Dragon and Phoenix I by Maureen S. O'Brien Disclaimer: The X-Files belong to Chris Carter and Ten-Thirteen. Other situations and characters in this story were created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir. Author's Note: This story takes place in an alternate 4th season, with this story taking the place of Gethsemane. This story may also explain why impostors claiming to be Remo, Chiun and Dr. Smith were traipsing through Destroyer #108: Bamboo Dragon.... --------------------------------------- Scully stood by him to the last. "I know you were framed, Mulder," she said quietly. It wasn't the first time she'd said it this year. But gradually the fierceness in her voice had been replaced by despair. "Nobody else believed it -- not even Skinner -- and I couldn't find the evidence to prove it. I failed you." "You've never failed me," Mulder told her. Skinner had resigned, citing the disgrace he felt. Cancerman must have loved it. "You did everything you could, even while fighting the cancer. No one could have been a better partner or friend. Believe that." "I'll try." Grief made her look small and helpless. He hated that. His enemies were killing her. "You've got to do better than that. Fight, Scully! There's a cure out there. Maybe even a miracle." "I thought you were the skeptic in that area." "There's no atheists in lethal injection chambers," said Mulder, joking even now. "I'm glad," she answered seriously, touching his hand. "I fully intend to see you again." "Just make sure you have a good long life first. And find Sam...." "I'll find her." Living or dead. He read the promise in her eyes and sent back gratitude. He knew her word was good. She touched his face. "I'll miss you." I love you, he thought. Then he realized he'd spoken out loud. Scully looked startled, then rueful. Then determined. She leaned forward and kissed him. Lips touched lips and mouth caressed mouth. Time stood still, for there was no room for mere physical laws in the space that contained them -- until the guards came in and cleared their throats peremptorily for the second or third time. Even then, Scully pulled away from him slowly. She had always been shy of showing her feelings in public, but she stayed with him till the very last moment; and as he watched her pull away, she remembered to say, "I love you." Then they were taking him away. The guards had no sympathy for a crooked FBI agent who had killed so many of his own: Agent Krycek, the heroic Agent Pendrell...and no sympathy for his honest but obviously stupid partner. But Mulder didn't care what they thought. His only regret now was that Scully and he would never share more than that one kiss. In this lifetime, anyway. Because, whether in Heaven or in some new incarnation, he was suddenly sure he'd been seeing her again. That belief let him lay down with perfect peace in his heart to be executed by poison for crimes he didn't commit. And when the darkness came down, he knew he'd see light beyond. And Scully. He awoke to a familiar face. Skinner's. "I'm in Hell." "No, Mulder, you're in New Jersey." "Same thing." He struggled to sit up. "Why am I in a whole different state? And I didn't think a pardon would work that late in the game." "It didn't. As far as anyone else knows, Mulder, you're dead. We arranged to give you an injection that simulated death, and...." "We've just replaced this lethal injection with Folger's Crystals. Let's see if anyone notices." Skinner ignored him. "....you were buried three days ago. I exhumed you and brought you here." "So where's Scully? How did she arrange this drug? How did she manage not to let on?" "She doesn't know. She can't know, or her life would be in danger." "From whom?" "From me." Skinner lifted his hand and held Mulder at gunpoint. "We needed a dead man for this, and you can be dead permanently with very little fuss. Scully can be, too. I wouldn't like doing it, but this is vital to national security." Mulder's face twisted with hate, as Skinner had known it would. "You're with Them. National security? National coverup is more like it!" Skinner didn't flinch. "You've got things turned around. We have a mandate to oppose the Consortium, along with every other criminal threat to the United States. But we work in extreme secrecy, and our numbers are low, to prevent abuse of our powers." "Who's we? What mandate? Why are you doing this?" Skinner ignored the first two questions for now. "Because a President who would himself be murdered saw that America could not fight the criminals and terrorists without abandoning her Constitution. Knowing that could break our nation, he created an agency that worked outside the Constitution and the laws, so that everyone else could stay inside them. It reports only to the current President. It employs very few. And now we want you to become one of us. "Part of the CURE." Mulder could see the sense in it. He could also see the appalling secrecy, the unaccountability, and the infinite room for brutality and corruption. He was stunned that Skinner could make himself party to such a thing. Then he looked at the gun. It seemed a convincing argument. For now. "I guess you've got yourself an employee." "I'm glad," said a earnest new voice. "It'll be nice to have some company around here." Mulder stared disbelievingly. "Agent Pendrell?" Pendrell grinned. "In the flesh. I do the technical work and analyze the information our computers filter out for us. Then Director Skinner makes the decisions on what to do. It's a lot of work; I can't