Author's note: This chapter takes place in the past and leads into the present. If you've read Out of Oz, you'll see that I've taken the scene from Glinda in Southstairs and made it longer but also tied it into the second book in the Dorothy Must Die series, The Wicked Will Rise. A little short but necessary chapter to give some background into a later event. There's a method to my madness, I swear. Enjoy!

It had been a long and hard fight against that Amy Gumm and her friends. Glinda had holed herself up in the best bubble she could conjure and shot arrows at Polychrome until she died, all the while watching Dorothy and Amy go head-to-head with magic. And though she was holding her own against these other brats, just watching the girls was exhausting.

The fighting was over soon enough, and using her sweetest voice, she had convinced Dorothy to leave the battered remains of their enemies up in the clouds. Dorothy was such a sucker for that voice. Together, with Ozma, they made their way back down to the Emerald City.

"What do you suppose I should do with these?" Dorothy asked, holding up Amy's pack and pulling out the Tin Man's heart and the Lion's tail. The tail swished about lazily in Dorothy's grip, and the heart beat against her hand, looking like it had lost its battle.

Glinda peered over to her companion, putting the connection together. "I think, my sweet, that you might want to see to it that you have the Scarecrow's gift from the Wizard in your possession. Who knows why that girl was collection them?"

Dorothy nodded as they flew over the yellow brick wall that had appeared.

No sooner had they reached the border of the Emerald City than Queen Lulu appeared and shouted at the trio, "We want the Queen, you witches!"

Glinda smirked. "Oh, I'm wounded by your words!" She held a dramatic hand up to her chest. "It's just too bad they don't stick."

With that, Glinda threw a pink ball of energy toward the monkey, who seemed to have grown in numbers as they floated there.

Queen Lulu barely avoided the energy, but caught her balance long enough to yell, "Attack!"

Surprised, the bubble popped, and Glinda couldn't think fast enough to conjure another before something sharp poked her neck and she felt the world slipping away from her. Dorothy looked like she was getting away with Ozma as the monkeys closed in on her.

"Elphie," she whispered as she succumbed to the darkness.

When Glinda awoke, the haze surrounded her, clouding her mind even as the room came into focus. A high-pitched giggle erupted from her mouth, and something in the back of her mind questioned it. Oh, the questions, she thought, and if Dorothy were here she'd make them go away.

But the doubt came creeping in waves, overshadowed by dark thoughts every time they appeared. Glinda's head felt like it was splitting open by the time any sort of movement registered from the cell she was beginning to recognize herself as being captured in.

"Come on in, dear, I won't bite," Glinda called out sweetly, a smile stretching uncomfortably across her face.

"I sincerely doubt that," came the voice of Queen Lulu. Glinda perked up a bit at recognizing the voice.

"Ah, a Monkey. You vermin will be disposed of when Dorothy comes to rescue me!" she spat, the smile disappearing.

Queen Lulu looked nonplussed at the girl's unwelcome reaction. "You know, dear girl, I'd think you'd be a little nicer. Southstairs was built to filter out the magic that makes you so high and mighty. But I think you'd remember that since your beginnings were just as humble as that Dorothy bitch."

Glinda sat up straight and pushed her chin forward. "You'd do well to remember that Dorothy is your queen!"

Lulu laughed, a foot stomping on the ground, much to Glinda's distaste. "Oh, Ga-linda, you were always such a righteous pain! Dorothy does not control us Monkeys any more than your green friend did when she made enemies with the Wizard all those years ago." Lulu noticed a deadly gleam in Glinda's eyes as she spoke and watched the woman shudder at a memory, presumably from the very war between the Witch and the Wizard.

"You leave Elphaba out of this," Glinda replied darkly, the glare looking out of place on the normally chipper face.

Lulu took a step back to the entrance of the cell. "I might leave her out of it, but she very well might not leave herself out of it this time."

Glinda's dark gaze turned to confusion as Lulu stepped out of the cell. "What are you talking about, Monkey? Who's leaving herself out of what this time?"

