This is a relatively strong AU sequel plot.

I of course own nothing relating to the new Oz film, the old Wizard of Oz franchise, G.M.'s Wicked novel or its musical theater counterpart, although all elements of these do come into play along the way.

"Please, I don't wanna die! I haven't accomplished anything yet! Just get me out of here and I'll do great things!

Please! Give me a chance! I promise! I promise. I can change!"

—Oscar "Oz" Diggs

-.-

It was shortly before sunrise, but she needed to reach the wild apple meadow as swiftly as possible without delay. It took her the last seven days to catch a single magical trace of what she was privately searching for, and she could almost kick herself for not thinking of that meadow before going to bed just last night. Of course it'd be the meadow! That made sense. It was the one place in the world that was always there and was undisturbed by other forces, and it was free to call their own.

"...Glinda?"

The Good Witch stopped dead in her tracks under the grand archway, her left foot had hardly crossed the threshold when she heard the familiar chime of a sleepy porcelain-fragile voice.

She glanced over her shoulder to see her little precious doll poking her glossy head of her bedchambers. "China," she acknowledged softly. "I'll return in a little while. Go back to sleep."

"Uh...alright." China was curious and hesitant to obey, but she did anyway, and pushed her doors shut.

Safe from further interruptions, Glinda was able to venture outside into the heavy morning mist, fastening her cloak. The sky stretching above the Wall was still an unhappy grey-blue, and the lily faeries nearby had yet to wake and pollinate the gardens again. But, no matter. She slipped past the Palace Gates and rounded the tall radiant pillars to take the side paths instead, which usually go untraveled by most these days, especially at this early hour.

Glinda honestly had no desire to explain the mission she was suddenly on, seeking out a certain someone. For she knew what her dear Quadlings might be thinking...that the recent battle was won, but the war itself was just beginning. It was only a matter of time before the Wicked Sisters would strike again. And even if Oscar the Great Wizard of Oz was alive and had been officially crowned three nights ago, gladly taking the Nation under his wing, Glinda could still detect a smidge of fear in their eyes whenever she'd pass them by in the marketplace.

She would certainly overhear some pretty irrational things.

"Just like some terrible green blizzard," the head seamstress hissed one day to her sisters, all busy with their packaging and sewing. "Throughout the land she flies, spreading more fear wherev'r she goes!"

"Trying to defame our poor Wizard with her slurs and lies, bah! Despicable!"

Even Glinda's own Palace Guards were privy to this trivial gossip.

"I hear she has an extra eye that always remains awake!"

"I heard that she can shed that strange skin of hers...as easily and slyly as a snake."

"I think her soul has become so unclean that pure water could melt her! Just like that, on the spot!"

"Aye, if only it'd be that simple."

"What a Witch. Possessed by demons, most likely. Insane and now worse than her sister. No sir, not a pretty sight. Absurd."

"Absurd, indeed," Glinda repeated to herself with a light puff of the chest as she had to gather up her freshly-washed blue velvet skirts to go scampering own the grassy hillside ahead of her.

Once at the flatter part of the meadow where the wildflowers grew on for miles and the live Apple Trees stood sleeping around her, Glinda found her proper footing again. She smoothed her curls and straightened out the Saintly jewel upon her head.

"...You sure act quite vane when you're alone."

Reacting instantly to that mocking remark, Glinda spun on her heels and summoned up the nerve to strike Theodora across the cheek. It wasn't a full smack, more like a scolding tap...because she was still Glinda the Good after all, and she's trained to think real violence would never solve her problems. Yet, only Theodora could've had this effect on her. For years, Theodora, the shy innocent girl with the ironic fiery temper suppressed very deep down challenged her in ways the other girls could not. Theodora could sometimes rile Glinda up and make her forget she was a lady of impeccable manners.

Today, was obviously one of those rare occasions.

