
Part Twelve
"Urrrggghhhh," Walter groaned, as he peered through the black curtains and saw the room spinning around him. The upside-down room. His ears were full of the sound of rushing water, a pounding throbbing pressure in his head that seemed to pulse with the rhythm of his thundering heart. He closed his eyes, burrowed his face into the heavy feathery drapes and wondered whether dead people could puke.
"Way."
"You're telling me my dad's a demon?"
"No, he's an angel, like me. Well, not like me actually, but that's just semantics. He's okay, to tell the truth. We go back a long way, Gabriel and me. He's a bit of a ruthless bastard overall but if you met him, you'd probably like him. Not much of a party animal, but then neither are you so you should get on fine if you ever bump into him at Luke's."
"There's no way Gabriel has 'fallen'."
"Did I say he had?"
"But he's Spender."
"So?"
"You're saying that Spender is one of the good guys?"
"Like I said before, it depends on your definition of Good. Spender aka
Gabriel is definitely wearing a white hat, but he's one hell of a way from *my*
definition of a good guy. I told you the situation's complicated and, besides,
it's not the first time Gabriel's job has involved the slaughter of innocents.
Who do you think destroyed Sodom? You want to ask Scully about Gabriel before
you make any judgments about whether he's a nice guy or not."
"So Spender, or Gabriel, is just doing what God has told him to do?"
Mulder demanded incredulously.
"Well, it's a bit more complicated than that. Gabriel has his own agenda.
The thing is that he's been named as one of the nine."
"You said he was one of the seven."
"He is. He's also one of the nine."
"Don't make me beat this out of you, Alex. Just get to the fucking point,
would you?"
"You're buck-naked, in four-point restraints and I'm a Seraphim. What are you planning to beat me with, Fox? Your tongue or your cock?"
"You wish," Mulder snarled.
Alex sniggered. "Shall I continue?"
Mulder just growled.
"Gabriel was named with Michael, Uriel, Raphael, Aker, Arphugitonos,
Gabuthelon, Beburos and Zebuleon as being the nine angels who would govern at
the end of the world. In other words, Armageddon was supposed to be the time
they came into power. Both Luke and the big 'G' would step away from the game
and in the last days the battle would be fought purely on the earth under the
government of the nine. It was anticipated that it would take at least a
millennia to sort things out so they were all looking forward to a nice long
playtime. The aliens have changed all that. Colonization will turn
three-quarters of Revelations into a crock of shit. Judgment Day becomes just
that. A day."
"So Gabriel loses his chance to play God."
"Essentially."
"But you said he hasn't fallen. So he must have accepted the change of
plans."
"You'd think so, but…"
"Don't tell me. It's more complicated than that."
"Obviously, he can't act against the aliens directly otherwise he'd be
defying the big 'G's plan. So he's come up with his own solution."
"Human-alien hybrids."
Alex gave a low, appreciative whistle and then leered at his captive audience as
he moved away from the wall and seated himself on the bed. "Did I ever tell
you how much your brain turns me on?"
"My brain?"
"Well, amongst other things," Alex purred, trailing a finger
suggestively down Mulder's thigh.
"Stop it, Alex. I'm trying to think. If the hybrids can contain a soul, the
game can continue and the 'nine' get to have their fun. So that's why Gabriel
was working with the consortium. To protect his own self-interests. Doesn't seem
very angelic to me."
"Think about it, Fox. Angels and humans were both made in the image of the
big 'G'. Bottom line is we share the same basic instincts. The only difference
is we're the biological equivalent of Texas. We do everything bigger and better.
When we're good, we're really good, but when we're bad we're your worst fucking
nightmare."
"And what about me? What am I if I'm Gabriel's son? Am I human?"
Alex shrugged. "Nobody's quite sure *what* you are at the moment, though
Luke has his suspicions. You're human, but you don't have a soul."
"What the hell do you mean, I don't have a soul?" Mulder demanded
sulkily.
"It's not necessarily a bad thing," Alex assured him. "At least we don't think it is."
"Very reassuring," Mulder drawled.
"Let me put it another way. What you *should* be is
an immortal soul inside a human body. Instead, you're just a human. Here at
least. The closest comparison I can make is that you are essentially the same as
an Angel who is masquerading as a real human. Like I was when I was last on
Earth, which is why that body could be injured. Gabriel, on the other hand,
never takes a real body. He just creates the illusion of one, like I'm doing
now."
"So I'm an Angel?" Mulder laughed nervously.
