Perihelion

2024
Skin Want

 PUBLISHED ON

Tuesday July 30, 2024

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619

 LAST UPDATE

2024-09-06 20:09:15

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Version 64

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1

 TYPE

Novels

 SUMMARY

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are still reeling from the death of their son William as they struggle to find purpose away from the X-Files. Though their current relationship is tenuous, they hope to seize their second chance to be a family, despite the many questions surrounding Scully’s pregnancy.

Then the FBI asks for their help on a case that hits all too close to home: a serial killer in the Washington, DC area who targets pregnant women. The killer appears to possess a mysterious, uncanny power over electricity, which is enough for the Bureau to re-open the X-Files—if Mulder and Scully are willing.

They cautiously agree, concerned about the safety of their own unborn child yet committed to finding justice for the killer’s victims. But their return to the FBI sparks the interest of a shadowy cabal, the heirs to the now-dead Syndicate, and Mulder and Scully soon discover that what at first seems to be just another X-File is connected to a worldwide threat on an unprecedented scale . . . one with their own future at its heart.

 STORY

Chapter 1:
A pregnant woman named Lizette Heflin gets killed by a strange man in a parking garage.

Chapter 2:
Dana Scully is getting a prenatal care checkup.

Chapter 3:
3a) Fox Mulder is invited to a podcast called Truth Tells All, but is disillusioned: in today’s age and time, proof or not, people already made up their mind about what they believe in.
3b) Mulder reminisces about the recent events, with the death of the Smoking Man and the revelation that Smoking Man was Scully’s child’s biological father.
3c) Grunier, the podcast’s host, tells Mulder that he wasn’t a great speaker.
3d) Mulder visits Walter Skinner, which is laying in a hospital bed, in a coma.

Chapter 4:
Mulder and Scully share a meal in their new home, a new house in the heart of Washington, DC, then go sleep in different beds.

Chapter 5:
5a) Scully spends some time in Genomica, a medical facility dedicated to genetic conditions, funded by billionaire Troy Alexiares.
5b) Mulder has lunch with Jason Deeks, the founder and CEO of a startup called InsightEye, which focuses on corporate profiling.
5c) An enigmatic email titled X-FILES MEETING is sent out to some FBI agents.

Chapter 6:
6a) A lady named Cherish Craddock runs a luxury wellness retreat dubbed Reinvention and is about to welcome a new group for a retreat.
6b) We learn that Mulder and Scully are going through a paid suspension from the FBI.
6c) Scully receives a phone call from someone at the FBI, asking both her and Mulder to come to the Bureau the next day.

Chapter 7:
FBI Assistant Director Ruth Morrison meet with Mulder and Scully and tell them about the murder of Lizette Heflin and the fact that all the nearby electronic devices either melted down or simply malfunctioned. Hence the need for a unit to deal with these cases. She offers Mulder and Scully to work on such cases on a trial basis. They accept.

Chapter 8:
8a) In New York City, a group of men learn about The X-Files unit being reopened and decide to spy on Mulder and Scully.
8b) Meanwhile, Scully’s colleague from Genomica Dr. Karen Jones is stunned by the results on Scully’s medical samples.

Chapter 9:
9a) Mulder and Scully go to a bar to talk about AD’s offer.
9b) Mulder and Scully interrogate widower Craig Heflin at his home.
9c) Robin Vane works on getting electronic surveillance inside Mulder and Scully’s home.

Chapter 10:
10a) Mulder’s offender’s profile about the killer of Lizette Heflin.
10b) Entry of Scully’s journal, talking about her pregnancy, how women are seen when they are pregnant, as well as William/Jackson and Emily.
10c) Robin Vane watches Scully’s writing her journal, through electronic surveillance secretly installed in her bedroom.

Chapter 11:
11a) Mulder and Scully drive to the FBI for a meeting with Morrison.
11b) Acting Assistant Director Morrison gives Mulder and Scully a new X-File case about a serial killer vanishing into smoke.
11c) Mulder and Scully talk and share that some of the victims of the serial killers were members of the Syndicate.
11d) A mysterious young woman meets Mulder. She is wearing an Avatar: The Last Airbender t-shirt.

Chapter 12:
12a) Scully is against pursuing talking to Avatar, the new informant.
12b) AD Morrison is questioned by a mysterious man known to as Long Fingers about the cases she gave to Mulder and Scully.
12c) Mulder visits Skinner at the hospital.
12d) In Mística, Arizona, Cherish Craddock and her team starts a healing ceremony with their new group. One of the members is a regular and is Robin Vane.

Chapter 13:
13a) Dr. Karen Jones reveals to Scully that she has incredibly powerful DNA. Scully tells Karen about her desire to leave Genomica to go back to the X-Files.
13b) Scully stumbles upon the killer of Lizette Heflin in a maternity store, assaults a young pregnant lady nicknamed Boy Mom (she wears a t-shirt that says « Boy mom in training! »). The killer escapes.
13c) Mulder joins Scully at the maternity store, where the DCPD is already there.

Chapter 14:
14a) Mulder and Scully wake up in their new home and talk about rejoining the Bureau.
14b) Mulder and Scully are back as FBI agents and go to the X-Files unit, realizing that there are hundreds of paranormal cases left for them, hinting towards a rapid increase of paranormal phenomenons that might be related to the introduction of alien DNA into the world.

