Title: Alien Conspiracy

Author: Erika ([email protected])

Website

Rating: NC-17

Pairing / Main characters: Krycek/Wolverine

Series/Sequel: unfinished, part 1-2

Summary: X-files/X-Men. Aliens are trying to create a new human host, using mutant DNA, will they be stopped in time?

Disclaimer: The Series X-files belongs to CC, Fox and other big head honchos. X-men are the property of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics, and their associated companies.

Notes: Some authors were late in submitting their stories for the Due South Lyric Wheel and they asked me to paddle them, and as I was trying to create individual torture scenes I can up with this story line.
The descriptions to Logan's mutant abilities were taken from the official Marvel comic book website. Reference to the alien spacecraft was borrowed from the Star Trek: Next Generation episode 'Tin Man.' Information about the Rebels, in particular the Umbrams was influenced by the alien portrayal in Babylon 5, in particular Kosh and the Shadows.

And yeah, I should probably have my head examine because this was supposed to have been a simple PWP.

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Alien Conspiracy 1

By Erika

 

From his hiding place behind a tape rack, the unnoticed observer watched as the two guards conversed. It was five past the hour, and the shift change had just taken place. He waited as the new guard typed in his identification code to the computer terminal. He watched as the guard finally waved goodbye to his co-worker who was already hurrying to leave the premises. Without a sound, he moved until he was behind the remaining guard, reached out and with one efficient move slit the man's throat.

Krycek dropped the dead body to the ground, stepped over it and sat down in front of the computer monitor. Alex scanned the various television screens that recorded the activity within the building. Taking out a floppy disk concealed in his leather jacket, he installed the computer program and observed as the recordings were looped to repeat the current image of the empty corridors. He wanted no one to tie him to this break in. Krycek left the room, closing the door behind him, making his way to the lab that held the prisoner. A man whose DNA, if harvested by the Greys, could prove vital in turning the tide against the alien rebels and their human allies.

Ten minutes later as he approached the lab, the one-time FBI agent reached for his gun and screwed on the silencer. He leaned against the wall, took a deep breath and counted to three. On the third count, he turned the corner and fired two shots down the corridor. Two men fell to the floor dead, both with bullet wounds in their foreheads.

Krycek ran down the hallway, lifted one of the dead guards to a sitting position and, letting the body rest against the wall. He pressed the man's thumb on the pad, typing in the dead guard's identification code, then aligned the guard's face to the scanner. The dead man's retina was scanned, and the two steel doors opened to reveal the lab hidden inside. Alex cautiously stepped into the room, walking toward the tank containing the body of the prisoner.

Clad only in black shorts, the prisoner hung in a vertical position inside the tank. The man's arms were held in place by steel clamps. A mouthpiece provided him with oxygen while the rest of his body was hooked up to various instruments. The liquid gel inside the tank helped keep the man in a state of unconsciousness.

Alex typed in the codes the rebels had provided him with and watched as the liquid substance was drained from the tank and the man released from his restraints. The man fell to the floor -- hard. Krycek opened the tank's glass door and lifted the man into a semi-sitting position, rubbing the other's back. The body sloshed away from Alex, resisting his attempts to soothe him, coughing and mumbling all the while.

It was times like these that Alex wished he had a workable arm instead of being saddled with the cumbersome prosthetic.

"Come on. Wake up." Alex looked at his watch. He didn't have that much time. Fuck it all. Krycek emptied his pockets and laid down the alien artifact given to him by the rebels. The small bomb, once set, would destroy everything within a ten-mile radius, sucking in the oxygen in that parameter. No living thing would survive the blast, and it would be years before anyone could again enter the contaminated compound.

Alex lifted the man and half-carried him to safety. If his luck held, he would get them both out of there alive.

~oo00oo~

A month had passed since Alex's last search and rescue mission when he had delivered the still unconscious prisoner to the rebels. Throughout that time, Krycek had been in Europe, gathering information on the Consortium holdings. At the end of the month, Marita Covarrubias had sent him an urgent message to meet her in Brazil. At first he had ignored the call, but a part of him had wondered what Marita was doing in South America. As far as he knew there were no rebel holdings in that continent, and the last time he had seen her, Alex had been walking over the dead body of C.G.B. Spender.

