X-File Eve
Chapter 5

An X-Files/Parasite Eve x-over fic
By: M.H. Torringjan

	Okay, I should be able to take care of this fic in about two more parts, 
depending on how long I make them.  It may even be one more part.  Who really 
knows with me?  ;-)  I think I may make a minor change in cast later in this 
part.  I'd been considering doing it since I started the fic, and so I decided, 
"why the hell not?" So, there you have it.  Just think of it as tossing another 
one into the mix.  As usual, I don't own Parasite Eve.  Squaresoft and Sony 
Computer Entertainment of America do.  I don't own X-Files.  Chris Carter and 
Fox do.  I made a few original characters for the fic, but they're hardly there 
any more.  Just forget they ever existed at this point.  ;-)  I'm so glad I'm 
finally going somewhere with this thing...

November 25, 2001
Harden Facility, East Wing,
Harden, Florida, 4:02 a.m.

	Back on the second floor, Doggett and Scully were still slightly winded 
from the run-in a few minutes earlier.
	"Scully, how are we not dead?" Doggett asked.
	"I guess Aya did something to stop that kid in time," Scully replied.
	"No, I mean, how could we absorb such high amounts of energy and still be 
alive?" Doggett asked.
	"I think I'm starting to see how this works," Scully said.  "We didn't 
absorb any energy ourselves."
	"Then what was that burning on our skins?" Doggett asked.  "It felt like 
radiation burns or something like that!"
	"It wasn't radiation burns.  That was natural energy from our own cells, 
it was just turned on us by something that Azra boy did," Scully said.
	"I don't follow," Doggett replied.
	"Our cells have energy stored in it in the form of simple sugars and amino 
acids, right?  This energy is released in the form of cellular respiration in 
the mitochondria, which releases ATP, and that runs all of our cellular 
functions in effect," Scully explained.  "Well, if what Agent Brea's saying is 
true, then Azra may be somehow turning that energy against us, making our cells 
'revolt,' put roughly.  The energy that just injured us was the normal energy 
from our mitochondria released in large enough amounts to burn us."
	"Scully, that's one of the craziest things I've heard come out of your 
mouth in a fairly long time," Doggett replied skeptically.
	"I seem to remember hearing about somebody who tried publishing a paper on 
this very topic a while back.  He was laughed at for the sheer absurdity of it.  
We may be seeing exactly what he was talking about in front of us," Scully said.
	"Whatever it is, that still doesn't explain why we aren't dead," Doggett 
said.
	"Like I said, I guess Aya took measures to prevent bad enough damage to 
us," Scully replied.  "That's some good medicine she's got there."  Behind the 
door of the elevator room, the unintelligible screams of ANMC's began to sound.
	"I think we should be moving," Doggett said.
	"What?  Why?" Scully asked.
	"We're hardly safe here," Doggett replied.
	"But Agent Brea told us to wait here," Scully said.  A loud slam sounded 
on the door as the creatures behind it began to try and force their way into the 
room.
	"Look, are you healthy enough to move?" Doggett asked.
	"I think so," Scully replied.
	"Then we should be going," Doggett said.  The two stood up and ran for the 
door that Azra had originally come from.  They found themselves in another 
hallway, similar to the one they had just come from.  Oddly enough, there 
weren't any ANMC's in the room at all.  There was a door at the end of the 
hallway, standing halfway open.  The two ran through it, and into a room with 
three different elevators.
	"Which should we try?" Scully asked.
	"Lucky left," Doggett replied, running for the elevator on the left.  When 
he and Scully were both on, he pressed the down button.  Nothing happened.
	"Real lucky, eh?" Scully asked.  Both of them moved to the middle elevator 
and Scully pressed the down button.  The elevator moved down and came to a rest 
in a shorter hallway.  There was a charred human body laying in the middle of 
the floor, his combat rifle still in hand.
	"Now, that looks like it hurt," Doggett said.
	"This is hardly the time," Scully said, bending down to check the gun for 
ammo.  It still had a full clip in it, so Scully decided to take full advantage 
of it.  Scully felt through the remainders of the person's pockets to find his 
spare ammo.  After a moment, she pulled two clips from the inside of the 
person's inside pockets.  "Now what?"