"No," Alex denied quickly.
"But you said 'here at least' which suggests I would be something different
in another place," Mulder accused.
Alex shuffled uncomfortably. "Well, I just meant that you'd…shit…you
*look* like an Angel when you're in Purgatory, okay? But that doesn't mean you
are one. No. Shit. That's not what I mean either. You're something different
entirely. I don't know what, for sure. All I know is that on Earth you're human
and in Purgatory you're an Angel."
"So are you. What's the difference?"
"The difference is that I am *always* an Angel. It's irrelevant what form I
appear in and, anyway, I can appear in either form in both places. You can't.
You're either one or the other. So, in real terms, you're neither. It's…well,
it's never happened before. Which is why no-one's sure what to do with you.
There could be something significant about the fact you're pure human here. The
*only* pure human being. On the other hand, you might just be a mutant
aberration and everyone's getting worked up for nothing."
"I can't be the first angel-human hybrid," Mulder argued. "It
stands to reason that more angels than Gabriel have broken that rule over the
millennia."
"They have. You aren't the first angelic bastard. You're the first that was
born human without a soul though."
"Which means I'm outside of the game completely, doesn't it? If I don't
have a soul, I can't be either damned or saved. Perhaps that's the point.
Perhaps I can do something here that a soul in a human body can't."
"Maybe."
"But hang on. This is bullshit. I don't have a soul, why have you been
trying so hard to make me 'fall'?"
"I haven't."
"Bull…shit. You told me you were worried I'd go to heaven. You even
pointed out how 'boring' I'd find it. You told me you were supposed to kill me
to ensure that I died 'in balance'. What are you keeping in balance, if it isn't
a soul?"
"Your nature," Alex whispered.
"What 'nature'."
"Your angelic nature."
"My what?"
"Look, this isn't easy. It's a new situation. We're kind of making it up as
we go along," Alex confessed. "When I was originally assigned to you,
I knew you didn't have a soul and that Spender was your father, but I didn't
know whether you were part of his experiments. For all I knew, you were the
first step towards an alien hybrid. Then, Luke began to suspect you weren't
Spender's son, but Gabriel's. It changed everything and nothing. It meant you
were still a danger to the game but that you were more potentially dangerous
than we'd first imagined. The problem then was what to do with you.
"It was clear that Gabriel was protecting your life, but since he wouldn't
want the big 'G' to find out he'd slept with a human woman in his real form, it
was likely that all he wanted to do was protect himself. After all, the minute
you turned up in heaven with a set of wings the cat would be out of the bag.
Which would probably have ended up with you fried to a crisp anyway because the
big 'G' doesn't like it when we reproduce ourselves. So Gabriel's best bet was
to let you live long enough that you'd fall and end up in Purgatory instead. As
much as Gabriel hates Luke, he knows Luke wouldn't let a fledgling take the rap
for his father's mistake. Luke would have taken you in and protected you, and by
extension protected Gabriel."
"So you're saying my life here as a human has affected where I stand as an
Angel?"
"Well, no one knows for sure, but it seems the most likely outcome so
that's the way everyone's playing it."
"But then I died and the cat was let out of the bag anyway?" Mulder
demanded.
Alex shuffled awkwardly again, his eyes dropping to the floor. "Um…sort
of."
"What do you mean 'sort of'? You said I turned up in purgatory with
wings."
"Not then," Alex whispered, swallowing nervously. "When you died,
you just…um…disappeared. No one's quite sure where to. Like I said. No one's
quite sure what you are, Fox, and well…it's making people nervous. So I told
Luke the best thing would be to just keep you alive in your mortal form. As long
as you stay human, no one has to worry about what you're going to be if you stop
being human. If you're going to be anything at all. I mean, what if you just
disappear permanently?"
Mulder swallowed nervously as he digested that thought.
Then something else occurred to him. "So when *did* I turn up in
Purgatory?" he demanded suspiciously.
"Um…well…I…um…"
"Alex?" Mulder growled.
"Well, I've had a few things to do this week, so I've sort of dropped you
off there a couple of times." He smiled nervously at Mulder's glower of
outrage. "You were asleep at the time," he added apologetically.
"You're telling me you've been knocking me out and checking me into
Purgatory like a piece of lost luggage?" Mulder roared.
"Not lost," Alex assured him. "Just slightly inconvenient."
Mulder opened his mouth, and then shut it abruptly as he remembered Alex's
ability to instantaneously gag him. So he took several deep breaths and forced
his voice to emerge calmly when he finally dared to reply.
