Go Ask Alice... (Part 7 of ?)

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Summary: Ok, here it is (Sorry - been battling the flu this week - ack) Krycek reveals his plans to Scully, and Skinner discovers how strong the friendship between Mulder and the Lone Gunmen are. KRYCEKANGST! *grin* (HERE THERE BE MAJOR ANGST!!!!! MulderAngst, ScullyAngst, SkinnerAngst, and a little AnnaAngst thrown in for good measure)

Thank you's: Thank you to MulderAngst and all of you wonderful writers & esp. Susan Proto who inspired me by writing the 'Abah' series!

Disclaimer: You know it's coming, and here it is! ALL of the characters, names, descriptions, places, etc. (except Anna & Austaur who belong to me) belong exclusively to Chris Carter and 1013 productions.

Scully opened her eyes to find Krycek faces inches from hers. She yelped as she sat up, all traces of her sleep ripped away by the shock.

"You must be hungry." He offered, walking over to a table that was not there previously and sitting down in one of the two chairs. He motioned to her to join him, and sighed when she eyed the food suspiciously.

"Dana. If I was going to drug your food I would not be making a sandwich for myself." He said seriously, as he raised the sandwich and bit into it.

She watched him eat for a few moments then, at the request of her growling stomach, cautiously walked over to join him. He smiled as she sat down and began fixing her own sandwich.

"Thirsty?" Krycek asked, as he poured himself a glass of tea from a pitcher. She nodded and watched him fix her a glass.

Scully was confused. It was obvious that he had realized that she would refuse to eat or drink anything put before her, unless she could be positive that it was drug-free. He had the forethought to bring both food and drink that he could consume with her, thereby negating her fear.

They ate in silence; Scully watched him wearily as she mowed through the food he had brought, feeling a twinge of guilt as he merely snacked until he was certain she was finished.

"What are you up to?" Scully shot at him, not wanting him to notice how impressed she was by his concern for her well being.

"Do I always have to be up to something?" He shot back, suddenly annoyed he stood quickly, walking over to the door.

Scully didn't quite know what else to say. He had her completely confused. Krycek laughed at the puzzled expression on her face.

"Dana. Even I know that nothing I say will have a dent on your speculation behind my motives. You have never believed that we were working for the same goals, so I won't try to convince you. I admit that the only side I am interested in is my own, but for some reason or another, there are some people who I actually care enough about to be concerned for their future."

Scully listened curiously as she followed him into the corridor, and then stopped in surprise as he opened the door to the room right beside hers, the room which held Anna.

"As much as it may surprise you, I have a soft spot for you and Mulder. You two are the only stable and predictable things in my life. No matter where I am, or what I am doing, it is sometimes comforting to know that you two are out there. I knew you wouldn't let me take Alice, just as I know Mulder will coerce AD Skinner into bringing him here to rescue you. Blind or not." Krycek added, smiling as she rushed over to Anna's side, quickly checking her over.

Scully stared up at him, not understanding this side Krycek was revealing to her, not quite believing it. She forced her queries back into the deep recesses of her mind, asking only one.

Krycek paused, his smile fading as he stared, studying his drink quite intently for some minutes before he answered. Scully watched him, fascinated, as Anna lay motionless between them.

"I owe her." Krycek paused, standing and walking over to the window, keeping his back towards Scully as he continued. "There is no one in the world like that girl, laying down there on that table. Do you have any idea what her IQ is? Even before...well. Even before the events that led to our breaking it off. She wasn't quite as powerful then, she had the potential, but she had no way to access it, and she didn't have the knowledge. Ever hear the term 'sparks would fly' describing a fight? Well, when we fought, sparks literally did fly.
"I think she found it fascinating that I wasn't afraid of her, I was, though. You see, I knew things that she didn't. When she found out..."

Scully let loose the breath she had been holding unconsciously, listening to Krycek, Alex Krycek, bear his heart to her. She knew he was telling the truth, perhaps for the first time.

"We were experimenting with a race, not alien, at least not in the sense that you would define alien. If they came from another planet, it was long before we began recording history. There weren't many of them left, and as much as I hate to say it, there were even less of them left by the time Alice..."

"You have heard of them, or at least read of them, but I doubt you ever believed they really existed. In lore, they were referred to as the Sidhe, High Elves. They do exist." Krycek added softly, as if to make her believe. Then, he pushed on.

"Alice lived in her own version of the world. In her world, magic existed and so many things were possible. That's why I called her Alice, you see she really did live in Wonderland. She still does.
"Alice found out what we were doing, I won't say how..."

Scully had a strange, sneaking suspicion that Krycek was the one to tell her, but she kept her mouth closed and listened.

"She was furious, to put it mildly. I was torn, I had a responsibility to the project, but..."