Theodora, on the other hand, lingered there for a moment with her eyes open wide, utterly speechless. Then, she blinked, and released a loud pleased cackle, showing how amused she was to drive Glinda to panting and huffing in annoyance again. She did always sense that even Glinda had a feisty side, which she loved to provoke when they were children, though Glinda never cared to admit any of it.

"How could you do that to me?!" Glinda cried.

Theodora upper lip suddenly curled in distaste, looking at Glinda as if she had just grown Troll ears. "Do what?"

"Throw a major tantrum like that in front everyone! Chain me up! It was so unsettling!" Glinda emphasized, and she was baffled by the fact that she had to emphasize it. "Were you really going to kill me?!"

"You don't know what I've been through," criticized Theodora, simply crossing her arms.

"Oh, no? It looked pretty convincing, Elphie!"

"It was for my sister's benefit! I was done playing by the rules of someone else's game! I was only trying to show her that I wasn't going to listen to her anymore! That I was stronger! That's why!"

"Stop lying! That's no excuse!"

"I'm not!"

"Oi, Witches!" A booming voice barked out, cutting their shouting match short. One of the Apple Trees had woken from his slumber and he tossed a large ripe apple straight at them. "Some of us are trying to get out our beauty sleep here! Go home or stay quiet!"

Theodora coolly lifted a hand, countering the flying apple with an orb of fire and it fell to ash before it had the chance to hit Glinda squarely in the forehead. "You shush," she reproached him. "Or I'll make cinders of your bark! Not even your seeds will survive to see the next orchid season!"

The Apple Tree shook his leaves in protest, and grumbled a few choice words that Glinda could never bear repeating, but he was sensible enough to uproot himself, turn around to face the other direction, and not pick another fight with Theodora's fire. Glinda sighed in relief, thankful for that much before she fixed Theodora with another pointed glare. "See? This is what I mean, Elphie. Something a little more than Wickedness has gotten into you, I think. You needn't threaten all of the lives in your sight!"

"He threatened us first."

"No, he didn't."

"Are you blind? He just threw an apple at your head."

"No—he was only—oh, that's not the point. I didn't come here just to debate with you!"

Theodora dropped her arms at her sides and began to slowly pace around, leisurely kicking at the weeds beneath her boots, sounding only half-interested when she asked, "So, why are you here? Why did you seek me out?"

Glinda wanted to remind her old friend of the importance of this meadow they're standing in right now. When they attended Shiz as younglings, as mere children just starting to feel their magical awakening for the first time, they would come here during the warmer terms and have picnics together. Here, was where they actually decided to stop ignoring each other based on who their families were and be friends. However, Glinda didn't say any of those things. She had to assume that this place still meant something to Theodora as well...because, if it hadn't, then why else would she hide out here instead of fleeing to wherever her sister had too?

Therefore, all she said to Theodora in that following instant was, "To make peace, what else?"

Theodora scoffed. "It's a little too late for peace, Galinda."

"Then...how about a simple truce? We won't bother you if you don't return to bother us. It's my...duty to protect my people."

"Wait, is your little conniving Wizard aware of what you are doing right now?"

"Oh, honestly, Elphie. Please, you shouldn't hate him forever. It'll just consume you, not empower you!"

"And you can't protect him forever, Galinda!"

Glinda persisted, ringing her wand between her hands. "He's a Good man. A forgiving Wizard. He's everything our City needs for a brighter future."

"Do you truly believe that?" Entirely unconvinced, Theodora was acting as stubborn as ever. "He'll break your heart, Galinda. That's the sort of man he is. Maybe it won't be tomorrow, or maybe not in five years from now, but eventually, one day...it's bound to happen."

"Elphaba. When we were little girls at Shiz, you were a...well, a wallflower." And Glinda spoke the truth. From day one, Theodora was always the cautious, timid type, living in her elder sister's shadow. When she had arrived at the childrens' dorms, Evanora was already set to leave the school with her new Magical Name, Nessarose, intact and enhanced powers to go with it. She was alone most of time, studying and eating all by herself. "...You never cried when you were sad, you never went swimming with us during the summer holiday, you never danced with our peers at the winter ball, and even though you have the best singing voice I've ever heard, you loathed the idea of joining the Shiz Choirs. You...practically refused to talk to anyone besides me after I befriended you!"

