I don't own Buffy. I don't own the two kindly agents and others from their
genre. Joss, Mutant
Enemy (gr! arg!), and others do.
This one's for Laur, who always complains that only people with no life have
time to read my fics.
Well, the week had gone from bad to worse. The petite woman rubbed her temples
and bit her lip
to keep from crying. Not only had her mysterious dreams kept her from having a
full night's sleep,
Mulder was driving her crazy. And her computer had crashed, losing both the
expense and
medical reports, as well as her new solitaire game. And Frohike had asked her
out. Again.
Lewdly, as usual. AND she couldn't remember that stupid movie that she
remembered only one line
from. AND Mulder had lost his cell phone again.
But that wasn't even close to the topper. No, that was the bottom pancake on
stack of her
problems.
Scully pushed her hair back from her face with a sigh. Whatever Mulder had in
his pocket that was
setting off the airline metal detector was driving her insane. "Mulder!"
she snapped irritably at her
chagrined partner. "Empty your pockets already! We're going to miss our
flight!"
"Chill out, Scully," he told her easily. "It's not my
fault."
She rolled her eyes. "Of course not, Mulder. It's never your fault."
"Now what's that supposed to mean?"
She shook her head, her chin-length red hair swinging. "You're going to
miss the flight. I'm leaving without
you."
Mulder seemed genuinely surprised at the outburst from his normally so patient
partner. "Scully, it's
not my fault!"
She felt like knocking his head against the wall. "It's probably all the
marbles in your head knocking
against each other," she grumbled grimly.
"Marbles are made of glass."
"Obviously, the ones in your head aren't!"
The tall, lanky man was finally cleared after taking some sort of metallic
figurine out of his pocket and handing
it to the authorities. Passing through customs without notice--thank you,
God--they boarded their
plane. Mulder immediately claimed the window seat, to Scully's growing dismay,
and quickly fell
asleep. Having been handed this incredibly stupid case so darn quickly, they
hadn't been able to
get different seats. Hence, Scully had a neighbor. Oh, joy.
The young man in front of the empty seat next to Scully--May it stay empty,
she prayed--was
having a difficult time on the plane. The large hunk of metal hadn't even moved
towards the runway,
and already he was having motion sickness problems. She could hear his
continuous retching and
winced; the sound and sickly-sweet/bitter smell was making her own stomach
uneasy.
"Don't mind him," a low voice in the aisle told her. "He'll
stop... eventually." Scully looked up the
body associated with the voice with surprise and slight dismay. Her seatmate was
a teenager, a few
years younger than the sick boy. Her straight brown hair fell to about mid-back,
and her eyes were
large and open. The person in question sat down next to Scully, grimacing.
"Hopefully sooner rather
than later, with the trick I just taught him."
Scully studied the girl intently. There was something familiar about her...
Especially the eyes. Bright,
sharp eyes that seemed to look directly into the soul and read it's pain and
time of... death. Maybe it
was the lighting, but she had the largest pupils Scully had ever seen. They
covered the whole iris,
leaving only a ring of bright green around the black.
*I remember her face from when I was hospitalized with cancer,* she realized,
eyes growing. *She
was hovering by me! No, it couldn't have been her... could it?*
The object in question seemed uncomfortable with the scrutiny. "Hi, my name
is Lun@," she offered,
extending a hand and putting an odd accent on the "a".
Scully simply stared.
"Okay..." Lun@ took her hand back, placing it in her lap. "I can
take a hint. I'll leave you alone."
"No," Scully said, shaking her head, "It's just that... you look
so familiar..."
Lun@ squirmed uncomfortably, twisting the edge of her giant t-shirt. "Uh...
I have that kind of face."
"Oh." The red-haired agent didn't buy it. "I'm Special Agent
Scully. The one sleeping in the corner is
my partner, Special Agent Mulder. We're with the FBI."
Lun@ frowned. "I didn't know the FBI did work in different countries."
Scully sighed. "Neither did I."
There was a small break in the conversation. "What the difference between a
Special Agent and a
regular agent?" Lun@ finally asked.
Scully opened her mouth to reply before she realized that she didn't have one.
"Uh... more
paperwork?"
Lun@ laughed.
Scully allowed herself a slight chuckle at this. "I really have no
idea," she confessed. "I've often
wondered that myself. I sure do do a lot of paperwork, though."
Lun@ looked over the bedraggled Special Agent with a careful eye. "You look
tired," she
pronounced.
Scully rubbed a hand over her face. "I've been having dreams all week.
Really weird ones. They've
been keeping me up all night. I've actually been experiencing them for months
now, but lately...
they've gotten really violent.
