Chapter One - Magical Oklahoma · 7:20pm Oct 23rd, 2023

Author's Note: Below is the first chapter of my weird HiE X-Files crossover fic. I kept holding this back because it wasn't finished and I don't want to have any more unfinished works on my account. I've mentioned this project a few times on my blog, but I doubt anyone remembers. Because I'm not sure if it will be worth finishing, I thought I'd just do another blogfic like I did with Gemfire and (once upon a time) with Sincerely, Starlight. It's such a niche IP to crossover with, and I just wasn't sure if anyone in this community would get this at all. I'm not a hardcore X-Files fan either, but I do have a healthy love for the series (even going so far as making a web shrine to it) so I thought this would be fun to do.

The story would be rated Teen. I have two complete chapters, with the third nearly done. Maybe I'll try and finish this someday, but I'm not sure. It'll be more likely if anyone expresses interest, so if you have thoughts, please do share them. If anything, it'll give me a good excuse to commission some crossover fanart to use for the cover if I ever officially post this. 😆 This story takes place after X-Files season 5, episode 5, but there really aren't any spoilers for the show. Expect the next chapter soon.

OMNES INNOCENTES DEFENDITE

WILLIAMS RESIDENCE,
SOUTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA

“You’re gonna have to talk to me eventually.”

Fox Mulder leaned against the driver door of the modest black sedan the field office had issued them for their assignment, his dark eyes twinkling with amusement.

His partner, Dana Scully, only crossed her arms and tilted a fiery eyebrow at him in response.

The man cocked his head to the side and gestured at the old two-story country house with peeling white paint and a dead front lawn that loomed dark before them, swallowing them in shadow from the low afternoon sun.

“This is the best place to start, Scully,” he assured her. “The local authorities gave up on this case. It’s been over a year. We’re the last hope of finding those missing kids. If we don’t do this, who will?”

The house was alone on a remote country road in an expansive plain, where cattle fences stretched as far as the eye could see for a herd that no longer resided there. The fields here were practically scrubland now, the victim of rampant overgrazing.

Scully sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Mulder, you know damn well this isn't about the children. I absolutely want to find them. But—" She audibly ground her teeth before hissing through them, "Over the years I have learned to be very tolerant of the files you deem worthy of investigation.”

“And I am very grateful for that—”

She went on, her hand dropping and her blue eyes flashing at him, “But this so-called 'lead' is perhaps one of the toughest pills you’ve asked me to swallow!”

Mulder held out his hands, his lips twitching. “What? Worse than The Great Mutato?”

“I still can’t believe you put that ridiculous name in your report,” she grumbled, scowling off into the distance. “That poor man was a victim of illegal human experiments! The sheer insensitivity—”

He chuckled, a crooked smile appearing on his face. “Hey, I just mentioned what the townspeople took to calling him! He didn’t even mind it!”

“My point, Mulder, is that at times your fanciful instinct verges on unbearable. Now, while I intend on performing the full extent of my duties in the most professional manner possible, I completely and utterly object to us even entertaining this avenue of investigation.”

“You’ve said that. Multiple times.” His eyes glanced up as he did quick mental math. “Forty-eight times, to be exact. Right up until we got on the plane and you started to give me the silent treatment.” His smile widened. “I guess it’s forty-nine, now.”

Her brow arched higher. “And here I just thought you were going deaf.”

Mulder shrugged. “Skinner didn’t seem to think it was a waste of time.”

She scoffed. “Skinner doesn’t get dragged through your hijinks on a regular basis.”

Mulder put a hand on his chest, feigning a wounded look. “That hurts. That really does, Scully. My hijinks are refreshing fun-filled romps!”

“Yes. ‘Fun.’ Like how this one involves strange rainbows and silly unicorn sightings.” Scully thrust a hand out at the expansive plains surrounding them on the lonely country road. “In ‘magical’ Oklahoma!”

When her partner continued to silently grin at her, she rolled her eyes and went to open the fence gate. “At this rate we'll be investigating Santa Claus next...”