Theodora stiffened. "What does any of that have to do with this?"

"Well, what makes you think you can stand here before me now and speak as if you're so wise about the ways of men?"

"I am wise about men now, Galinda, because I was once foolish about men."

"Perhaps you could say that, but still, you're not keen about our Wizard. He has a charming way of surprising everyone over and over again."

That was when a strangled screech of frustration ripped its way out of Theodora's throat, actually causing Glinda to flinch at the sound. O, for the love of the all Saints, this girl was more a Fury in the flesh than she was a Witch.

"Galinda, you are not hearing me! That's what I am saying! He'll surprise you! Again. And the next time he does, it won't end well. I know you, I know better than anyone. You like to think that you are able to read people...that you can see the beneath the soul, and find Goodness in everyone...but, I swear, that isn't your virtue. It'll be your own downfall. If you don't feel disappointment, or believe sorrow still exists when there's also happiness, you're in for a dark time in life. No one ever listens to me! They never had! I see things! I see them in my mind, and in my dreams...and no one had ever paid attention to it. I'm the one who told my sister the Wizard would arrive soon, remember? I saw him fall from the sky. I've seen a side to him you haven't."

Glinda shook her head in pity. "But he means well now, Elphie! How many times must he prove that? Remember what that feels like? Convincing everyone that you've become a better you?"

"Yes," Theodora droned on, frowning, "I meant well once, and look where meaning well has gotten me..."

Glinda stared back at her then, appreciative, soft-eyed, and empathetic. Despite the circumstance, a small smile tugged at the corners of her pink rosy lips as she understood that her friend did harbor one last scrap of the old Theodora's conscience somewhere inside that green shell after all, and she was glad the conversation they were currently having had managed to pull it back to the surface where Glinda could catch sight of it.

Although, regrettably, that didn't erase the fact that Oscar was a main priority of hers now, and that was that. "I know what I am doing, Elphie," she continued gently, deciding she was still in the right to say so. "This is how it turned out, and I'm not stopping now. I can't turn my back on Oscar simply because you have an opinion of him."

"An opinion of him?" echoed Theodora, feeling freshly insulted, "I do have more than one opinion, Glinda, mind you; and only so few of them actually do point towards the Wizard. You should open your eyes to more of those other issues too, if you are really this persistent on becoming their future Queen! You can't just carry on from here and feed your own ambitions!"

"Other issues?"

"Yes, those other issues," Theodora stressed, gritting her teeth. "For an example, what of the Animals? What about their rights? What does the Wizard even know about that?"

"Oh good gracious, not the Animals again—"

Glinda felt as if she being whisked away into the past, magically falling right into the same place where a fifteen-year-old Theodora Thropp was the only girl (only student) in their whole class who intentionally skipped lessons to attend the funeral ceremony of their late professor, Doctor Dillamond. But that Billy-Goat was old and withered even before he suffered a fatal heart attack, and before that, Glinda recalled that he was a real grump while he discussed politics. And he always had an order of a ripe barnyard about him. (Only Theodora was perfectly tolerant of him and willingly held meetings with his fellow Animal friends. She did always have a certain weakness for creatures in need.)

"—Let me finish!" Theodora held up her hand defensively. "And what of your commoner-women who are instantly destined from birth to become just house mothers, sewers, or midwives? Don't their dreams matter to you too?"

"We've been over this, Elphie. If those women don't grow up to do those things, then who else will?"

"Why not the men!" Theodora proposed.

Glinda laughed at this. "That's ridiculous! Picture that. A man, working in a nursery room? Come now."

"You're still very old-fashioned, Galinda."

"And you're still being far too imaginative."

A solid pause fell over them afterwards. They remain silent, simply looking at each other, locking eyes, unwavering. Though, Glinda cleared her throat shortly, taking herself by surprise.

