We live in a darkness of our own making...
blind to a habitant world all but unseen by us.
A world of beings traveling through time and space...
imaginable to us only as flights of fancy.
Who are these beings we dare to imagine but fear to accept?
What dark work goes on inside their impossible machines...
cloaked from us by invisible forces?
If they know our secrets,
why can't we know theirs?
Stop it! Please!
Let me go! Stop it!
Let me go! Let me go!
Let the boy go!
Let him go, Mulder!
Let him go, or I will be compelled to use my weapon.
Now, I don't want to do that, Agent Mulder. I don't want to shoot.
Now, are you armed?
Come on, damn it. This is just stupid, Agent Mulder.
Don't turn this into a movie. Just tell me if you've got a gun.
It's too hot for this B.S.
All right, then, lie down.
Lie down on the ground. Keep your hands out.
Lay down on your belly there.
For crying out loud, what are you doing?
Agent Mulder, stay there!
He went over! Over the edge!
Who?
Mulder.
Right, I'll talk to Scully. You guys head back to the school.
Where is he? Where's Mulder?
- I don't know. - You don't know?
I heard an agent say over the radio that you saw him.
Oh, yeah, I saw him. I saw him back right off that cliff there...
and I saw him fall right over there.
- Then where is he? - He's gone.
- Come on, he can't be gone. - Yeah, he can't be, but he is.
That cliff there? He fell from there?
It's impossible a fall like that.
A cop sees things.
A man drops five stories, dusts his hat off and goes back to work.
An old lady gets shot point-blank in a Chinese restaurant,
plucks the slug out of her egg foo young.
But even if Mulder survives this, what he does then is too much.
You got your point of impact there where Agent Scully is standing...
clear and identifiable.
And a set of tracks here leading down to the wash.
Look at these tracks. What do you see?
Mulder was running.
It wasn't Mulder.
That's the one thing I'm sure of.
It may have looked like Mulder, but it wasn't Mulder.
I told you I knew Mulder.
Okay, maybe I didn't know him that well.
But I know who it was up there, and it was Fox Mulder.
I'm sure it did look like Mulder,
and you have every reason to believe that it was him...
but it was not Mulder.
I told you that I've seen things...
Things that I can't explain.
Well, I have seen what looks like a man...
transform into another man.
What looks like a man, but who's not a man?
- So, what is he? - You don't want to know.
He's not a man? What the hell is he?
Hey, don't turn your back on me. I'm asking you a legitimate question.
He's alien.
He's a bounty hunter.
Looking to collect a bounty on...?
On Gibson Praise...
because he's part alien.
He's a human anomaly.
So, this alien bounty hunter...
he disguised himself as Mulder to come out here and grab the boy?
To take him back to his ship...
where we believe Mulder is.
You know, Agent Scully you're, uh,
you're starting to remind me a lot of Agent Mulder yourself.
Well then, you explain it to me.
If it's true or possible,
what you're saying— that there's someone like this out there,
this bounty hunter— he could just become anyone.
You, me, any damn one of us.
I think that it is true.
And possible.
And wherever Mulder is right now...
he better damn well be smiling.
Right. They're here.
Any sign of him? Mulder?
Not according to these people.
We went through the school.
- You're better than this. - Sir?
He's got to be here somewhere.
Let's search the school again.
Hello?
Sorry, I thought you were...
I thought they cleared you out of here.
Find something?
No. Let's keep looking.
- Administration building is clear. - Copy, check it again.
What I want to know is how Doggett got out here.
How did he even know where we were going?
I don't know.
But he's going to turn this place upside down looking for the wrong person.
What happened to Gibson Praise?
Whatever happened to him, he's long gone.
Wherever he is, he's three steps ahead of us.
Don't look now but we've got a pair of eyeballs on us.
Just start walking, I'll be right behind you.
Can I talk to you for a minute?
You shouldn't have come here.
You shouldn't have come. You'll lead them to me.
I'm here to protect you, Gibson.
I know you know that's the truth.
I know you know my thoughts.
I know they took the man you work with ... Mulder.
And now, they've come to take me.
The only reason they want to take you, Gibson...
is because you're a special boy.
They want to take you because of what you are.
I'm sorry. I didn't know that someone was following me.
My friend Thea knows.
She's the only one at school I've told.
She says the FBI is looking for me, too.
She's afraid for me.
