Chapter Five:

The Lone Gunmen Offices, Baltimore, Maryland, March 1, 1998, 10:00AM:

The district of the arts was a small area with a hodgepodge of warehouses, former tenant homes and factories. Most were still abandoned and unused but for squatters and the homeless. One street had a revival of sorts with shops and stores set at the front of many of the buildings. Parts of these buildings had been converted to lofts and apartments that were not large or luxurious in any sense of the word but were home to hundreds. One such warehouse had a row of five shops and two floors of apartments on the front of a long vast warehouse. On one side facing an alley were the offices of the Lone Gunmen, their labs, library and storage rooms and their apartments. Though the men who ran the paper made little from the paper they made up for this in owning the warehouse and earning rent from their tenants. That and the hydroponic gardens that took up several levels of the vast interior space where they grew food for themselves and sold the surplus of mostly fruits and vegetables and herbs.

The men were as different as they could be, there was John Byers, the leader and business man of the three. He was tall with red brown hair and neatly trimmed beard and nearly always clad in suit and tie. Melvin Frohike was a jack of all trades when it came to anything electronic, he was a short graying man with large glasses who was in love with Scully and would defend her with his last breath. Last was the genius of the bunch, Richard "Ringo" Langly, a tall thin man with long blond hair and "Buddy Holly" glasses. He favored rock tee shirts jeans and tennis shoes but it was clear without him there would be no Lone Gunmen. The unofficial member of the group was Susanne Byers nee Modeski. Officially she had died but she lived here in hiding and as a Metamorphmagus squib she could hide in plain sight if needed. Byers loved her and had married her, she took care of Byers and the other Gunmen along with the Byers' young children. They were perfectly safe here in this part of the warehouse complex, runes and wards protected them as they were protected by the magical world and the same people that protected Mulder.

"I am God!" Langly said in rolling back in his chair from the massive screens that took up the "hacking station" as he called it, "I got in!"

"You said that last week." Frohike replied, "all you found was a new porn site, not that I am complaining."

"Let's see." Byers said getting up from his desk and walking up to see what Langly had found, "I believe this is it, finally, you sure they cannot trace this back to us?"

"I am a wizard with hacking, no way do they know I am in." Langly said, "that is why it took me so long."

"It would be nice if we could put this in our paper." Frohike said, "any reason why we can't?"

"We would be dead the instant we did." Byers said, "make sure it is stored in the proper places, the truth will come out, maybe not today but it will come out."

"Operation fight the future coming up." Frohike replied.

The files that Langly was copying were far more extensive than what they had got from Kenneth Soona, he had been one of the best hackers but the hack into the DoD and into the Syndicate had got him killed. It had taken years for the Lone Gunmen to get this far, they had to make sure that the breach was not detected and that took time and effort. They were still on high alert as the Syndicate might still have a chance to track them down. After a few minutes and the red alert not called on the complex they were able to relax marginally. That is until Albert Hosteen Apparated into the Apparation point that was set up in the office getting the men to jump. Albert was, of course a wizard, and like most American Indian witches he did involve himself in muggle affairs, he had served in WWII as a code talker and then lived a quiet life as a healer medicine man on the Navajo reservation afterwards. There was a reason for this, most of the American Indian magical community believed in a great change on 12, 21, 2012. They were doing everything they could to make sure that it was a peaceful and good thing not the dark and evil that the Syndicate wanted to create.

"Sir don't do that!" Byers said.

"Yea nearly made me piss myself." Langly replied.

"I am sorry, but I believe you have found information." Hosteen said calmly, "my talking stone went off."

"Cool, well we are in and it looks like they have been doing a lot of really bad stuff." Langly said.

"Yea what is really bad is that this is blocked from the rest of the government." Frohike said, "which means we are looking at an inside job to take down the United States."

"That and the world, looks as if not all the government is rotten to the core." Byers said.

"True, I got word there is a cure found for the black oil." Hosteen said, "the mistakes made by the few can now be undone."

"I never did ask, why do you guys, magical Indians and all help us, I mean first you help in the Revolution, then set that storm on the British sacking Washington and all?" Langly asked, "after all we kinda took your lands and all."

