Title: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Author: DhampyrX2
Genre: AU
Rating: PG, just to be safe
Summary: Two things occurred to me after seeing the movie. One, the good man Oscar became would not have blamed Theodora for what was done to her and would not have sent a little girl on an impossible quest to kill her. The other was that his lost love Annie was marrying Jonathan Gale, which means she was most likely Dorothy's mother. Now let's put those together and look into the mind of an older Oscar as he asks Dorothy to help him do what he failed to do once before in a bit of a re-imagining of the old tale.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.
Looking at the girl hurt. The second she walked into his "throne room" it felt like someone had punched Oscar in the gut and stabbed him in the chest all at once. It wasn't until she introduced herself to his projection, though, that he understood why. Dorothy Gale. Dear God, the girl had Annie's face with Jonathan Gale's light brown hair on her head. She was even wearing Annie's favorite checker pattern on her farm dress.
What a difference 20 years makes, eh, old man? he thought to himself even as he marveled at the sight of her from his view scope. Although part of him felt even worse as she begged to be sent home to her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry. Why did she want to get back to Jonathan's brother? Had something happened to her father? Had he met his ultimate fate face down in the soil as Oscar's own had so many years ago? And what of Annie? Was she… gone?
Oscar suddenly felt very old. Older than he had when the family he had made for himself here began to pass away or move on. Knuck and the Master Tinker had both been laid to rest years ago. China Girl was a China Woman now and living on her own in a nice home in Quadling Country. Finley had disappeared after taking it upon himself to try to spy on Theodora's own flying monkeys. And Glinda… well Oscar had never been very good at relationships. If he had, this little slip of a girl would have had hair a shade or two darker and been named Dorothy Diggs instead.
Of course, the question of what to do with her was still there staring him in the face. She had managed to be credited/blamed for her house falling on Evanora, good riddance, and had run more than a little afoul of poor Theodora as a result. Not that he blamed Theodora for being upset. Evanora was literally all she had left in the world in her mind.
Sad as it was to say, his first impulse was to use Dorothy the way Evanora had tried to use him. To somehow convince her to eliminate the thorn that Theodora had been in his side for the last 20 years. But that was no solution. Even if she tried this sweet girl was clearly no killer. Just like Oscar hadn't been one. Besides, sending what had to be Annie's girl off on an impossible quest left a bad taste in his mouth.
No, there had to be another way.
And then, with frightening clarity, Oz realized what he would have to do. It was foolish. It was foolhardy. It was the kind of thing he would have happily run away from before coming to Oz. It was something he and Glinda had argued about for years before she left him.
Oscar was going to have to correct his own mistake for a change. He was going to destroy the Wicked Witch of the West…by saving Theodora and bringing her back. He had begged Glinda for years to find a cure for whatever spell Evanora had cast on her sister. Glinda had insisted it was impossible. That Theodora was wicked through and through now and nothing could change that. That there was no love left in her to save.
But Oscar knew better. The opposite of love wasn't the passionate hate Theodora spewed at all of Oz. The opposite of love was indifference. If Theodora could still hate him, she could still be saved. And it was high time he got off his rear and did a bit of traveling again to prove it.
I, Oz the Great and Powerful, have come to a decision, Dorothy of Kansas. Please direct your attention to the curtain on your left. Or more specifically, please take note of the man behind the curtain, the booming voice of his projection announced.