Chapter 15:
15a) Mulder and Scully talk about the killer and his potential paranormal ability to generate electricity. Mulder then decides to contact Avatar, his new informant, by putting a Batman symbol onto his kitchen’s window.
15b) Robin Vane sees the Bat-Signal on Mulder and Scully’s kitchen window, through his electronic surveillance.
15c) Mulder meets Avatar at a car wash, talking about the rise of mutations and the link to the former Syndicate and the Inheritors.

Chapter 16:
16a) Mulder and Scully talk about Avatar after Mulder shared the details of his meeting with her.
16b) Nurse Casey secretly reads medical documents about Skinner's mysterious health condition.
16c) Entry of Scully's journal, about her return to the X-Files.
16d) Bright Eyes spy on Scully but gets attacked by someone (Robin Vane?)

Chapter 17:
17a) Scully has morning sickness, therefore, Mulder goes alone to the FBI and meets with AAD Morrison and talk about the X-Files cases.
17b) Back home, Mulder tells Scully about his meeting with Morrison. They then argue about William/Jackson. Their microwave dies.
17c) Mulder circles the house, wondering if Bright Eyes might have been near the house. He then sits into his car and wonders if they should not return to the X-Files.

Chapter 18:
18a) A pregnant woman named Erin Koss gets killed by Bright Eyes at a gas station.
18b) Scully lays in bed at home and hears the sound of the music playing at the gas station.

Chapter 19:
19a-b) Mulder wakes up from a bad dream and goes to the gym, thinking on the treadmill about the risks Scully will take by joining the Bureau.
19c) Scully rings him to inform him that Bright Eyes has killed again.
19d) Mulder and Scully go to the crime scene.

Chapter 20:
20a) Scully goes to church and thinks about her sister and William.
20b) In Mística, Cherish Craddock keeps running her therapy session, whilst thinking about her childhood and teenage years and how she developed her gift and ultimately ended up in Mística.
20c) The Inheritors’ Executive watches the therapy session remotely through security surveillance. Cheris Craddock is working for the Inheritors.

Chapter 21:
21a) Mulder thinks that the killer might have started with killing animals and finds two potential suspects through an FBI database about animal cruelty.
21b) Scully goes on the field to interrogate the two suspects on their workplace and finds herself in the presence of Bright Eyes, which escapes.

Chapter 22:
22a) Mulder arrives on the scene.
22b) Scully goes to see her obstetrician, accompanied by Mulder, when suddenly electronic devices go through anomalies and power surges. Mulder understands that Scully might be the source of these paranormal phenomenons.

Chapter 23:
23a-b) Robin Vane talks with Cherish Craddock.
23c) Mulder expands on his theory that Scully is the one provoking the electronic power surges. She doubts it and challenges his theory.

Chapter 24:
Mulder and Scully are at home and experience a power surge in their own home. Mulder comes to the conclusion that this genetic mutation might be spreading like a virus.

Chapter 25:
25a-b)After yet another nightmare, Mulder wakes up and prepares breakfast for Scully. They both receive a message saying they have a meeting at the FBI with AD Morrison.
25c) AD Morrison demands Mulder and Scully to focus their attention on the Shadow killer instead of Bright Eyes. Back in the X-FIles office, Mulder and Scully watch a video surveillance tape of a robbery attempt by the Shadow killer in an LA branch Swiss bank called Credit Dauphine. This bank is apparently where most of the money from the Syndicate used to flow.
25d) Whilst Mulder is going to the vending machines, Scully takes a call intended for Mulder from nurse Casey Spradlin. Scully understands that the Taft Memorial is the place where Skinner is getting cared for.

Chapter 26:
Mulder searches on the dark Web about paranormal phenomenons about characters with the ability to disappear in smoke and finds out a story of a boy, whose family died and was found alive after some reports of a smoke at his home. The boy was named… Robin Vane!

Chapter 27:
27a) Scully tells Mulder that she knows about him visiting Skinner in Taft Memorial. They then drive to see him.
27b) Mulder and Scully visit Skinner and realize he might have alien DNA. Scully decides to unplug him and call an ambulance to get him moved to another hospital, this one closer to DC.
27c) Scully goes to Genomica to meet her friend Dr. Karen Jones, to talk about the fast-increasing DNA anomalies seen all over. Jones confirms seeing it unofficially.
27d) Scully calls Mulder and convinces him to tell the truth about alien DNA to Dr. Jones.

Chapter 28:
28a) Mulder and Scully meet Dr. Karen Jones and tell her about the alien DNA, then ask her if she could find a way to undo the genetic mutations on the population. Jones refuses when she learns that this could potentially put her life in danger.
28b) The Inheritors meet in a boardroom. Robin Vane makes a PowerPoint presentation of his surveillance of Mulder and Scully, whilst the Inheritors weigh the advantages and disadvantages of killing Mulder and/or Scully.

Chapter 29:
29a) Robin Vane meets Cherish Craddock in Mística, appearing through a smoke, telling her about a potential ally.
29b) Mulder and Scully reminisces about their lost family members and friends, then argue about who is making dinner.
29c) Bright Eyes thinks about the best way to kill Scully. He is now also equipped with chloroform, for the first time, which might help him in his crimes.