There was no answer as the cell door closed seemingly of its own accord. Glinda felt a niggling of despair in her chest start to worm its way up as she looked at the blank walls of the windowless cell. She pushed it down as she took a large breath of air. Dorothy would realize that she wasn't going to get out of this by herself. She'd find her, right?

The doubt came back as strong as ever, and Glinda felt at war with herself as she tried to push it down. She continued the mental battle until she finally exhausted herself, unaware of any hour or time.

The internal battle continued for days, weeks, months, and years. Glinda felt like time had stopped completely, that she was just going to live here forever. She sat up from her cot, remembering that at some point, she'd been upgraded from a pile of straw to a cot with a blanket and pillow.

But how long ago?

In between bouts of insanity and raging about that little brat Dorothy, Glinda felt clarity like she'd not had in years. She could recall youthful years at Shiz, and oh, how long ago that was, she knew for certain. She remembered her emerald-skinned roomie. She remembered Fiyero.

Oh, Fiyero. Dorothy must have killed him by now. Taken out his brains and left him for dead or burned him to a crisp. If only Elphaba had been better at magic, then Fiyero might have had his wounds healed rather than turned to flammable straw. Oh, that woman was infuriating.

Oh, Elphaba.

"Elphie," she called out. "Elphie…"

When Glinda remembered Elphaba, the madness inside seemed to still. She was no longer confused about any allegiance to Dorothy—it really was magic that made her this way, but not her own. Hers had probably left her for good now, but Dorothy's lingered like a tick on the back of her neck. It made her spew nonsense and grow cross at everything, twisting her mind into something unrecognizable. Glinda only hoped that the girl was killed soon so that it could all stop, so that she could think of her sweet Elphaba in peace, no distractions, no interruptions.

Oh, Elphaba. Glinda cried for weeks after the melting of the green woman. She felt empty and hollow inside as she sent Dorothy back home, watched the rest of Oz celebrate a victory that Glinda felt shouldn't have happened. If only they were more accepting of her, Glinda remembered thinking often of the events. But there was nothing to be done. Elphaba, her best friend, was dead. Killed by a little girl who thought she was helping, who didn't seem so remorseful when she was taking off in that balloon.

And when the girl came back, Glinda had retreated so far into herself that she wanted to make the girl pay for taking away her Elphaba. So she taught the girl magic, became her consort, showed her Oz, and watched as darkness slowly overtook her, watched as the little brat became power hungry and evil, squashing and pulling magic out of every corner she could. When Glinda wasn't looking, Dorothy had ensnared her, making sure that Glinda could never stray. The doubt that Glinda had, the regrets at teaching the girl magic were slowly ebbing away with each new push of Dorothy's darkness, and soon Glinda forgot all about why she wanted to get close to Dorothy.

"I should have killed her when I had the chance!" Glinda shouted to the empty room. "I had it right there. That little girl would never have known what hit her."

With a sigh, Glinda stood up, bending backward to crack her back before shuffling over to the chamber pot. The smell of piss invaded her sense of smell as she squatted over it and hiked up her dress to pee.

Before her unfortunate arrival in Southstairs, Glinda would have thought of stooping over a pot to do one's business was unladylike and undignified. She would have thought that even before Dorothy's terror, but she recognized it now as the only choice she had, though an uncomfortable one at that. She hadn't gotten to wipe her ass or shower recently, but her body odour had stopped bothering her long ago. When you hadn't a chance to glamorize yourself in ages, it stopped becoming something to obsess over. She had stopped fussing over her hair long ago, letting in grow long and wild, not even thinking anymore to ask for it to be cut.

"You look like shit."

Glinda's eyes snapped up from where she was tearing her dress to the cell entrance to see Queen Lulu standing there. "You aren't looking much better these days, but at least I have an excuse."

The Monkey gave a huff and flapped her wings in annoyance. "Well I came to visit you since it's been three years. Tell me, are you still batty in the head? I heard from some old Maunt that you might be getting as crazy as her nowadays."

Glinda furrowed her eyebrows. "I haven't had any visitors since I arrived here. I haven't had any contact with any old crones save for you."