	The walls were decorated with singe marks where security devices had 
exploded.  Dents in the wall around them implied that they had been punched in 
before they exploded.  "I hope that wasn't that boy that did this," Doggett 
commented.
	"There's another elevator over there," Scully said, pointing further down 
the hall.  "I guess we should take it."
	"Nowhere else to go right now," Doggett replied, standing up.  As the 
elevator began to descend the dimly-lit shaft, weak waves of warmth began to 
wash across Scully's and Doggett's skins, as though Azra had recently been in 
that area.
	"I wonder what they keep this far underground," Scully said after the 
elevator had been descending quickly for a few minutes.
	"I don't know.  Maybe that biological weapon Brea was talking about," 
Doggett replied.
	"If they're going to use it anyway, they probably wouldn't bother keeping 
it so far from the target," Scully replied matter-of-factly.  The elevator 
suddenly shook as it slowed to a stop at the bottom.
	"Well, no time like the present," Doggett said, opening the door and 
walking into the hallway outside.  Where he had expected to see hordes of ANMC's 
waiting for them to emerge, there were only two doors at opposite ends of an 
empty hallway.  Not even the GPS picked anything up in their room.  The two 
agents walked to the closest door and tried opening it.  The door was locked by 
a card-reader.
	"I guess not," Scully said.  The other door at the other end of the 
hallway was slightly ajar, and slid open with a bit of applied force.  Inside, 
the room was a large gymnasium-like room with padded walls.  There were blood 
stains around the room and human bodies strewn across the floor.  The overhead 
lights about twenty feet up had been damaged and were shining dimly, some not at 
all.
	"Wonder what war went down in here," Doggett said.
	"Did ANMC's cause this?" Scully asked.
	"It doesn't look like it," Doggett said, bending down to check the closest 
body's wounds.  "This isn't like any ANMC wound we've seen since we've been out 
here.  It's almost like someone punched a hole through his chest and threw him 
from the other side of the room," he continued, pointing out the skid marks the 
man's blood had left.  Scully had already readied her gun.
	"Is anyone alive in here?" Scully called out across the room.  She didn't 
expect to receive any reply, though.  The smell of death in the room had to have 
been at least a week old.  Still, it was always worth a try.  The two of them 
made their way through the bodies to the door at the far end of that room.  The 
door was labeled "Nursery," and it led to a smaller, single-person room filled 
with toys, a small table, and a bed.
	"Check this out," Doggett said, handing one of the pieces of paper on the 
table to Scully.  A few lines were written on the paper in crayon.
	"Poetry?" Scully asked.  "What is this?  'Death...'  'Putrid...'  Who 
wrote this?"
	"Azra," Doggett said, handing Scully another piece of paper.  Surely 
enough, the signature at the top showed that Azra had written the dark pieces of 
writing.  "Seems he's never been much of a ball of happiness.  His drawings 
aren't any more sunshine and gumdrops.  His red crayon's worn down to a nub, and 
it's the only one."
	Scully walked around the corner to a broken one-way window and a pile of 
broken glass.  In the room behind it, there was another laboratory, with 
observation monitors scattered all around and computer screens flashing.  "This 
is where that other door led to, I think," Scully said.  She climbed through, 
being careful of the remaining glass while Doggett remained behind to explore 
the contents of the room.
	"There are some discs sitting on the desk in here," Scully called back in.  
"Some of them are labeled as urgent."
	"Well, I guess it's movie time, then," Doggett said.  "Pop one of those 
boys in."
	Scully inserted one of the "Urgent" discs in the nearest computer and 
watched as a video player started up and began to play.  A scene showing a 
younger Azra in the gymnasium outside came up on the screen.  There was an 
armor-suited man standing beside him with a tranquilizer gun.
	"Today, we're going to see how well you can control an ANMC, Azra," the 
armor-suited man said.  "Now, this creature will be pretty big, but don't worry.  
You can beat him on your own.  And even if you can't,  we'll be right outside to 
protect you if you need it."
	"All right," Azra said.
