Subject: D&D Cartoon On-Line Fan Club Newsletter Spring 1999 -- Part 6!
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 14:56:34 EST


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Players
by Maureen S. O?Brien
This story is rated either G or PG-13. It begins in 1997; Scully has
recently learned she has cancer. Hope you like it!
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Part 7: The Mirror of Ages

"....I always felt like such an alien myself, that to be concerned
with aliens from other planets...that just seemed so...uh...
redundant."

-- Jose Chung, "Jose Chung's _From Outer Space_", The X-Files.

There was a gate to Earth. Sheila had seen it. The thought thrummed
through all their minds.

"Don't forget to be specific," said Eric. "Very specific. Don't
fiddle with the twiddle. And check the whatchamacallit...the poetry
thing...oh, you know what I mean."

Mulder looked up. "The scansion?"

"That's right, the scansion. And relax. Be confident. No pressure.
We're only gonna die or not get home if this doesn't work."

"Yeah, right," said Presto. "Any more helpful advice, Eric?"

"Yeah. Don't screw this up, and be ready to run."

"Gee, thanks."

"Don't mention it." Eric clapped Presto on the shoulder before
he turned to go. "Don't worry. You'll do fine."

Sheila was being a little too slow putting on her hazmat suit,
thought Scully. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"You'll think it's silly."

"Try me. I'm a doctor and an FBI agent, and I've heard just about
everything. I wouldn't laugh at you."

"It's the suits," Sheila said. "I stole them. And I know it shouldn't
bother me, because we had to have them, but...it's just not right.
They don't belong to us."

Scully thought for a moment. "Actually, they probably do."

"What?"

"These are government-issue hazmat suits," she said quietly. "The
taxpayers paid for these, and the Consortium siphoned off the money
into one of their black budget programs to buy them. Either way, I
think we have a perfect right to use our own property."

Sheila looked doubtful.

"But if it helps, as an FBI agent I believe I have the right to
commandeer these suits for use in a current investigation, and I am
hereby doing so."

Sheila smiled. "Thanks, Dana. I feel much better now." Her smile
faded. "I just wish I could help Bobby."

"You gotta stay here, Uni," Bobby said determinedly. "Dungeon Master
says you can't go home with us."

Uni meh'd coaxingly. It almost sounded as if she'd said, "Aw, c'mon."

"It's not the kind of place you'd like, girl," Bobby tried to explain.
"There aren't a lot of forests and stuff. Well, except in the national
parks and stuff, and I don't know if you'd like that."

Uni meh'd disdainfully, indicating her present surroundings were not
exactly paradise for unicorns.

"I know, I know." Bobby sighed. "I wish I'd been able to do more for
you."

She looked up at him, her eyes filling with affection. "Meh!" He had
done more than enough by loving her.

"I don't wanna leave you, either, Uni." He buried his head in the
little unicorn's neck, hiding his tears in the short orange silk of
her mane. Her sweet breath warmed his back.

If either of them had been a little older, they might have looked for
words to define the love that ran between them, deep and unconditional
as that of a boy and his dog. But they were both intelligent beings,
and they had endured this final parting before.  That only made it
deeper and sadder.

Mulder turned away and found Scully by his side. "Some journeys have
to be made alone," she said quietly. "Just like some decisions."

"Then let me know that you've made one," he said just as quietly.
"I...I don't react well to surprises."

The boy released the unicorn, scrubbing his hand over his face, and
found that all eyes were on him and Uni. "What are you guys looking
at?" he demanded hostilely.

Sheila said nothing as she walked toward her little brother with his
hazmat suit in her arms.

Presto was having a final word with the cloud elementals. "If we
don't come back in five hours, then either we've been captured or
we're not coming back. Either way, you're free as soon as you get
Uni across the Flaming Plain. If we do come back within that time,
you'll be free as soon as all of us get across the Flaming Plain."
He scuffed his foot. "Are you sure there isn't anything we could do
to pay you back for all your help?"

"There is nothing," they assured him. "But you have given us a
good tale to tell at home, o wizard Presto."

