Yellow Roses, part 12: The Stuff Dreams are Made Of

Author's note: As promised, more on Mulder and Scully. Oh, and just so everyone knows, this part takes place the same day as the last part.

Summary: More about Scully's dreams and--the big question--WHY. WHY Scully? Well, I'll answer that one right now: Why not? WHY not Mulder? :) More is yet to come... heh, heh, heh... This plot is very twisted... "Oh, what a tangled web we weave..." aligned somewhat with, "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" This summary tells absolutely nothing, doesn't it?

A BIG THANKS TO: Kitten. What would I do without her? Probably have HUGE holes in my plot.

Website: The Scribs: Home of the Insane Fanfiction Writer Cassima

After I cook the vegetables, what do I do with the wheelchairs?

Silence.

Th-thump.

A heart reborn; restarted.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" The screech reached an inhuman intensity, paining those close in the temple. "ARRGGGGGGGGGGHHH!!!"

"Lun@...?" Willow asked hesitantly, knocking on the bathroom door.

It flew open under the red-head's fist and a dark-haired demon flew out, long hair whirling behind her. "I can't believe it!" she yelled, sharing her anger with the entire temple. "This is utterly impossible!! This is not happening!! This is a bad dream!!!"

"What's going on?" Xander yelped, running into the room and sliding on his socks into the dresser. With a whimper, he clutched his elbow.

The banshee known as Lun@ ignored him. "They made me alive, Buffy! They actually, physically..." She let out a string of cusses that would make a sailor weep with envy.

"How do you... I thought it was fake. I thought the point was to make you look real...?" Buffy tried to follow the frenzied movements of her Guardian Angel, who was storming through her roommates luggage.

"Well, they--" a string of cusses in a few other languages, followed by the cursing of a few dozen very high deities was inserted, "--did it! How dare they!" Pulling a small, pink plastic wrapped rectangle out of the current bag she was rooting through, she stomped back into the bathroom and slammed the door.

Buffy and Willow exchanged a glance. "You okay, Lun@?"

"I'm menstruating!! What do you think!!"

"Too much information..." Xander mumbled, clutching his hurt elbow and wandering out of the room.

"But you're dead." Willow twisted a lock of her short hair.

"Obviously not, though I happen to remember being exactly that yesterday. Happily dead, in fact. I remember thinking just yesterday, 'Boy it's sure nice to be dead.'" The bathroom door swung open again, revealing an extremely disgruntled Guardian Angel.

"No one ever said life was fair," Jenny remarked reasonably from the corner of the room, a Wicca book laid out in front of her.

"Not true. I remember very clearly at least eight people telling me in the last thousand years that life was fair." At Ms. Calendar's skeptical look, she continued, missing Buffy and Willow's second exchange of glances. "One of them put it this way: 'Life, you will find, is fair'. Although..." she began speculatively, "strangely enough, they all died before the age of 21..." She rubbed her abdomen gently, face contorted into something scary.

Willow and Buffy backed up a few steps. "Lun@, you gonna be okay?"

"I've got a cramp the size of China. My God, I can't believe this is happening. This is horrible!!" Accepting the Midol Willow handed her with a nod of thanks, she swept out of the room and flopped down on the temple steps to brood.

Scully straightened her suit self-consciously. It was a little wrinkled, but it would have to do. Exiting the room that Rei had so kindly let her use to dress in that morning, she spotted a very depressed-looking Lun@ moping on the steps. "You okay?" she inquired, a bit distressed when she remembered the wailing that had been going on moments before.

"Je ne sais pas." [I don't know.] The girl shook her head, using French as a ducking device to avoid answering questions.

"Is something wrong?"

"I've just got some serious hormonal problems going on. Nothing too big. I'll just be a bit mercurial for a while, until my meds kick in. How 'bout you? You're a little subdued."

There was a pause between the two.

"I had a dream last night," Scully murmured finally. "A bad one."

Lun@ began to look interested, despite herself. "About what?"

Another pause filled the air. "I was running," Scully answered finally in a quiet tone. "I was with someone. Someone I trusted. Someone I... loved. I was... we were... trying to save these... warrior people. The person next to me was... very familiar. I think I know him."

"A dream?"