"The storm was from God not us, but our story is sad. Long ago the first nations were great, they were good and kindly peoples who did not follow the ways of war or bloodshed." Hosteen said, "the lost ones were not lost, they fought a great war, lands once fertile were turned to dust and a great people fell. What your ancestors saw was the remnant of that great people, we magical of all the tribes pledged to protect these lands, to keep the mistakes of the past from being passed on. It is nearly too late with the Syndicate but we will fight on and continue to help."

"Wow, makes since." Langly said, "so let's get these guys."

Hosteen smiled, this is what he lived for, to fight evil no matter what and in every form. He did not hold to the dark and light nonsense much of the magical world did. That led to confusion, no he fought evil and followed good, the dark was to attractive and that made it hard for people to avoid the trap of evil. Call something that was evil, evil and not dark and the confusion was gone, or so he believed. He left the office and went to look for Suzanne and his two godchildren, Mark and Mary Byers. He knocked at the apartment door and Suzanne answered the door holding three year old Mary on her hip with Mark right by her. Her dark blond hair was cut around her chin and she was clad in jeans and tee shirt, as were her children. Hosteen picked up Mark who shouted in joy, yes children, the future of these children, of all children was the reason he kept fighting and made life all the more worthwhile.

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J Edgar Hoover Building, Washington DC, 01:12AM:

Walter Skinner was not in a good mood and he would have tore at his hair if he had more than a fridge of it left on his head. He was pacing the secure office he used when he made his video calls looking very intimidating indeed. It was not hard for him, he was in his late forties but was still powerfully built man with tanned sculpted body under his long sleeved shirt and tie, navy trousers and polished shows. His eyes were hard as flint behind his small round glasses and he was glaring at the mixed group of FBI agents, Magical Military Police (MMP), witches and wizards on the other end of the line. He did not have a long time to talk, even with something called Technomancy creating this feed they had to be super careful as who knew if the Syndicate might be able to breech it? They were not going to allow that to happen if they could prevent it.

"There has to be a better way!" Skinner snapped.

"I would have thought you as a muggle would not care what happened to a wizard." Lucius replied, "besides I can created the distraction needed."

"And if it goes wrong?" Skinner asked, "what then?"

"We still have destroyed the bloody thing." Lucius replied. "I think I know my enemy now sir."

"John you going to allow this?" Skinner asked.

"As much as I don't like it this seems the only way, I will be there, along with a squad of soldiers." Doggett replied, "just like old times, should be fun."

"Fine, but we are going with plausible deniability." Skinner replied.

"Would not have it any other way sir." Doggett replied on the other end.

The connection ended and Skinner remained in the room for a few minutes. He left, took a set of secret stairs up to his office and entered to sit at his desk just as his favorite person in the world came into the room. Skinner did not look up as he started to look through his paperwork, he wondered what the smoking bastard wanted now. He did look up when CSM took a seat and lit up, this despite the no smoking sign on Skinner's desk. Skinner really did not like this man at all, but he had his part to play and he hoped in the end it was enough. He wondered how much CSM knew or guessed, this cat and mouse game could get quite trying, maybe he should have shot him a few months back. It would have, after all saved him a lot of grief now.

"I just got word that Mulder and Scully along with Doggett are in England." CSM said, "any idea why?"

"I told you to let me take care of Krycek." Skinner said, "this is his doing."

"How is that?" CSM said taking a long drag on his cigarette. "I have no idea where Krycek is, if I did do you think I would let him live?"

"He captured an English business man, a noble." Skinner replied, "this has gone far beyond his killing and stealing, I told them to go to England."

"Not very smart, I understand there is a congressional hearing on this matter as we speak." CSM said the threat out in the open.

"Good I would be more than happy to testify."

Skinner looked up to see the last person he really wanted to see, Phoebe Green. Oh she was a good agent as any, a great detective but she it was clear what she wanted from him, a one night stand. That was not going to happen, sure she was pretty and all with long red hair, dressed in a European cut woman's suit that fit her curves very well. However if she was here than things were going to hell and fast. She was here to clean up the mess that his agents had left behind and he was not happy about this at all. CSM took the disgruntled look on his face as dislike of the English woman and he very nearly smiled. He knew detective Green, she was brilliant in her field and if things were different he would give Krycek up to her.