imagine how the first director managed to do it all himself." "Harold Smith was a great man," Skinner said soberly. "As good as he was great. But only God and CURE will ever know what he did for this country, and the world. He chose me to head this agency on his deathbed, and I only wish I could have known him longer. God rest his soul." "There was this other guy working here, but he quit. Or went on strike, or on retreat, or something. Said he'd never liked working for this President anyway, and that he wouldn't take orders from some Marine/FBI guy, and walked off. Chiun says he'll come back in a decade or so, but until then, we need someone to replace him. And you're it," said Pendrell helpfully. "Sort of a long-term temp." "Who's Chiun?" asked Mulder. "And what am I supposed to do?" A short, incredibly old Asian man manifested himself in Mulder's face. Mulder couldn't believe he hadn't seen the geezer come in. The drug must not have worn off completely yet. "I am Chiun, Master of Sinanju. And you are supposed to be trained by me, to become an assassin for Emperor Skinner." Mulder fainted. Chiun regarded him. Then he looked at Skinner. "He is overcome by the honor done to a pale piece of pig's flesh. I will wake him." Chiun reached out with one long, pointed fingernail and pinched Mulder's ear. Mulder found himself conscious and on his feet. "I will guide him in the way he ought to go." Chiun grabbed Mulder's neck with one hand, manipulating his nerves. Mulder found himself walking out the door with no conscious control of his muscles. "Never fear, Emperor Skinner. He will be trained. I will serve you well, as I served your father, Emperor Smith, before you. And the gold will continue to come to my little village in North Korea, and the women of Sinanju will not have to send their babies home to the sea." The door shut behind them. Skinner and Pendrell both winced. A storm had made the submarine one day late last month, and now they'd be hearing about babies forever. Well, Chiun was Mulder's problem now. And vice versa. Skinner almost smiled. Talk about extreme possibilities. "Freeze! Federal Agent!" Master Chiun looked up from his seat on a bamboo mat. He calmly continued sipping his water. So. This was why he had heard the female creeping around outside. Her technique in breaking down the door was execrable, but what else could be expected? So it was with all that was not Sinanju. "I refuse to manipulate my body temperature at the command of a woman. Especially a skinny, pale Western one, with a nose that is not attractively flat." The woman looked at him. "I'm sorry, sir." She apologized without the proper tone of awe, but at least she had some notion of respect. Unlike his students. "'Freeze' is a figure of speech; it means 'Do not move.' I'm looking for a man being held prisoner here. He's over six feet tall, has dark hair, hazel eyes...." "There is no such man here." Her eyes hardened. "Sir, with all due respect, I saw you outside with him this morning." "That was not a man," Chiun said smugly. "That was my worthless and ungrateful student Fox. No one would come looking for him, so I know he is not the one you are looking for." "You're not Obi-Wan Kenobi, either." She had been holding a gun in her hand; now she pointed it at him. "I'm not leaving without Mulder." Chiun rose. "Your family will mourn the loss of their daughter." He would not really have to go so far. Only make her unconscious and.... Scully's fingers tightened on the trigger of her Sig Sauer. Chiun's long fingers began to move. "Scully!" His lazy student came out of nowhere and practically drowned the redhaired woman in a hug. "I told you, Little Father. I told you my partner would come." "This is your partner? This is the valorous Scully, with the heart of a lion?" "Yes." Chiun decided he should have listened a little more closely to his student's interminable and bizarre stories. Somehow he had missed the matter of Scully's gender. "You cannot have your concubine here during training. She will distract you from the glories of Sinanju. Later, of course, I will teach you the infallible techniques to bring sexual ecstasy...." Chiun glanced at his student and fell silent. It was obvious that neither he nor the female was listening to the wisdom that fell from his lips. They were too busy with each other's. He sighed. This was not good. On the other hand, his slow student had become quick when he had seen the female. His clumsy hands had become sure. And was that not the burden of the tales his student had told? He reflected further. The woman was not wholly unworthy. Her movements were not quite as much like those of a water buffalo as those of most he met, and the smell of beef grease did not contaminate her breath as badly as it did Fox's. And there was a prophecy. He had already seen two parts of it fulfilled; he had trained the night tiger. He turned his eyes again to his student. They had released each other from their deathgrip embrace. Good. He hated to pry apart people attached at the lips. They tended to drool. Fox approached him humbly -- as humbly as he could, that is. "Master, I know that I am not to leave you until I have finished training." He knew that because Chiun had caught him after every escape attempt. "And I know that Skinner said nobody else could know that I was still alive. But Scully and I have been partners for over four years. Wouldn't that kind of teamwork be useful when I go out as an...assassin?" Fox still winced at the word. He still had not realized