Presto looked down at Uni as the cloud elementals rose back up into
position. "Why did that tone of voice make me think he thinks it'll
be a funny story?"

Uni meh'd innocently. She almost kept a unicornish straight face.

Great.

"Well, that's one job done," said Presto. "Now for the hard part."
He sighed. "It's nothing, he says. No pressure, he says." He took a
deep breath and took off his hat. "Well, here goes nothing," he
said under his breath, as he began to make a few passes over the hat.

"Abracazoyz, abracazair!
Smoke up the valley while we are down there!
Pull down the smoke clouds above us like fog,
'Cause otherwise I'm gonna be a dead dog."

Having been given good directions for once, the hat did exactly as
it was told. The smoke clouds always filling the sky above the
Flaming Plain sunk obediently into the valley, while the party,
securely ensconced in their hazmat suits, watched complacently.

Uni started coughing.

"Hey!  Do something about Uni!" Bobby demanded, his voice slightly
muffled by the suit's headgear.

"All right, all right!" said Presto, coughing a little himself.

"Magical hat, I know this sounds loony,
But make a smoke shield that stays around Uni!"

As he spoke and twiddled, he made sure to visualize what he wanted
as clearly as possible. And what do you know? He actually got it. A
greyish forcefield appeared around Uni, which seemed to form a barrier
to smoke but not to air. Uni danced forward and back, and the shield
followed her. Judiciously, she nodded her approval. Presto got in his
hazmat suit, and they were finally ready to go.

"The smoke looks thick enough," Hank said. "Let's move out. Sheila,
you tell us where to go. Everybody stay close together, or we'll
lose each other in the smoke. And don't forget to carry the weapons
like they're artifacts we've found."

The plan worked well at first. Maybe too well, Hank thought later. It
may have made them all a little over-confident when they so easily
snuck past the Consortium guards in the smoke. But they had duly
observed all the precautions that years of trouble had drilled into
them, and home was calling, easy and close at hand.

Even the tents and huts that the Consortium had erected among the
strange metal towers of the valley spoke to them, telling a tale of
a more familiar technology than magic in the humblest things:
trash cans, pop cans, crumpled papers, and a discarded burger bag.

So they walked through the smoke unchallenged, passed down the
makeshift tent corridors as if they belonged there, until they stood
before a large dome tent of gleaming white and heard a strange
whirring from within, and glimpsed a bit of oddly colored light.

"This is it," said Sheila quietly.

"On three, then," said Hank, and reminded them, "Act normal unless
they challenge us. One, two, three...." Hank opened the door.

The tent was full of white-suited people with guns in their hands
and goggles on their faces.

He'd led them into a trap.

Hank closed the door and scrambled out of the way. Seconds later,
gunfire tore the door apart. By then, the Young Ones were well on
their way down a corridor of tents, and holding their weapons the
way they'd been designed.

"There's more behind us," Diana hissed. "Those goggles?"

"Ultraviolet...." Scully explained.

"We'll do our best to shake them," Hank said. "Stay close!"  He
abruptly vanished between a couple of tents.  They followed. But all
around them, they could hear more people moving in the smoke.

More guns spoke, and Eric held up his shield, and then Hank fired
his bow. The sudden burst of light half-blinded those wearing goggles,
and the group ran while they could, and quietly. But already they
heard others following and searching.

Another sudden blast of gunfire. It hit a tower about two hundred
yards away, but they decided it was time to zigzag down another
alley. Unfortunately, they ran into yet another band of searchers,
only some of whom were wearing goggles. Eric's shield protected them
yet again, but Hank had to wonder how long their luck would last.
He looked uneasily back at Dana. Her sword was out and ready, and
both she and Mulder looked even more expressionless than usual.

Great. Even they were worried.

"We need a spell, Presto. Something disabling guns would be nice,"
Hank requested.

"I'm working on it," Presto replied. He sounded preoccupied. Hank
didn't argue.

"We're outnumbered," Eric pointed out. "And those goons don't need
bullets to make our lives unpleasant."

"We can't let our weapons fall into their hands," Scully panted
quietly.