Chapter 30:
30a) Mulder and Scully think about a way to find another scientist to help them with undoing some of the DNA mutations.
30b) Mulder investigates Robin Vane's travel and financial records and is able to link him to a murder, but wonders how they will be able to capture him, being able to morph into a smoke. He sees that he travels regularly to Mística and decides to go there.
30c) As soon as the Inheritor Walther Nystrom came back home to Stockholm, after his meeting with the Inheritors, he is met by Robin Vane, which kills him before vanishing into a smoke. Vane seems to be working for... the Syndicate!

Chapter 31:
31a) Mulder arrives in Mística and goes to a diner, where a waitress tells him about the weird things happening in Reinvention, the retreat managed by Craddock.
31b) Mulder meets Craddock, which acknowledges that she knows Robin Vane. Then (spoiler alert), the Cigarette Smoking Man appears from the dead through Craddock and says to Mulder that he wants to atone for his sins.

Chapter 32:
Mulder shares his encounter with the Smoking Man, whilst Scully doesn’t believe him.
As he hangs up, Bright Eyes knocks on Scully’s door and attacks her during a thunderstorm. She points a gun at him and catches him.
The police arrives and reveals that Bright Eyes’ name is Rich Eastminster.
Robin Vane appears and takes Scully with him in a smoke.

Chapter 33:
Mulder wakes up from yet another nightmare and gets a phone call from AD Morrison, informing him that Scully has been abducted by the Shadow, aka Robin Vane. Mulder reviews the video footage of her abduction.
Mulder then reminisces of the sufferings Scully had to endure during her time on the X-Files.

Chapter 34:
Scully is secluded in a fancy mansion somewhere in the UK. Robin Vane tells her some details about his plan and that the Smoking Man might actually not be William's son after all. He tells her he will take her to Arizona the next day.

Chapter 35:
35a) AD calls Mulder after he texted her, telling her he will not travel back to DC, but stay in Arizona.
35b) Mulder goes back to Mística and gets a phone call from Dr. Karen Jones, which feels remorseful for not helping and offers to help. Mulder refuses.

Chapter 36:
Robin Vane takes Scully to Mística, where she meets Cherish Craddock, which reveals to her that William is still alive.
Vane then shows Scully that the Mística Reinvention facility is also used to train people with alien DNA into mastering their new paranormal abilities, making them superheroes.
Vane offers Scully to join and become a superhero that can control electricity. She refuses.

Chapter 37:
37a) Mulder stakes out in front of the Reinvention facility.
37b) Scully uses her electric superpower by thinking about many of the drama she went through during her life.
37c) Mulder sees the building's lights flickering and goes towards it.
37d) Scully finds a landline and calls 911.

Chapter 38:
Mulder searches the facility, faces Robin Vane and finds Scully.
They escape the facility.

Chapter 39:
39a) The police searches the facility, which is now empty.
39b) Mulder and Scully go a to a motel and take a shower together.
39c) Back in DC, Mulder and Scully talk about William. Scully acknowledges that it was their son after all.
39d) Scully thinks about alien DNA and decides not to tell Mulder that William might still be alive.
39e) Mulder meets Avatar in a garage.
39f) Some Inheritors demand answers from Robin Vane on the events which happened in Mística, his failed attempt to recruit Scully as well as the secret area of the facility and the location of the next one, which will be in the Caribbean.

Chapter 40:
40a) Dr. Karen Jones calls Scully and tells her she is willing to help find a cure to the modified genomes.
40b) Nurse Casey resigned and now works in the new hospital where Skinner is treated. As she leaves the hospital, she sees a mysterious man apparently spying on her.
40c) Mulder and Scully go see Scully's obstetrician, which tells then they are expecting a healthy baby girl
40d) Mulder reminisces and is pleased that Scully and him are now in a great place, the closest from the Sun. Perihelion.