"It was like a memory." Scully shook her head, her short, red hair swinging slightly. "It's not, though. It has to be a dream."

"Images stuck in your mind?"

"Yeah."

"Like gum on a desk."

"Yeah. And certain sounds keep playing over and over."

"Not like a broken record, though. Like someone has burned that sound 500 times into a CD that you can't turn off."

"Yeah."

There was another pause.

"Me, too. I used to think that they were pieces of my life, but they were so ridiculous. If I had lived like my dreams said I did, I would have been some kind of Superhuman creature."

"But the quality of the dreams... it's different than other dreams."

"Yep. Like the others are all made of cotton, and these are made of silk. Different textures."

"You like analogies, don't you?"

Lun@ blushed and smiled a little. "I guess I do. I like to be able to put things into simple, tactile terms."

"That's a special skill. You'd be good at writing layman's books or something when you grow up."

When you grow up. The words echoed in Lun@'s head. Yeah, right. Well... maybe, if I'm actually going to grow up, now. "Maybe," she responded. "But, I don't want to grow up."

"Why not?" Scully pried her blue-green eyes from the lone figure of Rei sweeping the temple steps and dragged it to the young teen next to her. "You don't want responsibility?"

Lun@ rolled her eyes. "Does anyone? But, no, that's not it. I..." Her voice lowered to a whisper, head bowed. "I don't want Buffy and everyone else to grow up and forget about me. They treat me like you would a... a cool teacher. You can joke with them, you can cry to them, but there's always this invisible line that must never be crossed. You don't really go with them to movies, or complain to them, or anything like that. It's 'cause... 'cause..."

"Because..." Scully prompted, interested.

"Because that's the way it has to be." She grimaced at her own lame answer, lifting her head to Scully's searching gaze.

Scully looked at those eyes, those large, green, strangely inhuman eyes, and the statement rang through her as truth. "Who are you?"

"I am me," the other replied softly. The statement rang in the air. "There's nothing else for me to be."

There was another pause. "Tell me, Scully... do your dreams... ever... have a... prince in them?" Lun@ looked over at the other woman out of the corner of her eye.

"Yes..." Scully whispered, remembering. "Tall... dark..."

"And handsome?" the other inserted wryly.

Scully found herself smiling, a rare occasion. "Well, to use a cliché, yes."

Lun@ tightened her arms around her stomach in pain for a moment before she spoke. "Scully, do me a favor. Next time you have a dream... wake me up and tell me while it's still fresh in your mind."

Mulder chose that moment to walk out of the door. "Scully, ready to go?"

"Sure, Mulder. See you later, Lun@. Take care." She stood, with a hand from Mulder, and they began to walk away.

"You didn't answer me!" Lun@ called after her. Scully ignored her. "Well... great." Leaning her head against a post, and rubbing her aching belly, she sighed and watched the two leave. "Thanks a lot."

The man stared at the two people in front of him. "Um... so..." He shuffled through the random messes of papers on his desk, searching for time he didn't have. It helped that he wasn't the most organized of men, not having the ingenuity to be both neat and have a case record solve rate higher than his meager age of 36. He was slightly awed and cowed by both the credentials and the imposing figures of the agents in front of him.

The woman, especially. US officials had the reputation of being humorless and hard, but this was ridiculous. He felt safer at his family reunion with his sister-in-law's high, squeaky voice than he did with that woman's expression. It was no-nonsense, utter business.

Mr. Ino felt sorry for her partner.

The lanky fellow at her side was poised in a relaxed manner and a curious expression, the yin to his partner's yang.

Mr. Ino cleared his throat. "You both know why you're here."

The man and the woman exchanged a glance. "Actually, Mr.--" he studied the nameplate before him, "Ino, is it?--Actually, we don't know why we're here. It was to our beliefs that the United States government and Japan do not simply 'trade' agents for cases."

Oh, brother. The officer leaned forward against his desk. "We've never come across such a... difficult occurrence before."

"Oh?" That was the man again. Mr. Ino began to wonder if the woman was capable of speech.

"We've run into a difficult case. Actually, we keep running into it. In Japan--especially in Tokyo--we have a lot of... strange occurrences."

The agents in front of him exchanged a glance, but said nothing.

