A/N: Seeing as none of you bothered to tell me what you want, I shall just carry on the way I have been for the past two chapters. I am not nearly as humbled as I was before, but nonetheless, I shall soldier on for you!
Evanora watched with glee as she scried Oz the Wizard in her crystal ball. She crowed in excitement as Oz broke Glinda's wand, killing her single greatest opposition to the throne. But as the smoke cleared, Evanora became confused. Instead of Glinda dying, she had been transformed into a hideous creature, a truly evil witch. She looked how Evanora felt inside. Twisted, misshapen, and sickly. She had always been jealous of her sister Theodora's attractiveness, and even more so of Glinda's exquisite and unmatchable beauty. She felt a sense of pride in her accomplishment, but at the same time, another emotion surfaced within her. Uncertainty blossomed, then that uncertainty morphed into anxiety. "What have I done?" she wondered aloud, her voice tinged with fear. Not only had she just created a seemingly far more powerful witch, a fact she could tell from her ability to conjure material objects with ease, a skill Glinda had been previously unable to master, but she had just created another contender to the throne of Oz. Glinda had always been a contender, but now she was a contender with obvious ambitions.
"Sister, something has gone terribly wrong. I cannot find the Wizard." Theodora spoke, her voice full of angst and concern. She truly cared for the Wizard, or Oz as he preferred to be called. She recalled that wondrous dance, and the kiss they had shared. Her first. She smiled lightly at the thought, and she could still feel his lips pressed against hers. She let her hand drift to her side, touching the music box he had given her. She carried it everywhere with her, in a bag on her side.
Evanora guessed what was going through her sister's mind. "He is safe, you know." She reassured her sister. But not for long, she added silently. Or perhaps he might. He did have a certain air about him, one that exuded confidence. She loved that in a man. Perhaps he had not outlived his usefulness quite yet. "But I must say, there is something about him, isn't there?"
Theodora nodded enthusiastically, relieved to hear the words of reassurance from her sister. But something about the way her sister talked about him raised her suspicions. "Where is he sister? I must know." Something in her tone brooked no argument.
"He went to kill the wicked witch, of course. He could not wait to end her and set all of Oz free. Didn't he say something to you?" Evanora asked, a ghost of a smile playing across her lips. She knew exactly why Theodora had no knowledge of where OZ had gone. She had made sure of that.
"No, he did not. Pray tell, sister, how you know." Theodora demanded, looking at her sister warily. Theodora did not yet know of her sister's scrying ball. She had always assumed Evanora's knowing of everything that went on in the great land of Oz was due to her greater perceptiveness.
Evanora moved in front of her crystal ball reserved for scrying hastily, hoping to obscure her sister's view. Theodora was not fooled, and pushed Evanora out of the way. "Sister, where did you get this?" she asked, her voice momentarily clear of suspicion as she beheld the wonder of watching Oz stumble along the Yellow Brick road, carrying a badly injured Finley. China Girl was nowhere to be seen. Her heart leaped out to the obviously injured Oz.
Evanora regained her composure quickly. "It was a gift from the previous Wizard. He passed it on to me on his deathbed." In truth, she had stolen it from his chambers when he had been in his dying throes.
"Why did you not tell me of this sooner? I could have watched over him from the very beginning of his journey. My heart would have been set at ease, and you could have spared me much anguish." Theodora said, watching her beloved Wizard in the crystal with an intensity that could have shamed a sniper aiming down his sights. "He is so handsome, even when he is injured so. Do you not agree, sister?"
Evanora could not help but nod. The Wizard was striking, she could not deny. Something fluttered in her heart, something she had not felt in a long, long time. She couldn't identify the feeling at first, but as it grew, she recognized it. It was want. It was desire. She dare not call it love yet, for it was far too early and she was far too wicked. But still, it was there. Evanora decided then and there that Oz was to be hers. She turned away from her sister, nonchalantly moving to her fabrication table. She discreetly moved several pinches of red fabrication powder into her hand. With a whispered magic word, the dust sprang into a form all too familiar to Evanora from her first scrying of Oz. She had watched the so-called Wizard dance with her younger sister, and her heart had filled with jealousy and hate. She glowed with envy when Oz manifested a music box for her dearest sister. She turned back to Theodora, stroking a picture perfect copy of the music box Oz had given Theodora.
"Where did you get that?" Theodora whispered, her voice barely audible as she turned away from the crystal ball. It looked exactly like the one the Wizard had given her. She took it from her sister's hands, examining it closely. Even the grain looked like a perfect match. Theodora opened the lid, and two dancing figures rose from the depths of the box. A tune began to play; the tune of her favorite night in existence. The tune that belonged to her and her alone, because Oz had given it to her. She narrowed her eyes, and she felt the familiar rush of heat in her hands as she grew angry.
"Oh, that was given to me by the Wizard. He came to my chambers last night, you know. Oh Sister, you were right. He truly is the Wizard of the prophecy, for no other man could have made me feel the way I felt last night. We danced for hours, it seemed, to the tune of this little box." Inside, Evanora reveled in the pain she was obviously causing her sister. But outwards, her face was a mask of longing and wistfulness. But what Evanora perceived as pain, was actually anger. Hot, uncontrollable anger.
