Title: While Daring Greatly

Authors: mimic117 & Dan Walker

Email: mimic1172@gmail.com
    n64philodox@yahoo.com

Rating: G (apologies to all mimic's enablers - no smut this 
time)

Category: S, A

Spoilers: Everything up to season 7 of the show. We just 
couldn't figure out how to work Doggett, Reyes, and William 
into the story, so they don't exist. Maybe someone should let 
them know. 

Summary: In a future we cannot see, the legacy of two people 
is kept alive through the simplest means.

Archive: We'd be so pleased if you would. We'll send it to 
Gossamer and Ephemeral ourselves. Let us know if you're 
giving it an airing so we can make sure it's dressed warmly.

Keywords: Character Death a long time in the past, Post-col, 
first person POV, all dialogue

mimic's Disclaimer: How many times do I have to tell you? 
They're not mine. You just never listen to me. And Carter - if 
you steal this idea for a new series, I'll kick your butt from here 
to next week. D's disclaimer: Carter gave 'em to us, he oughta 
be glad we like 'em enough to do all this mean stuff to 'em. 
We sure as heck enjoy it.

mimic's Notes: What can I say? I was supposed to be getting 
something else out of my system, but then I started to read 
"Deliverance From Evil" and the whole thing popped into my 
head in one piece. Then I mentioned it to Dan and roped him 
in, too. So blame it on Char and Tess. And could you ask 
them to help me pop it back out, please? Thank you. D's 
Notes: What can I say? I couldn't let her jump into these 
waters unprepared, could I? My mother is just not the sort of 
person I'd have expected to come up with an idea this cool, 
but she did... So I stole half her glory! Mwahahahaha!

mimic's Thanks: To my ultra-stud beta, who just about wet 
himself when he read the beginnings of the rough draft. I'm 
not sure it's that good, but maybe you'd better go first, just in 
case. D's Thanks: To my dearest loving mother, without 
whom I'd have never thought to explore the series in this way. 
She also does my laundry.

And special thanks to aka "Jake," our Goddess Of Beta. Humblest 
obeisance for all your insights, oh wise one. We grovel at 
your feet. ~making grovelly noises~

Feedback: Kept in a little shrine and worshipped daily at 
mimic1172@gmail.com. Dan Walker would also be willing to 
set up a shrine at n64philodox@yahoo.com if you would be so 
kind as to feed him. You could become deified twice from the 
same story - two for the price of one. 



While Daring Greatly

by mimic117 & Dan Walker


"It's not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how 
the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could 
have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is 
actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat 
and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short 
again and again, because there is no effort without error and 
shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; 
who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who 
spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in 
the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the 
worse, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his 
place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know 
neither victory nor defeat."
	from a speech delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris by 
	Theodore Roosevelt, April 23, 1910



Cleve Land City
Year: Now Time
Season: Second Of Rain
Time: Beforedark


Gather around, younglings, gather around. It is nice to see so 
many open faces, eager to learn. I am Metax Fox, and I will 
be your guide for this Keeping Session. Before we start, I 
would like to put my list of names with your faces. Just raise 
your hand as I call your name, so I know who you are. Milo... 
good. Morbo... thank you. Sera... Samanth... Mart... Melve... 
Sindac... Scara... Scora... twins, eh? Multa... is Multa here? 
Oh, there you are. Millca... Selik... Sharfic... Margen... and 
lastly, Molbar. Thank you. It looks like everyone is present. 
This is just the first of many Sessions we will have together 
over the coming weeks. Does anyone know what Keeping 
Sessions are about? Yes, Milo.

"My mother says we're going to learn about the Times long 
ago."

Very good. That is correct. But why do we need to learn 
these things? Sera?

"Because we don't have books to keep the words in, like 
during the Before times, and we never want the Terrible 
Things to happen again."

Exactly. To keep the Terrible Things from happening again it 
is important that you learn our Keeping. And since we no 
longer print words on paper to tell the story, we speak them to 
all younglings when they are old enough to understand. Does 
anyone have a question before we begin? Go ahead, Morbo.

"Why do you have two names and I only have one? I thought 
only Healers had two names."

"Because he's a Keeper, dummy. Just like my mother's a 
Dana, he's a Fox."

That is right, Milo, but it is not polite to call others names. We 
won't be able to continue until you apologize to Morbo.

"I'm sorry..."

Thank you, Milo. Since your mother is a Healer, you already 
know that the title of Dana is bestowed upon the completion of 
their training. Just as those who enforce the law are called 
Skinner. I received my title of Fox after many years of study to 
become a Keeper.

