Summary: A ghostly whisper leads Oscar to realise that perhaps The Wicked Witch of the East isn't beyond saving yet, perhaps Theodora still resides behind those fiery eyes.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. If I did then I wouldn't have felt the need to throw things at the screen when that horrible ending happened.
"Oz..."
The ghostly whispers he heard in his dream had the Wizard of Oz tossing in his sleep. He turned to his side snuggling down into the pillow smiling incoherently when the whisper didn't repeat itself, not realising that it wasn't a dream to begin with.
"Oz..."
The sing song whispers started again and he pulled the pillow over his ears and went back to sleep.
"Oscar?" The voice grew insistent and he groaned out loud whispering a 'shut up' and scrunching his eyes shut.
"Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs!"
He woke up then and looked around wildly only to find himself all alone in his room. So where was this strange whisper coming from? And why did this disambiguated voice know his full name? No one in the whole of Oz knew his name he'd even managed to completely forget it until now always thinking of himself as the Wizard of Oz ever since the battle. After all he'd never even said his name out loud after introducing himself to...
The Wizard of Oz blanched and sprung upright on his bed. The only person in Oz who knew his whole name was The Wicked Witch of the West. Or as he once knew her, Theodora. The pang of sheer guilt he always felt when he thought of that sweet girl rushed through him and he sat on the edge of his bed dropping his head into his hands. It wouldn't be the first night he'd stayed awake, tortured by the memories of the girl he could not save.
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending upon how you saw it, his introspection was interrupted as the ghostly whispers started once again.
"Oscar... Oscar, please, listen to me. Find me. Follow my voice."
The voice called out to him and he answered striding across the room and heading out the door following it's whispers until he found himself standing in front of a door that hadn't been opened in months. The door that led to Evanora's room. It had remained untouched all these months no one quite brave enough to enter the room, not even Glinda was willing to enter it saying something about the darkness being too strong there.
He hesitated hand curling over the knob only to withdraw until only his fingertips were touching the metal.
"Oscar..." The ghostly voice called out again and he steeled himself and turned the knob flinging the door open before he could change his mind. The gold and black trimmings of the room mocked him with their splendour. It looked like the room of any other of the ladies of the court, opulent and grand. There were no real signs that it was the room where she once practised her dark arts, no hint of the twisted nature that had remained hidden beneath the glossy veneer that was Evanor.
The only thing in the entire room that looked off were the deep gouges in the marble table and the golden tablecloth lying on the floor and scattered metal goblets that had run a bit too close to the fire and melted to the ground.
"Oz..."
The voice called out to him again, this time he knew it was coming from within this very room. It called him again and he found himself kneeling on the floor looking under the silver chaise lounge and found in the darkness there a single green apple. He pulled it out and turned it in his hands, frowning when he saw that someone had taken a bite out of it. A tiny little bite, dainty really.
He flipped it over and polished the skin with his sleeve not expecting it to glow. And then in the light it emanated a face slowly took shaped eyes, one green and one brown,a pixie nose and full ruby lips that he would remember anywhere.
"Theodora-" He whispered to an empty room lit up with the glow of an apple.
The visage in the fruit's skin smiled softly and he gasped as his grip on it tightened.
"Long time no see, Oz."
.
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