It was silent.

Silence surrounded me... pressing in on me.

I saw the battle of Good and Wicked raging like a flame. I could feel the heat and see the fearsome faces. Dorothy: the little girl with the sickeningly sweet face. Boq, whose presence tugged at my heart, made me think of Nessa, which made me sad and furious. Fiyero, who was acting quite well, lunged at me. I flinched. I half-believed the anger on his straw-stuffed face.

Fiyero and I met eyes.

"How about a little fire, Scarecrow?" A fire spell. Not so hard. I mumbled into my hands and a ball of fire sprang up in my palm. I threw it.

"Aagh!" Fiyero screamed, and I was worried that it actually hurt him.

No. A creature with no brain cannot feel pain.

"Scarecrow!" Dorothy cried. Right on cue, she seized the bucket of water in the corner and thrust it at her friend. It doused him and me. It burned a little, but I cried like hell.

"Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought that a Good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful Wickedness!" Pure bullshit. "I'm melting, melting!" For once, I thanked inflated rumors. The water was far from lethal, but they would never know.

I screeched horribly, sinking into the floor. Dorothy looked simply horrified. Dodo yapped at me. The stone trap door creaked into place above my head. I had lost my hat and my broom.

More silence.

I waited for Fiyero's signal.

"Elphie?" A timid voice.

I'd downright forgotten the blonde in the corner, the one with my Grimmerie.

Wait—the vial! Where was it?

"Have another drink—Green Elixir—and we'll have ourselves a little mixer…" Where was it?!?!

"Oh Elphie…" She found the hat. She thinks I'm dead. That realization tore at me. I was just one floor below her feet, and she would never know.

"Miss… Miss Glin-da?" Another voice, timid, barely audible through the stone ceiling just inches above my head… Chistery? Speaking?

Even through hard stone, I could feel the presence of magic. Glinda's always filled my head with a sweet, fluffy feeling. If feeling could have a color, Glinda's would be pink.

She conjured her magic bubble, and I was hit with a bitter aura—not Glinda-like at all. This feeling belonged to a sick blue color, salty from Glinda's repressed tears. That made me cry too, and I do not cry. Not even a little. Tears burned my cheeks. I hadn't realized how much more damaging salt water from my own body could be.

Then I felt her presence leaving me. I almost sobbed—almost, but not really. I choked it back like a pro.

Enough time passed for Dorothy to skip off to the Emerald City—hours and hours. Enough time passed for phony gifts—a diploma, a heart-shaped clock, a medal, and a failed balloon ride home.

As I counted the seconds, the Wizard was being lifted into the air, and Dorothy and Dodo were left behind. As I sat in the dark secret chamber beyond the trap door, Glinda performed one spectacular act of magic on Nessarose's ruby slippers.

"There's no place like home. There's no place like home."

The taste of Glinda's mournful aura still stuck in my mouth. My tongue was dry.

The air balloon left Oz.

I had been leaning against the wall of the black room. I sat up abruptly.

The Wizard was gone and I could sense it… Why could I sense it? That freaked me out. My enemy and I shared a mysterious connection that I had never been aware of.

Suddenly the world seemed a tad colder. A bittersweet feeling I had always attached to Frex was sucked out of me with no warning at all.

No way.

The Wizard? No. No freaking way. I refused to believe it. But my green-skinned-freak senses had never been wrong before. It had to be true.

Frex was not my father at all.

I was shocked into paralysis. My muscles would not work.

Tap. Tap-tap-tap. Tap. Tap-tap.

Fiyero.

Warmth. Love. His soft reddish aura soaked into me. Sometimes freaky green girl senses aren't so bad.

I heaved the trap door away from me with hidden strength. Hands reached in and pulled me up.

"It worked!"

"Fiyero!"

He was the only real thing to me. The other auras, confused, dizzying, and painful, whirled around me. But the only one who mattered was right here, his hands on my waist.

"You are beautiful," I assured his doubtful face. "To me."

He didn't believe me, but I would have a lifetime to prove it to him. We would be together forever.

Far away, a celebration raged around Glinda the Good. Those fools were not real to me anymore. I would only miss one of them. "I just wish…"

"No." Fiyero was firm. "She can't know, not if we want her to be safe."

I knew he was right. That killed me on the inside. "No one can ever know."

I hugged him tighter. How can a man stuffed with straw still be sexy and muscular? I guess I'm just crazy.

I let go of Fiyero to say my good-byes to Oz. Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But…

"Because I knew you."

Glinda's presence overwhelmed me, even though she was far away, celebrating.

"No one mourns the Wicked," The Ozians murmured.

Glinda exploded with grief. I almost started to cry. Again.

"Because I knew you!" Glinda, I'm right here. Right here!

"I have been changed…" Fiyero gently pulled me away. He put my hat on my head.

And Fiyero and I left Oz.

"No one mourns the WICKED! WICKED! WICKED!!!"

For good.