	"If you need us, call for help, and we'll come right in.  Do you 
understand?" the armor-suited man repeated.
	"Yeah," Azra replied.
	"Okay, we're going to start now," the armor-suited man said as he walked 
into the nursery and closed the door.  An alarm sounded as a door behind the 
camera opened and a Greater Stranger ambled awkwardly in.  It looked like it had 
recently recovered from sedation.  The instant it laid eyes on Azra, it came on 
alert and prepared to attack.  Azra's eyes widened as the Stranger rushed 
forward, almost stumbling over its own feet to get to Azra.  He stumbled 
backwards, screaming wildly as the Stranger pounced on him.  The Stranger began 
tearing wildly at Azra.
	A voice came on over the PA system in the room, "Azra, fight it!"
	"Help!" Azra called back.  "It hurts!"
	"Fight it, Azra!  You must control it!" the voice continued.
	"No, I can't!  Help me!  Please!"  The Stranger reared back its head and 
screamed at the speaker.  Scully could make out drops of blood falling from its 
mouth.  Azra's cries gradually subsided as he tired from the attack.  When they 
couldn't be heard anymore, the door opened, and the armored man shot a 
tranquilizer dart into the Stranger's forehead.  It fell backwards, squirming as 
the tranquilizer kicked in.
	"Test 0245 completed," said the voice on the intercom.  "Test failed."  
The camera shut off, ending the recording.  The computer stopped and 
automatically ejected the disc.  Scully looked beside the computer and found a 
clipboard of paper with a report on it.
	"Doggett, I don't understand this!" Scully said, handing him the 
clipboard.  "It says that Azra's afraid of the ANMC's!"
	"'Additional research on mental control requested.  Seems to have some 
emotional link with subjects when they are in separate parts of the compound," 
Doggett read from the report.  "So, he can control the ANMC's in other parts of 
the compound with his basic powers."
	"'Negative world view requires additional emotional conditioning to 
prevent rebellious behavior,'" Scully read from a different report.  "Looks like 
they were a little bit too late for that one."
	"Let's look at that one," Doggett suggested, pointing to the computer 
beside the one that Scully had just used.  "It's already got a disc in it."  He 
pressed the button to play the footage on the disc.  A shot of the gymnasium 
came up on the screen with no one inside it.
	"What's that?" Scully asked.  Suddenly, some people entered the room on 
the tape.
	"It must be the security cameras in the room.  They're setting something 
up in there," Doggett said.  "Another test of some sort."  The workers on the 
video were wearing armor again and preparing a table with colored shapes on it 
behind a screen.  One man brought in a cage with a Scavenger in it into the room 
and set it down beneath the table.
	"That looks like a common test for psychic ability.  Mulder's used them in 
the past.  This doesn't seem to be of any interest," Scully said, moving to scan 
the footage forward.  "This footage is set for November first.  From everything 
we've seen so far, that's around about when this started."  She pressed the 
button and the footage ran forward quickly, showing Azra taking numerous tests, 
each with ANMC's somehow involved.  In each test where he would have to see the 
ANMC, the young boy would get frightened and fail the test.
	When the footage reached November fifth, a commotion arose in the room.  
Scully ran the tape back to watch what had happened at normal speed.  A worker 
had come to Azra's door to bring him a meal, and he knocked on the door.  When 
the door slid open, the worker was blown backwards into the wall, blood oozing 
from a wound in his chest.  An alarm began sounding, and more workers began 
rushing in to aid in the effort.  As each of them ran at Azra, they were 
repeatedly thrown back, each one with increasingly dire wounds on their bodies.  
The final victim was the one that Doggett had inspected upon entering, and 
indeed, Azra had thrown a punch through the torso of the attacker and then 
thrown him across the room to remove him from Azra's hand.  Scully watched, 
motionless, as Azra appeared to glow when he walked from the room.
	"I think we just found out what happened here," Doggett said.  "They made 
him too strong, pushed him too far, and went too light on the security."
	"A typical Frankenstein story," Scully replied.  Doggett walked to the 
back of the room and looked down at the bodies strewn about, wearing white lab 
coats stained blood red.
