The man tapped on the glass. "We have to talk."

Alex looked over his shoulder as if by some miracle there was someone else in his room that the man could be talking to.

"I know what you're doing," the man said.

Alex threw open his window, "Who are you and what do you want?"

The man with the thin hair and bug eyed glasses poked his head into the room to look around. "Not a bad set up," he observed. He sat on the window sill and threw his legs over it to enter Alex's room. He walked over to the computer, took one glance at Scully typing away then hit the button turning off the monitor.

"Hey!" Alex protested.

"It's a .mpeg on a continuous loop," the stranger told him.

"Who ARE you?"

"A friend of Agent Scully's and I don't particularly like teenaged geeks spying on her."

Alex had the grace to look abashed then shocked when the guy added. "Though I salute your trying to spy on an FBI agent. That takes kahones--and usually isn't a bad idea--but Scully is one of the good guys so in this case I have to take offense."

Alex frowned just as Michael rushed into his room through the door, "Your mother let me in, I--" Michael stopped and asked the strange little man, "Who the hell are you?"

"That's what I was going to ask...again," Alex added.

"Just call me Frohike. Now it's my turn for a question, why are you spying on Scully?"

Michael glared at Alex, "They found the camera didn't they? Great, just freaking great."

"You didn't answer my question," Frohike stressed.

"And I'm not gonna," Michael snapped.

Suddenly Michael found himself shoved against a wall. "I asked a question."

"Uh. . .I don't think you should be doing that," Alex told Frohike.

Michael looked down his nose at the man, "You know for a little guy, you're strong. But you seriously don't want to mess with me."

"Then don't you mess with Scully."

Michael's eyebrows raised and he looked at Alex.

"Now what?" Alex asked then looked at Frohike, "And how did you find out what we were doing?"

Sensing no danger, Frohike let Michael go, "You kids are out of your league. Took Scully maybe five minutes to find that thing. To tell the truth, you're lucky it was only Scully you were spying on. There are some people I know who would kill you without a blink of an eye for doing that."

"What people?" Michael asked.

Frohike blinked. "Why do I suddenly have the feeling you already know some of the people I'm talking about?"

"I don't know. Why do you?"

Frohike walked over to Alex's computer, he opened a tool box and glanced at the motherboard Alex had laying on his desk, then looked over his shoulder at Alex. "You're the one who tampered with that camera aren't you."

Alex and Michael looked at each other.

Frohike straddled the chair in front of the computer and sat. "You know that camera isn't exactly standard issue at your local Radio Shack. Where did you get it?"

Michael didn't answer. Actually Michael and Frohike just sat staring at each other.

"Why are you here, Michael?" Alex finally asked for lack of anything better to say.

"No reason."

"Okay," Frohike finally said. "Let's stop torturing each other. You kids are conspiracy geeks aren't you? Actually it's sort of nice to know the younger generation isn't a complete loss. So what's your specific perversion? Government conspiracy? New World Order? Aliens?" Seeing the quick glance between Michael and Alex, Frohike went, "Aliens. I guess growing up in Roswell it's in the blood."

Alex drawled, "You could sorta say that."

"What do you want?" Michael asked.

"Nothing much. Keep hunting for little green men, or little greys, or shapeshifters, or black oil--though that's kind of dangerous. Just, for your own good, steer clear of Scully or you might discover more than you ever wanted to know."

Before Frohike could leave, Michael blocked the door, "What do you mean, more than we ever wanted to know?"

* * *

Maria wiped the Crashdown counter and glared at Tess, "What are you still doing here?"

Tess shrugged. "No where else to go. Nothing else to do. This whole town is sort of dead."

"Then maybe you should--I don't know--LEAVE maybe?"

Suddenly Maria looked down to see the counter crawling with snakes. She screamed and jumped back.

"Don't piss me off," Tess warned.

"Take them away!" Maria demanded.

"What?"

"Take them away, please," Maria requested resentfully. When the snakes disappeared she asked, "I thought you said you couldn't make someone see something they didn't want to see?"