At the airport in Brazil, Mulder's favourite triple agent had been slightly taken aback by Marita's welcoming smile. He had almost made a run for it, suspecting a possible trap, but his one time enemy-turned-ally had hugged him, pressing her lips to his ear. "We are being watched." With those words, Alex's body had tensed, prepared for a getaway, but Marita had refused to let him go. Instead she had dragged the reluctant Alex to a waiting car that had eventually led them to a protected area, to a private airstrip then a waiting plane -- that turned invisible during flight.

This wasn't the first time he had been inside an alien ship, nor would it be the last.

By the time anyone would think of looking for him outside of Amazonia, the alien spacecraft carrying Alex and his companion landed in a desolated area of Labrador, Newfoundland. The harsh climate and the inhospitable land made it impossible for anyone to travel very far, let alone to conclude a rebel base hid within its harsh contours.

As he walked down the long deserted hallway, Alex glanced at the woman who walked beside him. She was as beautiful as ever. The Russian princess who had been sent out to tame the prince. The perfect weapon. The perfect bait, and like a fool he had fallen into her spidery web, but that was then; this was now. Now they fought for the same side. Allies. Saving humanity did bring out the strangest bedfellows, but after he had discovered her with Jeffrey Spender, hiding in the Consortium building, he had brought Marita to the attention of the rebels.

As they reached the end of the corridor, Marita turned to him, "Lexi."

Krycek raised his eyebrow at the intimate use of his name.

Marita's hand cupped his face, and she smiled sadly at him. "We have given so much of ourselves for this cause." She straightened slightly, withdrawing her hand, her voice getting harsher. "I don't see this war ending any time soon, Krycek." She raised her hand to stop Alex from interrupting her. "We are not getting any younger, and there aren't that many qualified people who could one day take over from us, nor do I see the rebels extending their trust to other humans, and that includes your Agent Mulder. Think about this Alex. Think about it when they make you their offer."

~oo00oo~

Alex walked into the room alone, Marita's words repeating in his mind. What else would he be called to sacrifice today? When would he get what was finally due to him? In the empty lab room, Alex paced back and forth, the humming of the monitors offering little to distract him from his present worry.

The door opened, and the shape shifter known as Jeremiah Smith walked in.

"Comrade Arntzen."

"I prefer Krycek."

"Of course. Please sit down." Smith's arm swept over the general vicinity of the desk. "We have many things to discuss."

Alex remained standing.

"Krycek, this would be less painful if ..."

"Get on with it," Alex spat the words out. "What's my next mission?"

Smith, the unassuming shape shifter, gave an apologetic shrug. "We have a request. One final mission if you will."

God, Alex thought.

"We," Smith's emphasis made Alex wonder when the shape shifters had aligned themselves with the Umbrams. As far as he and the Consortium had known, while the two rebel species had worked for a common goal, the destruction of the Greys, they had employed divergent tactics. "Will be mounting an attack on the Greys in the upcoming months. Our brothers here on Earth and elsewhere have agreed. It is time."

"But ..." Alex was at a loss for words. The timeline the Consortium had worked and bargained for agreed that Earth's conquest would take place fifteen years from now, not sooner.

"We can no longer afford the luxury of waiting, Krycek. The stakes are too high. The Greys are becoming desperate; the tide has turned, and they are losing their battle against us in the other worlds. The next battleground might be here on Earth" Smith paused. "Our spies within the Consortium have informed us the Greys are readying for their next stage in the total domination of this planet. They will need soldiers, drones, and after so many years of waiting, it appears their experiments with humans might bear fruit. Yes, we have received reports of the first successful human-alien hybrid reaching full-term and being born with none of the deficiencies that had in the past proved fatal to it."

"Then we are already too late." Alex murmured.

"No. It was killed. One of the doctors in the lab working for us was able to destroy it." Smith walked toward a computer monitor, absentmindedly touching the keyboards. "After a great deal of discussion," he paused, looking at Alex directly. "It was concluded that a human would be needed in the upcoming battle. Not just any human, Alex, but one gifted with the ability to communicate with the rebels here on Earth and abroad."

"But there aren't..."

"There will be."

Krycek leaned against the table; he knew what he was being asked to do. It wasn't the first time he had been asked to be a messenger between the human and rebel aliens. That was what he had presumed, but Smith's next words destroyed that assumption.

"This human must not only have the abilities to communicate with the rebels, they must also act as host to one of the Umbrams." Alex backed away. "Humans are fragile, Krycek, we can't afford to lose one in battle, and it is not like any of them could be trained to understand the complexities of this mission. We need someone who is familiar with the Consortium, is able to understand their strengths and weaknesses and is unafraid of going up against the Greys. We need you."