	"What I want to know is, if this kid's so squeamish about even being 
around ANMC's, then how can he so easily kill humans?" Doggett asked.
	"He was brought up to think that normal humans were the inferior race, 
biologically.  I guess he just thinks he's helping evolution along, like he said 
in the corridor," Scully replied.  She walked along the wall, studying the 
instruments hung along the wall.  On one computer screen, there was an e-mail 
sitting open.  She read down the body of the letter until she reached a list of 
places across the nation.  "Hey, Doggett, any idea what these are?"
	Doggett left the dead bodies where they were and walked to where Scully 
was.  "I don't know.  What do all these cities have in common?"
	"Well, I've never heard of any of them before," Scully said.  "Unless I've 
driven through them and didn't notice it."  She scanned a little further down 
the list.  "Hold it, this one, Dry Field, didn't Agent Flash mention it during 
our briefing?  That's where the first facility was."
	"Maybe this is a list of the places where they have operations set up 
around the nation," Doggett said.
	"You mean there are *that many* facilities?!" Scully said in amazement.  
"That list is two pages long!"
	"Somehow, I doubt it," Doggett replied.  "Maybe this list includes any 
place that does any work connected to their project.  Like one place does the 
cellular work, one place does the collecting, and another place, like this 
facility, does the actual work of raising these creatures."
	"Well, whatever the case, we should give this list to Agent Brea," Scully 
said.  She pushed the button to print out the list and waited for the machine to 
output the list.  The pieces of paper fell to the ground from the off-balance 
printer, and Scully picked them up.  "We should go back up and find Agent Brea.  
She needs to know these things."  The two of them walked back to the elevator 
and took it back up to the second floor.

	Aya walked back into the cave from the facility.  She could sense Azra 
somewhere near, but there was still no way for her to know for sure where he 
was.  It felt like he was outside, on top of the mountain, standing still and 
waiting for her.  She walked to the entrance of the cave and emerged to the 
sight of a pack of four Knight Golems waiting for her.
	"The hell?!" she exclaimed as the four began rushing her at the same time.  
She cast a quick Energy Shot on herself and opened fire on the charging quartet.  
"He can even control the Golems?!"  She jumped out of the path of the golems, 
letting them knock into each other as they reached where she had been only 
moments before.  Before they could recover, she fired a few more rounds at them.  
They stood up and turned towards her.  The images of two of them faded from 
sight, while the other two rushed her again.
	Aya cast a shot of Plasma at them, knocking them back onto the ground 
momentarily.  She took a moment to glance around and try to locate the invisible 
golems.  Before she could start moving again, she felt a hand grasp her neck, 
pick her up, and squeeze hard.  She began kicking frantically in every 
direction, trying to loose herself from the grip of the golem.  Her foot kicked 
hard back and hit the one that was holding her up.  She swung her gun around and 
shot some rifle rounds to be sure of her aim.  A shock ran through the arm that 
held her, signaling that she had hit her mark.  Satisfied with the results, Aya 
pulled the trigger of the grenade launcher and braced herself.
	An explosion rocked the arm again and made the body fall backwards to the 
ground, phasing back into view and laying motionless.  Aya pried the hand from 
around her neck and stood up to face the remaining three.  As she took aim at 
the two golems in sight, a kick landed on her back, throwing her forward to the 
ground.  She stood up and turned to find the invisible golem, and the two 
visible golems slashed at her with their hands.  She screamed in pain as the 
poison-tipped nails dug deeply into her flesh.
	While the two golems stood in place, processing their next moves, Aya 
turned and fired rifle rounds at one of them.  She ran back inside the cave for 
a moment to reload her grenade launcher and fired a shot at the same golem as 
she had shot moments before.  The grenade flew through the air and slammed hard 
into the head of the golem, leaving it headless in a heap on the ground.
	"How the hell'd I do that?!" Aya said.  She reloaded the grenade launcher 
and ran back to take care of the other two golems.  The visible golem remaining 
rushed her one final time.  Aya wasn't sure if it was programmed to be this 
stupid, or if it just didn't learn easily.  She stopped in her tracks and waited 
for it to jump into the air, arms outstretched.  When it did this, she ducked 
under its arms, turned and fired at its back with the grenade and pumped a few 
rifle rounds in for good measure.  It slumped forward and fell to the ground on 
top of the first one she had killed.