"So your name was just Metax when you were a youngling?"

Yes, Morbo. I was Metax until I finished many, many years of 
study. My family was very proud on my Renaming Day. I had 
to learn about the Before times, the Date times, Ancient times, 
and even Before Ancient times. But it was worth the work so 
that I could have the honor of passing on our Keeping to you. 
You need to understand what happened in those times so you 
can understand our way of life in Now Time. Today, we will 
start our Session with the Date times, but more specifically, 
the last years of Date Time. This particular Time was an 
important turning point in our Keeping.

"Why is it called Date time, Metax Fox?"

Good question, Margen. Does anyone know the answer?

"Because in that Time, all the days and seasons and years 
were known by numbers. Right?"

That is correct, Samanth. The time I am going to tell you 
about today was known as 2005 in Date Time. In a place 
called Washton Dee Cee, two people were trying to stop a 
terrible plague that threatened humankind. Their names were 
Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

*GASP*

Ah. I see you recognize the names. Good. 

"Were they First Fox and First Dana?"

Yes, Millca, that is who they were. But to avoid confusion, we 
will call them Mulder and Scully, for that is what they always 
called each other. The story I am telling today is about the 
most important Time in the history of our world - when the 
deaths of a man and a woman began the Great Rebellion that 
ultimately saved our people. 

Dana Scully was a doctor - what we now call a Healer. But 
she was not just a Healer, she was also a law Enforcer who 
looked inside people once they died to see what had caused 
their death. She was a strong, brave, intelligent person with 
hair like a Last Of Harvest bonfire. 

Fox Mulder was a tall, lean person with eyes the color of river 
rocks. He was a law Enforcer, too. Just as Scully looked 
inside the dead, Mulder looked within those who broke the 
laws. He studied their minds in order to think the way they did 
so they could be brought to justice. But most importantly, he 
was the first Keeper. The Keeper of the Truth. Did you have 
a question, Morbo?

"How could he be the first one? Didn't they have other 
Keepers who taught the younglings about the Before times?"

No, they did not. Because they had all of their stories written 
in books, and on things called computer disks that they could 
read whenever they wanted to know something, they did not 
need Keepers to pass on the words. But after the Rebellion, 
all of those things were gone, never to be replaced. So now 
those like myself are given the privilege of teaching others 
about the old times.

"If they were both law Enforcers, why weren't they called Fox 
Skinner and Dana Skinner, like *our* Enforcers?"

Good question, Sharfic. The answer is that Walt Skinner was 
also a real person. He was also a law Enforcer - the overseer 
of Mulder and Scully, as well as their friend. In that period of 
our Keeping, everyone had different titles than they do now. 

By the Date Time when my story takes place, there were Alien 
beings among us, and they planned to colonize our planet. 
Mulder knew of the plague, but no one believed him. The 
Aliens wished to have our world for their own, so they spread 
a sickness among the people, quietly turning them into Aliens. 
When the Enforcers of that Time had no choice but to accept 
what Mulder said as the Truth, it was too late. The heads of 
all the world powers had been replaced by Alien clones, and 
people everywhere lived in fear of the sickness. It was a time 
of great horror and terrible loss. But in the midst of this terror, 
a small group of brave people banded together to fight back 
against enslavement.

"Did Mulder and Scully try to stop the Aliens?"

Yes, they did, Mart. For over a year, a small group of humans 
did all they could to stop the invaders. They came to be 
known as the Alien Resistance. The colonizers tried 
everything in their power to discover who was leading the fight 
against them, but to no avail. No matter how many Resistance 
members were captured, not one revealed the names of their 
leaders. All of them died rather than betray the human race's 
only hope. Until the day the Traitor exposed their secret.

During the second Year of Resistance, word went out that the 
names of the AR leaders were known. A member of the 
Collaborators had infiltrated the Resistance on the orders of 
the Man of Smoke, who was thought dead but was not - leader 
of the evil men working with the Aliens to destroy our people. 
To this day, no one knows who the Traitor was - their name is 
never spoken and has been lost through time, so they might 
never be known by any other term than Traitor.

Many days later, the Aliens made an announcement over the 
world-wide communication system known as Tee Vee. One of 
the head Collaborators was going to deliver a message the 
following day from a place called The Mall in Washton Dee 
Cee. At that time, the Alien Resistance leaders would be 
exposed and punished for their crime. It was revealed that 
they were being held in custody and questioned about the 
others who worked against colonization. No more was said 
and the announcement ended. 

