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[Late at night, Mulder is up and about, wandering aimlessly. He's just received Scully's letter so of course that's sending him into a bit of a broody mindset. Sleep? Ha, no, he's not planning to sleep for a while.]

[On the one hand, she's free of all of this. On the other... she's gone. His partner. The one person he trusts more than anyone. And what she's returning home to doesn't sound very pleasant. It's the future relative to him so he has no way of knowing just how safe she really is. He's not supposed to worry, but he can't stop himself from doing so anyway. The troubling thoughts that always come up at these times are there to bother him, too...]

How do we know they really send us home when we vanish from here, anyway?

[Yeah, this is what happens when you overthink everything.]

For anyone who knew... anyone who knows her, Dana Scully has left the building. I'm sure she's relieved to be somewhere a bit more down to earth.

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[He exhales, a sigh of relief, feeling somewhat better in hearing that. They've abducted her, given her a disease that nearly killed her... they shot her sister mistakenly in place of her... and he worries at what steps they might take in the future.]

I'm glad she's safe from them. Especially after everything we went through, all of the struggles we had to face...

[He thinks over the words she'd written.]

She mentioned "facing down Death itself" in the letter she left for me. I'm trying to understand. I can't imagine that this is meant in a literal sense, coming from Scully. But I have to wonder.

[Of course, he's also tried telling himself that they face death on a regular basis in their line of work. It's just something in the wording that bothers him.]

[ Her eyebrows furrow, not quite grasping the nature of Scully's letter. Far as Marita knew, the cancer was in remission and even contained in Fort Marlene, they weren't as trapped as she was. ]

I can't say I understand it either, but... I'm sure I don't have to remind you how capable Agent Scully is. [ Her hand drifts to the pocket of her blazer as she lightly touches her own note (facing down Death — Take care of Mulder, she tries to match these two notes together and find some meaning behind the words). ] She didn't talk to you about what happened before she arrived here?

Aside from assurances that she was going to be fine?

[In typical Scully manner, of course. There were some details she told him, though, things which he hasn't thought about in a while.]

She did tell me the year, it was 1999 when she was taken. The X-Files had been reopened, but they were "officially" reassigned to someone else. And though it sounded like she was taken from the middle of the investigation, she did mention a name... Felig. Alfred Felig.

[And oh, how had she put it...]

She mentioned that he took... death photographs.

[ Marita tries to recall the information she's heard passing in Fort Marlene — Spender and the other woman... Fowley? She knows by word of mouth that they are the ones who took care of the X-Files, as well as the reason why the two agents were in Fort Marlene in the first place.

Other than that, she knows nothing of the previous X-Files cases during her experimentation. Not even from the Cancer Man himself, that she cannot recall anything about a said man taking death photographs. ]

Death photographs... you mean, he took photographs of dead bodies? Like a forensic photographer?

I'd say he's a crime scene photographer... in a sense.

[Scully hadn't gone into great detail, but then who knows for sure how willing she was to believe it had an unnatural explanation?]

He would arrive at places where people were about to die and wait, trying to take a photograph of death itself. Because... somehow he'd become effectively immortal and was tired of it.

[And that's where the worry comes in. Maybe Scully was just referring to the case itself, but what if... say, she was in one of these photographs...]

[ Somehow, it makes sense to Marita. After all she has been through, she's not going to quickly pass the judgement of an immortal death photographer, but she knows Scully isn't in any mortal danger — at least, not from this particular X-file. ]

As dire as her letter may have sounded, if our universe is consistent, Agent Scully is well and alive. Perhaps she was working closely with him at the time and that "seeing Death" was meant in that manner and she was merely observing him, or...

[ She pauses, contemplating her words. 'Or pass the knowledge over to her?' But would that have been possible? To pass one's immortality to the next — would that have been a paradox? It sounded something from a Greek epic full of Gods and Goddesses with immense power and the greater strength over mortals. Marita tosses away the suggestion, not fully convinced that it's possible anyway.

Instead, she gingerly fishes for the note in her pocket and hands it to Mulder. ] She left this for me.

[Mulder inspects the note carefully, rereading it a couple of times as if trying to discern any hidden clues in what Scully said. Nothing indicates she's going into any certain danger she won't get out of... if anything, she seems more concerned for him than for herself.]

That does put things into better perspective. The ones who probably have to worry more are probably those of us still stuck here. If this is more of a general case- something we've dealt with countless times- then there really shouldn't be anything to worry about.

[ She clamly nods. ]

With the Syndicate destroyed, she's not as much as a viable target as the two of you used to be. The Malnosso now have a greater chance of more damage here than any of the threats back in our world.

Yeah. The Malnosso are also more powerful than the Syndicate is- was-

[It's still so odd to think that this seemingly all-powerful group finally fell. One enemy down...]

They might have made deals with a few extraterrestrials, but these individuals here are working on an even greater scale.

