Chapter Three

Keith set up the forcefield and then brought in the "FBI agents". He hadn't heard of the FBI except in stories and history class.

These two must be on something .

Allura sat behind him. She had been frowning since the agents professed their ignorance to their whereabouts and the date, her thoughts far away. Behind her, the agents were discussing their situation. The forcefield was soundproof in that their captives would not be able to hear them speak, but it didn't work the other way. Most prisoners knew this, but not the ones they had. As it was, Mulder and Scully assumed that since they couldn't hear Keith and the Princess, it worked the other way around. Unfortunately for them it didn't.

"It's just not possible, Mulder," Scully argued. "How could we have traveled through time? We were just standing in our office!"

"I can't explain it either, Scully. But somehow, we have. We're not even on Earth anymore."

"Why are you so happy about that?"

"This is the greatest X-File yet."

"I'm so glad there's an upside to this," Scully said sarcastically.

"How come these kids are walking around looking like the military?" Mulder asked. "When I was their age, I was enjoying myself in college."

"And Phoebe Green," Scully said not without spite.

Mulder ignored her. "They can't be any older than twenty, but something in their eyes tells me that they feel a lot older than that."

"You can bet on it," Keith muttered.

"And this Lion...this is amazing technology," Mulder was saying. "I wonder who built it."

"Arusians, I would guess," Scully said. "Just because they speak English doesn't mean that Earth..people..."

"Earthlings," her partner prompted with some amusement.

"Earthlings," Scully repeated with a grimace. "It doesn't mean that they had anything to do with this culture and its technological advances."

"But it does mean that Earth had an important to role to play during this time."

"Maybe. I thought that you of all people would not have the conceited idea that Earthlings will have an important role to play in the future." Her lips quirked. "The universe is filled with endless possibilities, if I am not mistaken."

"Can't help it. I'm biased towards my own kind. Despite popular belief, I'm only human."

"Ha."

They lapsed into silence and for a while the only sound in the cockpit was the soft hum of the engine. Keith put the Lion on autopilot and turned to the Princess. He ignored the inquiring eyes of the agents.

"I take it back, Scully," Mulder said. "Captain Courageous looks about fifteen."

Keith fought the urge to throw him an especially nasty look and tried to focus on Allura's face, which was ready to break into laughter. She quickly quelled it at the look on his face.

"How did this happen?" Keith asked, fighting to keep his dignity. "They look to be from the late twentieth century or early twenty-first. Their clothing is consistent with those time periods." His jaw clenched. "But with the name Mulder, they could be trying to pull a scam."

"They travelled through time," Allura said matter-of-factly. "There must have been a tear in the fabric of time or something of that nature. I can't give you any other explanation without questioning them. As for the name, isn't is possible that he's..."

"But how is that possible?" Keith interrupted. "They have no idea how they got here either."

She shook her head. "I'd have to talk to a more experienced user of the Magic to get to the bottom of things. I think that's how they got here. The Magic had something to do with it."

Keith sighed. "We need to get them back if that's the case. I don't know a lot about time disruption, but I know that if they're gone long enough, bad things will happen."

"I know."

The computer beeped then. They were nearing the Castle of Lions. The midmorning sun rose in the sky and light glinted off the Castle's surface, making it appear to glow.

"Nice castle," Mulder remarked.

"It looks like it's made out of...steel or a metal of some sort," Scully observed.

"Queen Elizabeth eat your heart out."

"You're from where?" Coran asked for the second time, not believing his ears.

"Earth, the year 2000," Mulder repeated.

"We were in FBI Headquarters in Washington DC before we ended up here," Scully added.

Coran rubbed the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut tightly as if trying to will their disappearance. He had been surprised when Allura and Keith brought the invaders straight to Castle Control instead of to a cell and that they were not cuffed. But they told their story in the privacy of the Conference Room and he immediately felt a headache coming along. Especially with that small twist concerning the male agent's identity. The Princess' advisor was at least grateful that Pidge and Hunk weren't around. They would have started bouncing off the walls with questions for the two agents and then nothing would have gotten done. He opened his eyes wearily and caught Allura's eye. She had explained the magical aspect of their possible appearance, causing a gleam to appear in Mulder's eye and a glimmer of doubt in Scully's.

"Can you send them back?" he asked.

"Not without knowing how they got here."

"We must keep this within this room," Coran said. "It would not do to find out that we have two time travellers in our midst. The Castle routine will be disrupted and who knows what Doom would do with this knowledge."

Mulder glanced at Scully. Doom? he mouthed. She only shrugged.

"What about the people who have seen them in Calion?" the Princess questioned.

