By: Punisher

Fox Mulder wasn't entirely sure exactly what had happened during the last week.  He had been exposed to so much new information, so much that seemed apocryphal at first glance, that he could no longer discern the truth from a common falsehood.  He had known that conspiracies within the government existed, "Deep Throat" and the "Smoking Man" had done enough to convince him of their omnipresent nature.  But the "Delta Green" contacts he had made seemed to consist of a conspiracy within a conspiracy.  They knew more than the men who knew too much -- and too much of their knowledge consisted of enigmatic rantings from eldritch tomes of which mankind was never intended to lay eyes on. 

Still, they had saved him from the Men In Black, persistent reminders that a group known as Majestic or MJ-12 existed and had plans for Mulder and his X-files which were not in his best interests.  He now knew, that what little he knew about the black oil and the Greys was only a screen, and that things much more sinister and ancient lay at the center of the conspiratorial web.  His thoughts drifted to his partner, Scully.  She had contacted him as soon as he was back to the "real" world.  She had found a man, Reese, who ranted and raved of the end of the world and how the "Stars were right." The man was obviously a lunatic, but his ravings had held a kernel of honesty and that had touched Dana Scully.  The man was definitely insane, but he was so convicted in his madness that his babbling tended to draw one in to the veracity of his universe.  He had abducted Scully, but Dana used what psychology she knew to force trust upon him -- and under the ruse of bringing him to Miskatonic University she had instead tricked him to a state hospital for the criminally insane.

And that was why even now, in what was possibly the worst storm of the year, Mulder was racing to Massachusetts to meet his partner.  For what in the ears of Dana Scully, had sounded like the ravings of a madman, the enigmatic whisperings of Reese had held an air of familiarity for Fox Mulder.  And the man's screaming of "Old Ones" and things that should not be, sounded all too much like what Mulder had read in the cryptic manuscripts he had perused all too quickly while in Arizona.  In between ominous lightning flashes, Mulder saw the gothic gates of the institution where his partner now waited, an institution known to house only the most voracious appetites such as those of Hannibal Lecter and the artist Pickman.  An institution known and dreaded by reputation alone, and whose merest suggestion among psychiatric circles implied a case so far gone that nothing could be done for the poor soul than to protect the remainder of society from his knowledge.  An institution known as Arkham Asylum.

Mulder walked into the lobby and tried to shake some of the cold and rain off.  He walked to the security attendant and flashed his badge.  "I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder.  I'm here to meet Agent Dana Scully."  The attendant nodded in the direction of the hallway.  Mulder looked up and saw Scully coming towards him.  Damn, even after being kidnapped and the rain and all she still looks hot.

"Well you don't look the worse for wear." They talked as they walked down the hallway.

"And you.  Listen Mulder; this guy is right up your alley.  He's a case study just waiting to happen."

"So where do I fit in?"

"Well I was never any good at buying into other people's fantasies."

"I have some fantasies I'd love you to buy into."

Scully ignored him.  "This man's psychosis runs extremely deep.  He seems completely normal if a little high strung but when he talks about the world is when his dementia becomes apparent.  I thought you'd have better luck than I did.  He kind of feels that I betrayed him."

"Well you kind of did Scully.  He wanted to go to Miskatonic University  and you took him to Arkham.  I'm not saying you didn't have a choice."

Mulder and Scully moved to one side of the hallway as attendants escorted a straightjacketed inmate down the other side. 

"I'd watch yourself around him too," Scully cautioned.

"Is he violent?"

"He took out eight attendants before they sedated him.  He's on a double dose of Valium now.  He's coherent but no longer violent."

Just then the straightjacketed inmate dove at Mulder before the attendants could stop him. 

He ranted spittle flying as he foamed at the mouth, "I'm the farthest man from home! I'm the farthest man from home! Nyarlathotep is coming! Find Skywalker! Find Jones! They'll know what to do! Ia!! Ia!! Sub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods is come! Cthulhu Ftagn! I'm not insane! You must listen to me."