She has a right to be afraid.
We don't know who to trust now.
I fell when I was running away.
I think you might have broken it, Gibson.
If they find me, they'll take me. I know it.
I've always known it.
I'm going to make you a splint, Gibson, okay?
I can set your leg, but, uh...
I'm going to need a car to get you out of here.
I'm going to come back for you.
I promise.
I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you.
You said that to me once before.
Yeah? Deputy Director, for you.
Yeah, this is John Doggett.
Agent Doggett, I'm getting reports from Arizona...
Yes, sir.
That you found Agent Mulder.
I'm afraid somebody jumped the gun on that. I saw him, sir, but I...
What do you mean, you saw him?
What the hell is going on out there?
Well, we're 'round the clock here.
I've got local SAR, a rolling ground cordon and an eye in the sky.
- We're on top of the situation. - How does the FBI...
find a man and then lose him in the middle of the desert?
'Cause I'd like to know.
- Agent Doggett, are you there? - Yeah. I heard the question.
I put you in charge out there, Doggett.
Now do the damn job.
This amuse you? I amuse you?
No.
It just made sense to me.
How you found your way out here. Who led you to Gibson Praise.
You think I was spying on you?
No, but I think our new Deputy Director was.
You're being made a pawn in a rigged game.
All right, you've painted me the picture, now put it in a frame.
All right.
You've got a good rep, Agent Doggett.
You don't compromise, you don't quit.
You're a damned good FBI agent— best of the best.
Lot of guys put you in the Director's chair one day.
Which is why you've been set up to fail.
There's no amount of search and rescue or rolling cordons...
or eyes in the sky that are going to turn up Mulder.
It's just the wrong approach.
It's not a question of approach. It's the only approach I got.
The only way you're going to find Mulder is to give into the truth.
To listen to Scully.
But even then... say you did find him,
even then you lose.
You put anything about aliens or...
UFOs or alien bounty hunters in your report...
Kersh will ruin you.
I'm betting that was his plan.
Is Agent Scully here?
Where's Agent Scully?
I need someone who's with Agent Scully to put her on a radio.
Someone... with Agent Scully.
Anyone got a twenty on Agent Scully?
Is anyone out there with her?
I'm with Agent Scully.
Then who's this?
Go for Agent Scully.
What?
Give me the radio.
- You're with Scully? - Right across the room from her.
From who? From me?
Where?
- What room? Where are you? - Bunkhouse.
We're in the dorm.
Tell him to hold her.
Tell them not to let her out of his sight!
Hold Scully. We're coming to you.
Agent Scully—
There she is.
Do you see her?
Where did she go? Did you see her?
No.
She ran right back here!
I saw her!
You saw her!
Agent... Can you breathe?
He thinks it was me.
He thinks that I did this to him.
How is that possible?
It's someone in this room.
Agent Scully?
Where are you going?
Agent Scully?
Get out of the car.
Agent Scully!
- Who are you? - Who am I?
Drop your weapon and turn around.
- I'm not gonna turn around. - Just do it!
I know how it works—
Kill shot to the back of the neck.
Scully, you're pointing your weapon at a friend.
Turn around,
or I'm going to assume that you're not who you say you are.
Scully, it's me! Skinner!
I can prove it.
I know your secret— who else knows it?
Okay... then tell me.
You tell me. How do I know it's you?
I don't like pointing guns at pregnant women...
any more than I like them pointing guns at me.
This has gone too far, Scully.
No.
That's what's wrong here.
It hasn't gone far enough.
I need those car keys.
And what do you think you're going to do?
Look, we are being hampered here by the FBI,
by John Doggett, by doubt, by our own mistrust.
Whatever it is, it is working... as long as we let it.
You told me Mulder wouldn't allow it.
Wouldn't let me ruin my career over this. Over him.
But what about you, Scully?
I mean, my God, you've got even more at stake.
I can't take the chance that I'm never going to see him again.
Mulder could just come walking out of the dark— we don't know.
Look... we've got one last chance here...
waiting for us out there in the desert—
Gibson Praise.
It may just be who gets to him first.
Get in the car. I'll drive.
Gibson!
He's not down there.
I told him to stay here.
He was supposed to stay here.
I found him.
What are you doing out here?
Why didn't you answer me, huh?
He's here.
I hear him.
What are you talking about?
Mulder.
He's somewhere out there.
He's got a really bad fever.