~oo00oo~

Lying there, Krycek wondered whether he was doing the right thing. In exchange for a new arm, his body would be used to house an alien whose world had once been decimated by the Greys. They were known as the Umbram, their bodies and molecular structure sharing similar characteristics to the black oil with the exception that the Oilien in its current state was a mere copy of the original. A drone.

Once the two alien species, the Greys and the Umbram, had been allies together, exploring the outer reaches of space until a rift between them had resulted in war. A few of the Umbram's colonies had survived and they had helped the alien rebels, the shape shifters, break away from the Greys.

And now Alex was welcoming one of them, allowing his body to be used to host this living nightmare. His nightmare. At one time he would have rather died than have allowed for another alien possession, and now ... knowing that these beings were far superior to the drone he had encountered in Hong Kong, he feared this being. For one brief second he almost got up and walked out of the lab, but Smith had been right; the rebels needed human allies who they could trust, who could survive the game and see the war to its conclusion.

An arm. All this for an arm.

He closed his eyes and tried to fight off the bile that was rising up his throat. He wanted to be whole, and it wasn't like he hadn't sold his body before, as a soldier of fortune, as a double agent, as a whore. This time it would not be any different ... if he survived.

And there were fringe benefits to consider. Aside from providing him with a new arm, the Umbram would also slow down Krycek's aging process, granting him near immortality. Krycek in turn would have access to the Umbram's powers, one of those abilities being telepathy. Once the host entered his body, he would be able to communicate telepathically with the rebels here on Earth, those stationed on the Moon's crust and those rebels who now resided on the Umbram's home world. He would know all their secrets, and they in turn would know all of his.

Krycek wondered whether Marita had also been offered this deal. Alex had been so distracted by his own thoughts that he had failed to notice that one of the rebels had entered the lab and was now standing before him.

The faceless creature turned his head to the side, trying to mimic a human gesture, 'Are you ready?' that Alex knew was for his benefit only. He nodded and waited as the rebel opened a small glass container he held in his hand; black oil spilled forth. The oil formed a shape, and it hovered over Alex, and he could see small electrical currents traveling up and down the black liquid form. Darkness overtook him as the alien entered his body. He lost consciousness.

~oo00oo~

Glorious. No other word could describe the visions before him. Two suns. Three moons. Red sky. This had been the Umbram's home-world before the war. He could sense everything. Every living thing. The Umbram had been explorers, historians, caretakers not conquerors. The Greys had also started out this way until survival, the diluting of their genetic code, had created the catalyst for a species unwilling to compromise but instead ready to enslave. Alex saw the division that took place between the two worlds, one that believed all species were subservient to it and the other that only wanted to study it.

The battle between the two almost led to the destruction of the Umbram; battles were fought in so many different home-worlds, whole species destroyed, complete and utter genocide, with Earth as its next playground. Now Alex was able to understand the urgency with which the rebels fought this war. He now knew of their plans and their reasons for choosing him. They needed a new soldier, a new weapon against the Greys and ultimately a leader for when the humans discovered the truth.

Coming out of the deep sleep to which his body had entered during his metamorphosis, Alex cautiously opened his eyes. He sat up and flexed his left hand, feeling the tingling in his new arm, bringing his hand up to his face, clenching and unclenching his fist.

"Krycek."

"Marita." He spoke the words, and at once the alien within him stirred as Alex tested his new abilities. Marita was not a carrier.

She waited for his command, and Krycek sensed the connection between himself and the rebels who guarded the premises and who guarded the man he had rescued from the Consortium compound over a month ago. The man was being held in a laboratory two stories down. Human lab technicians were hooking him up to a series of monitors.

"I need to go downstairs," Krycek told Marita huskily.

He stood up, and when it looked like he was about to fall to the floor, Marita reached for him. Alex felt overwhelmed by the information the alien residing within his body was providing him with. He felt the alien stir, and then with blinding force, Alex's five senses were being stretched to the maximum. He tasted the saltiness of the room, heard the pounding of Marita's heart, felt the coming storm. It was glorious.

~oo00oo~

From the moment Logan had opened his eyes, these beings that now held him prisoner had wanted to control him, use him. They were no different from the others except he couldn't shake the feeling that they were waiting for someone. Unlike his previous incarceration and its endless cycle of torture, these lab rats were more interested in feeding him, testing his mutant abilities, teaching him how to overcome his weaknesses, transforming him into a killing machine.

