Summary: Diana Fowley's last hour.

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From: mgreten@xtalwind.net
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1999 17:28:59 GMT
Subject: Pay Back Is A Bitch by Mary Greten 1 of 1

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Spoilers: Mytharc Season 7

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S: PG: V:

Summary: Diana Fowley's last hour.

Episodes dialogue: Chris Carter and 1013 writers


IN OTHER CONTEXT: Pay Back is a Bitch

ISMS ARRANGED by Mary Greten

ORIGINAL MATERIAL by Mary Greten


Special Agent Diana Fowley came home to die. Alone, weary to
the marrow in her bones, mentally exhausted and emotionally
depleted, she could think of no better solution for him to
arrive at than her death. She knew he was deciding her fate
this very moment. No reason for him not to. He recuperated with
amazing speed as did, she had been told, her former partner,
Agent Fox Mulder.

Whether the brain matter transplant actually transferred
Mulder's immunity from the alien virus to Spender was anybody's
guess. The transferee, the Elder Spender, a megalomaniac from
the beginning, became effectually insufferable now. He exhibited
classic delusions of Godhood and a Messiah complex as large as
the measurable universe. She didn't mind the sex or sitting
through his readings of the adventures of his creation, Jack
Colquitt. He once could actually be quite pleasant and
animated in those moments.

But, listening to his plans for the human race shoved her over
her ethical edge. Thus she betrayed the man whose compatriots had
her shot before for protecting little Gibson Praise. Upon his return
from exile, he requested his alien allies to repair her lungs.
They were very good at lungs. She expected no reprise this time.

There was one thing left she wanted to do. She felt an urgent
need to justify her existence if she could. But to whom? Who
would care? She had no family. She was raised in strangers' homes
with its collateral emotional baggage still unchecked even this
far into adulthood. No friends worth the effort. Higher education
on scholarships and 'government' grants and loans to be paid back
later.

And pay back is a bitch.

She wondered if she had a premonition when she recently updated
the "to be notified in case of emergency" entry on her
personnel file.

"That will be one surprised F.B.I. Agent." She smirked at the
time.

She poured herself a tumbler of Cognac. For the hell of it she
took a swig from the bottle before she corked it. She took both
tumbler and bottle with her to her computer. To avoid detection
of her post, she entered the address of an e-mail drop she once
used when Eudora was thought to be a witch in a TV sitcom and put
instructions to forward in the body. She hoped the addy was
still active. Tracing on this end was not a problem. Her
computer's nightly shut down routine trashed the sent box,
emptied the trash box and performed a defrag as she slept.

She patted the monitor. "Tonight, you will have all the time
in the world."

She glanced at her watch. Less than an hour, she estimated.

"From: Stay_By_Me@Yahoo.com", she typed.

"You do not have much time.", the old Shaman said.

Diana glanced over he shoulder, then resumed typing. "Subject:
FM Radio".

Finished that, she turned to face him. "Don't you ever knock?"

"Did you give the book to the Woman? It is important that she
believe."

"I bet. How did you know where I would find it? He has been
gone for four years. Agent Scully was with him when he died."

"He told me."

"That's impossible!" She sighed. "Scratch that." She knew
better. Still curiosity drove her to ask, "When? Where?"

"There are more worlds than the one in your hand."

"Perhaps, but, I doubt I'll be seeing any of them."

"Tonight, we may see them together."

"If you hang around me any longer that will be a certainty."

"I know."

"You really know how to cheer a girl up." She sipped the
Cognac she poured for herself before she attended to the
computer. "Damned, if I'm not attending my own wake. Do
Indians tell jokes? Oh, pardon me. My manners. Join me in a
drink?"

"I cannot."

"Too bad. I'll leave some for whomever finds my body. Least I
could do after leaving a bloody mess."

"You gave the Woman the pass key to where they were hiding her
partner."

"Yes."

"Why did you do it?"

"Is this a test?"'

"Yes."

His forth rightness surprised her. "I could lie.", she replied.

"You won't."

"To save Mulder."

"You *are* lying."

Alarmed that he could tell, Diana exploded, "Why do you care?!!"

"No one should die alone."

Her voiced cracked at the finality of it, "So, this is a death
watch."

"By extension."

"You are dying too?"

"Yes."

"Again, I ask you. Why are you here?"

"Everyone deserves a second chance."

