Checkmate

Summary: With Fiyero dead Elphaba begins to fall into despair. Still hiding from the Ozians she realizes that her only hope lies with Glinda. Risking both their lives she returns to the Emerald City and, against all the advice Fiyero had ever told her, shows herself to Glinda and begs for her old friends help. But has Glinda changed to the point of being unrecognizable? And what will become of Elphaba now that she has lost all hope?

Genre: Drama/Tragedy

Rating: T (for future chapters)

Author's Notes:Based off the musical. Please be aware that, as anyone who has read any of my other fanfics would know, I am horrible with updating in any sort of timely matter so please be aware of that.

Disclaimer: I don't own Wicked, or Elphaba, or Glinda, or any of its other characters. I also don't own any of the actors and actresses that have played/are playing their roles (though if I could just meet Idina Menzel, even for a few seconds, my life would be complete and I could die happy).

Please R&R!

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Chapter One:

The night seemed darker than usual as the cold breeze brushed against tear-stained cheeks and whipped tangled black hair across red-rimmed eyes.

"Fiyero…" the grief-stricken woman muttered as she stumbled over the twisted forest floor.

So many times she had fallen to her knees; remaining huddled in the mud for hours at a time. But always she managed to drag herself back to her feet and force herself to move on. She couldn't stay so near to him; so close to his lifeless body. If they found him they would find her. She had to run away.

"Always running…" she whispered. "Always running… Fiyero. It's all I've ever done." She stopped, resting her hand against a tree trunk to steady her wavering form.

It seemed so cold to her. Was it winter already? To her it seemed like it had been summer just yesterday but the heavy raindrops that fell sharply against her skin and already soaked hair told her that it was clearly no longer summer. Her torn clothing caught the lower branches as she once again began making her way through the forest.

She walked slower now as her body began to fail her. Every step brought with it the chance of falling; and every fell brought with it the chance of death. In this freezing cold, with the rain and the snow, a person wandering about with no fire to warm them risked the very real horror of death.

Not that this particular woman feared death.

She cold see her breath in the air as she focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Her shaking form and tears caused her vision to swim and waver dangerously.

A fallen log upon the forest floor, one that her wavering vision did not see, caught her foot and she stumbled, tried to catch herself, but ultimately fell into the seeping cold mud.

The rain turned to snow and she watched her hand as her skin was slowly covered with porcelain-white flakes. She made no attempt to move, to stand, as she watched the snow fall upon her hand.

She smiled softly, her eyes reflecting none of the merriment, as she whispered; "Now that's better, is it not, Fiyero?" She chuckled, her laugh sounding disconnected from her body. "If only my skin had always been that white. White like everyone else's." Her voice cracked as a new wave of sobs shook her body.

Swallowing the lump in her throat she dragged herself back up to a standing position with the help of a nearby tree. She tried to shake the snow from her hair but the movement sent her head spinning and she vaguely wondered when the last time she ate had been. She stood still, staring at her hand upon the tree. If she remembered correctly, which she wasn't sure she did, her hand probably shouldn't be shaking.

She sighed, the broken sound matching her broken heart, and took one step. Then another. And another. One more.

Then she fell. Her body collapsed; not from log or rock but of its own accord. She had pushed it too far as she had struggled to distance herself from the dead body she had left so many miles behind her. She dearly wished to believe that she had left the body to rot in order to save herself from those that would hunt her if they knew she lived. But deep down, in the depths of her soul where she no longer dared to tread, she knew she left the body without a second glance to fool herself.

To leave him there, upon the forest floor with no burial and no ceremony, was to lie to herself. She could pretend she had left him as he slept. Left him to protect him.

"Fiyero…" Her voice was weak as her eyes refused to stay open and her body shivered as unconsciousness slowly seeped into her mind.

She knew he was dead. She could feel it in her heart. She had seen his death. Seen it in a vision no different then the vision that had shown her her sister's death. She had rushed to his side; rushed as fast as she could only to find him dieing upon the forest floor.

Spells could only do so much and the one she had cast all that time ago to save him from his torture had not done enough. It was the first time she had regreted leaving the Grimmerie behind. She wondered, vaguely, if there was another spell within its pages that could've saved him for the first one had not done all she had hoped.

They had parted some time ago. For what reason she could no longer recall. But they had parted on ill feelings and harsh words; neither had made any attempt to contact the other.

"Would you have died, Fiyero, if I had been there?" she muttered, her eyes closed tightly as her body shuddered in the freezing mud.