 TRIVIA

• This is the first original X-Files novel in 25 years, since the release of Skin in 1999.
• The book was announced on October 31, 2023, for a release on July 30, 2024.
• The author Claudia Gray wrote multiple Star Wars original novels.
• The design of the book has been created by Stephanie Sumulong. Stephanie is a versatile designer with experience in a wide range of book formats. From children's books to cookbooks—from brainstorming to final art. Collaborating with licenses such as Disney, Universal, and Netflix has taught her how to manage and implement brand style guides that result in creative, lovable products. She truly enjoys the art of storytelling and strives to create a fun and engaging experience for anyone who picks up her books.
• Jacket design and illustration by Alan Dingman.
• ISBN: 978-1-368-08429-1.
• Copyright 2024 by 20th Television.
• Published by Hyperion Avenue, an imprint of Buena Vista Books, Inc.
• The book is 306-page long and is divided into 40 chapters.
• The story takes place soon after My Struggle IV, the series finale of The X-Files (season 11).
• Mulder sometimes joins a podcast called Truth Tells All.
• Mulder has a Substack account.
• Mulder and scully decide to live together in a small townhouse in the heart of DC. Both Scully and Mulder left their respective house.
• In chapter 9, electronic surveillance is placed in Mulder and Scully’s home. This already took place in E.B.E. (season 1) and Trust No 1 (season 9).
• In chapter 10, Mulder’s offender profile refers to the killer as UNSUB. This refers to unknown subject.
• The X-Files unit have been reopened for the time since the creation of the series. They were closed in The Erlenmeyer Flask (1x24) and reopened in Ascension (2x06), then closed in The End (5x20) and reopened in The Beginning (6x01) but with new agents. Mulder and Scully are later reassigned to the X-Files unit in One Son (6x12). The X-Files unit is closed in The Truth (9x19-20) and reopened in My Struggle (10x01). The X-Files unit is probably closed in My Struggle IV (10x10) and then reopened again in Perihelion (this book).
• In chapter 13, Scully refers to Rosalind Franklin as she watches digital representations of DNA helixes. Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 1920 – 16 April 1958) was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose groundbreaking work significantly advanced the understanding of molecular structures, particularly DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her work on coal and viruses was recognized during her lifetime, Franklin's pivotal role in the discovery of DNA's structure was largely overlooked until after her death. Franklin's X-ray diffraction images of DNA were critical in revealing the double-helix structure, a discovery often attributed primarily to James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins, who received the Nobel Prize in 1962. Franklin's omission from the Nobel recognition and the overshadowing of her contributions have led to her being remembered as the "wronged heroine," the "dark lady of DNA," the "forgotten heroine," a "feminist icon," and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology." Franklin's legacy continues to be reassessed, with increasing recognition of her essential contributions to science and the challenges she faced as a woman in a male-dominated field.
• The music played at the gas station in chapter 18 is from Barry Manilow. He is best known from songs such as Copacabana (At the Copa), Mandy, Can’t Smile Without You, Somewhere Down The Road and Even Now.
• CHARACTERS
• In order of appearance:
• Lizette Heflin, (chapter 1), gets killed in Washington, DC.
• Craig Heflin, Lizz’s husband (chapter 1)
• « Bright Eyes »: the serial killer (chapter 1)
• Dana Scully (chapter 2)
• Dr. Kang, works at Omega hospital and is Scully’s doctor (chapter 2)
• Fox Mulder (chapter 3)
• Lewis Grunier, podcast host (chapter 3)
• Casey Spradlin, nurse at Taft Memorial Care Facility (chapter 3)
• Walter Skinner (chapter 3)
• Dr. Wilhite (chapter 3), Skinner’s doctor at Taft
• Troy Alexiares, billionaire founder of Genomica, only referenced (chapter 5)
• Neena Prasad, first patient of Scully at Genomica (chapter 5, referenced in a flash-back)
• Mr. Prasad, father of Neena (chapter 5, referenced in a flash-back)
• Dr. Karen Jones, co-worker and friend of Scully at Genomica (chapter 5)
• Jason Deeks, founder/CEO of InsightEye (chapter 5)
• Cherish Craddock (chapter 6)
• Ruth Morrison, FBI Acting Assistant Director (AAD) (chapter 7)
• « The Executive », member of the Inheritors (chapter 8)
• Robin Vane, member of the Inheritors (chapter 8)
• Britton Upshaw, members of the Syndicate, victim of the Shadow killer (chapter 11, referenced)
• Katarina Skalbeck, attorney linked to the Syndicate, victim of the Shadow (chapter 11, referenced)
• Avatar, Mulder’s informant (chapter 11)
• Long Fingers, mysterious person giving orders to AAD Morrison at the FBI (chapter 12)
• Blair Stawarski (nicknamed « Boy Mom »): a young pregnant woman Scully sees at a store (chapter 13, page 94)
• Erin Koss, (chapter 18, page 129)
• Maura, Erin’s wife (chapter 18, page 129)
• Melody Zalinski, highschool friend of Cherish Craddock (page 145, chapter 20)
• Lyle Ragsdill, animal killer and potential suspect (page 151, chapter 21)
• Garett Upshaw, animal killer and potential suspect (page 151, chapter 21)
• Makoto Takahashi (nicknamed « Tokyo »), member of the Inheritors (page 211, chapter 28)
• Walther Nystrom (nicknamed « Stockholm »), member of the Inheritors (page 211, chapter 28)
• « Santiago », nickname of a member of the Inheritors (page 212, chapter 28)
• « Cairo », nickname of a member of the Inheritors (page 212, chapter 28)
• « Washington », nickname of a female member of the Inheritors (page 212, chapter 28)
• Mary Beth, waitress (page 229, chapter 31)
• Cigarette Smoking Man, talking through Craddock (page 234, chapter 31)
• Heather, waitress at a diner in Mística
• Tall man covered in fur (page 269, chapter 36)
• Deirdre, woman possessing scales instead of skin (page 269, chapter 36)

 PHOTOS

11 photos

 QUOTES

The screens all continued to glow, even as Lizette's world went dark, forever.
(Page 4, chapter 1)

Omega, Dana Scully thought, is a terrible name for a hospital.
(Page 5, chapter 2)

Scully: I may be having a “geriatric pregnancy”, but at least I'm not an “elderly primigravida”.
Dr. Kang: These days we just say “advanced maternal age.”
(Page 6, chapter 2)

Mulder: We can't be too careful. They’ve manipulated us; they’ve lied to us. They’ve violated the integrity of hospital upon hospital, doctor after doctor. Maybe we find a doula, have a home birth. That may be the only way we can protect you and the baby.
(Page 7, chapter 2)