 The attendants grabbed the man and quickly sedated him.  "Sorry about that sir.  He won't bother you again." The older of the two attendants said. 

 If Mulder had been more attentive he would have found two odd things about the man that would have unnerved him.  The first would be the way the man's eyes twinkled with certain and sure knowledge of undreamt of realities, and the second would have been that the man looked way too old to be an attendant, his long white hair tied back in a pony-tail and his long beard tucked into his utility white coveralls.

 But Mulder had other things on his mind.  The man continued ranting despite the massive amounts of drugs which had been pumped into his system.  "I am Kirok!!!  I have to get back to my ship!  I have to get back.  The Greys!  The Horror...the Horrooooooooooor!"

 Mulder closed his eyes and tried to shut out the man's maddening cries.  He would hear their frantic tone in his mind for years to come.  The man's cries had touched off the asylum's other inmates and they began tittering and gibbering.  Shouting the beliefs of their own dementia.  "He's right in here."  An attendant opened Reese's cell.  Mulder walked in. 

  Reese was curled in the fetal position as much as the straightjacket he was wearing would let him.  He stood quickly when Mulder walked in.  "Agent Mulder.  Listen to me.  You're in danger...  the whole world.  The Mi-Go are here.  Your people are dealing with them! "

  "How do you know who I am?"

  "That's not important!  That which is not dead is coming.  The stars are right! Don't you know?  We need to get to Miskatonic.... I’ll prove it.  Please you're the only hope humanity has.  Your partner didn't listen to me just as they said she wouldn't.  But you must."

  Mulder's cell phone rang.  He answered. 

  "Mulder."

  "What does the Sleeper do in his house Mr. Mulder?" It was the code for Delta Green.  He had no idea they would've contacted him so soon.  He looked up and saw Scully and Reese staring at him.  He didn't dare tell Scully about Delta Green.  And she'd never believe him anyway.  Instead he gave the proper response, "He dreams."

  "We've got a problem.  The natives are restless.  We understand that you're in Massachusetts right now.  You need to go Newburyport tonight.  Meet at this old farmhouse." The voice on the line passed an address.

  "I'm in Arkham now.  How far is Newburyport?"

  "You're in Arkham? Newburyport is about a half-hour away.  We need you to hurry.  And Mr. Mulder, come armed, this is going to be bad." The party on the line hung up.

  Mulder turned to Scully.  "We'll have to finish this another time, I have to go."

  "Who was it Mulder?"

  "A source.  It's better that you don't know who right now.  I have to go." Reese spoke up, "It's the Esoteric Order of Dagon...they’re coming ashore again.  Where this time?  Innsmouth?  Newburyport?"

  Mulder froze.  "What do you know about this?"

  "Only what I've overheard in the chantings when the wind was right...I'm right aren't I?  It's Devil's Reef isn't it?  Delta Green wants you to go out there.... It’s just as they said."

  "Scully there's no time to explain.  I need you to get this man released into our custody.  He's a witness to some of the most rare and unspeakable events I've ever run into.  And we need him right now."

  "Mulder!  This man is unbalanced.  He needs medical attention."

  "Scully, we'll bring him right back!  But right now he can save lives." Reese interrupted both of them.  "It's beginning!!!  Listen!"

  And Mulder and Scully did listen.... and couldn't forget what they heard.  Every inmate what chanting the same maddeningly enigmatical babble in a nervous high-pitched screeching, "Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

  "Let's get the hell out of here."

  As Mulder and Scully raced out of Arkham with Reese in tow, they could hear the chanting reach a fevered pitch as the attendants slammed open cell doors to sedate or beat senseless the poor creatures trapped within. 

  On the way to Newburyport, Mulder had done his best to fill in Scully, about Delta Green...about the Old Ones.  She remained incredulous.  Reese's rantings in the back seat didn't help.  Every time Mulder tried to put a credulous spin on any mythos happenings Reese would pipe up with "The Black Goat...Ftagn"...etc.etc...and made Mulder sound like he was crazy.  As they pulled up to the darkened farmhouse the rain began to let up.  Instead, a slight mist replaced it.

