark golden liquid. The name on the box says NAT-Trial Successful. Krycek can't believe his luck. The Immortality Drug. He pockets half a dozen of the vials and carries on looking around the vault. He walks over to the back wall which is covered by a huge filing cabinet. He opens the first draw marked C and pulls out a file marked 'Colonists'. He starts to flick through the files. As he reads his eyes widen in shock. He grabs a few more of the files and takes some more files from other draws, stuffs them in his jacket and runs out of the vault.

He gets back into his car and sits there staring into space. He can't believe what he's found out. He's also realised he can't use this information because the Devil would know there's a flaw in his plans. He needs to keep these files safe. He gets out of the car, pulls the Alternative Reality device out of his pocket, points it at the wall and walks through it.

A plume of smoke rises from behind a piller as the CSM witnesses Krycek walk through the wall.

CSM: *to himself* 'Well, well, well, Alex. Is this what you have in mind for the colonists you poor misguided fool, or are you saving your own skin? You can run but you can't hide from me.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everyone is standing around TV screens waiting for the President's emergency broadcast. Outside several triangular-shaped UFO's are hovering over Washington. Mulder, Scully and Doggett are in the basement going over the plan.

Scully: 'Do you think it'll be like Independance Day?' Mulder smiles.

Mulder: 'You know their plans better than anyone. No, they want us alive to do their bidding, but are they in for a shock.' Doggett is staring at the pictures of the UFO's.

Doggett: 'You know I owe you an apology, Mulder. I alway said this UFO/Alien abduction thing was your nutty obssession. Now I know you were right, maybe I won't be so quick to judge in the future... if we have one.'

Mulder: 'Well Nick DeAbalo's plan seems pretty flawless. He's got everything worked out so well it can't go wrong.' Doggett doesn't seem convinced.

Doggett: 'I've still got this feeling in my gut that says he's too good to be true. It's been a month now and I still can't shake this feeling.' Mulder gets up and sticks out his hand.

Mulder: 'Welcome to Paranoia Anonymous.' Doggett grins and shakes Mulder's hand.

Doggett: 'Thanks, I think.' Mulder turns to Scully.

Mulder: 'What do you think Frohike, Langley and Byers will do now? They've got no more conspiricies to uncover.' Scully laughs.

Scully: 'Don't be so sure. They'll find something!'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Oval Office is crammed with General's, Advisers, CIA, FBI, Security Men and general hangers-on. Hovering quietly in a corner is O'Bannion - now unrecognisable after his plastic surgery, but still the same old him. President Bush is pacing the floor rehearsing his speech and looking out of the window at the UFO's.

President Bush: 'I am doing the right thing, Nick? You're sure aren't you?' Nick grins his famous cheesy grin.

Nick DeAbalo: 'Of course you are, Sir. All the other world leaders are waiting for you to lead the attack against them.' The Secretary of State is not convinced.

Secretary of State Powell : 'How do you know they're hostile, Nick? They may be here in peace. This isn't the movies you know. Somehow I don't think they're going to melt the White House with heat rays. We need conformation before we strike.' Nick ignores him.

Nick DeAbalo: 'But Sir, we must make arrangements to fight back just in case they turn out to be hostile.' Bush stops pacing.

President Bush: 'I agree with Nick I'm afraid, Colin. We need to make the troops ready just in case.' Powell conceads defeat.

Nick DeAbalo: 'Ok, Sir. I'll see the Secretary of Defence and make sure he knows what's what.' He looks pleased with himself. His plan is going really well. No one suspects what he's really up to - not even the X Files agents.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A large group of people are gathered at the monument waiting for the UFO's to take them away. Among them are the X Files agents. They are waiting for the aliens to take DeAbalo's agents so they can send the colonists away.

Mulder: 'Can you see the Gunmen Scully?' She shakes her head. She's just staring up at the ship. Mulder puts his hand on her shoulder 'You ok? I won't let them get you this time.' Scully smiles at him.

Scully: 'I know, but... deja vu. You know I've been in this position before. Or I thought I had. Or maybe I really have. But now... maybe it was all true what I saw in that regression therepy.' Doggett is also staring at the UFO.

Doggett: 'I can't believe I'm seeing this. I can't believe I'm looking at a UFO. After this I think I'll believe anything you tell me.' At that moment a woman's voice is heard shouting 'Oh my God look!!!! It's opening' A beam of light comes down. Mulder grabs Scully's hand.

Mulder: 'Time to get out I think.' Doggett looks at him.

Doggett: 'I agree.'

They duck into some trees to watch what happens. As they do another group of people move into the light. One of them morphs into the Alien Bounty Hunter. He moves out of the group and goes to round up more people. When he comes back with the final group the force field lifts them into the air and onto the ship. The ship suddenly accelerates off into the sky. Panic breaks out as people try to run from the monument park. Watching the panicking population is the CSM and Krycek.

CSM: 'Poor fools. Do they really think they can run and hide from them? This is only the beginning. *smiles* 'The culmination of twenty five years work. The sacrifices will not have been in vain. You and I, Alex, you and I are the only ones left alive to see this day. Bill Mulder was a fool when he thought we could defeat them. Jeffery my own son turned on me, sold me out. Fox Mulder, even when he knew they couldn't be stopped, refused to join me, even to save himself and Scully. But you, Alex, have always been at my side even during your... indiscretions. You have always been a true believer in the project. You have been more loyal to me than any of my children.' He lights another cigarette. 'This is not the end, it's the begininng.' Krycek looks out of the car window and spots Mulder, Scully and Doggett watching from the trees as another ship drops from the sky.

Krycek: 'Well, look who's at the party.' He points to where the agents are standing. 'Why don't we drop in and say hi?' They both get out of the car and move to the trees where the others are standing.

CSM: *to Mulder* 'I knew you'd be here to see them first hand. It's a shame Bill couldn't be here to see this.' Mulder decides to ignore him. 'What's the matter, Fox? Not willing to admit that I was right?'

Mulder: *spits out* 'It's not over till the fat lady sings and she ain't even warmed up yet...'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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