	There only remained one invisible golem to take care of, which 
conveniently materialized right beside her, standing in place.  She turned and 
fired at it with the rifle in the chest.  As the bullets reached their target, 
they kept going and ricocheted off of a tree standing behind it.  It was a decoy 
hologram.  The real golem materialized beside her and slashed at her shooting 
arm, causing her to drop her gun.  She dropped to the ground and rolled away, 
holding her arm on the recovery.  Summoning her mitochondrial energy, she used 
her antibodies to eliminate the poison from her system and healed the cuts on 
her back.  The golem had disappeared again, so she ran back to grab her gun and 
prepare for it to attack again.
	As she bent down to pick it up, a kick landed on Aya's face.  Panicking, 
Aya cast an inferno all around her.  The invisible golem burst into flame and 
phased back into vision.  Aya went back for her gun, quickly reloaded the 
grenade, and fired at the smoldering golem soldier.  The explosion knocked him 
backward and ended his menace.
	Aya sat down for a moment to gather her bearings before going after Azra.  
She really didn't want to kill him.  She made more than enough money for her and 
Eve.  She could take Azra on if he'd just stop and think.  There was no way she 
could think of to convince him of her point of view, if this was what he had 
been taught for his whole life.  But there had to be something left in him of 
humanity!  He was her offspring, indirectly, so he had to have the capacity to 
see it as she did!
	Aya stood up and cast another recovery on herself as she looked around the 
dark outside for a path up the top of the plateau.  Her rods quickly adjusted to 
the low light, and she found a path running alongside the mountain that led up, 
apparently to the top.  She broke into a sprint as she made her way towards 
where Azra awaited her arrival.
	The battlefield was completely flat.  Aya had no idea whether Azra had 
done it, or if it was naturally that way.  He stood on the other side of the 
plateau with his back to her, staring out over the swamp at the cities in the 
distance.  A cool breeze blew across the field, lending an almost peaceful 
atmosphere to the setting; the calm before the storm.
	"Look at it all, Aya," Azra said.  "All of the piddling humans, waiting to 
die and hoping that they can make some sort of a difference."  He turned to face 
her, his hand outstretched.  "You were raised a human, you know the feeling, 
right?  The need to 'do something with your life?'  Think of the difference that 
you can make if we succeed!  The whole world will be changed!  For the better!"
	"I'm making a difference by giving people their own lives.  Even if they 
aren't as strong as we are, they still have a right to live!" Aya exclaimed.  
"My difference is fighting people who want to control the many for the wrong 
reasons."
	"I see, so you don't understand," Azra replied.  "Then I must kill you 
after all.  I was hoping this landscape would inspire you, but it doesn't seem 
to have worked."
	"I don't want to kill you, Azra," Aya said.  "I want you to come with me 
and learn about the strengths of humankind.  You've lived your whole life with 
evil and cold, hard technology.  Let me show you the other side."
	"Nothing matters but cold, hard strength," Azra said.  He made the first 
move by throwing his hand forward towards Aya.  The flesh began to stretch 
again, sharpening the tips like daggers.
	"This kid's got some power!" Aya wondered again as she jumped out of the 
way of the hand.  "How long can he keep this up before he burns out?!"  As he 
was drawing the hand back in, she took aim and shot a few rifle shots towards 
his left leg.  They were deflected by a field as they had been before.  Azra 
regained his original form and ran at Aya, drawing back a punch aimed straight 
for her gut.  Aya dodged the punch and brought her own fist around into Azra's 
back.  He fell to the ground face first and stayed in place for a moment.
	"Okay, fist fighting is a barbaric way of fighting, anyway," Azra said, 
standing back up and brushing off his dirtied suit.  Aya felt the searing heat 
cross her skin again, prompting her to try a counter wind power.  The wave of 
apobiosis washed through the area, dispersing the fire attack that Azra had 
used.  Unfortunately, it wasn't strong enough to reach him, having lost so much 
energy in the meeting of the powers.  Her legs were starting to feel weak as she 
depleted her energy reserves.  She shot a grenade at Azra to try and phase him 
for a moment's respite.