Her hand clutched tightly to her tattered and worn broom. Why she still kept it she did not know for she had not flown for a very long time. When she flew to Fiyero's aid it had been the first time she had flown since they had both fled Oz; since the day she had supposively died.

She wondered if she would've been faster had she flown more. She wondered if she would've been smarter, would've seen this coming sooner, had she still had the Grimmerie. She wondered if every one would've been better off had she not gone to Shiz in the beginning; or better yet, if she just hadn't been born. Every one would still worship the Wizard and there would be no Animals left. She was beginning to wonder if that would've been such a bad end to it all? After all, once all the Animals were nothing more than just plain animals no one would remember a time when they could speak. And it is hard to care for something that is beyond recollection.

"You're thinking wicked thoughts," the woman said to herself with a shaking voice. Snow had collected in her hair and clothes and was slowly burying her beneath its pure white softness. It felt warm against her skin; something which she knew was not right.

"As long as your mine we'll borrow the moonlight…" Her voice wavered as tears fell from her shut eyes. They froze against her skin before they had a chance to fall to the ground. "…and see how we shine."

The snow fell lightly as the sun broke above the mountain and pierced through the forest canopy to fall upon the woman lying, heart-broken, on the forest floor. Half her body was covered in snow as she cried softly and felt her heart shattering just a little but more with every second that passed.

The light from the sun framed tangled black hair and shone against a tear-stained face. She opened her eyes as the sun warmed her skin. For a few moments she simply stared at the blinding whiteness until she could focus her exhausted mind. She tried to stand but succeeded only in managing to push herself up onto her knees with her hands out in front of her on the ground to support the weight of her shaking frame; not that their was much weight left there for her to support.

She stayed there for a passage of time that she did not care to mark. Deep breath after deep breath was taking into her burning lungs but it didn't help to relieve her headache or still her spinning vision. It wasn't until the sun was high in the sky that she felt strong enough to attempt to continue on her.

Her first attempt at standing failed as her shaking legs could not carry her weight and her balance seemed to have fled her. She tried again. And again. The fourth, fifth, and sixth attempts also were futile. It wasn't until her seventh attempt did she actually become successful and even then, her success was a shaky accomplishment. Her vision was no longer just wavering but had become black around the edges and she was finally beginning to realize how close to unconsciousness she was.

She stumbled forward a few steps; pushing herself from tree to tree in an attempt to keep herself steady and balanced. She knew one misstep, one fall, and she would not get up again for a very long time… if not ever again.

"Fiyero," she whispered, her voice seeming to turn to frost before her eyes. "I tried… I always tried but it never seemed to work as it should have."

The snow was falling thicker now, impeding her already faltering vision and causing her to stumble, nearly falling, more then she would like.

"We dreamed a life for ourselves. We dreamed we'd disappear and start over. Take nothing but ourselves and flee this place. We'd go. Just go. Go far, far away. Down somewhere. Somewhere where no one would find us. We'd start over. Start anew." She stumbled and this time did not manage to catch herself on a tree. She crashed to her knees on the forest floor, the mud now frozen and covered in a thick layer of snow. Her hands shot out just in time to catch herself from striking her head on what she was sure was now a layer of ice underneath the snow,

"We'd fend for ourselves," she continued, knowing that she was now rambling but powerless to stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth. "We start a new life just for ourselves. We would mingle our souls… slowly weaving into each other. We would know love; know it as thoroughly as we knew loneliness."

Her voice faltered as a fresh new wave of sobs choked her body. She noticed that she was no longer shivering, that she no longer felt cold. She knew that was not right, that the temperature had not risen enough to still the coldness that coursed through her body.

"We… we… we dreamed it all. Planned… planned every step we… we would take." The words came between wretched sobs and hiccupping tears. "Why then? Why… why then did our… our plan fail? Why then Fi… Fiyero? Why?"

She threw back her head and let out a mournful sound; something half between a wail and a laugh. It echoed in the forest. Reverberating off the trees and seemingly swirling all around her pitiful form. It lasted far longer then she meant it to but the relief she wished it would have granted her did not come. The grief in her soul was no less as it had been moments before.

"Why?" she questioned as her voice, hoarse from crying, fell to barely above a whisper. "I never… never meant to do wrong."

Her body shuddered one last time before it failed her completely and she fell into a heap in the snow. With the last strength that she possessed she curled up into the fetal position and buried her head into her knees.

Her green skin stood out in stark contrast as the snow fell lightly; burying her in its white blanket. Her last words before unconsciousness took her were soft and muffled.

"I never meant to be wicked."