I think his leg might be infected.
All right, we got to get you to the hospital, okay, buddy?
You're so close now.
I'll carry you.
Put your arm around my neck. Watch your legs.
Agent Scully.
- You take him to the hospital. - What about you?
I got a boy here who needs emergency medical attention!
What?
Are you okay? What's wrong?
It's okay, Gibson, lie down. Lie down.
Oh, my God.
For someone who claims he's not following me,
you sure have a knack.
- Hey, you're where the action is. - What does that tell you?
That I'm crazy or that I'm right?
Wandering around in the desert in the dead of night, you call it.
You say you want to find Mulder but you won't do what it takes.
- You're afraid that I'm right. - I'm not afraid of anything.
Except that maybe Mulder's got even you believing in this crap now.
You've seen this crap for yourself now.
How do you explain what took place today?
Let me ask you something hypothetically.
If you were to find him out here...
or this ship or this alien bounty hunter,
what would you do then?
I know what Agent Mulder would do.
- He'd do whatever it took. - You mean lie.
Like you've been lying to me.
And flout orders like you've done...
every step of the way on this thing.
Is that what it takes, Agent Scully?
Give a little, get a little, Agent Doggett!
You knew where the kid was,
you knew where the kid was and you wouldn't tell me— why?
- What kid? I don't see any kid. - You're lying to me again!
Assistant Director Skinner took him from here to the hospital.
How do you know that?
There's one thing I know for sure in this case...
and that's that Mulder is after this boy Gibson Praise.
Why? It beats the hell out of me.
But when he goes after that kid, my men are going to be waiting for him.
Your men... followed Assistant Director Skinner?
Hey, where you going?
- Agent Scully, where you going? - Your men are at the hospital?
They got it controlled.
Nobody goes in or out of that building without them knowing about it.
How do you know that they're your men?
Where's the boy?
Door at the end of the hall, with AD Skinner.
Are you certain about that?
Why don't you get yourself a visual in the exterior window.
The night nurse has been checking the boy every 20 minutes— he's fine.
We have hospital personnel going about their business.
We're just laying back, waiting for Mulder.
Yeah, every minute that you wait, that boy's in danger.
He's exposed.
No one's getting past us, Agent Scully.
No one's gotten past us.
You believe that, Agent Doggett?
Hey, if something tries to rip your throat out, I got you covered.
A.D. Skinner...
This is John Doggett.
What the hell is this?
- What the hell is going on? - There's no one in that room.
I'm looking for a patient, a boy, 12 years old.
He may still be in this building.
The window doesn't even open.
How's a grown man and a boy get out of the room except by that door?
Agent Scully.
It's okay, I've got him. Gibson.
How did you get here?
How did you get him out of that room?
We went up through the ceiling.
I don't know who to trust.
Where is he?
He's right here.
They're going to find him.
Agent Scully!
An agent needs help!
I said an agent needs help!
The best I can say is it's lucky it all happened at a hospital.
Very lucky, yes, Sir.
I assume the hazardous materials or chemicals...
which caused this must have been medical.
That has not yet been determined, Sir.
So much here is undetermined...
as remain the whereabouts of Mulder.
But some of your ... facts...
like "a man falls from the cliff and disappears..."
"An agent has his throat crushed by an assailant...
who vanishes into thin air."
This reads like a piece of pot-boiled science fiction.
You mean it reads like an X-File.
But that's what you intended, wasn't it, Sir?
When you assigned me to the case.
I'll ask the questions, John.
You just give me some damn answers.
Don't come back until you do.
My dad always said it's not who wins or loses...
it's who takes the worst beating that counts.
That supposed to cheer me up?
I thought so.
But then I never did get to see your opponent.
And you never will.
You still don't believe me.
What I don't believe is how long they're keeping you here.
Oh, it's just some things they have to check out...
make sure of.
Well, I've got some things I thought you'd want checked out.
A.D. Skinner is in stable condition,
resting comfortably and awaiting diagnosis and further study.
Ditto Agent Landau, his throat.
Gibson Praise is right now a ward of the state...
but I asked for special protections,
as I assumed you would yourself.
What are you doing here, Agent Doggett?
Keeping you apprised of the case.
That's not your job.
It is, actually.
And officially.
I'm...
assigned now to the X-Files.
Whatever you and I may differ on,
I'll find him, Agent Scully.