	The explosion seemed to rock his shield slightly and threw him off-
balance, giving Aya enough time to reach into her jacket and grab a cola to 
refuel.  She gulped down the relatively small helping and felt her speedy 
metabolism go to work, and she was ready to go again.  She threw a shot of Life 
Drain to recover some strength she had used in the previous battle while 
weakening Azra.  She couldn't feel anything leak from him into her, though.
	"You expect me to be hurt by a little drain?" Azra exclaimed.  "I set up a 
block on drains long ago.  So what you got now?"  Aya drew the strength from her 
extremities into the center of her body, throwing everything into one inferno.  
Azra's body burst into flames, a scream of pain washing across the field.  Aya 
winced as Azra fell to one knee, patting himself all over to extinguish the 
flames.
	After a few moments, she let her power drop so that she didn't hurt him 
too much.  The flames died down, as did Azra's cries of pain.  As Aya watched, a 
wave of blue light washed over Azra's body and the red burns on him disappeared.
	"Much better," Azra commented, grinning.  His left hand changed shapes 
again into a solid block.  His other arm slashed out, taking Aya's feet from 
underneath her.  She fell to her back and Azra threw the other arm out, 
increasing its size as it traveled.  Aya winced before the block slammed into 
her, bracing for the oncoming blow.  The force of the slam knocked the wind out 
of her in one shot.  A cry escaped her lips with the departing air.  She could 
feel Azra's power increasing by the minute, as though he was giving in further 
to the control of the mitochondria.  She could see a smile cross his lips as he 
approached her, intent on pummeling the life out of her.
	"See what I could give them, Aya?" he said before dropping the hammer once 
more.  A spurt of blood erupted from Aya's mouth along with what was left of the 
contents of her lungs.  "Do you see what you could have?  I could teach you to 
do this!"
	"It would be nothing without a self to control it," Aya wheezed.
	"I am controlling it!  Don't you say that I can't control it!" Azra yelled 
at her as his hand descended once again.  Before it could hit, though, a shot 
rang out from behind them.  The blow halted a few inches from Aya's body, a 
moment of relief.
	"Hold it!" called an unfamiliar voice from the other side of the plateau.  
This new person had just fired an attention shot into the air from his M93A.  
"What's going on here?"
	"I'm just beating the life out of this woman," Azra replied.  "Nothing 
that concerns you yet."  Aya found the presence of mind to take advantage of 
Azra's drawn attention to aim her rifle at his arm and fire a burst.  The 
bullets passed through the flesh and went out the other side.  Another scream 
came from Azra, who turned his head back to Aya, a look of rage crossing his 
face.  She felt his energy spike suddenly in his surge of anger.  As it 
continued to rise, though, she saw an astonished look cross Azra's face and 
another scream escaped his lips, this one a scream of terror.  He had lost 
control, and he knew it.  
	Azra's features began to change, his body growing in height and 
musculature.  Wings sprouted from his back and lengthened to twice his armspan.  
His skin took on a pale tint as his clothes tore from his body and burned to 
ashes.  His hair turned from light blond to a dark green tint and lengthened 
down to his shoulders.
	"Azra!" Aya called desperately.
	"NOOOOO!!!" he called out, grasping the sides of his head with his longer, 
clawed fingers.  He gelled again and slithered into the vent that he had used to 
get up there.  This whole time, the new figure stood frozen in place, confused 
at the goings-on that had just taken place.
	"Ummmm... What just happened?" he asked.  Aya weakly cast a recovery spell 
on herself and stood up as the cool wave washed over her and stopped her 
bleeding.  She ran a hand over her face in relief.  The man was mid-height with 
short brown hair.  He wore civilian clothes; there was nothing about him that 
suggested that he was dangerous to her.
	"You just saved my life and killed another one," Aya replied.  "Who are 
you, anyway?  Why are you here?"