"You really did love her." Scully said in revelation. Krycek turned and smiled sadly at her before his eyes fell upon Anna.

"Yeah. I guess I did. Alice wanted to rescue them, take them all into her world and keep them safe. She really believed she could, and for a while, I believed her too. She talked me into it. The funny thing is, she was worried about me. She knew what would happen if 'they' found out I was to be involved, so she worked around it. She really was an amazing girl.
"They found out, and I sold her out to them. I lied, concocting some story about her. I can't justify my reasons, fear maybe? I don't know and in the end it really isn't important. I think that is why I admire Fox Mulder, he never gave up on anything he thought was important.
"I tried to warn her, but she didn't listen. She came, and they were waiting. She did have quite a head start on them, so by the time they actually tracked her down, the test subjects were already gone. They found her in the records room, reading the details and filling in the blanks.
"I was them when they found her, the way she looked up at me, I knew she knew everything. There wasn't time for me to explain, she had taken off and they were chasing her down." Krycek's hand reached out on the glass, sliding down as he remembered that night.
"She had to be eliminated, not only had she released the test subjects, she knew too much. They wanted me to kill her. I held the gun to her head and realized I couldn't do it, so they turned on me. They shot me first, then they shot her.
"They left us there, thinking the both of us were dead, and called the clean-up crew to take care of us. She regained consciousness first, and when I woke up, she was leaning over me, crying. I don't know how she did it, but somehow, she healed me. It was the first time she had done anything, well, big with her abilities. Hell, I didn't even know she could do it.
"It took so much out of her, even without being wounded, she would have died, I am sure of that, if it hadn't been for the one who came back for her. She hadn't yet had the training she needed, nor... I held onto her and when I looked up, he was standing there. I let him take her, thinking, hoping he could help.
"I didn't find out until much later that she was still alive. It was about the same time I found out who her uncle was - that was a shock. I didn't get to see her, really. That bastard made sure that she didn't know I was there. I caught a glimpse of her sitting in the garden, laughing. He told me what had happened after that night, they healed her by giving her some of their blood, a transfusion of the same blood we had been testing on, working on our inoculation for the retrovirus. I haven't seen her since that night, until now.
"I learned what they were trying to do, when you and Mulder were kidnapped. Believe it or not they didn't want you, they wanted her. They knew eventually her uncle would seek her out, and, knowing her need for some connection with the uncle who never really acknowledged her that she would not refuse him. She can't not help people, the very idea doesn't exist in her world."

"Things didn't go as they planned, they weren't expecting her to pull that stunt with the gate. They weren't expecting her to be that powerful. I knew, though. I knew that the Sidhe blood would only enhance her already latent abilities, and I also knew her weakness.
"Everything she does will affect her, and it scared me to think what she had done to herself, pulling that stunt. When they asked me to get her for them, I agreed."

"Because I knew they would heal her. Once, while we were dating, she tried to impress me by showing me a little of what she could do. Her efforts landed her in bed, for two weeks. At first, I thought she had just gotten sick, but then I realized. If that trick she did for me had that effect on her, I couldn't imagine what state she would be in after actually creating a gate."

"So you brought her here, knowing what she would do when she was healed. Knowing that they couldn't keep her."

Krycek turned around and smiled at her; his cheeks were wet, but his eyes were bright as he smiled.

"It's only a matter of time before she outsmarts them." Krycek looked full upon Anna's face as he lightly touched her arm. "I trust your medical judgement more than I trust the idiots they have attending her."

"No one will know, and the guard happens to owe me a favor - notice he isn't here. Everyone else is asleep, and she isn't due for a booster shot for another 3 hours." Krycek commented, walking over and sitting down. "I just want to make sure she is all right."

Skinner had not even gotten halfway through relaying what was written in the journal to Mulder before they were interrupted by a loud beeping coming from the computer. Both men froze, still caught up in the story Anna had left them to immediately recognize what the beeping meant. Mulder was the first to understand, and as his hand grabbed for the mouse, Skinner caught on.

"Took you guys long enough." Langly commented as his face appeared on the screen.

"I think that's an affirmative." Byers' almost chuckled as he pointed, laughing at the look on Skinner's face.

Skinner swallowed down the urge to yell, scream, and basically reach through the computer and skin the three men whose image dominated the screen. He cleared his throat, but Mulder began typing before he could speak.

"Well, that we didn't find out until later on, after she had dumped him, so to speak." Byers' supplied.

"We've known her for a while now, but it wasn't until recently, um..." Langly started.

"It was when she got the flu, I think, and ended up in bed for a few weeks that she really started talking." Frohike explained.

"We've never met, in person." Langly said, shifting to the other side of the screen.

"She was *really* pissed at Austaur for some reason or another, so by the time she was better, we got her life story." Frohike said, smiling fondly.