the greatness of his new profession, despite hours of lecturing on the great history of Sinanju. "Please, Master, let Scully live and take her on as a student. She's much better at the hand-to-hand than I am, anyway. And she won't mind eating nothing but duck and rice." Chiun gazed at them impassively. Then he stared at Scully. She bore it patiently and silently. Unlike Fox, who had whined for the first three weeks. He made his decision. "Have either of you heard of Dragon and Phoenix?" "It's one of the Chef's Specials at the Cathay Palace," Fox said, smirking. Chiun gave him a look. Fox hastened on. "So named because the foods in it match each other as the dragon and phoenix do. They are two of the five elemental animals in Chinese cosmology; they correspond with the elements of metal and fire. The other animals are the tiger (water), tortoise (earth), and the chi-lin or unicorn (wood)." How does he manage to speak in parentheses? Chiun wondered. It must be something he learned at this school at the Ford of the Ox. "The dragon and phoenix were the symbols of the emperor and empress," Scully chimed in unexpectedly. "They are also symbols of marriage and fertility, as well as good government." They were not wholly ignorant. Good. "Been catching up on your reading, Scully?" "No, Mulder. I've been looking for you." Chiun broke in. "You call Fox by his last name. Scully is not your first name, then." "No. It's Dana. Dana Katherine Scully." "Ah." He fell silent for a moment. "No woman has ever been taught the ways of Sinanju." Dana opened her mouth and began to move forward. Fox prepared to hold her back. "Silence! I have not finished." Dana sat back. Fox wiped sweat off his forehead. "However, there is a prophecy that speaks of these times. It spoke of the night tiger, whom I trained; it speaks also of two who are one, yin and yang, Phoenix and Dragon. I have seen you. I have seen you speak to each other without speaking, as the prophecy says. I believe you are they." Fox and Dana exchanged glances. "No talking!" Their eyes shot back to him. "Good. You have much to learn. You will have to work hard. I will not spare either of you in the years ahead. But you may become Masters someday. If even Remo could do it, you can." Dana's head bowed, but not in acceptance. Fox looked unhappy, but let her speak. "Sir, I am...grateful for the opportunity you are giving us. But it's only fair to warn you that I don't have years to give to this project. I have cancer, and the doctors say I have only a short time left to live." Chiun walked up to her. He had to look up. "This 'cancer' - it is a thing under the bridge of your nose, almost touching your brain?" "Yes, sir. How did you know?" "It is easy, for those with eyes," he said scornfully. "Bend down and be still, graceless woman." She did. She also rolled her eyes. Chiun examined her. Then his hands blurred. Something pricked her between the eyes. She blinked and Chiun backed away. Impaled on one long fingernail was a wad of tumor tissue, like a malign shish kabob. "We of Sinanju do not die of 'cancer'," Chiun said. His two students were finally looking at him with proper awe. He pointed the tumor kabob at them. "I have no time to go back to the village and arrange for a proper marriage for you. We will do that later, perhaps. For now, my declaration that you are wed is enough. Go. You have tonight. After tonight, you will not have the energy for such games." He marched off. He also flipped the tumor off his finger and into the trash. Which was fifty feet behind him. Scully opened her mouth to argue. Then she closed it again. Mulder looked at her sympathetically. "Welcome to the wonderful world of Sinanju, Scully. Let's get out of here before Chiun makes us stand on our heads while juggling flaming shuriken." He put his hand on her back and guided her toward his room. "Don't we get lunch?" Mulder shuddered. "Do you want duck with rice, or rice with duck? Or fish. And it's always water, never coffee. I could kill for a cup of The FBI's Most Disgusting. I could kill Skinner, in fact, since he's the one who decided I was a great candidate to go learn how to kill Cancerman and his merry men. Oh, and Pendrell didn't take a bullet for you, either. He's working here at Folcroft, too." She merely raised an eyebrow. Mulder realized that if she'd found him, she'd also probably been poking around Folcroft long enough to know all this. "Any other revelations?" she asked. "Um...no." He opened the door of his room for her. "This is where I've been staying. Note the lovely tatami mat for sleeping on. Great for the back...I guess you're supposed to stay here, too." "We _are_ married. By virtue of the power vested in Chiun." Mulder was looking away and didn't see her enigmatic smile. "Look, Scully, we've shared a room before. If you don't want to...." She tapped his shoulder and made him look at her. "Mulder, I didn't come looking for you for my health." Their eyes met. Then their lips. Soon their bodies were one. Dragon and Phoenix. Yin and yang. --------------------------------------------- Master Chiun, forgive the temerity of this writer...please? I didn't know Remo had kidlings when I wrote this story, and I don't know how this particular prophecy will work itself out. I have some evil visions of using the Dutchman against Cancerman and his buddies (thus reuniting the lost branch of Sinanju), but if Remo's got two kids it would make sense if they were the ki-rin and the tortoise.... Hmm. ---------------------------------------------