"I have no idea where Alex Krycek is." CSM said blowing smoke out, "if I did I certainly would not harbor him."

"He created an international incident with his torture and attempted murder of one of the peerage," Green said, "you might not like nobles over here but where I come from an attack on one such as Lucius Malfoy is very personal. You can have your bloody hearing but I intend in speaking there."

"I see, well if you do find Alex let me know, I would love to speak with him." CSM said getting up and leaving the office.

Green looked over at Skinner, words did not need to be said, they both knew that CSM was lying. They had greater worries now, well Skinner did, he wondered just how Phoebe Green planned on cleaning up this mess. Last time she had managed to get that fire setting psychopath to die of a heart attack and he was hoping there would be no bodies after this visit to have to explain away.

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Liverpool, England, March 1, 11:32PM:

Two men, stood on board the oil tanker Raven Harbor, they were on guard, oil was very valuable after all and one could not leave such a cargo unguarded even in a well lit and guarded port. They were eating sandwiches and soda as there was not much else to do. They heard a whimper and saw a shaggy black dog on the dock, this was not uncommon, stray dogs could always be found around ports along with cats. This one was a beauty though and huge, one of the men motioned to the dog who, whimpering it made its way up the stairs to the deck of the ship. It sat watching the men as they ate and they were amused at how brave this dog was to come up here, it was clear he had belonged to someone as he had a sleek well cared for coat.

"You are a brave pup aren't ya?" Bob, one of the men said throwing a bit of sandwich to the dog who gobbled it down, "what is one like you doing down here?"

"Too many people get rid of their dogs, just drop them off and leave them." Rick the other man said throwing some chips to the dog who caught them in mid air and downed them, "well he is a smart one then isn't he?"

"Guess he can stay, you want to stay boy?"

The dog smiled and sat down by the men, what they did not know is this was no ordinary dog. This was Sirius Black and as an Animagmus he had come to deliver the cure. Of course this was supposed to be the job of one Lucius Malfoy, should have been but Sirius had stunned him and took his place. Lucius thought he could just Apparate in and drop the cure in, but Sirius believed if the black oil was sentient it would expect this. Which was why he was here in dog form, he could deliver the potion and act like a dog until the coast was clear for him to leave. He walked from the men nose to the deck "exploring" much to the amusement of the men. He entered the ship and turned human in a corner and finding the main delivery pipe to deliver the cure. He turned back into a dog and just in time as Alex Krycek walked around the corner.

"What are you doing here?" Krycek said bending down to let the dog sniff his hand, "you don't belong here."

Neither do you. Padfoot thought letting Krycek pet him not fair you a dog person.

"Come on, let's get you back on the deck." Krycek said.

Padfoot followed him and took the food gently from Bob's hand that was given him. He stayed on the ship for a few hours, relaxing by the men, then just before dawn he trotted down the stairs leaving behind three amused men. Padfoot headed into the city, down an ally and turned human then Apparated back to the gates of Hogwarts. He headed in and saw Lucius heading down the stairs. At once he had his wand out at the same time as Lucius, yet before they could get into a wand battle the headmaster walked down the stairs and looked from one man to the other getting them to holster their wands.

"It's done." Sirius said.

"I hate you." Lucius snarled.

"Well I am a Black, you are just a weak little Frenchman." Sirius taunted.

"How dare you! I am as English as you!" Lucius snarled.

"Though this is entertaining I do not think my students need to see bloodshed on such a fine day." Dumbledore said, "have breakfast then we will talk in my office."

The men did as he asked and headed to his office. Of course even with the cure doing its job there was still one more thing that had to be done, and that was bring in Alex Krycek and Marita Covarrubias, they were far too deadly to allow them to stay on the run ruining lives. Lucius was still mad at Sirius but deep inside he knew Sirius had been right in what he did.

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Yes I aware that things are moving very fast here. However as in real life this can happen, months even years of little to no progress and a day or a few of progress is sometimes the norm. Even with the cure for the black oil, which can destroy the clones there are still the super soldiers to deal with and the faceless rebels.

Anyway do please review!