Family Ties: The Men of Conspiracy
Part Twenty-eight: "Second Chances"
By Jenn Nistor (Jenn6092@aol.com)

December 31, 1999
11:58 P.M.
FBI Headquarters

This was no longer the Jessica Neller, Scully knew. Her voice had twisted from a pure sense of calmness into a terrified child. Scully had never seen a woman fighting a battle as strong as Jessica's. She could see that every move Jessica made was pained. "We have to let the world know." she whispered. "Jessica, truth is power. If we let people know the truth *they* won't stand a chance."

Jessica turned back to look at Scully. "No......please." she felt the tears stream down her cheeks.

"Jessica, join me and be one of our families most powerful ties." John reached a hand out to his granddaughter. "Join me."

Jessica covered her ears and shook her head. "No! I don't want your power." she jerked her hands away and trained the gun on John once again. She could feel her blood begin to boil with something she had never felt before. There was sudden evil satisfaction to her ways. Pushing it aside and refusing to give into its beckon, she focused on John. "You have killed every person I have ever loved, and I'll be damned if I'm going to join you!"

John chuckled, "You feel it in your blood, don't you?" he made a slight motion with his head that made her jump. "You are already damned."

There was a loud crash followed by a gunshot and a shrill scream. Jessica felt a sharp pain rip through her side, but oddly it did not stop her. She hardly felt the pain. Trusting Scully to watch her grandfathers every move, she stumbled around and faced the men who had shot her.

"Big mistake!" she choked, and before she could figure out what she was doing, the boiling heat of evil in her blood made her fire. Another man started to go for his gun and she shot him as well. Both men crumpled to the ground, their eyes staring into the unknown. She heard Scully scream and quickly turned back in her friends direction. Two more men were now standing there, in the doorway, holding guns aimed at two hostages.

A slight recognition flashed in her eyes as she studied on of the hostages. "Jason?!" she cried. It was her brother and another woman she had never seen before. They both stood there, bloody and broken, with two guns pressed against their temples. "No!"

Jason stared at the woman who stood before him. "Jessica?" he couldn't believe his eyes. They had told him she was dead.....they had told him that his whole family had died, and yet here is sister and grandfather stood.

Jessica looked from her brother and up to the two men. "Let them go!" she warned. "Let Jason and......." she glanced at the woman. Her sixth sense told her that this woman was someone whom had been lost a lot longer than Jason. Taking the risk she made brief eye contact with the woman and nodded. "And Samantha go!"

Scully gasped and her attention was once again diverted to Mulder. 'Not now!' her mind screamed. 'He can't die now!' Fear clenched at her heart. She was truly alone in this. Although Jessica was there, she knew that something was wrong. Jessica was not acting the way she used too. She seemed evil.......evil enough to kill.

John, who was still being watched by Scully, laughed. "Jessica......chose." he motioned for the men to let the two hostages go. "I have given you your brother back and now you must give me your answer."

Samantha, who had been thrown roughly through the door, stumbled over and fell next to Mulder. At first she thought he was just another one of John Neller's men, but when she looked closer she saw the truth.

"No!" she screamed. She grabbed his arm. "Fox! No!" Tears stung her hazel eyes. "Please, you can't die."

Scully flinched at the sight of Samantha's pleading. She didn't know what to do. If she left the computer they would surely terminate the program, but if she stayed she knew that Mulder would surely die.

"Jessica!" she screamed, praying that he cry's would stop the woman's insanity. She turned back to the screen and got ready to push the send key. She wasn't about to wait around for Jessica to chose. She was already to far gone and there was no stopping her.

Jessica ignored Scully's plea and remained focused on the two men who had just walked in. "Do you have any regrets?" she asked them.

The two men exchanged glanced. "What do you mean?" one of them asked uncertainly.

"I was just asking if you had any regrets before I kill you." she replied. Once again she felt the evil in her blood begin to boil. They had created her and it was in her blood. She was tied to them not only by the blood, but by the evil. "If you do not have any regrets......" she once again fired her gun and the two men fell to the ground.

Jason grimaced at the sight. He had already counted ten bodies around the room, what was two more. He still wasn't sure of what was happening, but he could see that his sister was turning against the right ways. "Jessica....." he whispered.

Jessica completely ignored her brother and once again faced her grandfather. "Let's keep them coming. I'm curious as to how many more I can kill."