Mulder pushed off his car door. “At least you’re talking to me again!” he sing-songed under his breath.

The gate creaked shut behind them as they went up the dirt path to the country house. There was a small dusty porch with no chairs, only old and broken equipment to what looked like different machinery.

Scully opened the ripped screen door and rapped on the main entrance.

They waited.

And waited.

She turned to her partner, her expression lit with fresh annoyance. “Are we at the right house? Megan Williams is expecting us, isn’t she?”

Mulder frowned, his hands planting on his slim hips. “Yeah…” His look had turned focused. Suspicious.

Scully fell silent as she watched her partner slowly step up to a window, his hands cupping on the dingy glass as he peered in through the white curtains.

Inside, he saw papers strewn about the hardwood floor, sofas and tables overturned.

What really made him tense was the splatter of blood on the floor.

Quickly, he straightened and drew his gun, leading his partner to do the same. “Got a visual on blood,” Mulder murmured, his brow furrowing as he stepped behind Scully, firearm pointed at the door. “Living room looks ransacked.”

Scully nodded. “I’ll try the door.” She tried the doorknob. Not locked. With a steadying breath, she pushed the door in and quickly stepped inside.

The pair moved with harmony, Scully taking point with Mulder covering behind. Extensive training and years of working together allowed them to quickly sweep the first floor areas as per standard procedure, but even as it became apparent that no one was there, they kept their guns at the ready, angled down.

“Fight likely started in the living room. The rest of the floor is untouched,” Mulder mused aloud as they reconvened in the foyer by the stairs. He was already looking up the steps, gun pointed up.

“Blood in the living room is dried,” Scully murmured back. “Single bullet hole low in the northwestern wall, like the gun was aimed down, or forced to aim down.”

“Fight over a gun would explain the hullabaloo,” Mulder replied. He nodded his head at the stairs. “I see blood droplets on the steps. Whatever happened didn’t stop down here.” He started to ascend, the wood creaking beneath him, and Scully followed.

At the top of the landing on their left, they saw doors to two rooms, the furthest of which was ajar.

Their training instructed them to take the path of least resistance, so Mulder approached the open door, gun pointed at the opening. Scully stopped a little behind him, pointing her gun in the direction of the closed door and the stairs in case someone tried to ambush them from behind.

Mulder listened carefully for any signs of life behind the slightly opened door. When he detected nothing, he ventured nearer, trying to get a better view through the opening. There were small blood spatters on the floorboards, and what looked like a green and purple quilted pillow on the ground.

Taking a deep breath, Mulder kicked in the door and took a single step into the room, his eyes and gun sweeping over the area. A modest bedroom for a single woman. A quick peek under the bed and in the closet confirmed that it was empty.

“Clear,” Mulder said over his shoulder. He frowned at the scene before him.

The bed, blanketed in a quilt to match the cover for the pillow on the floor, had clearly been made, but the sheets and other pillows had been pulled askew. There was a small pool of blood on the left side of the bed.

Mulder rejoined Scully, and together they checked the last remaining room. It turned out to be a study of sorts, with a work desk, several tall bookshelves, and a variety of what looked like keepsakes and family photos on display. The room appeared untouched.

“Clear,” Scully sighed, lowering her weapon. “Whatever happened here happened a while ago. When did you contact her again?”

“A little over two days ago,” Mulder answered, returning his gun to his holster. His brow was tense. “No one noticed she was missing?”

“Local sheriff didn’t seem to have much love for her,” Scully pointed out. Like Mulder, she’d read the case file front to back. Megan Williams was both an accused and accuser in the case.

“Well when kids seem to keep vanishing around you, I doubt many people would have much love for you,” Mulder replied. He looked around the room once more, before thumbing over his shoulder. “I’m going back to the bedroom. Something tells me the struggle ended there.”

“I’ll join you in a moment,” Scully said as she put away her gun and approached one of the family photos. She heard Mulder leave the room.

