Chapter 11 - There Are Faces I Remember

The world was a confusing blur of contradictory signals, motions made as much to distract as to inform. But that was par for the course in the life of FBI surgeon Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Mulder. There were people feeding him misinformation as the Truth, and the Truth layered in a fine chocolate pudding with a decidedly deadly whipped cream. Either that, or he was hungry.

He was studying the nurses' shower tape for the 500th time, certain that the moles on Lt. Dish's inner thigh formed a message that would lead to the true fate of Adam's Rib. Alternately, she was just good to look at.

Out walked his skeptical partner, Dana "Hot Lips" Scully. She had gotten the nickname from the virus she had once been infected with that made it really hard for her to get a date. The men in question had all died happy, though, so no charges were pressed.

After her, as always, was their sidekick, Fox O'Reilly. A bunch of his rabbits had dissappeared, leading him to join their quest. They hadn't the heart to tell him that Assistant Director Burns had a rabid appetite for hasenfefer.

"Mulder?! Turn off that filth! We've got to go!"

"Oh, golly gosh gee whiz willikers, Sir! She's all right! Look what personnel is waiting outside for us, in the out of doors!"

Hawkeye Mulder looked. Sitting mockingly in his red, white, and blue car, was the most dangerous, yet strangely ineffectual, man, on the face of the Earth. In each hand, as always, was Old Glory.

"My God! it's Flagg-Waving Man! I'll bet he knows about the great tragedies of the 60's! Why Star Trek was cancelled, why The Prisoner only had 17 episodes, and why Paul Henning felt the need to make Petticoat Junction, when Green Acres and Beverly Hillbillies were more than adequate!"

"You're being absurd, Mulder! Star Trek was cancelled for ratings, Patrick McGoohan made all the Prisoner episodes he wanted, and Henning just miscalculated on Petticoat! Besides, wasn't it you who staked out that water tower in the opening credits? 'Surveillance', my butt! Granted, Bobbie Jo didn't mind, but we all know how SHE slept around!"

"Me, I kinda always liked the little dog, running after the train. Shutting up, Sirs! Say, he's gettin' away!"

Hot Lips Scully just folded her arms and scowled.

"May I suggest we get after him!?"

Hawkeye Mulder smiled playfully.

"Hey, Dana, I have some suggestions. They involve you and me in that alien saucer we recovered!"

"That saucer was a prop, and as for your suggestions, FILE THEM!"

Fox O'Reilly looked over at his mentor as they went out to the Jeep.

"I think yer wearin' her down, Sir!"

As they all climbed in the Jeep, they saw Flagg-Waving Man's mocking face at the top of the hill. Unfortunately, because of an oversight that Scully now pointed out, they weren't going to be joining him.

"Mulder! I can't believe you forgot to fill the tank! We're out of gas!"

"Not to worry, Dana! As long as you keep blowing hot air, we'll have plenty of gas!"

"Hey, hey! Will you two sirs stop arguing! We gotta go find out the Truth about what happened ta Hawkeye's sister!"

Hawkeye Mulder shook his head.

"I don't have a sister, Fox! You do."

"Ya see what a good job they done! They took your sister an' gave her to me, and then they took her again. Boy, those creepy guys! Hey, why don't we just run after Flagg-Waving Man?"

Scully turned to Fox O'Reilly, and smiled.

"Because Hawkeye doesn't want you to find out the Truth, Fox!"

Suddenly, peering in the window, was Flagg-Waving Man. Only he was now older, and different, and smoking a cigarette.

"Hawkeye set you up, Fox! He only pretended not to know anything about Immunita. He's in it up to his eyeballs! He brought you in as a feint! Pierce and his wife ARE Immunita!"

"You'll kinda forgive, me, Mr. Evil Secret Spy, sir, if I don't believe nothin' you got to tell me!"

Scully retorted, "What, are you kidding? You're his puppet! You jump to his tune in everything you say and do, Fox! Hawkeye knew this, and used that to get what he wanted."

"Hey, Hawkeye? Tell em' that isn't true! Tell em....Oh, geez! It is, isn't it? You set me up! All those coincidences were to draw me in, weren't they, Pierce!?"

Hawkeye stood silent. Suddenly the amalgamated world dropped away, leaving them as themselves and alone.

"Yes, Fox, I needed you. What's going on here is not your big conspiracy. But it is close! For now, forget about me, though. Think! Why would people who want or stand to benefit from the colonization of human-alien hybrids also want super-immune humans?"

"First, what do you and Margaret..."

"Kid, you're lucid dreaming, right now! Even highly intelligent people have a hard time achieving this! Ask me when you're awake. Don't waste this opportunity."

"Alright. They want to control Immunita to winnow out humanity for their hybrid friends-wait, I can't ask Hawkeye anything, he's Dead! Had me following his damned stories! Treated me like a dupe, treated me like a servant, or a...."

"SLAVE! SLAVES!"

On a couch inside a house, Fox Mulder sat bolt upright, shaking off the slumber, and the dream. He absently noticed that his bullet wound had been expertly tended to, almost as though by microsurgery. Ignoring everything else, he grabbed an available pen and paper and began to write.

"All right. When they take over, there are still going to be some things they need done that they won't want to do themselves! They'll need workers, ones with strong backs! But how to find out who's the best suited? Winnowing! No sense having good slaves wiped out by the Andromeda Strain! Strong, able, but controllable by superior technology! Now, why would everyone on the dark side of the force be squabbling over this? They seem to be of one mind on the Big One, whatever their other agendas. But here, they talk about bases, indicating disunity. Why cooperate in the 1st instance, but not in the 2nd?"

