Here's section 1 of DDII

Brenna "Snakelady" Dawkins

Lonegunmen
"Direct Deposit"

~Lonegunmen characters-Frohike, Langly, Byers, and Kimmy and X-Files characters-Agents Mulder and Scully I've based this story upon are all owned and copywrited by Chris Carter and this story is not sanctioned in any way, shape, or form by Chris Carter. These characters are used without permission and without profit on my part. Rated PG.~

Chapter II:
Melvin the Terrible

"Perhaps, before we get into all of this," General Andrew's began, "you should show them your little trick. It will be easier to communicate with you and you will be less intimidating."

The giant blue head nodded and Skymouth said, "Perhaps you are right. But only if I will be allowed to assist them. On the outside?"

There was hesitation from the General's side. He gave her a long, considering look as the Lone Gunmen stood around looking confused. Finally, the General nodded his acceptance of the proposal and a happy chirp came out of the dragon.

Frohike looked over his shoulder to ask her, "What's going on?"

To which Skymouth replied, "If all of you will turn around, then you will find out."

They followed her suggestion and waited with a curious expectation. A brilliant, silver glow filled her eyes and eventually enveloped her entire, massive scaled body. In a blinding flash, her form shrunk down and with suddenness like the winking out of a blown flame, the light disappeared. Where the dragon once stood, was now a young human female. She was naked and would have had the most supple looking skin the Lone Gunmen had ever seen if it hadn't been for the interlacing of horrifying looking battle scars all over her body. Skymouth opened her blue eyes and with a beautiful grin, opened her arms and put her human body on display for Frohike, Byers, and Langly to inspect.

"My God!" Byers gasped, "You're Candace William's?" He had recognized her face from the photos instantly.

Langly, for a change, was totally speechless as he gaped in wonder at this being that stood before them, bearing all to them proudly without being restricted by the normal sense of human morals to inhibit such behavior. He saw the computer cord was still connected behind her left ear.

Frohike didn't see her body, per se. He was scrutinizing her old wounds. Many looked like teeth marks, deep punctures that must have been painful. Others looked like multiple lines tracing a long runway of pain down her skin in various places. Claw marks, he supposed. The marks started at the base of her neck down her front and on her upper arms and thighs. He imagined that her poor back looked just as lacerated as the front. He also saw the tell tale signs of a healing Y-incision cut across her chest. It was true then, they were cutting her up.

"It is an old trick I learned from my Great Uncle in the Caucasian Mountains." Skymouth/Candace spoke with her human voice and the computer remained silent.

Frohike found his own voice once more, "What shall we call you? Skymouth or Candace?"

"Candace in my human form, Skymouth in my dragon form, or when I must use my dragon name to pull some weight with certain humans while I am human. Sometimes humans tend to forget what I am in this form and some need rude reminders."

Langly managed to say, "I don't see how I could forget this."

She grinned and pulled the cord out from behind her ear, "I believe you gentlemen owe me some cheeseburgers!"

Any lingering doubts as to whom this person was vanished for Frohike when she said that. He sighed, just when he thought he'd seen everything after hanging out with Agents Mulder and Scully and the fearless Lone Gunmen, something else reared its head promising more to come. He eyed her red and white scars once again, a whole lot more.

They were driving down a long span of Virginian road in their van. A fully clothed Candace shared the front seat with Byers who was at the wheel and a slightly uncomfortable Frohike in the middle. Langly was setting up their monitoring system in the back. Silence prevailed. Candace had instructed them on where they should begin their search for Avery. Langly hacked into the Skylab Satellite system and proceeded to try to pin point Avery's location via computer.

Frohike pressed Candace on something that had been bugging him, "Okay. So, how is it that you've been able to keep dragons a secret for over five thousand years?"

Candace answered him, as candidly as she could, "It hadn't been easy. The transformation trick has saved me more times than I care to mention."

It was Byers turn to ask a question, "So, why do you have a contract with the Vatican and the Department of Defense?"

Candace was straightforward about it, "In 1490, during the Inquisition, the Grand Inquisitor Torquemada and his groupies captured me while I was in my true form. They brought me closer to death than anyone had before. They allowed me to live if only I agreed to do their bidding. Worse than making a deal with the Devil, in my opinion, which, of course is all hindsight now. It was of their opinion that I was pretty much indestructible. So, I signed a contract with the Pope and during this century, the Pope has loaned me to the Pentagon for study."

Frohike, not sure if he would regret asking or not, "Okay, so, what's keeping you from breaking your contract now? You could waste them easier than I could crush an aluminum can with one hand. One snap of the jaws, munch down on some humans and then disappear."

"The thought had crossed my mind." Candace admitted slowly as if deciding on just what to tell them, "But, I don't know, there is something about you humans Sawtooth the Red and the others whom are left think I'm crazy, but I find your species intriguing. I've been studying your kind for several thousand years now and I STILL haven't figured you out yet."

Frohike rolled his eyes, "Yeah, well, we humans are funny that way."

"Oh, I meant it as a compliment, I assure you. You are always evolving. If only you could see yourselves from my perspective. It is like the lion watching the wildebeest, and discovering that the wildebeest has grown smarter than the lion."

"We being the wildebeest." Langly grunted, "Cheerful thought."

Candace shrugged, "That's how it is. I have eaten whole armies of people. Why, back in Ancient Egypt, they thought I was a Goddess and sacrificed droves of their kind to me. Of course, I was a fledgling back then and had let it all go to my head. But I'm not that way anymore. Young and angry now I study you and find it a more rewarding experience for me."