"At what? What's left?"

"Another life."

"I had mine." Diana remembered.

"Tell me."

"Does it matter?"

"It is possible."

"To whom?"

The shaman shrugged.

After a long swallow of Cognac, Diana continued anyway.

"All right. All right. I botched it. I should have stayed a
consulting para-psychologist. That's how I met Mulder. He was
burned out from profiling. At loose ends. He got my name from
one of the police departments I did work for. After Mulder
returned to work, I was recruited no, tempted, by the Group,
Consortium, Syndicate. Mulder didn't find the X-Files, I
directed him to it, got him rolling but good. It was all mapped
out."

"Tell me more."

"Then, 'they' assigned me to observe the MUFON women in Europe.
I had no intention of returning or to hurt him again. Spender
wanted his son, Jeffry, to take over the X-Files with my help.
Now, he tells me Mulder is his son. If so, I hope his mother's
genes are dominant. I would have liked to have known her better
than I did. A man subconsciously looks for the qualities of his
mother in his mate. I think Teena Mulder was a strong force
once. But, it doesn't matter what I think anymore."

"You did not answer my question."

"Which one?" She evaded.

"Why you saved the Man."

"I loved him."

"That is not why you saved him."

"What do you want to hear?"

"The Truth."

"From me??" Diana snickered. "And I thought Indians didn't
have a sense of humor."

"We do not have much time."

"You said that before."

"It is more true."

"And where do I find this 'truth' you want me to tell you."

"Have you looked in here." The shaman touched her lightly on
her chest.

Diana pushed his hand away. "Damn you, old man, leave me my
secrets."

He looked over at her e-mail. "You are going to tell the Woman."

"I thought about it. I was always thinking about it."

"You must tell me."

Furious, Diana yelled, "Why?, old man, tell me why should I
strip my soul to you."

"So that I may know why I am here and not with my brothers."

Anger spent, "I'm sorry. I did not know what I am costing
you." Diana said contritely.

"Tell me so I may know what my last sacrifice is."

"Something for which there can be no absolution."

"Only you can free your spirit."

Diana gulped down the rest of the Cognac in her tumbler.

"The last duty I had to perform for Spender before I left for
Europe was..was" She faltered. "No, I can't. Go back to your
tribe. Surely your gods won't hold it against you."

"You MUST speak the words."

"Tenacious redman, aren't you?" Diana barely managed to
retrieve her voice. "My..My last duty was to pick my successor.

"Agent Scully is ten years younger than I. The same age as my
sister who had been adopted and I could not find when I was old
enough to look for her. But, that is neither here nor there. I
am responsible for Agent Scully's dead sister and daughter. Her
abductions. Her cancer. Her misspent life.

"When I got back to the States, I tried to break her free. I
did. I attempted to get Mulder to reject her science or her his
intuition. I told Mulder I loved him. I even attempted to seduce
him. I humiliated her.

"As a last resort to find Mulder, she cornered me.
With as much pride as she could muster, she obliquely revealed
the depth of her commitment to Mulder. Mulder, on the operating
table, begged me with his eyes to let him see Scully one more time
or maybe I imagined it. Either way, my only choice was to let her
save him. Possibly, Spender would let me live."

"Quickly", warned Albert Holsteen. "You have just enough time
to type a few words. I will stay with you. Together, we will
go to the other worlds."

Hearing what the old shaman sensed, Diana rushed to type and
send her message.

A gunshot rang true.


Scully's autopsy report was terse. The bullet that struck
Special Agent Diana Fowley's head killed her instantly. Blood
loss was significant but post mortem.

She found Assistant Director Skinner waiting for her outside
the morgue.

"Agent Scully, I don't know what to make of this." He showed her
Diana's personnel file. "Diana Fowley also named you next of
kin and beneficiary. There are no blood relatives that we know of."

"This might explain an e-mail Frohike forwarded to me this morning."

"Which was?" asked Skinner.

"Frohike is sure it came from Agent Fowley."

"What did she write?"

"'I did it for you.'"

"You. Not Mulder?"

"So she said."

"Do you have any idea why?"

"No."

"I guess you will have to make the arrangements and tell Mulder."

"Pay back is a bitch, Sir, but Agent Fowley earned it in spades.
Sir?, Request Full Honors, Sir."

"Granted, Agent Scully, in spades."

~~~

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