"What was Tee Vee like?"

It was a mysterious thing, Multa, capable of sending peoples' 
words and images many thousands of miles away in a second. 
The images would appear inside a special box that people 
could watch while they were informed on the happenings of 
their day. We no longer know exactly how it worked, but we 
do know that it was a very fast form of communicating with the 
entire world at one time. To receive the same news now, we 
would need to wait almost a whole Season for a messenger to 
arrive from the other side of the planet. But it also could 
spread the words of evil men quickly, and so we are better off 
without it.

"Did everyone in the whole world see the leaders' faces?"

Yes, Scora. The next day, the only thing to watch on Tee Vee 
was the disclosure of the AR leaders. The Mall was crowded 
with the people who lived and worked nearby. The law 
Enforcers of the Eff Bee Eye were there in great numbers - 
including the overseer and friend of Mulder and Scully, Walt 
Skinner. Those who did not live in Washton Dee Cee sat in 
front of their boxes at home to see this momentous event. No 
word had been released as to the identity of the Resistance 
leaders. Suddenly, a pathway lined with uniformed guards 
opened through the crowd, and a murmur was heard from 
those closest to the path. A wash of words flowed over the 
assembled people. Two names repeated over and over, until 
it became a chant - Mulder! Scully!

They ascended the steps onto the platform set up for the 
occasion, and a gasp of horror arose from the crowd. Dried 
blood and bruises were visible on both their faces. Mulder 
limped, carrying his body stiffly, as though to avoid causing 
himself further pain. Scully cradled an arm across her chest. 
Yet hand in hand, heads held proudly, faces calm and 
resolute, they strode across the stage, unshackled but just as 
surely imprisoned by the ring of armed guards around the 
platform perimeter. When they reached the center of the 
stage, they turned toward the muttering crowd and stood side 
by side.

"Why did they hold hands? Were Mulder and Scully Bonded, 
Metax Fox?"

No, Selik, they were never Bonded as mates. But they might 
as well have been, for they cherished each other with a love 
beyond love. They would each lie, kill, or die for the other. 
Neither of them trusted any other person so much as they did 
one another. Yet in the end, they loved the world more, and 
were willing to sacrifice themselves so that others might 
continue the fight and prevail for all humankind. 

'Peoples of the world,' a voice boomed. It was one of the 
Collaborators, speaking from a place of hiding nearby. He 
addressed everyone who watched, using a speaking stick that 
sent his words to the entire planet. 'Here before you are the 
leaders of the lawless rabble who have worked in shameful 
secrecy to overthrow the rightful inhabitants of this planet. 
These two people and their renegade followers are 
responsible for the slaughter of hundreds of your fellow 
citizens through their vile acts of rebellion. They have sent 
countless misguided conspirators to their deaths in order to 
hide their own identities. And now when we ask them to turn 
over these innocents whom they have led astray - so we may 
re-educate them - they have refused to give us their names. 
Before we pronounce punishment upon them, we will give 
them one last chance to redeem those they have corrupted. 
What are their names?'

A speaking stick was thrust into Mulder's hands by one of the 
guards. Mulder and Scully looked at each other for a moment. 
They seemed to speak to each other with only their eyes, 
holding gazes until he nodded and turned toward the crowd 
with her hand still clasped in his. When he spoke, his voice 
was rasping, painful to hear. But even without the speaking 
stick, he would have been heard clearly, so silent was the 
crowd.

'When a people are faced with extinction through no fault of 
their own, which is the greater crime - to sit back and do 
nothing, hoping you will be overlooked and survive, or to lead 
others to death while trying to do something, anything at all, to 
save everyone you can? Our only crime is that we cared 
about the future of humanity. Every person who joined us in 
our fight knew the risks as well as the reward. They came to 
us willingly, eager to do what they could to ensure our survival. 
Some of them died as a result. We grieve their loss just as 
much as we mourn the death of every person who has been 
killed by the sickness. And so we still refuse to give up even 
one name to the enemies of the human race. Our one regret 
is that we won't be here to see the liberation of our planet. But 
this conflict WILL end - in the destruction of the forces which 
seek to enslave, and even to destroy, humanity. We say this 
to the people of the Earth - do not go quietly into the night. 
YOU are the hope for the future.'