Mulder: It wouldn’t matter if you brought a yeti to the biggest megachurch in the Bible Belt and gave him the pulpit. Those who want to believe will. Those who don’t won’t. If the last thirty years of my work have taught me anything, it’s that evidence… evidence is irrelevant.
(Page 15, chapter 3)

Mulder: I spent decades of my life searching for the evidence I thought could change the world. Evidence of the UFO cover-up at Roswell. Evidence of alien DNA being artificially seeded into the human genome. Evidence of military extermination of extraterrestrial biological entities on Earth. Hell, I found evidence of the existence of the chupacabra. What did it change? Nothing.
(Page 16, chapter 3)

Mulder: People make up their minds what they want to be real, and what they don’t, and there’s not a shred of proof that can convince them otherwise.
(Page 16, chapter 3)

But there was no mainstream anymore. Just voices. Hundreds of thousands of them, all speaking at once, never listening.
(Page 19, chapter 3)

Mulder: The truth is still out there, Scully, but now, so is everything else.
(Page 26, chapter 4)

Scully’s journal: The Syndicate’s demise was, perhaps, our greatest victory… but now there is no one to fight.
(Page 28, chapter 4)

Mulder: Hunting UFOs is a nontransferable skill.
(Page 35, chapter 5)

Mulder: In some ways, I’ve expected this since the first day I opened an X-File. It was always a project living on borrowed time, and we got to borrow a whole lotta years. Not too shabby, if you ask me.
(Page 43, chapter 6)

The worst time, however, was the only time. The last chance, which turned out to be the one chance they’d ever had.
(Page 48, chapter 7)

Mulder: The FBI has decades of experience in not wanting us, even when we were actually here.
(Page 50, chapter 7)

AD Morrison: In short, Mr. Mulder, Dr. Scully, this woman’s murder seems to have been the epicenter of an inexplicable electrical event. I may not have much experience in that area, but I must say… that sounds like an X-File to me.
(Page 52, chapter 7)

At least for now, back to the basement it was.
(Page 53, chapter 7)

What point is there in silently ruling the world if it involves sitting under fluorescent lighting?
(Page 54, chapter 8)

Scully: Just because I can endure trauma doesn’t mean I should.
(Page 59, chapter 9)

She’d tried her best with Doggett, whom she still liked and respected, and Mulder had gone it alone for a brief time… but the X-Files had only ever truly made progress when she and Mulder worked together.
(Page 59, chapter 9)

Mulder’s offender’s profile: I do not believe UNSUB acts out of a hatred of pregnant women or women in general. Instead, I theorize that the UNSUB is confused about the fundamental beginnings and endings of life. This may arise from a fear of his own mortality, and the death of a family member of other intimate may have proved to be the triggering incident, one which turned UNSUB’s long-standing confusion about and fascination with pregnancy into sufficient motivation to kill.
UNSUB wants to learn where the boundary lies between life and death. He believed he could do so through his gruesome postmortem mutilations of LH. As this is a mystery with no answer, not even at the highest levels of science, UNSUB will have left this murder scene unsatisfied. This means he is highly likely to kill again.
(Page 67, chapter 10)

Scully‘s journal: Women are continually reminded that we are seen as women—as separate, different.
(Page 68, chapter 10)

Scully’s journal: And at no point is a woman made more aware of her separateness than when she is visibly pregnant.
(Page 68, chapter 10)

Scully’s journal: In the eyes of the world, I was not a mother—even while my body still ached, even when I lay awake night after night wondering where my son could be, even when my sleep was stolen by dreams of his improbable return. I had to carry on as though none of it had ever happened.
Finally, ultimately, I learned that he had only been an expriment. Not Mulder’s child at all. Not a conception in love, the miracle we had hoped for, but a violation born from a craven desire for power.
I can’t think about William Jackson any longer.
But my thoughts turn down other, equally perilous paths: to Emily—a child born of my ovum, a little girl I briefly interacted with, and who died cruelly young. She was mine and not mine, known and not known.
(Page 69, chapter 10)

Scully’s journal: My second pregnancy will result in my third child, who will be the first one I will be able to raise myself. The first conceived in love.
(Page 69, chapter 10)

Mulder: You want me to believe you have knowledge of the highest levels of an insidious worldwide conspiracy, but you’re hanging out here in an Avatar: The Last Airbender sweatshirt?
Avatar: Suits are for the office. After hours is another story. It’s called work-life balance, Mulder. Try it sometime.
(Page 77, chapter 11)

Mulder: Okay, Avatar, how am I supposed to reach you?
Avatar: Avatar—I like that. But when you tell Scully about this, be sure to explain that it’s the cool Avatar. Not the one with the blue cat-people.
(Page 78, chapter 11)

Avatar: Use the Bat-Signal if you want to chat. Otherwise—I’ll find you.
(Page 78, chapter 11)

Dr. Karen Jones: Whatever your’e eating, I want a slice of. Maybe whoever did whatever to you wasn’t trying to get you knocked up. Maybe they were trying to extend your life.
(Page 90, chapter 13)

Dr. Karen Jones: It’s possible that your body could be accomplishing the impossible and producing new ova. Normally women are born with all they’ll ever have, but for you, that might not be the case.
(Page 90, chapter 13)

Could Busch have been trying to make her immortal, and only accidentally made her fertile?
(Pages 90-91, chapter 13)

