The End Is The Beginning Is The End By Catwoman TheCatwoman@toosexyforyou.com Classification: V, A Keywords: Cancerman Rating: PG Note: Companion piece to 'The Rules' by shannono. The End Is The Beginning Is The End By Catwoman Disclaimer: Cancerman, Mulder, and Scully are not mine and never will be. For as it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end. Sorry, I couldn't help it. Anyway, they belong to CC, 1013, and Fox Television. Got it? The song 'The End Is The Beginning Is The End', as quoted at the beginning and end of this story, belongs to the Smashing Pumpkins. Distribute: Wherever. Just tell me where it's going, please. Spoilers: 'The End' (duh!) WARNING: Hey wait, I don't need a warning! This is my first non-MSR story! WOW! Thanx, Shannon! Dedication: This is dedicated to SNO, whose story inspired this, because, plainly, I think she's got it all wrong. Sorry, Shannon. But thanx anyway! However, she did say this in her story: 'You broke the rules, Fox. You got too close. You're supposed to follow our leads, do our work for us, and then watch it all disappear before your eyes.' ---and that's more what I'm getting at. So let's say I'm simply...expanding on this idea. In fact, consider this a kind of companion to 'The Rules' (shannono)---if you read that one, you can get the two different perspectives. And isn't that always good? P.S. I have been instructed by Shannon to make this an OFFICIAL companion piece to 'The Rules'. So go out and read that one! Summary: 'Over the years, we've managed to strike at the two of you from nearly every angle. We've split you up, taken you, hurt you, tried to kill you, turned you against each other, taken your family members.' - Cancerman, 'The Rules' by shannono. Companion piece to 'The Rules'. ***** I send a heartbeat to the boy that cries through you Relive the pictures that have come to pass For now we stand alone The world is lost and blown And we are flesh and blood disintegrate With no more to hate Is it bright where you are? ***** I still don't know whether to believe you're incredibly stupid or incredibly smart, Fox. Of course, I vote smart, but either way, I'm pretty damn proud. And I think I have a right to be proud. I still don't know if I'm your real father, and I don't think I really want to know. But I have been there throughout your entire life, from the time when I could feel you fluttering in your mother's belly as I made love to her to the time I caught you spying on your mother and father's fight over which child would be taken and why, to tonight, when I destroyed your search in one fell swoop. You'll never know it, but throughout your entire life, I've watched over you, protected you. I've been more of a father to you than Bill Mulder could have ever claimed to be. You know why I'm proud? Because you still don't play by the rules, the foolish, stupid rules that they---that we---set for you. You know that it's bullshit; you've known it all along. Both you and Scully, though at times I wonder that the only reason you've still got your head on straight is because of her influence. Lord knows if you'd been left to fend for yourself this long you'd long since have lost it. Without her there to pull you back, you'd run straight onto the highway into an oncoming truck, and you know it. All of us know it. We sent Scully to you to rein you in. Oh, she reined you in all right. Very amusing the way she accomplished her mission and yet didn't. Very...ironic. I still laugh when I think of the sour looks on my compatriots faces when they got the first reports of how well your partnership was working, how high your success rate had skyrocketed with Scully's help. They'd hoped she'd be meek and obey. They'd hoped she wouldn't understand; that she'd do as they asked and be the little spy, no questions asked. They shouldn't have chosen the scientist for that role. Yet another stupidity that could have so easily been avoided. And yet, as I say, it's wonderful the way it turned out. You see, all along, all we've wanted was for you to keep doing what you've been doing...to look for your truth. Essentially, keeping you in the game kept us in the game. We had to allow you to work hard, because keeping you on your toes kept us on our toes. It kept us informed of how well our projects were doing at keeping top secret, if you know what I mean. Measures like Scully's abduction, cancer, and infertility were our way of reining you in, and they had the added bonus of incensing you into working a little harder to achieve your goal, which kept us moving that much further forward. Your efforts have caused great leaps and bounds in our programs, Fox. Sometimes I can't help but feel sorry for you; you're right in the middle of all of it---in fact, perhaps a better way to put it would be that it all revolves around you---and you don't even know it. You'll never know it. Even if we told you right out, you'd still be a little too modest and a lot too horrified to believe it. It's better that way. You want to know why I burned your precious files? Believe me, I didn't want to. I find it all just as fascinating as you do...to look at the things I know from the naive point of view which you hold is absolutely incredible for me. An endless source of amusement. But I thought it was time to end this, to end what I could. See, you think that what I've done has destroyed you. But in essence, what I've done has saved you. With a single stone, as it were, I've destroyed everything that allows them to use you. Without the knowledge, you can't go on fighting their crusade, and maybe you can finally start fighting yours. You ask why I helped you this way? The answer is that I didn't. I would never help you. Even if I wanted to. No, I did this for me. They're wrong. The men I used to follow, the men I used to work with, are dead wrong. I needed a quick way to put a little crease in their plans. For, as that little crease in their plans stagnates, so will your anger, and you will begin a new crusade, a crusade against them. Against us. Many people have said you're the instrument, the one who'll bring it all into place. Well, let me tell you Fox, I think they're right. I hope they're right. That's what I'm counting on, anyway. Go ahead and break the rules, Fox. Break the rules to their game. That way you're helping me win mine. And the greatest thing is: the game is just beginning. ***** And have the people changed? Does it make you happy or so strange? And in your darkest hour My whole secret's flamed We can watch the world devoured in his game ***** THE END-well, that was interesting. I think I'll stick to MSR. 'If people were to know of the things that I know, it would all fall apart." ***Feedback is always greatly appreciated***Flames will be cheerfully accepted...CSM's expecting his monthly bribe right about now...*** Judge Block: "That is moral relativism. There is only one truth." The Director: "But there are many ways to get to it. You choose utopian justice." Block: "The noblest way, don't you think?" Director: "All utopia is collapse." Block: "Not if we perfect it." - The Director and Judge Block, 'Kangeroo Court', Once A Thief 'But you were winning this one. And we couldn't let that happen. We managed to fight you off again, but this time, a punishment was in order.' - Cancerman, 'The Rules' by shannono