"For example, I saw a... a man with blond hair and pale skin and a whip. He
kept asking me, "Who
are they? Who are they?" and hitting me..." she trailed off,
trembling. "It was awful."
Lun@ was deep in thought. Suddenly, she fished around in her pocket and dug out
a Kleenex. "Here."
Scully looked at it dumbly. "What is this for?"
Lun@ rubbed her nose uncomfortably. "You're... you're bleeding."
Scully visibly flinched and accepted the tissue to clean her nose.
"Thanks." There was a slight break
in her voice.
Lun@ put her hand on the petite woman's shoulder. "What's wrong? Should I
call a doctor?"
Scully shook her head in negation. "No. I already know what's wrong."
She took a deep breath,
glancing at Mulder to make sure he was really asleep.
"What?"
"I have cancer."
"Oh," Lun@ gasped. "That's horrible!" She regarded the woman
thoughtfully for a moment, watching
her mop up her face with a moist towelette found in the back pocket of the seat in front
of her.
"When are you going to tell him?"
Scully flinched again, as if she had been reaching for a cobra instead of her
compact. "What do you
mean?"
"That Mulder guy. He needs to know."
"What..." Scully's voice broke slightly again, and she worked to cover
it up. "Why do you think that
I haven't told him yet?"
"Hunch. A correct one, judging by your reaction."
The agent drew a ragged breath. "You don't understand." She hadn't
meant to tell a perfect
stranger--no less, a child--about her cancer. In fact, the only people who knew
were AD Skinner,
her doctor, and herself.
"Make me."
"Well..." Scully studied the ground. "I had a tumor before. It...
metastasized and... almost killed me. I
went into remission..." No sense in going into the why and how. "I
thought it was over. Mulder
did, too. It nearly killed him to see me so close to death."
Suddenly, Lun@ remembered her. It had been last year, a soul she was supposed to
collect. A...
Dana Scully. She had waited by that woman's beside, hoping for a miracle... she
had given that
Mulder a poke in the butt, telling him to look deeper and find the chip. I
can't believe it worked...
well, obviously, it didn't...
"About two months ago, about when I began having these dreams... my
nosebleeds and headaches
came back. I got myself checked..." Scully took a deep breath. "The
doctor has instructed me that I
can only take one more case before I'm to stop working. This is my last
X-file."
"Oh, no! That's terrible!" Lun@ whispered, touching the woman's arm
gently. "Special Agent
Scully... Agent Scully... Dana..." she shook her head. "Scully...
you'd be surprised to see yourself
now. You're doing great. But... you have to tell Mulder."
"Why?" Scully mumbled. "What's the use? It would just kill him.
Last time... he practically killed
himself. I couldn't live with that. And, if he didn't, he would run away and
leave me to work on this
by myself, for my "protection". So, why bother." It wasn't a
question.
"Because," the girl said calmly, "It'll eat you up inside. The
secret will chew at your sanity, your guilt
will overwhelm you... and he'll be so hurt if you don't."
"It sounds suspiciously like my cancer. Was that a Mulderism?"
Lun@ giggled a little. Calming down, she sighed. "You have to, sooner or
later."
"Why?"
"It'll tear you up inside." she repeated quietly. Suddenly, Lun@
caught sight of an ear pressed
suspiciously up against the seat in front of her. "Hang on a minute."
Standing and twisting around the
seat, she moved her mouth close to Xander's ear. "Xander," she said
loudly, "stop eavesdropping."
He jumped a couple inches off his chair as Lun@ hid a grin, daring to glance
back at Scully. Scully
was giving him a frosted-over glare that could've froze Hawaii. Twice.
Hiding her grin under a thin layer of frost, she lost her good humor and glared
at him as he hissed,
"Don't do that!"
Lun@ had years of practice of not being able to laugh. "I would appreciate
it," she told him, the ice
in Scully's glare giving her power, changing her mood to the blackest in the
book, "if you would
kindly direct your attentions elsewhere. Perhaps your Walkman?" She was
secretly itching to
call him a hippo's asshole, but she doubted that he'd appreciate the beauty of
the Japanese language.
Giving him a good, hard LOOK, she let him see her anger.
"Okay," he agreed in a cowed, high-pitched voice. "I'll--"
he cleared his throat, returning it to it's
normal octave, "get it back from Will right away."
He is such a dork. Shaking her head in disgust, she couldn't resist
muttering "Kaba no baka," as
she headed back to her seat.
Plopping back down next to Scully, she gave her an apologetic glance.
"Sorry 'bout that."
Scully shrugged, still amazed at the outcome of that small battle. That was a
teenage boy she had
yelled at, one who had been snapping at people all morning, had just instantly
shut up at the sight of
that passive, quiet girl. Very odd... very odd indeed. It didn't matter, though;
Scully had problems
that she needed to work out by herself. Wrapping her frail, dying body in a
quilt of silence, she
immersed herself in her thoughts.
