Slash!

"Yeah, slash me!" Krycek shouted out loud.

Mulder was holding a knife in his hand. Taking another step towards the handcuffed and helpless Krycek on the floor.

'STOP! If anyone is slashing someone in here, it's me!'

Both men were looking up at the ceiling of the old building, where the voice came from.

"What?" Both asked at the same moment.

'I will slash you!'

"Why?" Mulder wanted to know.

'Because I like it.'

"You like us slashed?" asked Krycek.

'Yeah!'

"...covered with blood?" he asked again.

'Hmmm... sometimes...'

"Our flesh in strips?" another question came from the Russian.

'No, not that extreme...'

"But that is the result if you slash us." Mulder explained.

'No, believe me. You'll like it if I slash you. And I don't mean slashing like you wanted to do a few minutes ago.'

"What other kind of slash do you mean? I don't know any other."

'Umm... slash also means... umm... characters from a TV show... wait... if fans from a TV show write stories about characters... and "slash" them... oh - hard to explain... if two male or two female characters start or have a relationship... Two or more.. or just are having sex...'

"You mean, some guys are out there who write sex stories about me and this rat bastard?"

'Some guys, yeah. But most of the authors are female.'

"You mean, we're just characters in a TV show?" Krycek asked

"And we really have sex???" Mulder was getting nosy.

'Sure - to both questions.'

"We are not real???" Krycek was still handcuffed and lying on the ground. "These are not real?" He tried to raise his arms.

'It is real - for you. You're in our fantasy. Everything is real in our fantasy. There are a lot of writers out there... many fantasies, many realities.'

"If you say slash means sex between male... or female characters... are there also stories between Skinner and me? For example... or Skinner and him?" Mulder pointed towards the former FBI agent who was trying to stand up.

'Sure, there are many pairings out there.'

"Where out there?" Krycek was finally standing.

'On the Internet. The fan fiction community grew more and more with the Internet.'

"And where exactly can I find some of these... interesting stories?" Mulder got more and more fascinated.

'Just look in some search engines... for fan fiction... and then for slash. There are also some web rings...'

"Why is it called slash?" Mulder wanted to know everything. Krycek showed Mulder the handcuffs and mouthed the word 'key'. He was uncuffed immediately.

'Because the pairings are 'marked' with a slash. Like in M/K for Mulder/Krycek. It's a story about Mulder and Krycek... about you!'

"Are there many stories?"

'Yeah! I personally haven't even read a tenth of the stories, although I wanted to.'

"Do you have your palm pilot with you?" The FBI agent asked his former partner.

"Yeah. Here it is." Krycek took it from a pocket in his leather jacket.

"Do you have Internet access?"

"I have EVERYTHING!"

"I want to read some stories."

"Me too!"

And without any further sign of anger or hate between them both men were looking at the palm pilot, which showed slash stories from all over the world. And they were enjoying them.

Maybe they even took one of those stories as a script for later action. Before I could answer that question, I'd have to see the videotapes made from the event.