SCENE 23
TEXAS-NEW MEXICO BORDER
5:07 AM
(The SUV driven by MULDER makes it was down the road. It pulls off to the side.)
(MULDER cuts the engine, leans toward SCULLY who is sleeping and gently kisses her cheek. He gets out of the car.)
(MULDER unzips his pants and relieves himself, when ...)
FROHIKE: Hey, hot shot! You might have the common courtesy of doing your business there downwind.
MULDER: Oh, boy.
LANGLY: Why don't you just finish draining the little lizard and then we'll talk?
BYERS: We're very worried about you.
FROHIKE: It's craziness, man. Turn around.
LANGLEY: Just hang a big U-ie and never look back.
MULDER: I can't.
BYERS: Why risk perfect happiness, Mulder? Why risk your lives?
MULDER: Because I need to know the truth.
BYERS: You already know the truth.
(MULDER thinks about that one for a moment. When he responds, its with complete honesty at what he's really doing there.)
MULDER: I need to know if I can change it.
LANGLY: Change it?
FROHIKE: For crying out loud. All you're going to do is get yourself killed.
(From behind him, SCULLY got out of the car to look for MULDER.)
SCULLY: Mulder! What are you doing?
MULDER: I'll be right with you, Scully.
(They both get back into the car.)
CUT TO:
(Day. The road they're driving on will soon end at a hidden pueblo carved into the side of a mountain.)
(MULDER stops the car. They both get out. SCULLY looks around.)
SCULLY: What are they?
MULDER: Pueblos. Anasazi Indian. Abandoned 2,000 years ago. Nobody knows why.
SCULLY: Yeah, Mulder, but what are we doing here?
(MULDER points high to the window of a ruin along the way. There's smoking coming out from the window. Someone is there.)
(MULDER heads off in that direction. SCULLY follows. They both begin to climb up to meet the Keeper of the Truth.)
CUT TO:
(Inside on of the pueblos. An old Indian woman tends to the fire. MULDER and SCULLY enter the area where she lives.)
MULDER: Hello. My name is Fox Mulder. Do you understand me?
(The old woman looks at MULDER. Without a word, she rises from her chair and pushes the cloth curtain back and disappears behind it.
(SCULLY moves up from behind MULDER and passes him bringing her closer to the curtain. She turns around to look at MULDER.)
SCULLY: Mulder, what is it?
MULDER: I was sent a message and a key to the government facility at Mount Weather. The Indians said it was from a wise man who lived in the ruins: A Keeper of the Truth.
CUT TO:
(REYES and DOGGETT are traveling by helicopter above, doing a visual search for MULDER and SCULLY based upon the information given to them by GIBSON PRAISE.)
REYES: Do you see anything at all?
(DOGGETT shakes his head and continues to scan the grounds below.)
CUT TO:
SCENE 24
(Cave entrance. MULDER and SCULLY make their way through the narrow passageway at the mouth of the cave. They're led there by the old Indian Woman. At the end where it opens up into a living space, an old white-haired man sits there waiting for them.)
(MULDER enters first followed by SCULLY.)
CSM: What's the matter, Agent Mulder?
(CSM / C.G.B. SPENDER takes a drag of the cigarette through the hole in his trachea.)
CSM: You come to see the wise man but you look as if you've seen a ghost.
MULDER: You're no wise man. You're a dead man. Just like Krycek and X.
CSM: You see a dead man, Agent Scully?
SCULLY: I hoped and prayed you were dead you chain-smoking, son of a bitch.
(MULDER looks more than a little shocked to see CSM still alive.)
CSM: You waste your time. Ask Mulder. He knows the futility of hopes and prayers. He knows the truth now.
(SCULLY looks confused at what CSM'S saying. CSM zeroes in on this immediately and begins to exploit it as he's done so many times before.)
CSM: You have told her the truth haven't you, Fox? I helped you find it.
MULDER: You didn't help me. You sent me to that government facility knowing exactly what I'd find.
CSM: And now you refuse to speak it. Not to Scully, not to anyone. You've even refused to testify what you learned ... even though it would have saved your life. You damned me for my secrets ... but you're afraid to speak the truth.
(CSM takes another drag from his cigarette.)
MULDER: You call me afraid? Look at you sitting here alone in the dark like a fossil.
(CSM exhales a puff of smoke around him.)