Mr. Ino swallowed and moved on. "Monsters keep appearing and terrorizing the city, making people sick and so forth. They keep appearing in odd places and blowing things up. Mostly, though, they have a strange appetite for... I guess it's human energy."

"Are you suggesting that one of these monsters blew up our hotel last night?" The tone of the man suggested idle curiosity, but the look in his eyes reflected a sharp intellect and a keen, driven mind. There was nothing idle about this fellow.

"No, no." Mr. Ino waved it off. "Definitely not. That was a prank put together by a disgruntled young man. Different stories."

"Mr. Ino, would you mind describing these 'monsters' for us, please?" came the harshly skeptical and scientific voice of the lady.

"They are... mostly female, and... well, we have some video footage." Picking up a remote from his desk drawer, the Head of Police turned on the TV sitting in the corner and pushed 'Play' on the VCR.

A scene flickered into view on the brand new set. What looked like a monster movie started to play. The 'Monster' was about the size of a large person and obviously female. It was garbed brightly and scantily, all the while capturing the screaming civilians fleeing from its rampage and cocooning them in a green-blue thread, almost the way a spider would.

"This is real footage taken by a police car camera a month ago." Mr. Ino frowned in remembrance.

The two agents exchanged yet another glance, as if they could read each other's minds. And perhaps, the pot-bellied police chief thought with a start, perhaps they could.

Just as it seemed that there would be no Tokyo left, a girl in a bathing suit appeared in front of it. Lightening struck the monster. Another bathing suit model appeared, and suddenly the monster was frozen in a block of ice. Three more bathing suit girls appeared, and the one with long pigtails and wings completed a complicated dance with a short stick. Whiteness filled the screen, and when the light cleared, the monster was gone. The girls waved at the crowd and disappeared from their cheering fans.

"They jumped."

"Excuse me?" inquired the man again.

"You looked confused. They jumped." Mr. Ino began to rewind the tape.

"Who?"

"The girls in bathing suits, Mulder," said his partner, a hint of dryness in her voice.

"From what I've heard, you guys live to investigate stuff like this. We're at the end of our rope. If monsters keep attacking Tokyo, we're not going to have much of Tokyo left for them to destroy."

"Why don't you just count on the bathing suit women?" Inquired Agent Mulder. "They seem to have a handle on it."

The Japanese man scratched his head. "You know governments. They like to have a handle on these things. They like to know what's going on. What happens if the Senshi die? Then we're back to square one. No, they want to know what can be done, if anything. If you can think of anything to help us..."

"The Senshi?"

"The Sailor Senshi. They fight monsters like this. Their leader is Sailor Moon. Don't tell me you haven't heard anything about them?" Mr. Ino was almost aghast at the notion.

"A little," Mulder admitted. "But I thought they were just a myth."

"A myth? No," denied the smaller man, "I've met a couple face to face. They're real, all right."

"So, Scully, what did you think?"

"I think it was a load of hooey, and you know it!" She bit her lip in anger.

"But the video tape--"

"Could have been doctored."

"But, why would the police chief lie to us? Why would an entire room of police lie to us? Face it Scully, the Bathing Suit Brigade is real." He wiggled his eyebrows.

They stepped off the bus at the temple stairs and began to climb. "It's just not possible!" Scully finally exclaimed, stopping on the 27th step. "It's not possible to freeze a creature with a magic toy, no matter how many movies or cartoons or crap TV you watch."

Mulder looked at her at eye level, paused a couple steps below her. "We'll see." He then continued to climb.

Scully fell in step next to him. "Mulder, I can't believe you."

"What if they sprayed the creature with liquid Nitrogen?"

"It wouldn't have created a block of ice, it only would have frozen the thing. The explosion at the end could have been a bomb, though."

"A bomb?"

"If they put it inside the creature--"

"Scully, you're reaching."

She sighed angrily. "So, what do you want me to say, Mulder? You want me to just nod and say, 'Of course you're right, Mulder, how silly of me to question you, lets go talk to the aliens'? Would you like that? Because, right now, Mulder, I'm all out of ideas. I'm fresh out. I also don't think that well on so much jet lag!!"

"Scully, I never said anything about aliens," he replied mildly. "See you at dinner!" He waved, hopping up the remaining steps and striding quickly to the Boys Room.