  "Looks like nobody's home.  I can't believe we're coming out here to chase monsters."

  "Let's hope we're not going to.  This is the right address Scully."

  Mulder didn't like this one bit.  He checked his pistol.  15 rounds.  He had two extra clips with him.  "Stay here."  He slipped out of the car and headed towards the farmhouse.  The ground had turned to mud.

  Running in this is going to be impossible.  Let's hope I don't have to. 

  In the car, Reese started getting frantic.  "This is going to be bad.  This is going to be bad."

  "Not half as bad as if you don't sit back there and be quiet."  He'd worn through Scully's patience.  She looked back at him.  He had taken the straightjacket off.  "Hold it right there!" Scully struggled to turn around but Reese was too fast.  He wrapped the straightjacket around his arm and elbowed the window.  It shattered and Reese opened the door from the outside and was out!

  Mulder's heart almost leaped into his mouth at the sound.  He spun around.  In time to see Reese coming at him.  But he could tell that the man meant him no harm.  He just wanted to be with him.  Scully quickly joined them.  She had her cuffs out and grabbed Reese.

  He threw her in an instant.  Disarmed her and put her own gun to her head. 

  "Reese there's no need for this.  Put the gun down and let Scully go. 

  What do you want?"

  "Be quiet!!" Reese spoke in a hushed whisper, "We're just going to have a look around this house okay....and no funny business.  Do you understand?"

  Mulder nodded.

  "Do you understand!"

  Scully reluctantly nodded.  He promptly let her go.  "I'll hold on to this for now." He indicated her gun.  "Now let's check this place out."

  They moved forward.  Mulder's every thought was how he could get his partner's gun away from a madman.  That quickly changed when he saw the front porch of the house.

  It looked like some monstrous deranged creature had gone to work on it with a pickaxe.  The entire porch was smashed.  The front windows were cracked and the front door lay canted at a crazy angle -- the hinges torn from the frame.  What unnerved Mulder is that the entire front of the structure lay covered in a strangely luminous slime, several centimeters thick.  It oozed as globules of it dripped off the higher railings and pooled on the ground.  The strong stench of reeking fish was nauseating.

  "We're too late," Reese said.  "They're gone.  They got what they came for."

  Scully stepped forward, moved by her own scientific and investigative qualities. 

  "This looks secreted Mulder."

  "Yeah, but secreted from what?"

  He moved forward.  A darker slime trail led inside the house.  Mulder moved ahead.

  "Don't go in there."  Reese was scared.  His head on a swivel.

  "Why not?"  "Nothing good can come of it.  Listen, let's leave now.  We can go to Miskatonic University.  There I can prove to you what I've been talking about is true....It's already happened.  Is happening..."

  "Listen Reese, we're the F.B.I.  We've got a break-in with obvious signs of violence.  This house is kind of in the middle of nowhere.  We have to investigate this.  Scully you got your flashlight?"

  Scully clicked it on.  The white beam cut through the darkness like a lightsaber.

  Reese panicked.  "Turn it off! Turn it off!"  Then he froze.  "Oh no....They know...They KNOW! Quick get inside!" Reese pushed past Mulder and Scully and ran into the farmhouse.

  They rushed in after him.  Reese muscled the door back into position, found a small table and braced the door with it.  Mulder took his bearings.  To his left, a staircase wound upward, a living room lay ahead.  Everything seemed drenched in slime; everything carried the fish smell.  Reese was almost a complete mess.  "Oh no. Oh no." he muttered over and over again.

  Scully shone her flashlight ahead.  "No signs of a struggle here." The beam touched the luminous stream of slime.  It headed upstairs.  "Looks like we go up.  Reese can I have my pistol back?"