"We can't let _us_ fall into their hands," Mulder pointed out as
they trotted through another group of tents. "They'll never let us
go. Not when we could warning people in the Realm or on Earth about
this foothold of multiversal imperialism."

Then Diana pointed up in the sky. "Something's coming in through the
smoke."

Hank led them into a convenient tower doorway, from which they all
peered anxiously.

"I hope it's the cavalry," puffed Presto under his breath.

"Well, there's good news and bad news," murmured Eric. "Good news is,
it's cavalry all right."

Diana snorted. "Bad news is, the horse has red eyes and big wings."

Bobby started. "Veng--mmph!"

Sheila's hand went over his mouth. "SHHH!"

"Mmph," he whispered, nodding, and Sheila removed her hand.

It was too late. Venger had heard them and was flying toward them.
They left the doorway and ducked down a covered alley, but they could
hear Venger and the hellhorse flying above.

And yet the situation did have its advantages. When yet another group
of Consortium fighters commenced fire, Venger disposed of them with
a few lightning bolts.

"Crispy, extra-crispy or rotisserie?" Mulder asked Scully.

"Just run, Mulder!"

They came at last to an open space, with no buildings to dodge into
and no alleys to run through, and a great pit before them, surrounded
only by strange sigils in the pavement. Venger rode victoriously over
their heads, his bolts driving them toward the pit. Defiantly, Hank
fired his bow, trying to net Venger.

And suddenly, the pit was filled with a silver light that surged up
to meet them. It rippled, smoothed -- and suddenly they did not see
the silver light at all, but the stars that shone far above their
heads, obscured by smoke.

Venger laughed. "Behold! The Mirror of Ages, which shows the past
of all worlds. I have sought it long and without success. But you
children, and Dungeon Master, that great fool, have led me to it at
last, and your weapons have opened it. My thanks."

"And now, it will show me a part of the past I have long desired to
see."

He looked down on the pit from his nightmare's back, and suddenly
the peaceful night sky was replaced by another one, strange and
beautiful. The veils of a nebula burned close and bright, and so did
countless young stars, so that the night could never be darker than
twilight. There were people gliding through that sky, casually
soaring on wings much like Venger's own. They also bore a single horn,
and their fangs winked out of faces as blue as his.

But they all wore peaceful expressions, while Venger's above them grew
more wrathful every moment.

Suddenly the scene shifted, and that calm world was calm no more.
Grotesque creatures moved like lightning and slew many of the horned
people. Bright lights shone out of nowhere, capturing others and
lifting them into strange ships that looked like UFOs. Strange
insects and birds flew by in clouds, biting and pecking. The horned
people whom they attacked rose up with completely black, staring
eyes -- and then attacked their own people as if possessed.
Shapeshifters took on the appearance of friends, only to turn on the
few brave defenders. When one of the horned people managed to wound
one, green blood sprayed out and all the horned people there died
choking.

"The alien bounty hunters," Mulder breathed.

Venger heard, and his attention snapped away from the horrible
picture. "You know of them, Bard?"

"I've fought them," he replied. "So has Scully. There seems to be
some kind of slow invasion going on back home. The humans we were
fighting here -- they seem to be helping the aliens, for some
reason."

No one else said a word. So home wasn't safe either.

"There were traitors on my world as well." Venger pointed to a group
of horned people killing their own. Their eyes were not black, but
bright with unholy glee or stolid with duty. "Though I guess they
did not long enjoy the fruits of their labor. If they were allowed
to survive by the invaders, I doubt a life of slavery was much to
their liking. Still, I will make sure they pay for their treachery
when next we meet."

The scene changed again, and a young boy and girl of the horned
people were running into a building where a vortex of light pulsed
slowly. They pushed through and squirmed under the hordes of others
trying to get into the vortex without success. One horned woman even
pounded her fists on the swirling brightness as if on a wall, and
with about as much success. But when the boy and girl struggled up
to it, it immediately drew them in.

The boy, his face horrified, struggled and tried to resist, tried to
drag the woman with him. His hand passed through hers like mist, and
he was gone. And suddenly the boy and girl stood on the grass of the
Realm, taller than the dark-haired, balding man in red robes who
greeted them with great relief. They resisted his hug, pounding at
him with their fists much as the woman had.