Meanwhile, Lun@ had her own problems. None that she could tell anyone. Not Buffy,
not Giles,
not even Angel.
First of all, nothing was going as planned. Sure, she _looked_ like she had it
all under control, but
she was slowly, painfully losing her grip on reality and the situation at hand.
She had no idea what
she was going to do; Japan was a huge country, and Tokyo was a large city. If
the vamps were
careful, they could easily escape from noticeable view for at least a month.
Unfortunately, that was all
the group had: a month. One month-long vacation. Not nearly enough time.
Second of all, she was having dreams similar to the ones Agent Scully had
described. Similar, but
yet... different. Hers hadn't been so violent, but they consisted of images
familiar yet not placeable in
her memory, and faces of unnamed and unknown friends. They were long dead, but
perhaps... if she
could place a name with the face, she could look up her friends and find clues
to her missing past... a
whole lifetime of memories, literally. The only consistency in the dreams was
their ending: a kind,
young face with long gray-purple hair smiled sadly and repeated, "All will
be revealed." Every night
before she fell asleep, she had to wonder about her past. Was I really so
terrible for all the other
angels to hate me so much? Was I a thief, a murderer, a traitor... what? And,--this thought ran
more painfully--why aren't my parents in heaven?
Brushing her hair out of her eyes with her long, slender fingers, she finally
pondered the most
disturbing thing of all: her Guardian status.
Obviously, she wasn't performing wonderfully. Her mortal wasn't doing too well,
and Lun@ was the
only Guardian to ever lose their subject... twice, no less. Buffy was strong, a
fighter, but she wasn't
happy. She had a great personality and a keen source of friends, but as for true
happiness, that
warmth that fills your belly and gives a definite radiance to your aura and
soul, she just didn't cut it.
This upset Lun@ and put her at a great risk. A Guardian is only immortal and
impervious to mortal
means of danger if their protected is happy and content. Lun@, therefore, could
die and mess up the
big scheme of things if she didn't get her act together and help the Slayer find
something cheery to
think about for a while, to make her enjoy life.
A more concerning matter in that general area, though, was her Guardian powers.
Or lack there of,
in her case. She was having problems with the simple stuff, like flying,
blessing, and changing shape.
Oh, sure, going from dog to human and back again was an easy enough process, but
any other
shapes, even simple ones like cats or birds, simply were out of her reach. Plus,
now and then, she
had dizzy spells and terrible colds. Even if she wasn't immortal, she should be
proof against
disease... but, no. The only powers she had consistently been able to perform
was the healing rune
sigil and her phasing power; otherwise, she had to depend on her experience as
an AoD to allow
her to assist Buffy on her patrols. It was gratifying to the other angels, who
gloated about it every
chance they got. "Still getting in trouble?" they teased, but it felt
malicious, and cruel.
Standing up, she stretched and made her way to the smelly little bathroom at the
end of the plane.
Hope Xander's not in there.
No! a voice yelped in his head. No! Don't take her away! He tossed and
turned, watching the
battle of his life flash before his eyes as his most important person was
tangled in the light, stretched
and torn and yanked to the skies, forced to embrace the decidedly not
government issue
spacecraft. Scully!
A sharp poke in his ribs caused him to turn uncomfortably. "Stopit,"
he muttered quietly, huddling in
on himself. "Gotta save Scully. Go 'way."
"Mulder," a kind voice told him gently, "wake up. You're having a
nightmare."
For some unknown reason, Mulder firmly resisted acknowledging his dream.
"No."
"Mulder," the oddly-familiar voice prodded again, "I'm right
here. I'm fine. Wake up. I'm here."
Suddenly, he managed to place the voice. "Scully!" He bounced up like
a spring, at last awake.
The woman in question raised an eyebrow at his eager tone. "Yes?" she
inquired sweetly.
"I... I..." He stumbled over his tongue for a moment. "I had a
dream," he finally decided on.
For some reason that Mulder couldn't comprehend, her face darkened. "Oh,
really?" she asked, too
casually. "About what?"
He looked her straight in the eye. "They took you again."
Scully comfortingly lay her hand on his. "I'm fine, Mulder."
The way she always said that, especially when she was lying, shook him inside.
Having no evidence,
though, he decided not to pursue it. "I'm glad."
Staring at her hands, she worked them nervously. "I--ah--I have a favor to
ask. Switch seats with
me, please?"
"Eh... why, if I may ask?"
Scully fidgeted quietly. "There's this girl I'm sitting next to... she's
scaring me... there's just something
about her... I can't really sleep well... and I think you'd get along better
with her than I will." She
looked at Mulder with her darkly rimmed eyes, pleading with him. "I just
want to get some sleep..."