"Lucky for us wildebeest." Langly replied blandly.

"Langly." Byers warned. They had a dragon riding with them. Who knew what it would take for her to go ballistic and kill the lot of them. Besides, Langly's response was kind of uncalled for.

Candace shook her head, "It's alright. I can understand. A race whom was used to being on top of the food chain usually finds it unsettling to discover it is on one of the lower rungs of the ladder."

The computer beeped.

"What is it?" Byers asked over his shoulder.

"We homed in on him." Langly swung back to the monitor and checked out the situation. "I've got his current coordinates. Candace was right. He's in Egypt."

Frohike sighed, "Well, that's just great! I'll just pull a couple of thousand dollars that we have collecting dust under our mattresses and we're off to the Great Desert!"

Missing his sarcasm totally, Candace then said, "There's no need to do that when I've my own plane. We'll take that."

Byers spared her a funny look, "You have a plane? Why?"

"Well, I don't suppose you boys would rather ride dragonback all the way to Africa? I mean, I've never had passengers before, but I don't think that would be too comfortable for you. I've flown that distance before with no problem, but." She let her voice trail off, "Oh, Egypt. They couldn't have."

"What's so important about Egypt?" Langly asked.

The look on her face wasn't pleasant and Frohike stirred uncomfortably as he felt some strange kind of, well, the only way he could describe it, was power. He felt like he'd been slightly shocked. Like some of her inner power leaked out of her somehow and pulsed through his body for just a moment and thought she must be angry.

'Great,' Frohike thought, 'I'll be the first to die when she goes all dragony on us and decides to eat us.'

"The Nursery is there, our kinds Nesting Grounds. But I've not told anyone where it is. What if they've somehow discovered?" The horror in her voice was hard to take.

"Well," Frohike said thoughtfully, "they must have found out by some means."

Langly jumped up into a squatting position just behind Frohike an idea dawning, "Hey, maybe someone hacked their way into your brain, downloaded your thoughts, memories and THAT'S how they discovered your nesting place thingy?"

"No, I should know if someone was trying to get into my head." Candace felt sick at the thought. But what Langly suggested made since. The ones who developed the technology to hardwire her brain would have no trouble at all in making a few modifications she wouldn't know about, such as accessing her memory store base. After all, the brain was like a computer. It downloaded information, scanned what it needed for the moment and stored the rest of the information until it needed it for another time. "Let us hope I am jumping to conclusions. We also have a secret compound there. I should call my people in the Baath house and send them over to check it out."

"The Baath house?" Byers was aghast, "You associate with Saddam Hussein's people?"

Candace was not apologetic, "They were the only one's who gave me refuge at a time when I needed it most even after knowing what I was. This was long before Saddam was born, but I still feel a certain loyalty to the family. I know some of what I tell you may be unpalatable but there are times when you can't choose your friends. Besides, I don't feel any real loyalty to the United States. I'm not really a citizen of any country to tell you the truth. Dragons tend to be wanderers."

"We've heard you've a castle in Italy." Langly interjected from behind.

"Oh, yes, well, Davinci left me his castle in his will. I really just use it for storage space. Dragons tend to collect stuff and I have a lot of stuff." Was her reply.

"Well, dragons and castles go kind of hand in hand, at least that's what all the fairytales I've ever heard have said." Frohike muttered. He still felt uncomfortable. Here they were, shooting the breeze with, go on and say it, Frohike, an honest to God fire breathing dragon. "But I never even attempted to believe any of it. My mistake."

Candace chuckled, "Yes, those stories are misleading for a reason. If your kind was made to believe that we were only a myth, then we wouldn't have any fear of being hunted by a dragonslayer."

Langly shook his head disbelieving, "You guys made all that stuff up, a plant to throw humans off your scent! Who'd've guessed that fairytales were conspiracies! Clever."

"You humans have added on to the fairytales of course. Very imaginatively too. And very gullible." Candace added with a smile playing on her lips. Vatican forbid, but she liked the Lone Gunmen. She could smell their fear and admired them for controlling it enough to chat seemingly in a normal way. Frohike, though, seemed most affected by her. He was terrified of her. She sighed quietly. She knew this might happen if she was to show herself to them. But it happened all the time. Most humans, however, never lived to tell about her existence. After watching their actions closely over the years, she liked to think she knew them. But humans were still so strange to her that she didn't think she'd EVER understand them completely.

"So, where are we going then?" Byers asked.

"Back to DC. My plane's there, you don't even have to pack anything, I can buy all you need once we get to Egypt." Candace said returning her gaze out of the passenger window.

Frohike sighed, "How did you acquire King Tut?"

Candace shrugged, "I knew the man; a horrible way to die. Very generous towards an ever living Goddess such as I was."

"Goddess? Which one?" Langly asked conversationally.

"Isis. They thought that feathered wings were more esthetic than dragon's wings. Goddess of life and death." Candace said monotonously.

"Not a bad occupation." Frohike commented.

Candace snorted, "More like the Goddess of Death. I used my anger to manipulate those with all the power. They would hold great feasts in my honor." She continued with the honest shame she felt seeping through her words. "They would give me hoards of their slaves and transgressors of their law, put them in a huge corral, and I would swoop down on them from my perch atop one of the gold tipped pyramids and pick them off, one by one. I hated humans then. For a long time I honestly thought humans were vermin and I did my best to control the numbers. But but I don't believe that anymore." And her voice, now a hollow thing, trailed off into that place of memories you wish you had no way to revive.