The Ten Greatest X-F Fanfics You've Ever Read

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

Have you ever struggled whenever you've ventured inside a new fandom to find the really good stories?

With the Revival attracting a whole new generation of fans, I thought it would be a good idea for us to list the X-Files fanfictions that made our hearts beat faster, the ones that blew our minds, those stories we never forgot, the ones we've kept coming back to, or remember fondly because they were SO DAMN GREAT.

Our fandom is blessed with so many talented authors, but with more than 35,000 stories on Gossamer (and these numbers date from 2007), more than 4,000 on AO3 and around 8,000 on FF.net, plus God knows how many floating about on Tumblr, how can newcomers be expected to find the truly good stuff?

The rules are simple: list a maximum of ten fics you love the most followed by a short explanation of why you do.
Is it the plot? The writing? The characters? Something else?
You can list less, but not more.
No "everything by [insert author's name]" please, we're looking for specific stories here.
Let's rec!
ETA: you don't have to pick different stories if they have already been mentionned by someone else. Your list is *your* list.