The Syndicate certainly didn't have the capability to pull of the majority of feats that the Malnosso have so far... and without an inside source, it's not exactly easy to find their weak point.

Unfortunately... and they make it hard to get close to them. Damn near impossible, though there might be some way, maybe during one of those rare communications they make with the village.

What about the information trader? It's pulling teeth getting any kind of information at all, but... we would have a viable chance finding out something with the right information. With her, we would at least have an insider's experience.

It's definitely possible that she could give us a good means to finding out more... Were you thinking of doing your diplomatic thing with her?

[He doesn't want to assume, of course, since this is a hell of a long way from Washington, and they don't really need to work here, technically. Funny, that, really, because Mulder hasn't stopped working since he got here...]

[ She nods. She may have to rework all that she's done, but it's comforting to know that it's still there regardless. ]

If I can get any information to trade with her. I'm sure the Malnosso keeps what she says under a tight lid as much as they do with us... having the right information reveals a lot.

Considering the overall state of things, it seems that they do. Still, for all their advanced technology, I can't see that they're that much harder to crack than the Syndicate. Different, maybe.

The Syndicate was easier to infiltrate with certain credentials, although I doubt that matters much to the Malnosso.

But if they're prone to information trading... there may be something in that. It would take a great deal of work without clearance, but the greater the chance of being drafted for a mission, the easier it is to speak to the members.

The missions would be the best way to gain that information, from everything I've seen. Especially if you can manage to get in on one of their more... specialized missions.

[People always seem to come back from those with interesting experiences, for what that's worth, he's noticed.]

[ Marita idly wonders that, if they can hear their conversation now, would they be willing to prevent it from even happening at all? Even with an information trader and the other members of the hierarchy coming to them. She decides that the only way to find that out is by her own experience, as per usual.

She gives him a curious look. ] Specialized missions? Like what?

[Yeah, they definitely will want to keep any information found off-journal... but that'll be to deal with in the future.]

It seems to vary, from what I can tell. The ongoing missions usually fall into a standard set involving... sometimes combat, sometimes research. The specialized ones tend to end up more challenging and unusual. They tend to earn more of their "points".

[ She recalls reading about the points in the guide and the different missions that are assigned to receive them, but even that is not guaranteed an easy win with the Malnosso. ]

There seems to be little leeway room, even with the points, but if we could figure a way that would gain us the most information, there could be a trade. Or, at least, the opening to have a conversation with those who run this place.

Is there any discerning pattern between the timing of the combative missions and the research missions?

No definite patterns as far as I've observed, no. The nature of the missions, how many people are sent, the duration, location... none of it follows a set pattern. There's a great deal of variation, from what I've observed. So it also means there are likely some missions more likely to give us useful information than others.

[He's a lot more interested in the information gathering potential himself, than using the points for anything.]

I see...

[ Not even the Syndicate were this hard to pin down, but she also had the access to easily infiltrate their group. Information is all they have at this point and once being a Special Representative doesn't exactly matter to anyone here. ]

I know we don't exactly have a track record — good or bad — but... Mr. Mulder, I would be willing to work with you on this if you are. I don't expect to take Agent Scully's place, but it would benefit us more if we worked together, rather than against one another.

[Mulder is so used to working... not exactly against or with, but beside his informants in a very particular way. They'd always maintain their distance and come to him in shadowy clandestine meetings. But it was because of the nature of their world. Here, they don't have to hide the working together part so much, even if they have to be careful about where information is relayed or stored.]

[As for working with Marita... she's proven herself trustworthy in matters like the Tunguska incident, and then there was that Kazakhstan thing. He's still not even sure what happened to her. If she'd been willing to take that kind of a risk...]

I think you're right. We need to work together on this. We can't afford not to at the rate things have been going. The more information we share, the more likely something will lead us out of this situation.

[ Even Marita herself has her own lingering paranoia, knowing just how irrational it really is. The fear that, despite the Syndicate being destroyed, the varying timelines can still haunt them. Even the sheer fact that Spender is a viable option to arrive here leaves her thinking that it really is no different than from back home.

Regardless, she knows there is safety in numbers — that X entrusted her with his client for a reason — and that she trusts Mulder and Scully more than anyone else (more than Krycek or Spender) that it's her only chance of residing in Luceti. ]

With both of us, there is a greater chance of gaining information in the first place and your work with Luceti's X-Files cases should help gather me up to speed.

Hopefully if the Malnosso is anything like the Syndicate... we will matter less to them as individuals and more as a whole, making it easier for us.

Edited 2013-06-03 03:11 (UTC)

[He's hoping that she might notice something in those files, any sort of pattern or similar that he could have missed from being too close to it all, over the couple of years he's been here.]

So far, all evidence suggests they're similar in that regard. We're test subjects and foot soldiers to them... and they know that we pose no threat whatsoever.

[In a sense, that gives them something of an advantage; they could work toward something useful without the Malnosso paying close attention. The problem is, getting started on something like that.]

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