They had even provided him with sparring partners. Fighting rows upon rows of faceless creatures, attacking him from all sides, testing his mutant abilities until Logan had collapsed from exhaustion. No matter what he did, how hard he tried ... he failed to stop their assaults. Failed to kill them, and the wounds he inflicted meant little to these mutants who only bled green blood.

They were preparing him for something, that much he had guessed, but until he was strong enough to escape, he had no choice but to bide his time.

Coming from a distance, Logan heard the clicking of heels meeting metal floors. The woman was back, and from the sound that accompanied her, it seemed she had brought a companion. For some reason, the blonde ice princess reminded him of Jean. The Russian Ice Queen presented a cool exterior, but he could sense her fragile state. Upon their first meeting, he had smelled the fear that had clung to her like a second skin. When he had woken suddenly from his coma, his arms had automatically reached out to subdue the danger near him, and he had almost gutted her in the process.

Her cry and the swift moment of the faceless creatures that had quickly surrounded them had prevented him from endangering her further.

Logan growled at one of the human lab technicians. They were like pesky flies hovering over him. He stopped, tilted his head and stared at them. They were nervous. Not the same kind of nervousness he associated them with, no, it was different. Something was up. Logan looked around him. It wasn't just the technicians who were affected. Even those mutants, the faceless creatures, seemed to be agitated by something.

Usually Logan found it difficult to read the guards, and keen observation had taught him that very little affected them. Logan quickly got off the lab table and crouched into a defensive stance. Whatever Marita was bringing with her was somehow causing those inside the lab to react with a certain level of nervousness.

Whoever was causing this probably was also affecting the other mutants guarding the building. This might be his only chance for escape. Logan moved toward the emergency exit, but it was too late; the steel doors opened and Marita stepped inside. Logan found himself growling at the man beside her, his scent ... during the rescue from the other lab, in the small periods of wakefulness, Logan's mind had imprinted his rescuer�s musky essence, a mixture of sweat and blood.

It was identical to this man's scent except there was a hint of something, a sharpness, a tingle that surrounded the man, similar to an electrical storm ready to charge. In a way it reminded him of Ororo and the electrical aura that surrounded her.

Sharp green eyes glanced in his direction. They flickered over him, head to toe, then the man turned around to observe the others in the lab.

Silence filled the room. His one-time-rescuer then walked cautiously toward him, like someone trying not to frighten a cornered animal. Logan growled in warning, but the stranger just smiled.

Keeping his eyes on the approaching danger, Logan sensed as the others retreated from the lab, leaving only Marita behind to witness this strange duel. When the man was finally within leaping distance, Logan attacked, his arms extended, blades coming out, striking the stranger down. The both ended up on the floor; one of Logan's blades was deeply engulfed in the other man's chest.

"You're good," the man told Logan, smiling at him, all the while ignoring the fact he was being straddled by Logan's body and pinned down by the blade that still pierced his lung. Blood spilled and trickled from the man's mouth. Red blood that soon changed to a black liquid form that retreated back into the man's body.

Logan unclenched his fist, retracting his blade and watched as the same process took place on the wound left behind. He lifted the injured man�s shirt and gingerly touched the wound. Red blood turned black, then the gash closed until only a slight pinkish tint marked the unscarred skin, the only evidence to the bloody confrontation between them.

Whoever the stranger was, Logan thought, he seemed to share some of his recuperative powers.

"If you're done staring at me would you mind letting me up? Oh, and by the way, would you put my shirt down? I really don't like being petted by strangers."

Logan dropped the end of the shirt and blushed at the flirtatious laughter in the other man's voice. He quickly scrambled to a standing position, glaring all the while at Marita and the stranger before him.

"He at least speaks? I can't be partnered with someone who does not speak, Marita; even if it would be a pleasant change to Mulder."

"Krycek." Marita's warning tone did little to deter the other man, who continued to grin.

Krycek got up, dusted his pants and moved toward the computer monitor. He pushed in a few codes on the keyboard. Lights over a table at a far corner flickered on. A three-dimensional image of Logan appeared above it, and the computer voice spoke, answering some of Krycek's questions while Logan looked on.

//Code name: Wolverine.
//Identification Code: zero-two-five-six.
//Nationality: Canadian.
//Date of birth: July sixth, Nineteen-twelve.
//Height: Six-foot-three.
//Hair Colour: Black
//Eye Colour: Hazel
//Actual Name: Logan Mackenzie

//Known superhuman abilities: The subject zero-two-five-six possesses heightened senses, making him capable of seeing things at a maximum distance greater than that of a normal human. His hearing is enhanced in a similar manner, and he is able to recognize people and objects by scent, even if that person or object is hidden. The subject can use these enhanced senses to track anyone ... with an impressive degree of success.