John grinned. "You know....." he scratched his head. "The more I look at you, the more I see myself. I was wrong in thinking that your father was my successor. It was you, it has always been you. To bad you had to find out this way. We could have made a wonderful team my dear--, a wonderful team." he raised his hand and pointed his own gun at her. "Throw the gun down.....Jess."

Jessica stared down at her hands. She saw the gun she held, but did not recognize it. It was almost like someone had planted a foreign object in her hands, expecting her to figure out what to do with it.

"I'm sorry Scully." she whispered and began to lower the gun. "I am one of them and I can't change it." she looked to Jason. "You were lucky to have been taken and not experimented on."

Scully watched in horror as Jessica fell to her knees. "Jess!" she screamed. "Jess!" she felt her heart begin to race. She couldn't let her friend die......not now, not like this. "Jess, the power is in you! It's not in your grandfather. You have the power to fight the evil that boils with in you!"

Jessica raised her eyes to meet Scully's. A sudden sense of light filled her body and she could feel the wound in her side healing. She finally understood. That night when Scully had gotten shot, Jessica had given Scully her power of light, the power life. Now it was being returned.

John raised his gun. Jessica closed her eyes. All of her concentration was on John's pistol. She could feel the power surging through her, building barricades and walls around her weakened defense. Trusting nothing but her intuition, she too raised her gun. Two shots rang out in the room and then all was silent.

Scully heard Samantha whimper and watched as Jason jumped to his feet. Who had been shot? No one knew. Both Jessica and John lay still on the ground.

"Did they kill each other?" Samantha asked.

Scully moved away from the computer and approached Jessica. "Jess?" she whispered. She placed her fingers at the base of the younger woman's neck to search for a pulse. Surely enough there was one. Letting out a sigh of relief she made her way over to John.

"Jason call an ambulance!" she yelled and felt for John's pulse.

His eyes opened. "Dana, *she* will lead the pr--project. You st--still have time to stop them." he closed his eyes.

Scully didn't understand. Was it Jessica that John was talking about? Jessica would never lead the project. She was too good.

Jessica let out a soft moan and opened her eyes. "Did I get him?" she asked.

Scully turned away nodded, but her attention wasn't focused on Jessica or John. She was watching Samantha rock Mulder's life less body back and fourth in her arms. "He's my partner." she whispered, laying a hand on Samantha's shoulder.

Samantha looked up but then back to her brother. "He's dying." she whispered. "He's dying, my poor brother is dying."

Scully fought back a sob. "He never stopped searching for you......he was driven. It was you who kept him going all of these years." she took Mulder's other hand and gently kissed it. "I was never enough for him."

A small trickle of blood seeped through the corner of Mulder's mouth and his breathing slowed.

"I love......you." Scully whispered, trying to find the right words to say. She gripped Mulders hand tightly. "I think that I always believed in what you believed, but it was this kind of thing that I didn't want to believe." she glanced at Jason who stood silently with his sister, watching the scene. "Rest, Mulder. I'll be there with you, shortly."

Jessica pulled her hand from Jason's. "I have too help." she whispered.

Understanding what she meant, Jason nodded and let her go freely. "Do what you need to."

"You can't, Jessica." Scully whispered as she knelt down on the opposite side of Mulder. She pushed her hand away. "He's to far gone."

"I need to." she said softly. "If saving him will save my soul, then I accept my fate." she placed her hands over Mulder's wounds. "I'll return him to you."

She closed her eyes and concentrated on the place of death. Once again she felt herself floating out of her body and into a place far away. There was a bright light on the opposite end, but she turned away, fearing what lied on the opposite end. She floated further and further away, until she reached the final place.

There in the place of death she found Mulder. He was standing in the shadows, alone and tall. His frame stood out in the darkness, but his eyes remained black and full of death. Reaching out, she touched him gently, giving him her light and life.

"Go back." she heard herself whisper. "Go back to them." and with those words, Mulder disappeared and began to return.

Scully watched as the blood soaked in Mulder's shirt disappeared and the wounds healed. "Mulder." she whispered. "Mulder......." she felt his hand tighten in hers.

Samantha wrapped her arms around her brother and pulled him to her chest even before he knew what was going on. "Fox!" she cried happily.

"Jessica." Scully whispered. She placed a hand on her friends shoulders, expecting her to fall over, but instead she opened her eyes and smiled.