  Reese shook his head.  "NO no...we must be defended."  "I guess I'll take point then." Mulder moved upstairs.  Following the trail of slime.  It wound up the stairs and turned right at the landing.  Going into the master bedroom.  Mulder cautiously moved inside.  A figure lay still on the bed.  Mulder tried the light.  Nothing.  "Scully shine your light over there."

  She did.  A corpse, in the middle stages of putrefaction lay on the bed.  She moved over to the body.  Put on some gloves and touched it, searching it quickly for a cause of death.  Reese closed the bedroom door.  "Mulder, this body is still warm.  It's also covered in slime.  The slime must have corrosive proper...."

  "Shhh!" Reese cut her off.  He moved so his back was against the wall and his pistol hand facing the bedroom door.

  "Listen Reese we're alone here so get a grip..."

  "Shhhhh," he spoke so quietly she had trouble hearing him.  "They are coming...can't you hear?"

  Mulder instinctively stared at the door.  "I don't hear anyth..." 

  THUMP!

  Everyone heard it that time.  Scully scrambled for her ankle pistol and turned off her flashlight.  They all stood with their backs to the wall.  Pistols aimed at the door.

  Thump!

  Something was at the front door.  They heard it move the door and push the table aside.  Mulder realized it was several people.  They gathered in the living room and spoke in a hushed language Mulder couldn't recognize; it was full of guttural tones and what sounded like harsh croaking.

  Then something slopped and stomped its way onto the stairs and began a slow ascent.

  Slop-Stomp!  Slop-Stomp!  Slop-Stomp!

  It was right behind the bedroom door.  Mulder's heart was in his throat.  He looked at Scully out of the corner of his eye.  At least she looked scared too.  Reese had taken on a strange quality.  He looked calm and resolute, as if he had prepared his entire life for the moment to come.

  Ever so quietly, so quietly Mulder wasn't even sure it was happening, the doorknob started to turn.  Mulder's finger lay on the trigger...he held his breath...his heart pumped three times the normal bloodflow.  Time slowed down.

  The doorknob stopped.  The door creaked open.  Slowly.  Millimeters at a time.  Mulder couldn't see anything in the stygian gloom.  Not a silhouette, nothing.  Whatever he thought he saw in the doorway could just as soon be his imagination as a real being.  He thought the fish smell got stronger.

  Scully couldn't see anything either.  She could see the leading edge of the door as it creaked open.  When it reached halfway, she snapped on her flashlight blinding whoever -- whatever it was in the doorway.

  That was when the corpse on the bed grabbed her arm.  Scully fainted.

  And dropped the flashlight.

  It dropped to the ground and rolled across the room.  Its beam lighting the wall, the ceiling, the floor, and the doorway like some out-of-control disco ball.  It thumped as it hit the floorboard, its beam focused tightly on a useless corner of the room.

  The thing in the doorway moved.  And Mulder had seen enough of it in the crazy lighting of the flashlight to know it was a thing.  But it had seen enough of them too! It croaked, "BOH-KRUHG!" To its companions downstairs.

  Reese opened fire.

  "Standard orbit.  Preliminary scans?"

  "Looks like what used to be a Class M planet.  There's still enough atmosphere to support life.  There are signs of a significantly advanced civilization...surpassing ours in many ways.  But it looks long dead."

  "Any sign of other ships?"

  "No sir.  I am however, picking up two life signs."

  "All right...the hook is baited.  Transporter Room Two?"

  "Aye sir."

  "Have a six-man security detail armed with phaser rifles meet me there.  Tuvok you're with me.  Rand you have the conn."

  Sulu got up from his chair and got into the turbo lift.  It had been a while since he'd led a landing party but just didn't feel comfortable sending someone else down there.

  Down there, he thought.  A lot of good people hadn't come back from there.  Sulu meant to find the lifesigns they had scanned and have a word or two with them.  He reached Transporter Room Two.  Crewmen had already readied a tricorder and phaser rifle for him and Tuvok.  He stepped onto the pads with the security team and beamed down to the place spoken in hushed whispers, called Z'ha'dum.