"I said I couldn't make you see something that wasn't in your head to begin with. It could be something you want, or something you know, or that your subconscious knows. . .or fears. In this case, I chose something you feared."

"Gee, thanks."

"I could give something you want."

Suddenly Michael walked through the Crashdown's doors. "Maria," he said breathlessly. "I'm sorry for every horrible thing I've ever said to you. You're right. About everything, you're right. I love you. I adore you. You're the most wonderful, the most incredible, the most generous and caring--"

"Alright, enough already," Maria protested to Tess. "You're making my teeth hurt. Make it go away."

Tess started-- "Wait!" Maria commanded. Turning she grabbed "Michael" and kissed him. Hard. His hands circled her waist then moved slowly up her back as he slanted his mouth over hers. They held that way for a long-- a really long-- breathless moment. Finally, dazedly, Maria stepped away. She licked her lip. "Okay, Tess."

Michael disappeared as if he had never been there--which of course he hadn't.

"Is that really what you want?" Tess asked with distaste.

"What? Michael acting like Fabio? No."

"It has to be in your head or--"

"I wouldn't see it. I know. I heard you before. Look, I wouldn't mind a little ego stroke from Michael every now and then. And, okay, maybe after a while frustration sort of builds up and I have these weird fantasies of him going all gooey, but I don't really want that."

"That's good," Tess said and took a sip of her Cherry Coke.

"What?" Maria demanded. "I can see it in your beady little eyes. What?" Before Tess could speak, Maria added. "It's that damn destiny thing isn't it?"

"Some things are just meant to be. You can't change it."

"Why not? Why the heck not?" Maria asked. "You know that destiny or whatever was written before you were even born or hatched or whatever. That destiny was for aliens not humans."

"We are aliens."

"And humans, and I don't just mean biologically. You guys have lived human lives. You've got human emotional baggage. I don't think Michael being tossed into an abusive foster home was part of his 'destiny' do you? I don't think him being abandoned by his foster mother and beaten by his foster father was part of any plan. He's been hurt, you know. A lot. Under his angry, caveman grunt there's this really sensitive, vulnerable guy trying to work though a lot of emotional junk."

"Puhlease. You really do have it bad for him don't you?"

Maria looked at Tess in disbelief. "You think this life means nothing don't you? What if this life is part--or almost all--of who he is now? What he is now? What if his life here matters as much if not MORE than whoever he was in a life he doesn't even remember. It's too damn bad the rest of you can't even stop to think about that."

"We don't think about it because it doesn't matter."

"Bull!"

Agent Scully walked through the Crashdown's doors. Ducking her head, Maria began wiping up the counter again and told herself not to think about snakes.

* * * Krychek escorted Pierce from the Hoover Building. Walking into a shadowed nook under the cantilevered first floor he said bluntly, "I know who you are."

Pierce arched a brow.

"Let's be blunt," Krychek continued. "I know WHAT you are, and it isn't a FBI Agent."

Pierce's face was expressionless and unreadable, then again it wasn't really Pierce's face at all. It was Nasedo's. He didn't change form however. To Nasedo one human's face was as acceptable as another. None of them mattered anyway.

Krychek's voice lowered. "I also know what you want."

"What I want?" Nasedo asked.

Krychek smiled coldly, ruthlessly. "The key to all things."

"And what would that be?"

"Isn't that the million dollar question." Krychek circled Nasedo. "The elusive grail. The answer, the key--"

"Yes, yes," Nasedo said impatiently. "What are you offering?"

"An epiphany. We've looked in all the wrong places. Since Roswell we've searched the wrong dark corners, taken the wrong paths. Cancer man figured it out. I have to hand it to the sneaky old bastard. He's been there since the beginning. Since Roswell. He saw The Project's rise and fall. He witnessed your war, and he alone figured out the key."

"You still haven't specified what 'it' is."

"It's human," Krychek whispered. "Isn't that the joke? The saving grace of both our species lies not with what isn't of this earth, but what is."

Nasedo shook his head. "You're talking in circles. You know nothing."