"Okay, okay, Scully!" Mulder interrupted, patting her shoulder gently.
"No need to rough me up!"
Giving her a small smile, he helped her move her things. Gently pillowing her
head with his jacket
against the wall, he gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. "Sweet
dreams," he whispered.
Stretching out, he prepared to fall asleep.
"Hullo. You're Mulder, right?"
His eyes snapped open. "Yeah. And you must be..." that girl Scully
said was freaking her out.
"Lun@." She plopped down in her seat, covering herself up in a
blanket.
Weird name... weird kid, in fact. "What did you and Scully talk
about?"
She paused. "Oh, this 'n' that. So, why're you goin' to Japan?"
Mulder noticed the subject change. "An X-file. I assume Agent Scully told
you what we do."
Lun@ shook her head. "She said you were Feebies, but..."
A grin stretched out on his face. "Scully said that?"
"Well, she may not have used that exact terminology, but it ran somewhere
along those lines." Her
eyes twinkled.
"Oh, well, we investigate... odd phenomena."
"You mean, like extraterrestrials, robots, demons, vampires...
angels..."
Mulder was impressed. "Yeah, that's pretty close. Never done any angels
before, though."
Lun@ nodded. "They're out there. Ever wonder why something good happens?
Look for a fluttering
of wings, the sound of breeze, a white feather... it's proof that the Joy-Luck
Committee is looking
after you." She realized her mistake as soon as his eyes lit up.
"Really? How do you know this?"
Hmm... caught between a roc and a hard place... improvise, girl, improvise.
"I'm observant."
There. Not exactly a lie, but... not all the truth... that method's never
failed me yet.
If he noticed her aversion to the question, he didn't comment. In fact, he was
busy noticing her eyes.
Strange, soulful things; the pupils were enormous, even in the well-lit cabin.
"How old are you,
Lun@?"
That got a grin out of her. "As old as the sun, the moon, and the third
star to the right. Old enough to
know, old enough to care, old enough to worry, but not old enough to lie about
it. Fifteen--"
hundred or so. "I'll be sixteen soon." She had lost track of her age
over the years, but she knew it
to be roughly over 15,000... maybe more. Still, her physical age had remained
the same until she
was forced into this job... against her will.
Mulder bit back a grin. This kid had a sense of humor that he could relate to...
Scully was right, he
did like her. Now there's a surprise. Scully was right?!? Never! "Hey,
do you like brain teasers?"
"The question is, do you?" There was a wicked gleam in her eye. Hundreds of years of living
haven't been for nothing, finally!
"Okay... A man walks into a bar. He asks the bartender for a glass of
water. The bartender whips
out a gun and points it at him. The man--"
"Says 'thank you' and walks out. Heard it seen it, been there, done that,
bought the t-shirt. He had the hiccups. My turn." She thought for a moment.
"I am the outstretched fingers that seize and hold the wind. Wisdom flows
from me in other hands. Upon me sweet dreams are dreamt. My merest touch brings
laughter. What am I?"
Mulder's jaw dropped a bit. He hadn't expected something like that! "Uh...
um..."
Lun@ bit her tongue to keep from laughing. "You can ask yes/no questions,
if you want."
Mulder mocked his relief. "Whew! Is it soft?"
"Yeah."
"Is it a real finger?"
"Nopers."
"Is it... magic?"
She laughed softly. "Hardly."
After quite a few more guesses, he finally got it. "Is it a feather?"
"Hallelujah! He's got it!" Lun@ gave him a round of silent applause.
It was Mulder's turn, and this time he wasn't going to be so easily defeated. He
had gotten into the old, cryptic metaphor mode, though, so he quickly made up
his own on the spot. "I am two faced, but bear only one face. I have no
legs but travel widely. Men spill much blood over me. Kings leave their imprint
on me. I have greatest power when given away, yet lust for me keeps me locked
up. What am I?"
Lun@ loved to wrap her mind around a good puzzle. "Is it small?"
Mulder nodded his head, enjoying this.
"Are its two faces attached to heads?"
"No."
"Can it switch it's two faces?"
"No."
"Does it ever have more than two faces?"
"No."
Lun@ closed her eyes, thinking hard. She began to think more between her
questions, until finally her eyes snapped open. "It's a coin, isn't
it?"
Mulder smirked at her cocked head. "Yeah, that would be it."
"Goodie! Okay, it's my turn... hm... High born, my touch is gentle. Purest
white is my lace. Silent, silent is my kingdom. Green is my death. To some, I
bring delight; to others, I bring certain death. I am always different, but
always the same." She let her voice trail off, giving him thinking time.
"What am I?"