Wait a second. Why was she here, and with Theodora again?

Oh, of course, that's right!

A truce. How could she lose sight of that already? All of her people had been spending the past week, constantly looking over their shoulders in panic...and here she was, getting distracted and wasting time with that one Witch whom they now scorned the most, weighing the scale of gender roles and the social freedoms rights that Animals apparently lacked.

Then again, that was just who they were—Theodora Thropp and Glinda Upland amongst their peers—then, Elphaba and Saint Galinda later on once they've graduated and received those Magical Names to use amongst their fellow Witches. Plus, as close friends and as two equally interesting women, they often did this. They got together and dove deeper into their bickering every time, or they chatted about the simpler things, or they shared personal tales of their past, and for a while, they completely forgot about the outer world still revolving around them.

Nonetheless, they had obviously grown more into their minds and in their duties since graduation, and maybe they had grown further apart than ever, now choosing to walk two very conflicting paths of Witchcraft.

"...I should get back to the Palace," Glinda told her, peering over the hilltop in longing, "...before Oscar wakes and he's left wondering where I've gone to."

"I'm leaving too," Theodora informed her then. "So, this...is my farewell to you."

Frankly, Glinda was no less than shocked at hearing this news. "Really? You're—you're leaving Quadling Country? But, if you are, then what about—?"

"I've lost all interest in your people," Theodora rolled her eyes at her. "I hope to do more things with my time now. Greater things. I'm through with these restrictions. And...don't you worry about my sister either. She has escaped to a lair in Stonespar End out East. She'll stay there for quite some time too, I imagine, nursing herself and coping from the physical damage you caused her."

"...What physical damage?"

"When you drained her powers after the duel you had with her, Galinda, she naturally lost her ability to levitate, to defy gravity. I saw her fall from the sky as I flew after her that night, and when she hit the rocks below, she lost both her arms."

Glinda immediately went pale from the imagery...of Evanora falling...and the blood...and the severed limbs. "Oh my."

Theodora grinned back humorlessly, knowing exactly what she must've been wondering about. "She's alive. You didn't break your Saintly oath by murdering another Witch yet."

"She's alive. That's just...I suppose, in the very least, I mean, I'm glad I didn't...that's..."

"Good?" Theodora thought aloud.

Glinda nodded once, saying nothing else.

"Well, then," Theodora turned curtly, her expression re-hardening itself. "If you're going, you should go now. Before I change my own mind to leave and fly out on a terrorizing-spree instead."

"Right. I shall." Glinda offered Theodora another concerned glimpse before she started backing away, one step at a time, right foot shifting behind the left.

Theodora in return watched her carefully as Glinda took four additional strides towards the grand hill, not liking the dark sensation that was suddenly forming in the pit of the stomach, and she called out, "Wait!"

Astounded, Glinda slowed her pace and chose to face her prior friend one last time that day. "What is it?"

And within those few following moments, something remarkable happened. Not even Glinda could have not seen it coming because Theodora's present mood swings were constantly flying off the handle! Drawing in quickly, Theodora approached her and she grabbed Glinda's hand, now in the manner of a helpless child. "Galinda...," she nearly pleaded, "...come with me."

"Come with you?"

"Yes!"

Glinda smiled back meekly in sheer uncertainty, not realizing what this was all about. "And go where?"

"West. To the black castle, Kiamo Ko. It's been abandoned by native royal figures for decades and it's a perfect safe-shelter. But, Galinda, just think of what we could do—together! Together we're unlimited. The greatest team there'll ever be!"

Glinda could not deny it. As soon as Theodora finished, she instantly thought about the rewards of rekindling their friendship and considered the option. "I reckon that if we worked in tandem, there'll be no fight we cannot win..."

"Exactly!" Theodora cheered with a newfound passion. "They'll never bring us down!"

Glinda however, sighed deeply, snapping back to the solid facts of their situation and reluctantly pulled from Theodora's grip. "Elphaba...," she sympathized, genuinely, "...that sounds...wonderful. But really, I can't. I shouldn't."

