Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 17:38:32 -0400 From: Tiffi Subject: Checkmate 1/1 rating: PG (due to language) category:SH Spoilers: Gethsemane Key words: Character Dies Summary: Mulder plays chess with death. Checkmate by Tiffany Dickinson edtiff@centuryinter.net Disclaimer: Fox Mulder and Dana Scully arn't mine, they're CC's and The Fox Network's. This is the result of my silly mind at work. You've been warned. Mulder stood in the middle of blackness. Or at least he thought he was standing, he really couldn't be sure. The last few minutes of his life kept running through his mind; the dispondency; the depression; the gun. Now here he was, right smack dap in the middle of nowhere. Grantid, he didn't believe in God, but it would be nice if there was more to the afterlife than *THIS*. From what he could tell, death was going to be really tedious. "Fox Mulder!" Was it his imagination, or did he just hear someone calling his name? "Fox Mulder!" Nope, it wasn't his imagination this time. From out of the nothingness a dingy landscape filled with dry rivers and dead trees appeared. To his amusement, he had in fact been standing the entire time. "Fox Mulder! It is your turn for the challange!" After a confused moment of looking around a table materalized right in front oh him, and seated at the opposite side was a person in a black robe. Fox laughed, "You'r not...?" "Yes, Yes. Death, the Grim Reaper, whatever you want to call me. Now hurry up! I have a schedule to keep so would you please sit down so I could win this game?" Mulder looked at the checkered board on the table with the men set up. "What's with the chess board?" "On, come on! You must know about playing chess with death! If I win I keep your soul, if you win you go back to your life." "I don't play chess, how am I supposed to win?" "You're not, that's the point." Mulder took his seat at the white end of the board and started at his pieces. He had been taught the game before, but it had been so long. "Go on! White starts! Hurry up, I have an appointment with Bill Gates at 10 and I can't keep him waiting. He's wreaked enough havok on the world of technology already." Mulder picked up his queen, jumped his own pawn and took blacks pawn on that file. "Check" A growling noise came from the cloak. "That was the most rediculous move I've ever seen! You know a queen can't jump!" "Fine then, if you want to make a federal case out of it." Mulder replaced the queen and moved his knight...straight forward. A bony hand emerged from the cloak and pounded the table, "You can't do that either!" The hand plucked the knight from it's illigal position and let it in front of a pawn. "That's legal, LEAVE IT THERE!" "Fine, you're the chess expert!" Mulder continued under his breath, "You'd think I'd cheated or something." Death moved the pawn in front of the queen two spaces forward. Mulder yelled, "That's illegal!" "No it isn't! That was a perfectly legal move!" "How is it fair that your pawns get to move two, and mine get one? This is oppression! You're cheating!" The reaper spoke in a stacatto fashion, "All pawn's can move two spaces on first turn, your's included." "Oh, sorry, I must have forgotten that part." Mulder did the same with his pawn, putting the two pawns face. On the it's turn death brought out a knight. Mulder then moved his pawn one space forward and took black's pawn. Death roared, "DAMMIT! THAT'S AN ILLEGAL MOVE! Pawns capture diagonally!" "Don't get your boxers in a bunch!" yelled Mulder and replaced the pawns. He then took a bishop and moved it straigh forward. Death roared again and swiped a bony hand over the board, scattering the pieces. "Get out of here! I can't put up with stubborn mortals like you! And learn how to play chess, for the love of God! Damn, you're annoying!" The next thing Mulder knew he was sitting in a field...no, a cemetary, and a funeral was just ending not far away. Among the mourners he spotted a red headed woman. "Scully?" he called to her. She turned and started at her. He had never thought it was possible, but she turned even whiter than usually. "What's the matter, you look like you've seen a ghost." She slowly walked over to him, "I am seeing a ghost." Mulder got up and brushed himself off, "Who died?" Scully turned even whiter, "Yours." is all she said. After a long silense she reached out and touched him. After confirming he was real she asked, "How did you get here." "I pissed off death. You know, I really should learn how to play chess." He walked off, a very befuddled Scully close behind.