"Those men are trained security officers," Keith said. "They will not have spread this story around because they fear a panic; that it has become easy to penetrate our airspace. All we have to do is tell them that this is now a top secret situation and they will not breathe a word of it unless we say so."

Coran nodded. "Very good. Now, put Agents Mulder and Scully up in a suite, out of sight. The cover story is that Agent Mulder and Agent Scully his wife. They've come to visit Agent Mulder's cousin Keith."

"Can you do that?" Allura asked. "If you have a better story..."

"No," Scully assured her. "That's fine."

"We've done this before," Mulder said.

Keith nodded. "Good. I'll take you to your room then. Stay there until someone comes for you. Do not, under any circumstances wander around the Castle. We do not want to raise suspicions. We'll just tell people that you are too tired to socialize."

"Alright," Scully said.

"I'll talk to you both later," Allura said.

"Looking forward to it, Your Highness," Mulder said smoothly.

Keith led them out and through a maze of corridors. He took them to a residence hall near the Voltron Force's quarters and stopped before a set of double doors. The doors slid open.

Mulder and Scully stood at the doorway, gaping at their temporary home. There was a sitting room decorated elegantly with soft cremes and beiges. In the middle of the room, an overstuffed couch sat invitingly as did the two armchairs nearby and an oak, at least it looked like oak, coffee table sat in the middle of the circle they created. A lamp resting on a side table cast a warm glow on the vase of flowers next to it. In one corner of the room, a desk sat, another lit lamp sitting on its shiny brown surface. Bay windows opposite the entrance looked out over the beautiful green fields outside the castle, and the lake which glistened a bright blue in the sunshine.

"Beats our regular motels," Mulder said, milling about the place.

"Beats most rooms," Keith agreed.

Scully headed towards one of the two doors at the end of the room and it slid open as she neared. She peered in and saw a bedroom. The king-sized bed was covered with a fluffy white comforter and there was another desk inside as well as a walk-in closet. She entered and found that the dresser was stocked with brushes and makeup, and the nightstands had lit lamps resting on their surfaces. She nodded approvingly. She could hear Keith and Mulder talking outside.

"We're going to need clothing," Scully said, coming out of the bedroom.

"There are clothes in the closet," Keith said. "If you're hungry, the food replicator," he pointed at a gray cupboard-like console set in a niche in the wall, "will provide you with what you need. You just have to type it in. The desk opens into a computer console and there's a communicator there if you need something beyond food. It's user friendly and I made sure that the language used is English."

"Thank you," Scully said.

He nodded briskly and left, his steps sure and quick. Mulder sank into the soft couch, a bemused expression on his face.

"I hope nobody misses us," he said.

"I doubt anyone would," Scully said vaguely.

"It's not as bad as you thought it would be, is it?"

Scully ran a hand on an armchair as she walked past it. "No, it isn't. But it's weird, Mulder. Why us? Is it just our rotten luck that we are always put in situations like this?"

"I thought you knew by now, Scully," Mulder said, as if chiding a small child.

"Knew what?"

"That I have a great big bullseye tattooed on my butt. It draws trouble like lambs to the slaughter." He smiled mischieviously. "Wanna see?"

"No. Thanks for asking though," she returned wryly.

She was smiling as she made her way to the desk and saw that there was nothing even close to looking like a computer on it. She frowned and ran her hands on it surface. She paused when she heard a jiggle as her hand ran over the desk's single drawer. She pushed lightly and there was a hissing sound as a monitor rose from the surface of the desk, revealing a bigger-than-normal keyboard underneath.

"Just like a laptop," she muttered.

She sensed rather than heard Mulder, who had kicked off his shoes as soon as Keith had left, come up behind her. He looked over her shoulder as the screen came to life. Scully sat and familiarized herself with the computer. There was a tracking ball that could be pushed down to make a selection and she did just that, tracking the arrow to where the screen read "Enter Database".

"Nice to know that arrows are still in fashion," she remarked.

"Look up local myths involving magic," Mulder suggested. "Maybe they could shed some light on how we got here."

"You see all these super computers and flying robotic Lions, and you want to research myths?" Scully said incredulously. "Seems to me we'd be better off looking for time travelling devices that would have gotten us here."

"They don't know how we got here either, so wouldn't it be safe to say that no known device was used?" He began to pace the room. "We might be able to find something in their stories that could help. We could find a Merlin walking around somewhere."

"An Arusian Merlin...You have an incredible capacity for the unbelievable, Mulder. I thought you'd be up to your limit by now."

"Not really. You should know that I have no limit."

"You'd think I would."

Despite all her beliefs to the contrary, she decided to look up Arusian myths involving time travel and magic. They were on another planet in the future, and doing what Mulder asked was not the strangest thing that had happened to her today.