  Luke heard Picard screaming as they drug him off.  His screaming abruptly ended.  Replaced by the harmonic booming from the body of Picard as the Octorg implanted mechanical parts to him and their nanite probes took over.

  "I am Locutus of the Octorg.  In strange aeons even death may die.  Cthulhu fhtagn."

  Luke shivered.  Even with his mastery of the Force he knew he was helpless.  All he could do was watch all of his friends die until it was his turn.  He closed his eyes and tried to shut out the madness around him.  Anakin's voice broke through, "Use the Force Luke."  Ben's voice, "Run! Luke Run!"

  The messages from his dead mentors snapped Luke out of the stupor he was in.  He stood.  Two Octorg approached him.  Luke crushed them aside with the Force.  He knew he couldn't take on the whole ship that way.  Not even Palpatine was that strong.  So Luke implanted a suggestion in the Octorg mind and told them to ignore him.  Then he simply walked off the bridge...invisible to Octorg.  He spoke into his comm unit.

  "R2 get the X-wing ready to go."

  In minutes, Luke was in the cockpit of the X-wing and piloting out of the shuttlebay.  The Octorg still seemed oblivious.  Luke brushed a tear from his face and vowed to make all this right...somehow.  Then he closed his S-foils and his X-wing shot off into hyperspace.

  On the bridge of the NCC-1701A...

  The Octorg had begun.  They were tearing engineering apart.  Kirk sat in the fetal position on the center seat of the bridge.  He had never felt so helpless.  On the floor of the bridge, various crewmembers barked and coughed, choking on their own vomit and lunacy as they writhed perversely to the Octorg verbal assault.  The bridge doors began to pound and Kirk began to understand a glimmer of what was happening.

  "The drums...they are coming." He mumbled.  Strangely, it seemed amusing.  Kirk began to giggle.

  Something with a thousand legs burst into the bridge from a maintenance tube.  It slaughtered Uhura and began converting her body to the gel-like state it needed...the better to consume her.  Kirk looked to Spock for help.  And saw that rather than suffer the indignity of going insane the Vulcan had swallowed what remained of his own tongue.  Spock's lifeless eyes glared back at him.  Kirk could almost hear Spock's disembodied voice, "I have been, and always shall be, your friend."

  It angered him.  And the anger helped him fight the insanity for a moment longer.  The bridge doors gave...  the myriad creatures poured in.  Then froze.

  Kirk was puzzled.  He waited for the creatures to come and scoop out his brain.  But they didn't move.  Kirk looked around the bridge...no one moved.  Time had stopped.

  He heard a voice from behind.  "Come quickly...I don't know how long I can hold them."

  He turned and looked...saw a man who looked familiar...looked like the Squire of Gothos.  Kirk struggled for a name, "Trelane?"

  "Q to you...hurry." The figure who called itself Q stood in the center of a space-time vortex, one hand extended towards Kirk.  Kirk considered his options...briefly...then jumped into the Vortex.  Q closed it after him.  They hung in limbo.

  "What's going on? Why is all this happening?" "I'll answer all your questions in due time.  I was trying to save Picard.  I was too late.  I thought I'd save one captain of the Enterprise for another.  I don't owe you any favors.  You humans are not alone in this struggle.  All of reality is at stake."

  A voice boomed through the limbo.  "You were warned not to interfere Q!  Now you must suffer the consequences."

  "Show yourself."

  "Very well."  Gandalf the Grey materialized in the limbo.  His eyes blazing with madness and intense hatred.  They focused on Kirk.  "Now my Captain, you will die."

  Gandalf the Grey fired a bolt of energy from his staff.  Before it could hit Kirk, Q jumped in the way and knocked Kirk tumbling into the timestream...

  Kirk hit the pavement hard.   He looked around.  Cars...old autos....  He was on Earth...he was sure of that...just not his Earth.

  In the center-outside of a swirling nothing space the blind idiot Azathoth gibbered, laughed and bubbled at the center of infinity surrounded by a million shrieking abominations and his mad pipers.