Scully: You should know I’m leaving Genomica to return to the FBI. To the X-Files.
Dr. Karen Jones: You can’t leave, where else will you get crap-ass coffee from plastic pods?
Scully (laughs): I’ll have to endure the deprivation.
(Page 91, chapter 13)

Dr. Karen Jones: Seriously, you want to leave a job with regular hours and good benefits and great coworkers—most particularly myself—to go chase werewolves with your kinda sorta life partner?
(Page 91, chapter 13)

Dr. Karen Jones: Are you doing this for you? For the work? Or are you doing it for Muldoon? Your career isn’t any less important than his. Your life isn’t less important than his.
(Page 92, chapter 13)

Jones: I’d hate to lose you completely to Muldoon and the werewolves.
(Page 93, chapter 13)

Scully: Stop it right there! You heard me! FBI! Let her go and drop to the ground, now!
(Page 96, chapter 13)

Sometimes, when she pulled away, Mulder let her go. Not tonight. « Humor me, » he said, drawing Scully into his arms. After a long moment, she relaxed slightly, letting her head rest against his shoulder. If the beat cops wanted to stare, let them.
(Page 98, chapter 13)

Scully: Yes, I’m coming back to the X-Files, at least for the time being.
(Page 100, chapter 14)

Without a sense of purpose, without his lifelong quest, he became… unmoored.
(Page 100, chapter 14)

During their years on the run, when he’d had to remain so deeply undercover, Scully had been able to find meaning in her medical work, but Mulder had had nothing but her.
(Page 100, chapter 14)

Mulder: You’re sure I can’t keep my old ID photo? It was a really good hair day.
(Page 101, chapter 14)

Mulder: And there’s the Scully I know and love.
(Page 104, chapter 14)

Before, their job at the X-Files had been about dragging what was hidden into the light. Perhaps their job now was to try to stem the flood of these mutations so that it could, possibly, remain dark.
(Page 106, chapter 14)

Scully: We save the world from this, so everyone else can save the world from everything else. We’ve got work to do.
(Page 106, chapter 14)

Mulder: I gotta talk to Avatar.
Scully: What’s the clandestine procedure this time?
Mulder: She said to use the Bat-Signal. I think she means the actual Bat-Signal.
Scully: We’ll have to ask Commissioner Gordon to use his spotlight.
Mulder: Maybe not.
Scully: What happens if you don’t get a response?
Mulder: Our new neighbors assume I’m spending my weekend at a comic con.
(Page 109, chapter 15)

Avatar: Nice retro Bat-Signal. Adam West vibes. I like it.
(Page 110, chapter 15)

Mulder: You ascended to the heights of secret power just to drive a Prius?
(Page 110, chapter 15)

Mulder: What purpose are the Inheritors working toward?
Avatar: None whatsoever, Mulder. Chaos is coming, and the Inheritors have decided that if they can’t govern it, they can at least profit from it.
(Page 111, chapter 15)

Scully: Luckily for us, the truth is often found in the middle.
Mulder: Since when?
(Page 114, chapter 15)

Scully‘s journal: I have not followed Mulder back to the FBI; I fell into step beside him as we each independently made the decision.
(Page 116, chapter 16)

Scully’s journal: I cannot help but be reminded of the heavy price we pay for this work.
(Page 116, chapter 16)

Scully’s journal: Mulder and I, however, have suffered much more than that, more than any career should ever claim. Our families have suffered. Our friends. Our own bodies have sometimes been the battlegrounds. Mulder has emerged thus far without physical scars, but mine can be traced through my skull, along my nerves, even within my reproductive system. No part of me has been left sacred. The word "defiled," patriarcal and archaic as it is, at times feels like the only word that fits.
(Page 117, chapter 16)

Scully’s journal: The light that had so long seemed to be lost is returning to his eyes.
(Page 117, chapter 16)

Scully’s journal: All those long years we struggled to make a life together, our union could never replace the sense of meaning that the X-Files has always given him. Whatever doubts he harbors are surely soon to be banished completely, if they have not been already.
All I can be certain of is that even as Mulder and I return to the work that brought us together, and has held us together for so long, I still feel the distance that keeps us apart.
(Page 117, chapter 16)

Mulder: As the partner of a pregnant woman in the DC area—I've been concentrating on the attacks on pregnant women in the DC area.
(Pages 123-124, chapter 17)

Mulder: You never talk about our son as anything but an experiment any longer. Like—like that erases all the years of loving him, wanting him, not knowing where he was—
Scully: He was not our son. He was never yours; he was barely mine—if mine at all—
Mulder: Will you listen to yourself? It doesn't matter what his DNA was! It doesn't matter what Cancer Man did. I loved that kid for all those years. Saw him in every little boy riding a bike or playing in the park.
(Page 126, chapter 17)

Mulder: Finding out William had another father didn't patch the hole in my gut. It just tore another one.
(Page 127, chapter 17)

Erin Koss: What most people call trivia, I call interesting.
(Page 130, chapter 18)

Erin opened her mouth to scream, but that was the instant that the volume on the speakers rose to its absolute highest, Barry Manilow crooning so loudly that he drowned out everything else, including the rush of cars going by, honking horns, screaming, absolutely everything, until only Barry remained.
(Page 133, chapter 18)

Today Scully felt rage—fury, hotter and brighter than those candles’ flames. She didn’t understand how to look at what had become of those women and feel anything less.
(Page 141, chapter 20)