"He said I would be his queen. He said we would rule Oz together, for as long as we both lived." Theodora's voice was dangerously quiet, like the calm waters that covered a dangerous undercurrent. A thin shell was all that held back her fury. The music box replica shook slightly in her hands. Tears brimmed in her eyes, but they were not tears of sadness or misery. No, they were tears of anger, an anger induced by pain.
Evanora grasped Theodora's hand in a sisterly way. A way that was meant to be comforting but only served to infuriate Theodora. She brought her mouth close to Theodora's ear. "Are you sure it was not you who said it to him?" She pulled away, a sad smile on her face. But inside, she was not yet satisfied. She had not broken her yet, and she could no more resist one last jibe than a starving man who had not eaten in days could resist an all you can eat buffet. "But he did tell it to me." Her sad smile changed to a triumphant one.
That was the last straw for Theodora. She screamed and threw Evanora's music box with all her might. She grabbed her own from her bag and was about to send it after Evanora's, but what she saw stopped her arm in mid throw. Where Evanora's box had hit the wall, there was no broken wood. Just a pile of red dust on the carpet. Seeing it for what it was, Theodora rounded on her sister. "Evanora, you conniving piece of shit!" She screamed in fury. Flames blossomed in her free hand, her right hand still holding the music box. "You would play my heart strings! Just so you can claim him! You would cause me unendurable agony, just because you are jealous of me! I should never have believed you in the first place, about anything you've said about him!" Her screams were vicious, sharp, and dangerous. The flames in her left hand grew brighter and hotter. "You would take the one man who has ever made me happy! You would take him, just because you want him!" Flames dripped from her hand, falling on the floor, before putting themselves out. They weren't hot enough to sustain themselves. Not yet.
Evanora backed away from her sister, true fear in her eyes. "Come now sister. We can talk this thr…" She was cut off by a fireball hurling past her face and splashing over the emerald wall behind her.
"Enough talking! I am sick of all your damn talking! I hate you! I never want to see you again!" Theodora hurled one last fireball, directed at her sister's fabrication table. The table burst into flames, but the fire was so hot, it was immediately reduced to ashes. Nothing remained, not a single grain of dust, not a single gear of her machines. Spinning away, she clutched her music box to her chest as she sprinted out of the room, the fire in her left hand gone. She slammed the door shut, and pulled a wardrobe down in front of it. The wardrobe's framing splintered, but the entirety of it held fast. It created a formidable barrier; one Evanora did not have the strength to move on her own.
Theodora sprinted to her room, ripping off the dress and pearls she had donned to impress the Wizard. No, not the Wizard, her Wizard. She replaced them with the travelling clothes she had worn when she had first met him, down by the river. "I'm coming Wizard." She whispered, a tear hanging on the edge of her eyelid. It was not a tear of anger, nor a tear of pain. It was a tear of love, a tear of joy. The tear did not fall, but evaporated into the air, leaving her beauty unscarred. She grabbed her hat off the mannequin that was its resting place, and ran out of her room. She ran out of the palace and to the stables. There, she spied Nuck, or Sourpuss as her Wizard loved to call him, for some odd reason she could not fathom. "Nuck!" she called out.
"Yes, milady?" Nuck asked, standing at attention, his ever present bugle awaiting a never-coming fanfare. He seemed in a slightly depressed mood, which was normal for him.
"Prepare a carriage for departure immediately! The Wizard requires my help!" Theodora ordered, her tone leaving no space for interjection or refusal. Her Wizard needed her, and she was coming. Nuck jumped to, and had a carriage ready to go in less than three minutes. He jumped, quite literally for someone of his stature, into the driver's seat. Theodora was in the carriage faster than one could say "prestidigitatious". She grabbed the reins from Nuck and snapped them with a force great enough to send the horses running. They bolted out of the stables, nearly trampling two Winkie guardsmen. "Sorry" Theodora called out over her shoulder as the horses sped down the emerald streets. The gates were thrown wide open for her as the horses thundered through the gates, their flanks heaving. "I'm coming, my Wizard." She repeated as the horses hooves clattered on the yellow pavement.
Back in the palace, Evanora threw herself against the door that held her prisoner in what had once been her sanctuary. "It's not fair!" She cried, sobbing. Tears had no effect on her, so she was free to spill them as she pleased. She slumped against the door, before anger took her. The other witches had always gotten everything. Everything they had asked for was theirs. She had had to climb and claw her way up. She had had to snatch everything she wanted and fight fiercely to defend it. She wanted Oz, and she would not be deterred. In her moment of self-pity, she found a reserve of strength deep inside her. With a cry of fury, she released her anguish and pain on the door. It, and the wardrobe behind it, shattered into a million slivers. She stalked out of the room, emerald lightning crackling in her hands. "Winkies!" she screamed. Several Winkie guardsmen thundered down the emerald hallways, pushing servants out of the way. She beckoned them closer, and began orchestrating and outlining her plan for eliminating the wizard.
A/N: I apologize, for I have deviated slightly from Theodora's personality to better suit the story, and in my opinion, herself. I gave her a little more backbone, and I hope you enjoyed the result :)
Also, in the movie, it does indeed show that Evanora cries and it does not burn her.