Lulu looked amused. "She was an old crone. Yackle, she was called. Or at least I think that's what she said she was called, I don't know. I'm probably as batty as you are by now."

"How are things aboveground?"

Lulu shook her head. "I wouldn't worry yourself with what's going on up there. Down here is safe. She wouldn't even think to come down here."

"She? Dorothy? Is she still around?" Glinda stood up and started to move toward the Monkey.

"Now listen here, witch, I'm still a queen and you will not approach me as some dirty commoner," Lulu said and beat her wings fiercely in Glinda's direction, the gust enough to knock her back a step.

Glinda gave a withering glare to the visitor. "That wasn't nice."

"Nice?" Lulu barked out in between shrill giggles, "Nice? Goodness, girl, nice shouldn't even be in your dictionary anymore. It's not like you've been Glinda the Good recently. You don't deserve anything."

Glinda deflated visibly at the former moniker. "Right."

"Oh, come now, girl. You've done some mighty awful things in the last decade. Don't tell me that you've gone soft in your old age."

The woman sighed and sat back down on the cot. "I don't know what I've gone." She sounded lost, and Lulu almost took pity on her but made one last comment at the girl's shrinking form.

"We all do crazy things for love."

Glinda heard the cell door slam shut and her head snapped up. "What do you mean love? I don't love Dorothy!"

She heard the answering cackle as Lulu walked away.

"I don't love Dorothy!" Glinda shrieked. She listened to the laugh as it echoed down the halls of Southstairs. It grew faint until either Queen Lulu stopped laughing or she was out of earshot. Glinda didn't know the prison well and hadn't even been past the first underground floor, but she was certain that she was deeper than that, especially for it to have such an impact on her magic.

The witch fell back onto the pillow, suddenly exhausted. What did that crazy old thing mean about love? Glinda had never loved anyone, at least not by the definition everyone knew. She didn't feel any sort of pull toward anyone special. Fiyero was a youthful crush and Chuffrey was an arranged marriage, a marriage made out of political gains; it was smart. But she didn't love either of them. She didn't feel like she was home with either of them, not really. They were both nice men, but Glinda couldn't see herself living forever with either one.

Thinking back, Glinda wasn't sure she even really liked them. Sure, they were handsome, and Fiyero had always been so nice but there wasn't any real attraction there.

Didn't ever know what I wanted, Glinda thought to herself and pulled the blanket over her head, resigning the one-sided conversation for when she woke up.

A loud rumble startled Glinda awake, and dust fell from the ceiling as she sat up, rubbing her eyes to find the source of the interruption of her sleep. Another bang from above shook the building, and Glinda briefly wondered if the war had made its way into the prison.

Another bang, closer this time, had Glinda in a panic. She knew that this might be her last moment alive, so she braced herself against the wall for the inevitable moment that she now knew was coming. With each new sound getting ever closer, Glinda held tighter to her dress, now a tattered mess after the years spent in the cell. Her hair fell into her eyes, and she didn't make even a move to push it away from her eyes as a figure in a pointed hat approached the cell door.

A long cloak fell behind the figure's shoulders, and their hands were encased in black gloves. Glinda's eyes widened as she saw the cell door open as if by—

"Magic." Glinda let the word fall from her lips as a barely whispered breath. She thought she remembered something about this person. It seemed so familiar, but she wasn't certain why. The figure approached her, and that was when she saw the broom that the person was carrying. "Oh, you wicked thing. You took your sweet time," Glinda said, not really knowing why she felt compelled to say anything to this person.

She felt tired and fought against it as she tried to remember the last time she saw this person, though she hadn't seen the person's face. There was a black mask over it, but she thought she saw the slightest hint of green as the person pulled her onto the broomstick and they sped off through the dark halls of Southstairs and up through the many levels of cells before finally breaking into daylight. Glinda felt herself drifting to sleep, but the strong arms of her companion—savior?—wrapped around her to hold tight to the broomstick, and she let her eyes close for the first time since the exciting escape.