Mulder: I guess you don’t ask the lifeboat on the Titanic to justify the iceberg.
(Page 141, chapter 20)

One of the people praying at St. Felicity’s that day must have brought some incense to burn. Scully watched and wept, quietly as she could, while the sweet-smelling smoke rose through the church, tendrils drifting through the prisms of light that shone through the stained glass overhead.
(Page 143, chapter 20)

Scully pushed herself harder—she was fast for a little short-legged thing, as Mulder had once said.
(Page 156, chapter 21)

The best way to comfort Scully was to remind her of her strength; the best way to do that was to respect it.
(Page 159, chapter 22)

Mulder: Bright Eyes has no special ability, and he never did. Scully, this power—it's coming from you.
(Page 166, chapter 22)

So often, through the decades, they had come together like this only to push each other away again—sometimes for the right reasons, sometimes for reasons Mulder would regret bitterly until the end of his days. Tonight, however, Scully held him, let herself be held. Every once in a while, they admitted how much they needed each other.
(Page 175, chapter 23)

The proliferation of information online brought into being too many sources, too little clarity on which of those sources were reliable and which were not. (…) The Internet became more and more crowded, infinitely noisier, and unsearchable by any one being.
(Page 192, chapter 26)

Scully: So. Taft Memorial.
Mulder: And here I thought I’d gotten lucky.
(Page 196, chapter 27)

Scully: I’m beginning to believe I’ll never be done with the FBI. Or, rather, it will never be done with me, which amounts to more or less the same thing.
(Page 200, chapter 27)

Dr. Karen Jones: I won’t tell you you’re glowing, because when I was expecting, I heard that so often I wanted to smack people. Throwing up in the morning does not make me glow. That’s the opposite of glowing.
(Page 201, chapter 27)

Dr. Karen Jones: I sound like Muldoon and his werewolves, don’t I?
Scully: I think it’s about time you met Muldoon.
(Page 204, chapter 27)

Dr. Karen Jones: You must be Mulder. I’ve heard a lot about you.
Mulder: And I’m betting some of what you heard made you doubt my sanity—that’s if Scully described me accurately.
Scully: I have.
(Page 206, chapter 28)

Dr. Karen Jones: In the Information Age, you can find most truths and even more lies out there. It’s what you can’t find that ought to scare you.
(Page 207, chapter 28)

Dr. Karen Jones: Instead of another planet, the DNA could potentially come from another dimension. Or an underground or undersea realm previously kept apart from the biome we know—say, maybe in the recently discovered oceans locked within Earth’s crust.
(Page 207, chapter 28)

The Executive: Mulder is one of the earliest bearers of the alien DNA released by the Syndicate.
(Page 212, chapter 28)

She remembered returning to her apartment after, seeing the yellow CRIME SCENE tape everywhere, a pool of her sister’s blood still on her floor. Scully had knelt on the floor to clean it up herself. Melissa’s blood had been under her fingernails.
(Page 215, chapter 29)

Mulder: Not sure how we're supposed to collar a guy who can dissolve himself out of a pair of handcuffs.
(Page 223, chapter 30)

Robin Vane: With the Syndicate's regards.
(Page 228, chapter 30)

Mulder: So, what's weird around here?
Mary Beth: Besides my boss?
Mulder: Yeah, maybe not that weird.
(Page 229, chapter 31)

Cigarette Smoking Man: Well, Fox. You've found me again. I thought I might be beyond your reach this time, but you've always been a persistent man.
(Page 234, chapter 31)

Mulder: What did you do to Scully—what you did to me, everything about William, including killing him—if I didn't already have a million reasons to hate you, that would be enough for me to send you to hell a second time.
(Page 235, chapter 31)

Cigarette Smoking Man: My new vantage point is, shall we say, far superior to any I had during life.
(Page 235, chapter 31)

Robin Vane: You’ve assumed that what Busch said about William is the whole truth. That’s a highly suspect assumption.
Scully: Are you saying that he was lying about my son’s paternity?
Vane: Lying, not necessarily. Busch may well have believed every word he said. But by that point, he was no longer in possession of the full truth.
(Pages 252-253, chapter 34)

Robin Vane: I think it’s entirely possible that Busch didn’t believe himself to be the genetic father at all. He is the one who altered your genes in such a way that your fertility was restored—or, in face, renewed more profoundly than ever before on this Earth. He may have been no more than the father of your conception, if you take my meaning.
(Page 253, chapter 34)

Scully: If I were going to speak to anyone who's already passed, I would want it to be my son.
(Page 267, chapter 36)

Cherish Craddock: Your son isn't on the other side. He's still there, with us!
(Page 267, chapter 36)

Scully: Do I envision myself as some kind of electricity-wielding superhero? No, I do not.
(Page 272, chapter 36)

Scully (thinking): I do believe in Mulder.
(Page 276, chapter 37)

Mulder: Sculllaay!
(Page 283, chapter 38)

Mulder: Are you okay? You weren't harmed?
Scully: I was served an English breakfast.
Mulder: You surprise me every time.
(Page 287, chapter 38)

Scully: I'm fine, Mulder. We're fine.
(Page 287, chapter 38)

His mouth found hers, and for a few long moments, neither the blowing sand nor punishing sun could touch them.
(Page 287, chapter 38)