CSM: It's the final refuge. The last place to hide from those who are insidiously taking power now.
SCULLY: Who?
CSM: The aliens. They fear this place ... its geology. Magnetite. Like that which brought down the original UFO in Roswell. Indian wise men realized this over 2,000 years ago. They hid here and watched their own culture die. The Original Shadow Government.
CUT TO:
SCENE 25
(Outside the pueblos. The helicopter (#N218SS) carrying DOGGETT and REYES land outside the Anasazi Pueblos. They've found MULDER and SCULLY'S SUV. They both get out of the helicopter and it takes off leaving them there.)
(REYES sees an ominous-looking black SUV make its way toward them. There's a lone driver in it.)
REYES: Agent Doggett!
DOGGETT: Who the hell's that?
(It's KNOWLE ROHRER. DOGGETT and REYES both look worried as the dead man lives once again.)
CUT TO:
SCENE 26
(Back inside the pueblo, CSM takes a drag from his cigarette.)
CSM: It leaves me to tell you what Mulder's afraid to, Agent Scully.
MULDER: Come on, let's go.
(SCULLY doesn't budge,)
CSM: It's a scary story. You want to come sit on my lap?
SCULLY: You don't scare me.
CSM: My story's scared every president since Truman in '47.
MULDER: You don't have to hear this.
SCULLY: No, I want to hear it, Mulder.
CSM: Ten centuries ago the Mayans were so afraid that their calendar stopped on the exact date that my story begins. December 22, the year 2012. The date of the final alien invasion. Mulder can confirm the date. He saw it at Mount Weather ... ...where our own "Secret Government" will be hiding when it all comes down.
(SCULLY looks at MULDER. He doesn't take his eyes off of CSM. CSM has a wild glint in his eye - almost a crazed look.)
MULDER: Yeah, you smile ... feeling drunk with power. The power to do nothing.
CSM: My power comes from telling you. Seeing your powerlessness hearing it. They wanted to kill you, Fox. I protected you all these years ... waiting for this moment ... to see you broken. Afraid.
(MULDER lifts his head and schools his features to reveal nothing.)
CSM: Now you can die.
CUT TO:
SCENE 27
(Two heavily armed black ops helicopters are flying low along the roadway head to the Anasazi Pueblos.)
CUT BACK TO:
SCENE 28
(Outside the pueblos, KNOWLE ROHRER advances on DOGGETT and REYES who continue to back up slowly. Soon they won't have any room to back up anymore. DOGGETT reaches for his gun. REYES reaches for hers. They both hold it on ROHRER knowing full well that it'll be useless.)
DOGGETT: Run, Monica. Get out of here.
REYES : No.
(DOGGETT glances at REYES, accepting her decision to stand next to him.)
DOGGETT (to ROHRER): Knowle Rohrer. That's far enough.
(ROHRER continues to advance. An arrogant smugness about him.)
ROHRER: Shoot me, Agent Doggett, if you think it'll make a difference this time.
(DOGGETT fires. The bullet harmlessly hits ROHRER in the chest. He continues to stand there with the smugness about him.)
(DOGGETT and REYES both continue to back up as KNOWLE ROHRER continues to advance toward them.)
(They've run out of room behind them. ROHRER, on the other hand, has also stopped advancing. In fact, he seems to be struggling to move forward. A confused look on his face.)
(DOGGETT lowers his weapon. Something is happening to ROHRER. He's starting to spasm, He lifts his arms, unable to control their shaking. Black metallic oxidation appears on the skin under his arms and rapidly spreads.)
(DOGGETT and REYES watch as the metal within ROHRER becomes the metal without. ROHRER looks afraid. When the metal completely covers his exterior, ROHRER is sucked into the rocks. DOGGETT pushes REYES out of ROHRER'S path.)
(ROHRER smashes into the rock. REYES looks completely shocked at what she just witnessed.)
MULDER: Agent Doggett!
(Both MULDER and SCULLY appear outside the second level doorway.)
DOGGETT: Mulder, get out of there!
REYES: They know where you are!
CUT TO:
(The two black helicopters continue their path to the ruins. We see they are both very heavily armed.)
CUT BACK TO:
(DOGGETT and REYES climb into MULDER and SCULLY'S vehicle and drive it closer to MULDER and SCULLY as they make their way down the ruins.)
(MULDER runs alongside their vehicle as they approach. DOGGETT stops the car.)