Reaching the top of the steps, Scully glowered and made her way to the shrine. Lun@ was sitting on the edge of the steps, the same position as she was this morning. On a whim, she turned to the girl. "Do you know anything about the Sailor Senshi?"

Lun@ looked up from her pad of paper guiltily. Traces of tears could be made out barely on her cheeks. "Huh?"

Scully repeated her question.

"Oh, I should hope so," the girl responded, opening up in both body language and tone. "I seem to be drawing one."

A glance at her pad of paper revealed a slim girl with long legs and short hair wearing one of those damn infuriating bathing suits.

"I'm researching the Sailor Senshi. I guess it's getting to me, too," she added ruefully. "I kinda dreamed about them last night."

"Researching?"

"Yeah. They're a very popular myth around these parts."

"Myth?"

"It's an old legend. They're guardians from the other planets, warriors of the light come to protect the only planet left capable of sustaining life. Well, the only planet now. Millions of years ago, though, people lived there. They were wiped out by an evil witch from Earth. She was contained, and the women warriors were sent to the future to protect the population, should they ever escape to wreak havoc on the people here."

"Oh."

"They're named after the planets and the Earth's Moon."

"So, that one is Sailor Earth?" Scully studied the crude sketch and felt the itch at the back of her mind grow stronger. Talking to this person, this... child made things click in her subconscious. The feeling of deja vu grew stronger.

"No, from what I can tell, there is no Sailor Earth. I believe that this one is either Sailor Venus or Sailor Mercury, but I'm leaning towards Mercury. Venus just doesn't... feel right."

Scully touched the boot delicately, tracing it's outline with her finger. "No, Mercury." It came out as a whisper. "The ice is in her eyes, the water in her heart... even her expression imitates a river. She is the warrior that I trust."

Lun@ looked at her quizzically. "Are you okay?"

Scully looked up at her startled companion. "Uh, yeah."

"Why do you ask?" At Scully's confusion, Lun@ added, "About the Senshi?"

"... I had a dream last night about them." Surprisingly enough, it wasn't a lie.

"So did I," Lun@ whispered, eyes drawing back to the pad of paper in her hands. She clutched it to her chest.

Scully felt the words being pulled out of her by Lun@'s presence. "They were fighting gracefully. Then, one of them just stopped and started looking at me. I thought I heard her say my name. They were so vibrant and full of life, though... I think that if I had reached out, I would have felt flesh and blood."

A sudden noise behind them broke the spell. "Supper is being served now, if you're eating with us," said Rei with a bossy air. "Come and wash up." She swept away, her red and white temple robes swirling behind her.

For a moment, Scully relived a piece of her dream. A warrior...? She shook it off. "We better go," Scully awkwardly broke the silence.

Lun@ nodded in agreement and clutched the sketchbook closer to her chest.

"Well, bye." The FBI agent strode away, heels clicking behind her.

Lun@'s voice was barely audible. "I dreamed they all died... and so did we."

The shadows moved around her as she remained still.

"Excuse me." The pleasant voice broke the dark haired damned angel's thoughts. "Could you please tell me..." The question hung for a moment. "... if we've met before?"

Lun@ looked up slowly, her eyes moving up the body before her. He was tall and thin, light and dark.

He cocked his head at her started gaze, his own matching it.

She dropped to her knees. "I..."

He fell to his. "... know you."

They clutched each other in a big hug as Lun@ began to sob.

She ran.

Ran.

She had to get there before he left.

Ran.

Like the wind.

She was the wind.

She was in the wind, a part of it, blowing to where she had to be.

The rose gardens...

The tall figure turned.

She stopped.

"Anderly..." Her breath came in heaves, caught in her throat.

"Duie..." He looked down at her. "You came."

"You didn't leave."

"I couldn't."

"Why?"

"Because..." He couldn't finish the sentence. Couldn't say the words. Couldn't put his soul on the line.

"I know."

The kiss was sweet and chaste, and they could both feel it ripple down to their toes. The tingle from their lips spread to their faces, and the pair looked at each other from heavy-lidded eyes.

She reached up, way up, to brush his cheek with her hand.

The moment paused. Time stopped.

"What the heck...?" mumbled a sleepy, redheaded FBI agent.