AN: Update! Yay!

Thank you so much for reviewing, I really appreciate it! At the request of xXStefyXx: some girl power :D.

Silvine Graycine: Yeah, about the names. Don't think I'm that creative - I use a Dutch site of babynames as well. Morgana just seemed to fit; many writers call Morrible that in her stories, and since it sounded kind of evil and indeed, it's also from the Little Mermaid 2, I decided to use it :P. As for Atol, I was hoping someone would ask about that ^^. I used the babynames site again, but purposefully this time, because I was looking for a name that means something. Atol means something like 'vindictive' or 'full of hate'. It seemed fitting :).

As for ChaoticSymphonyofDarkness... there's absolutely nothing for you to be jealous about. Your writing is so much better than mine. Your 'Echoes of Pain' made me cry (I just noticed I didn't review that :O. Shame on me! I always seem to forget to review when I read something - sorry about that).

So let's end this way too long AN and get on with the story, shall we?

Disclaimer: Yeah. Not mine.

Both Glinda and Elphaba were slumped into a corner of their respective cells, not saying much. It had been a few days now and they hadn't seen Atol anymore; every morning when they awoke, there would be some water and some bread waiting for them, but otherwise, there was no sign of anyone but them. They had tried to escape, of course – Elphaba had tried to use her magic on the bars, but to no avail; Glinda had tried to wriggle herself between the bars, but had gotten stuck and only barely managed to wriggle back; and they had both tried using pure strength, pushing and hitting the bars with their bare hands as well as with any object they could find in their cell, but nothing worked. They were trapped.

Glinda's sigh broke the silence. 'You wouldn't believe how much I feel like ice cream right now.'

Elphaba chuckled mirthlessly. 'We're trapped in a dark dungeon and you're thinking about ice cream?'

The blonde shrugged. 'I'm just really craving some right now. It's been my latest addiction, you know.'

'I know.'

'I'd like some chocolate ice cream. And caramel, too. Topped with warm vanilla sauce and whipped cream…'

Elphaba moaned. 'Please don't remind me of food. I'm starving.'

'Then eat your bread.'

'It's mouldy.'

'Ew.'

'Exactly.'

They were silent again for a while. Then Elphaba said softly, 'I'd love some chocolate chip cookies right now.'

'Or warm apple pie.'

'Lamb stew.'

'A tuna sandwich with pickles.'

Elphaba laughed softly at that. 'Not that. I hate pickles. And that's a weird combination, anyway.'

Glinda giggled, too, before they lapsed in silence again. Glinda was wondering whether she should tell her friend – or was this not the right time? She had only figured it out the day before herself, and she really wanted to tell Elphaba, but shouldn't Corrin be the first to know?

No, she decided. Elphie was her best friend and she wanted to share this with someone. 'Elphie?'

'Mm?'

Glinda took a deep breath. 'I think I'm pregnant.'

'Maráni, finally!' Fiyero exclaimed when the huge Wolf entered the rooms. She was panting slightly, but her eyes were alert and she seemed ready for action. 'Nuki already told me what happened.' They had sent the small Cat to inform Maráni of what had happened, and now, after two days, they had returned finally together. 'I can help.'

Hope flamed up in Fiyero's heart. 'You can?'

She nodded. 'I'm a Wolf – my nose is excellent. I can track people. And I know Elphaba's scent like no one else's – not to mention the fact that Glinda's perfume is quite the giveaway, too. Take me to the shop where they were kidnapped.'

The store appeared to be closed now; the shop assistant was nowhere to be seen and when Fiyero and Corrin forced their way inside, there was no sign of anyone present. They searched the place until Maráni announced, 'Found the scent.' She sniffed the floor, spun around a few times to determine the proper direction, and then nodded eastwards. 'That way.'

Glinda looked up and saw her friend stare at her with huge eyes. 'Really? You're pregnant? Are you sure?'

The blonde nodded. 'I've been nauseous for a while now in the mornings – I didn't really think much of it, because I've never really been a morning person and I usually skip breakfast anyway… It didn't strike me as odd, what with the recent stress and all. But then my ice cream craving started, and then I realised: I haven't been bleeding for weeks now. I've never been irregular. I think it's pretty clear that I must be… pregnant.'

'Explains the tuna-sandwich-with-pickles-craving, too,' Elphaba muttered to herself. Then she suddenly got up and declared, 'All right, that's it. We've got to get out of here. Well, we've got to get you out of here, but it'd be nice if I would be able to come along.'

'Elphie…'

'I know we've tried everything, Glinda, but we can't just give up! I refuse to rot in here and you need to get back to Corrin and start a happy family and not worry about escaping from creepy dark dungeons and insane idiots.' Light green sparks flew off her hands when she gestured wildly, but she didn't even notice it. Glinda, however, did. 'Elphie, you're…'

'I do not want you to give up! Do you hear me?' She started pacing. 'We'll find a way. I'm not sure how yet, but we will.'