"Galinda, please come, I feel something might—"

"No. My place is here, in the South, and it always will be. I just...I just truly hope that you're happy choosing this for yourself."

Theodora started to shrink away, saying, "You too...," and that final look on her strangely-colored face (a look that was not entirely Wicked, but remorseful), made Glinda's blood run cold. It was as though Theodora was in the know about something secretive and remote...and she pitied Glinda for not accepting her offer. "...I hope it brings you bliss, Galinda."

That last part was a desperate stretch of the truth, and both of them knew it.

The reality was, that they were both hoping the other wouldn't live to regret this.

One fortnight later

The rumors about Theodora didn't cease.

And if that wasn't enough, anxious Quadling mothers would surround Glinda in the marketplace, begging her to shield their homes with spells so they wouldn't become hexed!

Needless to say that Glinda was surprised at her people, falling prey to such pointless dread. They'd been walking on a solid foundation of communal security for weeks straight now and there hasn't been another single disturbance in the Wall yet. Not once. The Wicked Sisters haven't made a peep of vengeance since she'd finally parted ways with Theodora in the meadow.

Sighing, Glinda now climbed the white marble steps and encouraged everyone present at this time to heed her advice.

"Fellow Ozites!" she declared patiently. "As terrifying as terror is...please, let us put aside our panic for tonight and celebrate! We wouldn't want to spoil the Wizard's birthday ball with such talk, now would we?"

The crowd gathered around her started to ripple with clear joy and agreement.

"Yes, let's have this celebration!" urged the Baker's Wife. "In the Glinda-way!"

Glinda grinned, blushing red with flattery. "Thank Goodness."

"Thank goodness, indeed! Absolutely Wicked-Witch free!" the farmers praised in unison. "We need to host a good Birthday Ball for our Wizard! He couldn't be happier about that!"

"Certainly," Glinda added with gentle amusement still ringing in her voice...but no one seemed to notice her smile had weakened when she spoke again, just a tad. "You're right. He just...couldn't be happier. Right here, with us. Living in our very own happy ending. And surely, we are both are just as happy to share tonight's celebration with all of you."

"How is the Wizard today, Glinda?" The head seamstress came forward and all her familiar giggling sisters flocked behind her while they all waited to hear her answer. "We haven't seen him out and about lately."

"He couldn't look handsomer," Glinda offered them.

"He just must be so busy and excited for his Birthday Ball to begin!" Sister Three threw in. "Right? Is that it?"

"I couldn't feel humbler to do this for him after what he's done for us since the Firework Incident, as you know. A ball like this does take a lot of planning!"

"Oh my, you are so lucky, Glinda!"

"Couldn't be lovelier!"

"Couldn't be fairer!"

"Do you think he'll ask you to be his official Queen of Oz soon?" The head seamstress winked at her.

Glinda merely descended the steps with pure elegance and a modest sigh. "We couldn't be happier, I suppose."

"Because happiness is what happens, right, Glinda? When all your dreams come true?"

"...Well, Glinda would deserve that much," the Master Tinker said suddenly from the sidelines, waddling into view. All the chatty sisters looked to him. "Glinda, you do deserve it. What you did...facing Evanora on your own like that...we all know the story of your bravery."

Glinda's typical loving smile returned to her lips. "Thank you, Master Tinker. You're too kind."

"Oh, Glinda, no," he scolded lightly. "You are far too modest. You are called Glinda the Good for a reason. Show more pride in that!"

"Yes, he's right, love," the head seamstress continued on immediately. "The Wizard's Goodly fiancée! It has got to be you! Honestly, any of us here would easily become envious of that! Who else would be such a match for the Wizard's affections?

Glinda shrugs, releasing a small coat of laughter. "Well, I best be going. I have to see if our Wizard is even out of bed yet!"

"Oh, oh, right! Of course, love, go get ready. We will all see you tonight!"