Mulder threw the speaking stick onto the stage and turned to 
Scully as a cheer smote the air around them. Wrapping their 
arms around each other, they remained silent and unmoving. 
In the midst of the crowd's tumult, Scully stood tucked under 
Mulder's chin, her arms around his waist. They were oblivious 
to everything but each other. As the din continued to wash 
over them, Mulder looked into her eyes. They smiled at each 
other, ignoring the noise around them. Perhaps they were as 
unaware of the raised rifles as the heedless crowd. The crack 
of many weapons discharging at once was almost lost in the 
clamor. But the jerking of their bodies from the impact of 
dozens of bullets was not missed by anyone.

As their lifeless bodies fell to the stage, a mighty roar of rage 
was howled to the sky. Perhaps it was in that moment the 
Man of Smoke and his Collaborators realized their mistake. 
No one, least of all the Man of Smoke, could know how big an 
impact the deaths of two people would have on the future. All 
the stunned crowd knew was that evil had been committed 
before their eyes, and it enraged them. With the deaths of 
both Mulder and Scully, their martyrdom became a rallying cry 
for the enslaved of our world. 

Shouting people surged toward the platform and were cut 
down by the guards, but more and more replaced them, until 
the evil minions of the Man of Smoke were forced to flee for 
their miserable lives. Some of the crowd rushed onto the 
stage, while others stood guard around their fallen leaders, 
shielding them from the outraged riffraff. When the mob 
dispersed, the bodies of Mulder and Scully were gone - stolen 
away to an unknown location, there to rest together for all of 
time. No one knows where they were buried. All those 
involved were sworn to secrecy, taking the location with them 
into death. Our Keeping has it that they were buried as they 
died - in each other's arms, entwined for eternity. 

In the months to come, it became clear that Mulder and Scully 
had not died in vain. Branches of the Resistance sprang up 
all over the world. Every time one branch was crushed by the 
Aliens, a new one grew in its place, until the Aliens could no 
longer keep up with them. Pockets of rebel fighters appeared 
overnight, and everywhere was heard the rallying cry of 
Mulder's last words - 'YOU are the hope for the future.' 

No need to hide your tears, younglings. It is, after all, a sad 
story. The death of two people who loved each other and the 
future so much should be mourned. But it is also a happy 
story. By their loving sacrifice, Mulder and Scully ensured a 
future of freedom for all of us. They will never die now.

"But they can't still be alive, Metax Fox! You said they died in 
each other's arms."

"Yeah, nobody lives that long. They'd have to be hundreds of 
years old by now."

You are both right. They did die together, and they are not still 
alive. But only in the physical sense. Now that you know their 
story, they live in you. As long as even one person speaks 
their name and tells their tale, Mulder and Scully will continue 
to live. Perhaps one of you will become a Keeper, too, and 
help them to live in future younglings.

I hear the Meal chime sounding. Time for you to go home, 
younglings. I'll see you next Beforedark when we'll discuss 
how the Loneguns destroyed all technology, giving humankind 
a chance to fight back. In future Sessions, we will talk about 
the search for a way to kill the Aliens, and how Walt Skinner 
led the Great Rebellion.

"Will you tell us more about Mulder and Scully? About the 
things they did before they died?"

If you like, Milo. There are many, many amazing tales I can 
share. I promise you will hear them all.


The End



mimic's Extra Notes, as if the first set wasn't enough: If you 
stayed with us all the way through, I thank you. Those of you 
familiar with my other work are shaking your heads about now 
and whining, "Where's the smut? This wasn't even funny." I 
know. I'm sorry. And I promise to go back to my usual fare as 
fast as my little fingers can type. But this one just knocked me 
back a mile straight out of the blue, so I figured whatthehell. I 
actually had the title, quote, and a very vague idea a long time 
ago. I just never expected it to turn into this. 

D's extra notes: Extra notes? What are you trying to pull, 
mom, give me a break! Well, seriously, I think I did soil my 
Speedo when I saw her original idea. Just a little. So I told 
her, "You need me to help you with this. I can't keep my 
grubby hands off a story this good!" So she was able to get 
me to do something after all. There, mom, you happy? By the 
by... This isn't my first X-Fic, just the first one that's actually 
getting submitted somewhere. I've got an old dusty solo story 
somewhere that I'll get around to finishing someday... Stop 
looking at me like that, mom.

mimic's special thanks to Dan, who is much deeper into the 
fantasy type of story this one became. His ability to tighten me 
up and keep me honest is greatly appreciated. That's not 
anywhere near as naughty as you're thinking it is, so stop it. I 
hope you enjoyed reading as much as we did writing. Let us 
know either way. We promise not to cry if you flame us. 
Although we may burn and peel - we don't tan easily.

Feed us at mimic1172@gmail.com and 
n64philodox@yahoo.com