Any moment now, the police would arrive. She and Mulder would report what had happened. And the cops wouldn't believe a single word they said.
(Page 288, chapter 38)

Scully (thinking): Eighty-seventh verse, she thought, same as the first.
(Page 288, chapter 38)

Mulder: It's strange how getting wet makes you want to take a shower, right? Ladies first.
Scully: I don't think we have to take turns.
(Page 291, chapter 39)

Mulder: Too bad we didn't start doing this a lot sooner. Think of all the time we've wasted through the years, sticking to separate motel rooms. Not to mention all those taxpayers dollars.
Scully: Let's not waste any more.
(Page 291, chapter 39)

Mulder: That shower led to another shower than you most definitely do not have to apologize for.
(Page 292, chapter 39)

Scully: In some ways, William wasn't our son, but we were his parents. We still are, and we always will be. We missed him too long—loved him too long—for him not to have changed us forever.
Mulder: I'm just glad I got to share him with you.
(Page 293, chapter 39)

With that Scully curled into his arms. There was no more need for words. They held each other tightly, shutting down everything else, making the world just large enough to contain the two of them.
(Page 293, chapter 39)

False hope corroded the soul.
(Page 294, chapter 39)

Mulder: I thought you dressed up for the office.
Avatar: I do, but that is why the good Lord in his wisdom came up with remote work.
(Page 296, chapter 39)

Scully: Karen—thank you.
Dr. Karen Jones: Thank me after I save the world.
(Page 301, chapter 40)

Dr. Kang: It looks like you're having a girl.
(Page 305, chapter 40)

Mulder's thoughts: What seems to be the end of all things is merely aphelion, the time of year when the Earth is farthest from the sun.
Scully and I have returned to perihelion. However long we remain in this warmth and light, I will not forget that it may once again pass someday.
But it—we—will always return.
(Page 306, chapter 40)

 REVIEWS

 HISTORY

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2024-09-06 20:09:15 - DanaKS: Added the story from the final chapter 40.
2024-09-06 19:45:50 - DanaKS: Added and updated some characters.
2024-09-06 19:16:04 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 39.
2024-09-06 18:31:42 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapters 35, 36, 37 and 38.
2024-09-06 15:04:22 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 34.
2024-09-06 14:16:15 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 33.
2024-09-06 12:33:36 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 32.
2024-09-06 11:00:59 - DanaKS: Updated the story.
2024-09-06 10:57:49 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 31.
2024-09-06 03:34:55 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 30.
2024-09-06 02:39:46 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 29.
2024-09-06 01:34:43 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 28 and added some characters.
2024-09-06 00:50:10 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 27.
2024-09-05 21:03:28 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 26.
2024-09-05 20:45:57 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 25.
2024-09-05 11:56:48 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 24.
2024-09-05 11:45:34 - DanaKS: Added some trivia.
2024-09-05 04:32:10 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 23.
2024-09-05 04:07:12 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 22.
2024-09-05 02:27:48 - DanaKS: Added six more characters.
2024-09-05 02:26:18 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 21.
2024-09-05 01:58:50 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 20.
2024-09-04 15:18:31 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 19.
2024-09-04 14:32:58 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 18, some trivia and added two characters.
2024-09-04 13:04:50 - DanaKS: Added some trivia.
2024-09-04 04:07:19 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 17.
2024-09-04 03:28:31 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 16.
2024-09-04 02:20:49 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 15.
2024-09-04 01:54:41 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 14.
2024-09-03 19:44:54 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 13.
2024-09-03 19:06:19 - DanaKS: Added some trivia on Rosalind Franklin.
2024-09-03 18:58:22 - DanaKS: Added the characters from chapters 1 to 12.
2024-09-03 18:05:33 - DanaKS: Added some trivia.
2024-09-02 17:26:17 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 12.
2024-09-02 16:49:03 - DanaKS: Added a photo.
2024-09-02 16:47:39 - DanaKS: Added a photo.
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2024-09-01 20:10:23 - DanaKS: Added a photo.
2024-09-01 19:44:27 - DanaKS: Added a photo.
2024-09-01 18:51:43 - DanaKS: Added the story of chapter 11.
2024-09-01 18:19:21 - DanaKS: Added the story of chapter 10.
2024-09-01 15:23:57 - DanaKS: Added some trivia.
2024-09-01 15:11:21 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 9 and added some trivia.
2024-09-01 04:56:59 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 8.
2024-09-01 04:20:38 - DanaKS: Added some trivia.
2024-09-01 04:18:47 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 7.
2024-09-01 03:55:13 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 6 and updated the trivia.
2024-08-31 14:32:03 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 5 and added some trivia.
2024-08-31 05:06:40 - DanaKS: Added the story of chapter 4 and some trivia.
2024-08-31 00:35:41 - DanaKS: Added the story from chapter 3.
2024-08-31 00:05:52 - DanaKS: Added some trivia.
2024-08-30 05:16:27 - DanaKS: Added the story for chapters 1 and 2.
2024-08-29 05:31:21 - DanaKS: Added some trivia.
2024-08-29 05:27:28 - DanaKS: Updated the trivia.
2024-08-29 05:27:03 - DanaKS: Added some trivia.
2024-08-29 05:23:58 - DanaKS: Added some trivia.