"You know what I think, Alex? I think your whole story is 'convenient'. I
don't buy it. I don't buy *any* of it. As far as I can see, the only thing
you've established beyond doubt is that you have supernatural powers and you're
a good fuck. Where's your proof, Alex? You've given me a load of garbled,
religious bullshit with not one shred of evidence to back it up."
"What happened to 'I want to believe'?" Alex asked, then frowned and
pouted. "And what's with the 'good fuck' bullshit? I thought we'd gotten
past that."
"Tell you what, Alex. Give me some proof. Take me there."
"Take you where?"
"Take me to Purgatory now. While I'm awake. Introduce me to your friend
Luke. Let me see it for my own eyes."
"I can't. It's not allowed."
"Like I said, convenient," Mulder mocked. "Tell you what, then.
Let me see your *real* body. You say you're an angel, show me."
"I can't," Alex replied miserably.
"Why? If 'Gabriel' could fuck my mother in his real body, why can't you
fuck me in yours? Show me, Alex. Let me see. Prove it to me."
For a moment Alex looked trapped and helpless, misery chasing anger over his
features as Mulder's mocking words filled the room, then his eyes blazed with
sudden understanding and he threw back his head and laughed.
"You're a piece of work, Fox. You nearly had me there. Good try, but I'm
not playing. You're too smart not to know the truth when you hear it and you're
not coward enough to turn your back on that truth just because it's not what you
want to hear. Anyway, believe or don't believe. It doesn't matter. The only
important truth is the need to keep you alive until we have a better
understanding of what the alternative would mean. In the meantime, you can
restrain your perverted fantasies to *this* body, because it's the only one
you're going to be playing with."
"Why?" Mulder pouted.
"Because if I did it, Luke would pull me out of here so fast my wings
wouldn't touch the ground and, believe me, babe, once you've sampled the real
thing mortal sex will never be the same again. There's enough people out after
your blood without me reducing your incentive to stay alive."
"Oh," Mulder sighed miserably.
"But since we're on the subject of sex, did I tell you how delectable you
look in those restraints?" Alex leered.
"Talk's cheap, Alex."
"So are you, Fox, but do you hear me complaining?" Alex sniggered,
then pounced to gag Mulder's screech of outrage with his tongue.
~#~#~#~
"It's all illusion, you know," Luke murmured, as he handed Walter a
brimming glass of whiskey and added a couple of racks of ribs onto the bar-b-que.
"It is?" Walter asked vaguely, lifting a trembling hand and downing
the entire glass in one desperate gulp. The liquid coursed down his throat like
a lava flow, leaving it feeling as raw and burned as his ass. "What
is?" he asked, when he'd finally stopped coughing.
"Pain," Luke replied kindly. "You're dead, Walter. You're a soul,
a spirit. Your physical body is an illusion here. You can only 'feel' what you
choose to feel. Pain, pleasure, hunger, tiredness, the taste of that whiskey,
even the smell of those ribs that are making your nose twitch with excitement,
they're just in your head. Well, not your head since that's an illusion too, but
you know what I mean."
"Yeah," Walter agreed, glancing over the patio to where a gloriously
naked Mordad had sprawled himself on a sun bed. He met the angel's eyes, then
flushed as Mordad gave him a lewd wink and tapped his lap invitingly. "I
know."
"You know," Luke repeated thoughtfully, absently refilling Walter's
glass while he handed him a plate of ribs.
Walter nodded and the movement drew his attention to his own nakedness. He
flushed with embarrassment. Since Luke was wearing nothing but a cooking apron,
which was one item of clothing more than anyone else on the patio, Walter's
discomfort wasn't the fact that he was in bare skin but the fact that little
Wally had reared back to attention and was now dribbling with excitement at the
prospect of returning to Mordad's close proximity. He closed his eyes,
concentrated, and was relieved when he opened them again to find that he'd
successfully imprisoned his cock inside a scarlet thong.
"See," he grinned triumphantly. "I 'know'. I'm starting to get
the hang of this place."
"Then, if I can ask a personal question," Luke drawled. "Why are
you 'choosing' to walk like John Wayne today?"
Walter gave the question due consideration, clenching his ass muscles
experimentally and wincing as they violently protested the movement. Yes, his
ass definitely felt like he'd been riding a horse. Without lube.
He just shrugged.
Then he limped back to Mordad with a broad smile on his face.
Go to Part Thirteen