"Is that Dungeonmaster?" asked Presto. "Boy, he looks young!"

"Then," Sheila breathed slowly, "you were the little boy, Venger,
and the little girl was your sister Karina."

"And Dungeonmaster was my father, before he held the worldgates shut
against all our people. Someday he will pay for that crime."

"The worldgates were sabotaged, but not by me," said a quiet voice.
Dungeonmaster! "I call on the Mirror of Ages to witness it."

And suddenly the scene changed again, and two short red-robed people
were frantically examining strange diagrams in the air that appeared
and disappeared as they gestured and spoke. "Dungeonmaster and
Zakiyah," Diana breathed.

Hank couldn't understand more than one word in ten of their jargon,
but Presto started muttering to himself while Eric made excited
little noises that indicated sudden comprehension. He looked up and
saw Venger looking decidedly taken aback.

"So what happened, guys?"

Presto groaned. "There was a bug in the Realm's software. I think."

"It's a game!" said Eric excitedly. "The whole Realm was terraformed
and stocked with monsters and stuff so that people could play
adventure games there! People traveled from all different worlds,
including the horned people's, and some people even paid to live
here. But then these invaders showed up, and some of the horned
people tried to run away into the game, and the gates wouldn't let
them in because somebody programmed it not to accept new customers
on D-Day."

The view shifted. One of the horned people casually sketched symbols
in the air. Venger's breath came hard. "Your assistant, Zmfer!"

"See his fate," said Dungeonmaster.

The horned man approached a horned woman as if for payment. She gave
him some sort of object -- then killed him.

Venger said something incomprehensible.

"Bad language doesn't help," Dungeonmaster said calmly.

Sheila was appalled. "But...but if nobody could get away, how did
Venger and Karina make it?"

"Aeh, they'd already been to the Realm a few times with their dad,"
Eric explained airily. "They already had an account."

Hank hesitated to point out the obvious. Bobby did not.
"Dungeonmaster can't be Venger's dad! He doesn't have wings, or
horns, or...."

Eric scoffed. "It's just a costume, of course. They always make the
people working at amusement parks wear some kind of dumb uniforms."

Dungeonmaster's eyes twinkled.

Hank shook his head. "But that means that everything we've gone
through, all the trouble and danger, was all for nothing! It wasn't
real!"

"Of course it was real, Ranger," Dungeonmaster said gently. "It has
been thousands of years since the invaders came for our people. The
other worlds of advanced technology, fearing to be invaded in turn,
closed down the worldpaths leading here or to our homeworld. The
gamers who were trapped here mostly chose to stay in their game-
forms. They raised families and died here, and their descendants
know nothing of their origins, the way a world is designed to allow
'magic', or even the invaders. But some of us found ways to live on,
to make worldgates, and even to monitor the rest of the universe."

"Your pupils," Venger interrupted suddenly. "You brought them all
from a world soon to be threatened by invasion."

"Indeed. And I think you will find that all of my pupils came from
such worlds."

"But why did you never tell me?"

"I tried." The scene changed back to the children attacking their
father. They suddenly slipped from his grasp, and a stricken-looking
Dungeonmaster let them go. "But you would not believe me, and you
already had enough skill between you to hide from me, and to find
He Who Should Not Be Named." He sighed. "And then it was too late.
How I worried about you and your sister as I grieved for your mother.
But there was nothing I could do. You had chosen your own path, and
your new name."

"Venger." Mulder tasted the word. "So everything you did was to
avenge your people."

"To pay for the power to avenge my people," Venger corrected. "How
my new master must have laughed, as he gave me the power to kill
without the power or knowledge to make worldgates! And so it was
all for nothing."

"For nothing? Oh, no," said Dungeonmaster sternly. "It was for hate
and fear. It was to bring others into the same dark place you were
walking, and thus to breed more evil. That is what vengeance is
always for. Is it not so, Bard?"

Mulder's head jerked up. "Uh...yeah." Geez, how did he know about
Melissa and Scully and all of that?