MULDER: Get out of here!
DOGGETT: Get in the car.
MULDER: No!
(DOGGETT looks a little confused. They don't have much time. MULDER tells them again to leave.)
MULDER: (insistent) Go! Go!
(MULDER and SCULLY both run to the other vehicle at the site. The vehicle left behind by KNOWLE ROHRER. DOGGETT takes off.)
CUT TO:
(The helicopters are rapidly approaching the site. They're still not in view of the ruins.)
CUT BACK TO:
(MULDER and SCULLY get in the abandoned vehicle and take off in a different direction from DOGGETT and REYES. They disappear from their view around the hill.)
CUT TO:
(The helicopters round the mountain side. MULDER and SCULLY barely escape detection. The helicopters position themselves across the ruins.)
CUT TO:
(The old Indian Woman inside the pueblo panics as her pots and pans rattle at the disturbance. The helicopters hover just outside her window.)
(They fire missile after missile aimed at the ruins, destroying them whole sections at a time in fiery explosions.)
(The old Indian Woman screams.)
CUT TO:
(CSM sits inside his final "refuge", a cigarette in his hand.)
(The pueblos explode with each missile fired. The ancient stones crumble to the ground. Fire burns what little there is to burn.)
(The black helicopters swing around and hover just outside the old Indian Woman's windows. A dreamcatcher hangs from the window with the black helicopter in its sites.)
(Another missile is fired and another portion of the ruins destroyed.)
(Inside, CSM takes a last drag from his cigarette. He throws the remainder on the ground.)
(Outside, in perfect positions, the black helicopter hovers. A final missile is fired finding its intended target. The corridor and the cave fill with fire consuming the once-powerful man within.)
(The pueblos explode. Missiles upon missiles are fired until the entire mountainside is decimated. Their mission complete, the helicopters turn around and fly off into the horizon.)
CUT TO:
SCENE 29
ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO
(Night. Outside a motel room, it's raining. Thunder rumbles. )
(Inside, MULDER is sitting on the floor, leaning back against the bed and his head resting back.)
SCULLY (o.s.): What are you thinking?
(MULDER is silent. Thoughtful.)
SCULLY: Mulder?
MULDER: I'm thinking ... I'm a guilty man. I've failed in every respect. I deserve the harshest punishment for my crimes.
SCULLY: (softly) You don't believe that.
(Mulder sighs.)
MULDER: I believe that I sat in a motel room like this with you when we first met and I tried to convince you of the truth. And in that respect, I succeeded, but ... in every other way ...
(MULDER turns to look at SCULLY)
MULDER: ... I've failed.
SCULLY: You don't believe that, either.
MULDER: Mmmm.
MULDER: I've been chasing after monsters with a butterfly net. You heard the man - the date's set. I can't change that.
SCULLY: You wouldn't tell me. Not because you were afraid or broken .... but because you didn't want to accept defeat.
MULDER: Well, I was afraid of what knowing would do to you.
(MULDER turns to look at SCULLY and confesses one of his greatest fears.)
MULDER: I was afraid that it would crush your spirit.
SCULLY: Why would I accept defeat? Why would I accept it, if you won't? Mulder, you say that you've failed but you only fail if you give up. And I know you -- you can't give up. It's what I saw in you when we first met. It's what made me follow you ... why I'd do it all over again.
MULDER: And look what it's gotten you.
SCULLY: And what has it gotten you? Not your sister. Nothing that you've set out for. But you won't give up, even now.
(SCULLY reaches out and takes hold of MULDER'S hand in a firm grip.)
SCULLY: You've always said that you want to believe. But believe in what Mulder? If this is the truth that you've been looking for then what is left to believe in?
MULDER: I want to believe that the dead are not lost to us. That they speak to us as part of something greater than us - greater than any alien force. And if you and I are powerless now, I want to believe that if we listen to what's speaking, it can give us the power to save ourselves.
SCULLY: Then we believe the same thing.
(SCULLY watches MULDER intently . MULDER looks like he Believes. SCULLY smiles at MULDER. MULDER reaches over and lightly picks up SCULLY'S cross. He reaches up and caresses her lips.)
(MULDER gets off of the floor and settles himself in bed next to SCULLY. He wraps himself around her, so that they are now holding each other closely.)
MULDER: (whispers) Maybe there's hope.
[Fade to black]
[THE *END*]