As Mulder looked at the pad he was writing on, he noticed the address imprinted upon it. A voice then shattered his reverie.

"Well, my best guess is, whoever owns the means to make the potential slaves can eke out a better deal from the Cthulu Cotillion! Give you one step up as they all jockey for position. But I'm not FBI, so I dunno."

Fox Mulder somehow knew that the early 30ish looking man in front of him was not a clone, an offspring, a shapeshifter, or posessed by an internal creature. Despite seeing him die, the FBI Special Agent knew exactly who he was speaking to. Not a dream, or a ghost, or an Immortal of the kinds he had encountered, the man holding a large, steaming tray of breakfast food, was, despite all evidence and common sense, exactly who he appeared to be. Without a gray hair or wrinkle, his rescuer and host was....

"HAWKEYE!!!!???"

Having washed off the gray hair dye and makeup he used in public for the most part, the ever-surprising Hawkeye Pierce put down the tray and checked Mulder's wound. Pierce's neck, near where his fatal bullet had entered, showed no signs of wound or scarring. His face showed no signs of plastic surgery.

"Ummm, Fox? If I told you about a planet called Krypton, would you believe....no, I didn't think you would, somehow."

"Your credibility is kind of shot with me, Pierce! You-you're a hybrid!"

Pierce shook his head.

"It isn't like that! Look, I'm different, now, yeah. But I'm completely human! Just, well, lets just say, when they give you a flu shot, check first to be sure what you're getting."

Mulder was ready to bolt this seeming diversion once and for all.

"Hawkeye, if you don't tell me the 100% verifiable truth, here and now, I'm gone! You pretended to want me here to find out about Henry Blake's death! Now, I'm finding things out that are shaking up my whole world! I go in thinking to continue my investigation into Immunita, and I find out that your M*A*S*H* and the X-Files are practically joined at the hip!"

"Look, Fox, don't blame me! Your world invaded mine, first, pal! I can't give you the full truth, now! But after tomorrow, you'll know something just as valuable! Yes, I took you in, but it was to protect this little world of ours and someone I care about more than my own stupid life! That flu shot I mentioned? There was one other recipient, and the effects were the same. But I have to play interference against Nick O'Tine and Krychek and the rest til I can get her back! it's gonna be soon, but I have to keep making them think I'm only looking! I'm sorry, really. But for her, I'd do just about anything! And to stop Immunita, I'd do absolutely anything! This little gift of theirs comes with a rather bloody pricetag! How many people had to die so we could live well past our time? "

"I....have to talk to Scully. I'm sick of people keeping things from me! As soon as I'm done, though, Hawkeye...."

Just then, the phone rang. As a gesture of trust, Hawkeye bid Mulder pick it up.

"Hello? Pierce Residence, this is...Max!? Yeah, it's Spooky! How's...Oh,no! Max, I...Is Soon-Lee all right? No, of course...MAX! That's a helluva joke to make about your own wife-oh, she's the one who made it...Soon-Lee? Oh, God! I know he was, but you can't tell me it's better off...I love you, too! Both you guys! You're-you're my heart! Oh, alright I'll tell him...Goodbye, Pop!"

Putting down the phone, Mulder walked over and socked Hawkeye in the jaw. Pierce didn't even flinch, but Fox did rub his hand, sore.

"You sonova---Wally Klinger is dead! A guy I regarded as a brother was blown up in Korea! You sacrificed him! They said it was part of your plan! Why, Hawkeye!? DAMN YOU, PIERCE, I ASKED WHY!"

Hawkeye flinched now. He wasn't proud of his actions.

"Wally wanted to leave with a bang. His health problems were getting worse, so he dressed up as Scilly-I mean Dana, and drove her car. We knew they'd move against her. He wanted to pay the good folks at Immunita back, for his immune problems. More on that, later. The point is, Dana, the evidence Henry had stashed, and -something else- very important are out of Korea. Dana should be in San Fransisco by now, with Trapper."

"Colonel Blake had evidence?"

"Henry? Sure! He gave it to Sydney, who passed it back to us. We hid it, before we left in 53', where they wouldn't be able to search us, if it came to that. Documents, early tests of some of that junk---names, including our ace in the hole. Best of all, a sealed sample of the rocks that killed Spear, Ugly, and Duke. Trapper'll have to re-do some of those tests, but he's good for that, and what he can't do, Scilly can."

"I thought you and Trapper were--oh, boy! Wait, how can you be so sure that we're not bugged, or, that your ride got Scully and--that special someone--to their destination?"

Hawkeye smiled a cat-canary special.

"Let's just say that this is one person you can ALWAYS depend on. Plus, he's good with a sword, nowadays!"

Several hours prior..........

As Dana awoke, she saw who was driving her. It was another old family friend, the man who had spent 10 years taking care of Uncle Jack, before he died. But then, there was no sweeter person in the entire world. The sword he had in back with her, though, looked like it could cleave someone's head off. This was needed, because the old family friend WAS the kind of Immortal seen on TV. But Dana didn't know that. All she noticed was that it was the only sword she knew of with a small teddy bear engraving.

"You okay back there, Dana?! I can stop if you're not! Okay, that is!"

"I'm fine, Uncle Walter! But who's that with you?"

The person in front with Walter O'Reilly merely turned around and looked at a stunned Dana Scully, who knew that face as well as she knew Walter's. Better.

"Good to see you---Scilly!"

"Good to see you---Auntie!"