"See that you remember, then," said Dungeonmaster.

Venger brooded on, his anger now focussed on something else. "I have
been played like a puppet. Well, no more! I will repudiate my master
and take back my own powers -- as soon as I have returned from
wreaking havoc on the invaders, of course."  With a thought, the
Mirror again showed his homeworld on that terrible day.  "For
indeed, the Mirror of Ages shows the road to all lands." A vortex
of swirling light formed above the Mirror, and he spurred his
nightmare into it.

Its hooves refused to pass through.

"What is this?" he demanded.

"You cannot go back," Dungeonmaster told him gently. "It was the
first rule of all worldgates. Time and space are the same. To change
one would change the other, perhaps beyond recognition. And so as we
wandered from world to world, we were permitted to return as soon as
we left -- but never sooner.  That was built into all the worldgates
here."

Venger said something else incomprehensible.

Bobby grinned. "I don't know what he said, but I bet my mom would
wash his mouth out!"

Dungeonmaster turned back to them. "And now it is time for you to
go home, my pupils." He smiled. "You Young Ones have earned enough
experience points that you now have the right and power to return
to the Realm whenever you wish. As you leave, the software will
give you objects which create mini-worldgates. Be sure not to lose
them."

"I won't!" Eric assured him. "I don't want to spend another few
years in the Realm racking up brownie points for a computer!"

"So what do you want us to do now?" Diana asked. "Organize a
resistance? We're only kids. Besides, nobody would believe us."

"Perhaps not about the invasion," Dungeonmaster replied.

"You got that right," Mulder muttered.

"And perhaps not about the Realm. But your key will allow you to
bring new players into the Realm...and I believe there are many
people your age who enjoy playing games."

Presto's eyes suddenly began to glow. "I know people who'd jump at
the chance. All the Audiovisual Club guys who're in it to play on
computers...the guys in Chess Club...."

"Mary Lou wouldn't be interested," Diana mused, "but Katy and Tracy
and Bhairavi would. I wonder if...."

"And then they'll get keys," said Bobby. "And their friends'll get
keys. And their friends. This could get really big, really fast!"

"But some of those kids are gonna get killed!" Hank was not happy.
"The Realm is dangerous. How can you do that to them?"

The excited murmur quieted.

"All of my people died, except for the hybrid slaves." Venger's voice
was uncompromising. "Better to die fighting than be killed without a
chance to resist."

Mulder had a different vision to ponder. "Think how useful it will be
to be able to pop in and out of the Realm. It'll be great for
escaping the odd Men in Black. Not to mention making the most of our
vacation time."

"You never take your vacation time, Mulder."

"Well, now I won't have to."

"I am sorry," said Dungeonmaster, "but you and the Paladin have not
earned enough experience points to be granted a key."

"We could stay on a few more years," Mulder offered. His face
darkened. "That is, if Scully...."

She stiffened. "No, Mulder."

"You two have your own destiny to follow," said Dungeonmaster.
"On your own world, among your own people. Although not quite
without magic, Paladin." His eyes twinkled. "Do not fear, Bard.
You have said it yourself: the truth will save both her and you.
Go and find it."

"What about the Consortium people on this world?" said Scully.

"I will take care of them," said Venger. "After you leave, of
course. I would not have the children see such things."

"My son, I can see that we are going to have to talk more about
vengeance," said Dungeonmaster with a sigh.

He held out his hands, and they all gave him their weapons. There
was some brief hugging among the party. Then he told Mulder and
Scully to concentrate, and a dark and wintry amusement park appeared
in the mirror. The vortex formed above. It drew them up and through
itself, and then the two agents were gone.

The other six concentrated, and a bright summer day ten years earlier
came into view. The vortex formed and drew them through -- in the
same positions they'd taken when they went through the first time. A
moment later, they'd slammed back into the roller coaster car in their
old clothing and were taking the last few turns and slopes of the
Dungeons and Dragons ride before they came back out into the humid
air.

"How was it?" somebody in line asked as the car slowed.

"Great!" said Diana.

"Not too bad," said Sheila, with a sideways glance at Hank.