In the photo was a young teenage girl in a blue frilled jumper with a heart on the front. She had blonde hair, a ponytail, and a warm smile. She wore a necklace with what looked like a pink heart-shaped charm on it.

Next to her was another blonde girl, much younger, with pigtails. She wore a similar outfit to the older girl, but instead of a blue jumper she wore pink overalls. On the teenage girl’s other side was a red-headed boy in a collared striped t-shirt and a red and white baseball cap. The picture looked like it was taken in the 80s.

She recognized the teen as a young Megan Williams. The girl was grown up now, aged twenty-four and working in the nearby school district as a classroom aide while she pursued a teaching degree.

Scully ventured to the work desk, where she found neat stacks of newspapers, all folded so that articles regarding the missing children were visible.

One headline read, School Worker Investigated For Foul Play. Another, Teacher’s Aide Suspended Pending Police Investigation. And finally, EXCLUSIVE: Missing Kids Taken By Unicorns! Witness Tells All!

That last gem was from the Weekly World News.

Scully searched the rest of the desk for anything of note. Just when she was about to stop, her wristwatch caught on something inside one of the mail cubbies. Confused, she felt the top of the compartment to discover that an old document had been taped to the top of it, one corner bent in the back where her watch had snagged it.

Carefully, Scully removed it and opened the paper up. Her eyebrows shot up.

It was a beautifully illustrated map, well-worn, that depicted a strange land filled with locations named with what appeared to be horse puns.

“Manehattan? Really?” Scully half-chuckled, half-scoffed. She folded the map back up and left it on the desk.

“Hey, Scully?” Mulder called in the next room.

Scully left the study and joined him, finding her partner on his hands and knees and peering at something on the floor next to the right of the bed.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Bloody thumbprint on a pink heart-shaped locket here on the floor,” Mulder said, sitting back on his heels and looking at her. “Chain is broken, like it was ripped from someone’s neck.”

He pointed at the floor, where just under the edge of the bed, the jewelry could be seen.

“Must be Megan’s,” Scully answered with a frown. “Picture from when she was a kid shows her wearing that.”

“Seems Megan was attacked in her home, but there isn’t enough blood here to suggest she died, or was even at risk of dying.”

“Can’t rule out kidnapping.”

“Possible. But I’m just as likely to believe that Megan is another victim to whatever took those kids.”

Scully frowned. “Are you suggesting…?”

Mulder gestured over the bed to the other side. “Blood trail stops over there. It’s not clear if first aid was applied, but if it was, why clean up the medical supplies and nothing else in the house? There was clearly a struggle here, then all of a sudden it just… stopped.”

His partner crossed her arms, her eyes squinting. “Mulder, they didn’t just vanish into thin air.”

“Well, how do you explain all of this?”

“It’s unlikely, but perhaps the attacker just gave up? Went away?”

“And Megan didn’t report it? Didn’t get medical help?”

“I already mentioned the local authorities were suspicious of her. It’s possible she felt they wouldn’t help.” Scully held up her hands. “And just like you said, her injuries weren’t life-threatening. Perhaps she just stopped the bleeding and took care of her injuries outside, where she’d be less likely to make a mess?”

“All right, then would you care to explain the scorch marks on the ceiling?” Mulder asked with a smirk.

“The… What?” Scully turned her head and looked up.

On the ceiling, over the blood spot, were black scorch marks as if a small explosion had occurred. The markings were circular, with rays spiking outward, resembling a sun.

Scully frowned up at them. “Clearly, we need to call this in. Have technicians sweep the place. We must have missed something.”

“While you get that arranged, I’m gonna see about this,” Mulder said, pulling out a handkerchief and grabbing the locket chain.

He barely lifted it off the floor when the locket snapped open, and the room was filled with light.

Rainbow light, to be more accurate.

When the light was gone… so was Mulder and Scully. All that was left of their presence was a new partial sun-like scorch mark on the open door they had entered through.