"I guess I'm still needed here." she whispered and let Scully help her to her feet. "But then again it could just be my fate." she smiled, watching Samantha and Mulder exchange tears and hugs. "I guess we'll have to decide what to do now."

Scully nodded pointed to the computer. "We may have killed our circle here, but the other nations still have theirs." she paused. "I don't think that it's really a choice. The public has a right to know what our government has been hiding. Who are we to say what the people of the world should and shouldn't know. They need to know."

"Dana...." Jessica whispered. "We could wake up tomorrow and find a war going on. Do we really know how the people of the world will grasp this. Maybe we should protect it......."

Mulder stood up, dragging his sister behind him. "Jessica is right, Scully." he whispered. "We can't let anyone know the truth."

"I don't believe this!" Scully cried. "The only reason that you are saying this is because you found your fucking truth, Mulder! What about the other's who want to know the truth. We can't deny them of it." she felt the tears rising in her throat again. "If we let this go, we could wake up tomorrow and find that half of the world has joined the MOCALD."

Mulder looked down at his hands. He knew that deep down inside Scully was right. "Do it." he whispered. "The world needs to know before they die."

Jason and Samantha exchanged glances. "We have no idea what you're about to do, but I personally, don't like the sound of it." Jason glanced at his sister. "Jessica, this isn't another one of your little plots is it?"

Jessica laughed and gave Scully a slight shove forward. "You do it....., Dana. I don't want to be the one who sent our world to an early grave. We still don't know if this will help. The project will continue, the nation wide death will come."

"Gee, thanks guys." Scully said sarcastically and stepped forward. All it would take is just one click of the mouse and then the truth would be off. Did she have the nerve? Was Jessica right? Would the project truly continue? After a few minutes of debate she backed away.

"I can't." she looked to Mulder for support. "I keep thinking that I want to do it, but I'm so scared. I don't want the world to fall apart.......our names are under those documents. The world will know that we're the ones to expose the government." she shuttered. "I don't want to worry about this."

"You don't have too........we can just forget about all this. We can turn off the computer, close and lock the doors and leave. The offices will open in the morning, we can clean our stuff out and a find a place safe from how ever they plan to kill us."

Scully looked back to the screen. "Okay, let's forget it." she started to back away from the computer when she suddenly tripped over James Dumaine and went flying into the computer keyboard.

Jessica and Mulder both screamed, not because she had fallen, but because she had hit enter.

"The Files have been sent to the listed addresses at 12:45 A.M., January 1st, 2000." the computer said and the sign flashed on the screen.

Scully, suddenly realizing what she had done, began to cry. She had done it. Not intentionally of course, but she had been the one to send it and there was no denying it and there was no taking it back. She couldn't unsend them now.........the truth had been exposed.

Mulder jumped forward and pulled his partner into his arms. "It's over." he whispered. "Shh--, Scully, it's over."

"It's not even close to being over!" she cried. "Don't you get it? We're all going to die." she pulled away from him and motioned around the room. "These bodies that lay in our office aren't the end. They have more connections. The plague will come and we're all going to fucking die!" she slid down the wall and pulled her knees to her chest. "We're all going to die."

Jessica reached out and took Scully's hand. "We won't." she whispered, a small smile played at the corners of her lips. "In case you have forgotten, I do have connections with the president."

"Do you really think that we're going to die?" Samantha asked softly.

Mulder sighed. "I don't know, Sam. There's a lot that we shouldn't know, but I think we'll be protected......" he looked to Scully. "We can enter protection, can't we?"

Scully nodded. "Yeah, but what would that do? We can't run away from this. If they unleash a virus or something , it'll reach us no matter where we go."

"We better get out of here........." Jessica whispered. "I don't want to be here when the cops and everyone get here. Not that they won't know we did this or anything, after tomorrow's papers and headlines and......" she let her voice trail off. "This was self defense, right?"

Mulder laughed. "Don't ask me.......I was pretty dead during all this. Pardon the expression."

"It was self defense." Scully replied. "They were going to kill us........we had no choice. No choice at all." she grabbed her laptop off her disk and closed it up. "I don't know about you guys, but these bodies are starting to get to me. I'm going to go."

"Sam, Jess, Jason....." Mulder said. "You ready?"

They nodded and followed Scully out of the office, into the night.