	"The name's Mulder.  I'm looking for Agent Scully and Agent Doggett," the 
man said.
	"You're with the FBI, too?" Aya asked.
	"Well, I'm kind of between jobs right now," Mulder replied.  "I just do 
odd jobs.  You know, FBI agent, house-sitter, baby-sitter.  The usual."  He 
looked around the plateau cautiously.  "Are there any of those creatures 
around?"
	"Probably not here," Aya replied.  "Agents Scully and Doggett are inside, 
waiting for me.  They got injured by that boy you just saw."
	"That was a boy?  Looked more like a monster to me," Mulder said.
	"It'd take too long to explain.  You can get Doggett and Scully to explain 
it to you if you really want to know," Aya said.  "Right now, I've got to find 
Azra and try to do something for him."
	"Azra, that's the boy's name?" Mulder said.
	"Yes, now follow me and try to stay behind me," Aya said.
	"If you insist," Mulder said.  "Who are you, anyway?  Why was that Azra 
attacking you?"
	"My name is Aya Brea, and it would take too long for me to explain," Aya 
replied.
	"Hold it, I've heard of you," Mulder replied.  "You were involved in the 
outbreak of mutated animals in New York a couple of years ago!"
	"Oh, you've heard of that?" Aya asked.  Not many people had heard the real 
story about what had gone on in New York, other than her few friends and the 
other people who were directly involved.
	"Yeah, some friends of mine write a little newspaper.  They had a feature 
about the whole thing a couple of years ago," Mulder replied.
	"So, not quite everybody believed the cover-up, eh?" Aya asked.  The two 
of them reached the hangar door and Aya pushed it open slowly.  Inside the 
walkway, two pawn Golems were standing guard by the portholes to other areas.  
Aya burst quickly into action, firing a grenade at the closest golem and 
following up with two bursts of rifle shots that knocked the golem to the ground 
before it could act.  "What are you waiting for?  Help me!" Aya exclaimed at 
Mulder, who was still standing, dumb-struck, at the door as Aya battled against 
the green-suited towers of strength.
	He quickly leveled his gun at the other golem and opened fire, drawing its 
attention as Aya reloaded her grenade launcher.  The golem quickly steadied and 
braced itself as it moved into a rush towards Mulder.  He backed up, trying to 
keep as far away from the charging golem as was possible, and ran into the wall 
of the outside hallway.  Mulder continued pumping the trigger as quickly as he 
could, hoping to stop it before it could reach him and cut him with the glowing 
blade he saw grafted onto its right arm.
	As the golem was about to strike him, Mulder heard the sound of a grenade 
being fired.  He saw the golem shake as the shot hit him in the back.  The 
ground tremored slightly when it hit the ground at his feet, dead.
	"Good shot, Aya," Mulder said, but she was already gone through one of the 
other doors.  He ran after her, intent on staying in one piece.  This woman 
seemed to be able to help him so it.  And she wasn't too bad of a looker, 
either.
	Aya ran along the corridor, no longer paying attention to the hanger-on of 
Mulder.  Her only concern at the moment was reaching Azra to stop him and 
somehow help him.  Scully and Doggett could deal with Mulder however they saw 
fit.  There were still some things about Azra that puzzled Aya.  Why had the 
scientists chosen to change his sex?  What did it matter to them whether their 
subject was boy or girl?  Azra had said that it was for the sake of 
thoroughness, but Aya suspected it was something more than that.  She'd look for 
the answers in due time, when she wasn't trying to prevent the world from being 
changed into ANMC's.
	She felt Azra's energy move towards the center of the compound.  It felt 
like he was going into the room that had been locked their first time through.  
There was another weaker energy source that she had sensed since they had 
arrived in the compound in the same area as Azra's energy.  Aya really didn't 
want to know what it was, although she had a suspicious feeling that she would 
anyway.  She remembered Scully and Doggett mentioning hearing screams from that 
room before she had met back up with them.
	Her footsteps were the only sound that reached her ears as she endeavored 
to make them faster.  She had to reach Azra in time to do something.  Behind 
her, Mulder's calls went unheard as he requested her to wait for him.  She had 
more important business.

End part 5