"Enough!" Skinner growled, impatient to get to the bottom of everything and find both his niece and his missing agent.

"Here is a map, check with the description in her journal, but if Krycek is involved, I'll just about bet my life that's where they are." Langly said.

"It might not be your life you're betting." Skinner mumbled, walking over to the fax and waiting quite impatiently. He pulled the paper out and studied it. "Why are you so sure he'd take her back there?"

"Cause if there is any validity to what she used to say about Krycek, that's where they'd be." Frohike said.

"But Krycek is probably betting on you to rescue her." Frohike finished, sighing.

Skinner had left and returned with his coat; Mulder jumped when he heard what the AD was doing.

Mulder jumped up, knocking the chair onto the floor and causing a Kodak moment amongst the Lone Gunmen as they watched. He turned and faced Skinner.

On the computer, the Lone Gunmen covered the microphone and began whispering, glancing into the computer from time to time as Skinner and Mulder stood before one another as if they were fixing to have a brawl.

"I think it's time we return the favor." Frohike said, looking pointedly at Skinner and praying that the AD understood what they were trying to relay to him.

Skinner lowered his eyebrows in puzzlement as he watched the three men watch him. The Gunmen looked pointedly at Mulder, then back to Skinner. Suddenly, he understood.

"That is, of course, if Mulder doesn't mind us tagging along." Byers' added hopefully.

Skinner glanced over at Mulder who looked like he was somewhere in-between 'Somebody just shot my dog' and 'Oh my God, I Love you, Man'. He shook his head, he understood that Mulder knew what the Gunmen were offering, even if he didn't quite understand everything behind it.

Mulder reached over and felt for the desk, once found, he reached for the keyboard and typed furiously, his face revealing the tears he held back as his fingers flew across the keys. A memory of the last time the four of them had gone out together filled his mind, their help as he broke into a government facility trying to find a cure to save his Scully. Now...

"Where did these come from?" Scully asked, seeing the redness on Anna's pale skin radiating outward from the restraints.

"I was hoping you'd tell me." Krycek said, standing up and walking over to her. Scully stood back on her heels, thinking.

"Why did you tell me to remember the 'drink me' bottle?" She asked, her mind still analyzing the things he had told her, trying to find a clue for this strange rash. Krycek smiled over at her.

"Alice is very smart, the only problem is she usually reacts to things before she can truly think about them. As you saw earlier. She needs time to work things out before she can really pack a punch, so to speak.
"She looks like she is out cold, but I assure you. Her mind is working overtime and when she is ready - nothing will be able to stop her."

"Alice drank from the bottle and grew, becoming bigger than the house that held her." Krycek said, smiling.

Scully stared at him, understanding. Suddenly, her mouth flew open, startling Krycek.

"I think I know where this is coming from." She said, bending down and looking more closely at the red welts on Anna's wrists.

"Assuming the Sidhe exist, as you have said they do..." Scully began, ignoring the cold look thrown her way. "And that they infused some of their blood into her..."

"From what I remember reading about them when I was younger, the one thing they can't be near is Iron. It is deadly to them."

"Yes! That's right! Exposure to it can drive them mad with pain, and eventually it will kill them. It's kind of like it sets off all of their pain synapses at once. But, Alice isn't..."

"But if she has their blood in her, it could cause her to have a reaction. Almost as a mother can pass on her allergies to her children. She is allergic to iron. Her reaction is not as strong as theirs, but..."

"Krycek, you have to get these off of her." Scully said, moving to undo the restraints. She gasped as Krycek hauled her back, fighting him until he finally had her pinned against the wall.

"Damnit Dana! I will. Not yet." He said, pointing to the door as if to remind her that they weren't supposed to be in here in the first place. It worked.

"Yes, I think so. Her vitals are slow, but I assume that is from the drugs." Scully said quietly as he grabbed her arm and slowly walked her through the door and back out into the corridor. Standing before the door that lead to 'her' room, he stopped, glancing down the hall.

"Krycek, never in a million years will I trust you." She said, her hand still holding the door. "Except where Anna is concerned."

Krycek watched the door shut slowly as Scully released her hold on it, disappearing behind the thick steel. He stared at it in shock as Scully's words echoed in his head. * Except where Anna is concerned.*

He finally turned and walked down the hall, feeling strangely elated that she had faith in him - no matter the reason. He never thought that he would ever hear that from her, or Mulder, but somehow, the fact that the words had been spoken made him determined not to let her down.

He smiled as Mulder's favorite phrase arose in his head. * Trust no one.* Least of all, him. Krycek. The turncoat. He found it ironic that during all of these years, he had always trusted Mulder and Scully. No one else, but them. Mulder would probably laugh.

Ok, go easy on me, this is my first submission! ;)
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