Bobby climbed out of the car slowly. "I want to go back," he said,
already starting to miss Uni. "It was the best."

Presto poked Bobby on the shoulder. "Check out the souvenir in your
pocket."

Bobby carried a lot in his pockets. He sorted patiently through a
piece of string, a couple rubber bands, an old piece of gum in its
wrapper (Yuck! he thought. It's been _years_ since it touched my
mouth!), some interesting rocks, a couple arcade tokens, and...a
red pyramid-shaped four-sided die.

The others each had a similar die: eight-sided, ten-sided, twelve-
sided, twenty-sided....

"I got the six-sided," said Eric. "Bor-ring."

"I still have one question," said Diana. "If we're supposed to fit
in and raise a resistance, why would Mulder and Scully think we'd
disappeared?"

"Maybe just hadn't come back yet," said Presto. "I guess we needed
Mulder and Scully to come along or else we wouldn't have made it
back."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

Back in the Realm, however, a young and ambitious Consortium
employee named Krycek reported all that he had seen and heard to
his bosses. Krycek was rewarded with a position of trust, and
assigned to masquerade as partner to Fox Mulder. Meanwhile, a watch
was set on a certain amusement park.

Mulder and Scully fell out of the vortex and onto their butts. Which
figured, thought Mulder. While he was cheered to think that he and
Scully might now have a few more allies than they'd thought, he
suddenly wondered why the children had disappeared. And wasn't that
meddling in time, if they now came home safe?  And....

Something hit him over the head, and his thoughts were lost.

They strolled out of the park at the end of the day, laughing and
eating and talking together. They hadn't been much interested in the
rides, actually; they'd spent most of their time just strolling
around, talking and trying to get used to their old world. When they
met up with the others at the designated time, Eric grimaced at the
site of his father's limousine. It wasn't supposed to be here.

Then he brightened. "Hey, ditch the bus. You guys can ride with me!"

"I don't know, Eric," Sheila said dubiously. "I think we're supposed
to go the same way we came."

"Aw, c'mon, you guys," he wheedled, "Nobody'll care as long as the
bus driver knows where we've gone. And it'll be fun."

Diana shrugged. "I'm not gonna turn down a limo ride."

They were a little surprised that the bus driver didn't make more of
a fuss. But it had been a long day for her, too. Eric led them all
over to the limo. The chauffeur blandly opened the door for them.

His father was sitting inside.

Eric stopped dead in shock -- but they only noticed because they
knew him. "Dad," he recovered, "allow me to present some friends
of mine." He gave their full names. "I was intending to give them a
ride home." He stopped there, marshaling his arguments.

"A good thought, Eric," his father said. "I'm very glad to meet you.
Please, sit down."

As the car drove away, the chauffeur locked all the doors while
Eric's father fingered the gun in his pocket.

He hoped not to use it.

"Vengeance is useless," Dungeonmaster said again.

"Vengeance is necessary," countered Venger.

"Oh, yes," said Shadowdemon suddenly. "And vengeance is mine."

Venger felt the power flowing out of him. It was as strong and
painful a sensation as blood dripping from a wound. "What have you
done!"

"Why, I was shocked by what you said about repudiating your master.
So I sent word to him," said Shadowdemon complacently. "And now that
you have lost your magic, I am free. You are weak, and I am strong.
I must say I enjoy the feeling. Farewell, _master_."

Anywhere else in the Realm, a shadowdemon does not have enough
substance to affect matter much. But there, at the threshold of the
road to all worlds, Shadowdemon was able to push Venger into the
vortex that led to Earth.

"No!" Venger screamed -- and he was gone.

Dungeonmaster rounded on Shadowdemon, expressionless.

"Now, now," said Shadowdemon, suddenly nervous. "Remember what you
were just saying about vengeance."

And suddenly, Uni, who had seen the firefight from the cliff,
ventured down from them in time to hear Krycek make his report, and
feared greatly for Bobby's fate, jumped into the vortex with a
determined meh.

Dungeonmaster began to feel somewhat put-upon.

This was not going according to plan.

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TO BE CONTINUED in Part 8: The Road to All Lands