Sorry for the long wait. Revision seems to take up all my time these days, I wrote this chapter during a latin test, not last monday but the one before, then in a boring english lesson and an ICT lesson. What a rubbish student I am but this is more important than exams :P x

Chapter Three – Pink

Avaric had to come to Glinda the good with his worries. They had both known Fiyero at school, well she knew him a little better than me, he thought to himself as he waited for an audience with her goodness.

Impatiently he began to pace across the foyer, knowing they were behind the skipper already and desperately needed to catch up with her before she managed to get her true victim, Fiyero. Half an hour later Avaric was allowed into her Goodness' hall. Avaric walked past the marble pillars that had originally been white, were a shocking hot pink. A deep pink carpet lay to each side of the lighter pink carpet Avaric was walking along.

As he reached her Goodness, a dumb blonde he'd always looked down on at school sat in her throne of Goodness, more powerful then he could ever be. Staring at the hands placed on top of the folds of her baby pink dress, she said,

"How may I help you captain?" she asked, her advisers busily taking notes. He'd known she would be surrounded by spies every minute of the day, his men could be trusted with the knowledge of Fiyero but if the Wizard found out that they were trying to save his 2nd most wanted criminal who was most likely with the most wanted one, there would be hell to pay.

"I just wanted to check if there were any cases you needed my officers to follow up on," he lied slipping his hand into his pocket and secretly grabbing a piece of paper.

"Everything is quite alright captain, my palace guards take care of me. Oh do you like their uniforms I designed them myself," she pointed to the man dressed head to toe in pink, if his clothes had been a few shades lighter he would have blended in with the wall.

"Of course, your goodness," he bent over took her hand in mine before kissing it. Feeling the paper, she pulled it into her own hand as Avaric bid her farewell.

"You may be dismissed," Glinda told her many advisors, "I think it's time for a break." Glinda slipped into a side room before daring to open up her hand to look at the paper. It read,

"Meet me in the alleyway next to the palace in 5 mins, ALONE. It's about Fiyero"

Glinda sneaked into the cloakroom avoiding any unwanted attention from her maids and man servants. Holding in her disgust at the colour of a large black cloak, she slipped it on and used her specially designed tunnel to let her escape from the Wizard's spies.

Avaric stood in the pouring rain, his uniform clinging to his body as the rain seeped through, he knew he should have brought a cloak. He leaned close to the palace walls, using the tall wall to give him a small amount of protection. He stood up, straight as a feminine figure approached dressed in a looming black cloak.

"Your goodness," he kissed her hand once again.

"Forget the formalities Avaric what is going on? You said something about Fifi," Glinda said quickly.

"Have you heard about the Skipper?" Avaric asked.

"The one that's killing teenage girls, yes, I heard about that one."

"She's after Fiyero. You're the last one who had contact with him, did you have any idea where he might be?"

"The last I saw of him was Munchkin land, when the guards," she let out a sob, "tortured him. I have no idea whether he even survived let alone where he went if he did. Madame Morrible has me watched like a hawk. I had to wear this... thing that can hardly even be called a cloak."

"He would have gone somewhere familiar, somewhere with enough happy memories to make him feel safe. Where does his family live? They're royalty, so they must own more than one. Did he ever tell you which one was his favourite? Everyone has a favourite," Avaric realised.

"The only time he mentioned his family's homes was when he complained that his parents never went to their summer home, Kiamo Ko. He loved the forest there, it surrounded the castle."

"That's it, he'd know it was boarded cause no one was there, so there was no one to notice he was there. There was no chance anyone would walk past and there's multiple escape routes through the forest. It's perfect! He's smarter than he looks."

"I got to go," Avaric, broke into a run. Avaric raced through the streets dodging people and jumping over fences in a desperate attempt to reach his men.

Red faced and breathing heavily, Avaric burst into the Guard's post, right into a group of his soldiers.

"Boys, we have a new lead," Avaric said pleased with himself, before the look on his officers faces removed his grin, "What's going on?"

"Captain, her Goodness, Glinda the Good has been murdered, we just got the call," Avaric's second in command broke the news.

"But...but I was talking to her only a few minutes ago," Avaric couldn't understand it.

"Well its happened captain she was found dead by one of the palace guards, just outside the palace walls by the entrance to her secret passage way."

"Then the murderer could be in the palace. Hop to it men, we have a murderer to catch."

Once at the palace the guards split in half; half to search the palace while the other half went to the scene of the crime. The guards did their best to hide the emotion they felt for her Goodness as they blocked off the alley way so only they could see her crumpled up body. She was an obvious victim of the Skipper, from the poem pinned to her head to the bruises on her neck form the strangling, not forgetting the heart craved into her chest with the word Fiyero craved into the centre of it.

Avaric ripped the note from her skull, looking away the lifeless girl tht had seemed so bubbly and pink, such a short tim ago. Around the captain, the Gale Force Guards gathered to read the Skippers's latest claim to fame.

Pink, pink, pink,

How I detest that colour

Glinda the Good, that dear to soul

But such a shame was one big mole

Engaged to my love

And the symbol of the above

Damned to me because of my plight

Damned to herself for a lack of might

A servant of the Wizard,

That big old fraud.

The good, the good she claimed to be

But was no good, I set her free

The duty was mine and so I served

I do not try to claim that I did not enjoy

I swung my rope

And pulled it tight

I removed her pink

And turned her red.

Now to you Captain

You ought to know,

I set the pace

And won this race

Let me guess

You know the place

As the time you waste

I'm on my way

Can you keep the pace?

Do you really think you can win this race?

The Skipper

"Captain!" A strong female voice shouted, one that seemed weridly familiar. Turning around Avaric stared at the bulk that was his former head teacher, he'd never understood how she was both head teacher and assistant to the Wizard. But then at that time he'd drunk enough to kill all his brain cells so nothing would make sense.

"Captain!" she continued, "I have been looking over the case files for this Skipper," she mocked the name, "and something rather disturbing has come to my attention. This Skipper seems to be very interested in you, a little too interested. They sound so interested that it would make sense if they were you, as everyone knows there's no one you love more than your self."

"What! I was the one to figure out what the Skipper wanted. I'm the one that's working my arse off to try and stop her. Plus the poems they say her, as in a girl."

"Well you would know what the Skipper's after as you are the Skipper. Everyone knows you were jealous of Fiyero, taking his post wasn't enough was it. You want to kill him as well. You said it was a girl to get yourself off the hook. I'm not an idoit captain! I can see through your lies," Morrible reasoned.

"Men, arrest this man!"