//Lab Report C-five-nine-three: Nineteen-forty-two Proznan, Poland. Based on research conducted by Doctor Mueller, it was discovered that the subject zero-two-five-six possessed an accelerated healing factor. Further tests concluded the subject's unique physiology has allowed his body to speed up the natural healing process. Tests revealed the subject has been deemed suitable for further experimentation.

//Lab Report H-seven-four-nine: Nineteen-forty-three Hamburg, Germany. By decree of Doctor Koehler, Captain in the SS, Subject zero-two-five-six is chosen from among ten test subjects to be the first candidate implanted with alien technology. It is hoped the subject's own healing factors will prove vital in ensuring the success of the project.

//Lab Report K-four-five-one: Progress report. The alien technology, adamantium metal, implanted in subject zero-two-five-six is a success. The subject's whole skeletal structure was removed and replaced with the enhanced adamantium skeleton. The metal is stronger than any known on Earth, and the blades implanted in the subject are able to slice through any form of matter. These retractable claws are now housed in his forearms, three in each arm. At will, he can release these claws through his skin between the knuckles on each hand.//

Logan clenched his fist, feeling slightly nauseated hearing the various experiments conducted upon his person. One of his blades unsheathed. The need to destroy, to stop the computer, stop the voice from rehashing the horror, heightened. He continued listening to the rest of the report.

//In Nineteen-forty-two, Logan Mackenzie, a corporal in the Canadian armed forces is captured by the Germans during the unsuccessful allied raid in Dieppe. In an interrogation, the SS discovered his mutant abilities and the corporal is sent to one of their facilities in the outer skirts of Poland.//

"Computer," Krycek's clear voice interrupted the narration into Logan's life. "Provide a brief history of First Contact."

//Nineteen-thirty-four: On the Eve of Hitler's rise to power, an alien spaceship crash-lands in Augsburg, Germany. German authorities are informed. First contact ensues. First unsuccessful human cloning experiments begin. The cloning agenda soon becomes part of Hitler's master race plan.

//Nineteen-forty-five: A British small-scale attack around the perimeter of German-occupied-Europe leads them to a facility in northern France where the allied forces discovered an underground laboratory. The allied POW's used as human guinea pigs are rescued, one of those prisoners being Corporal Logan Mackenzie of the Canadian Scottish Regiment. Corporal Mackenzie is transferred to a mental institution, suffering from shell shock and is released a year later.

//Nineteen-forty-seven: An alien spacecraft crash-lands in New Mexico ... //

All these years, Logan thought dispassionately, all this time, attempt after attempt to make sense of the images in his mind. The experiments done to him, the cries of a young Jewish boy able to manipulate metal, slowly forging the different metal plates inside his body into a single working skeletal structure. Blood running everywhere, sirens coming from a distance, gunfire being exchanged, cries from wounded soldiers and from the young boy he had gone in search of ... visions that had assaulted him during the night. He had believed them to be nightmares. Now he realized they were memories of his actual past.

Again the room had gone quiet. It was Marita who approached him, touching his hand, offering some level of reassurance.

"Logan, what was done to you was one of the first of many atrocities committed by the Consortium. Those people were willing to sell humanity for profit, personal gain, in exchange for power. There is so much we need to share with you. Things you won't believe in until you see for yourself that they actually exist."

"What do you want?" Logan asked. He wanted answers, not descriptive explanations.

The man, Krycek was what Marita had called him, approached Logan. "I'll be down the hall. I want you to watch these clips. They should answer all your questions. I would like to say you have a choice whether you want to work for us, but unfortunately that is a luxury humanity can no longer afford."

"How do I know all of this," Logan said, his hand stretched out indicating the lab. "All that you show me is real? How do I know you'll tell me the truth?"

Krycek stared at him. "Computer, allow Logan access to my files and Marita's." Both ignored the surprised gasp from the woman beside them. "I need you to know what you will be up against and what I am capable of. You will work with me, Logan."

With those words, they both existed the lab, leaving Logan behind. As the steel doors closed after their retreating forms, a three dimensional image flickered on, and the computer voice spoke.

//"Code name: Alex Krycek ..."

 

Go on to Part2