As if he had been listening to her, Atol chose that moment to enter the dungeons, locking the door behind him, looking at the girls smugly. 'Are we enjoying ourselves?'

Elphaba flew up to the bars, grasping them with both hands. 'Let Glinda go! I'm the one you want, not her!'

'Elphie!'

'No,' Atol said flatly. 'I already told you why I would like to learn Miss Glinda here a lesson too, and you're not exactly in the position to be making demands here.' Well, that much was true. Nonetheless, she clenched her fingers around the bars even tighter. 'Let. Her. Go.'

He bent closer to her and she felt his hot, stinky breath caress her face, making her shiver with repulsion. 'No.'

Elphaba's eyes were blazing now and Glinda smirked as she recognised where this was going. They had tried magic before, yes, but Elphie's powers seemed to be much stronger when she just acted on her emotions instead of trying to control her magic. Right now, this man was absolutely driving the green girl up the wall and it would probably not take long for a magical outburst to take place – one that hopefully would allow them to escape.

'Water?' Corrin said incredulously. 'No. Not water! You can't track them down if they've travelled over water, can you?'

'No, I can't,' Maráni replied calmly. 'But I know this area, and I think I can make an educated guess about where the girls have been taken. There's an island in the middle of this lake – it was used to hold very dangerous criminals during the Great Drought, or so I've heard. Apparently, there are also dungeons there.'

The men seemed to get hope again. 'How will we get across?'

Maráni nodded towards a small wooden building. 'The man that lives there rents rowing-boats. They are usually used for tourists who want to paddle around on the water a bit, but you could use one of those boats to get to that island.'

Fiyero looked at Corrin, who nodded determinedly. 'Let's go for it.'

Elphaba stared at the giant burn hole in the bars of her prison cell, then at the man lying on the ground, knocked off his feet, and then at her own hands. 'Did I do that?'

Glinda merely applauded. 'Great. I knew you could do it. Now let's get out of here – well, get me out of here first.'

Elphaba looked at her friend. 'You knew this would happen?'

'Elphie, you and I both know what happens when you get worked up and lose control of your powers. I was hoping for it to happen now, and it did. Thank Oz for that. Now let's not waste any more time, shall we? He could come around anytime now.'

Elphaba nodded quickly and crouched through the hole in the bars, searching Atol's limp form for the key to open Glinda's cell. She opened the door and the blonde ran out to hug her friend briefly. 'Come on, let's go.'

Elphaba nodded and ran towards the door to try the different keys she found, and Glinda collected her skirts and waited for her green friend to finish. Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of something moving; when she turned around, her eyes grew wide when she saw Atol get up and walk up towards Elphaba with a knife in his hand. The green girl didn't notice him, since she was still focused on the lock, but Glinda did and she took off one of her shoes and ran up to the man. She started hammering him on the head with the shoe. 'Stay' bang 'away' plonk 'from' bang 'Elphie!'

He slumped to the floor, unconscious again, and Elphaba looked at her friend in awe. 'Shame you weren't wearing stilettos.'

Glinda merely smirked, put her shoe back on and followed her friend outside.

To Fiyero, it felt like the short trip from the lakeside to the island took days, but in reality, it was not even half an hour before they reached it. They had left Nuki and Maráni back at the mainland, and so it was just him and Corrin. They weren't sure what they were going to do yet; Fiyero thought it might be wisest just to explore a little, find out if the girls were really here, and then return with an army to free them later – even though both him and Corrin would much rather just barge in and free them themselves. That would be reckless, however; they didn't even know how many people were in there. Elphaba would kill him if he would just storm in there unprepared, and he suspected Glinda would do the same to Corrin.

They dragged the small rowing-boat ashore and tentatively approached the one building that was on the island.

'Do you see a door?' Fiyero whispered to Corrin. The other man shook his head. 'Not even a window. Let's take a look at the other side.'

Fiyero nodded in agreement and approached the corner. 'I'll watch your back,' Corrin whispered, staying behind his friend, hugging the wall. Fiyero took out his sword, took a deep breath, rounded the corner, and bumped into…

'Elphaba?'

'Yero?' She looked completely baffled. 'What are you doing here?'

'Um… rescuing you?' he said, dumbstruck. Then Glinda appeared from behind the green girl, smirking slightly. 'There was absolutely no need for you to do that,' she told him rather smugly. 'Us girls took care of everything. Girl power, right, Elphie?' Then she caught sight of her husband, who had now come out as well, and she squealed and hurried into his arms. 'Corry!'

Elphaba wrapped her arms around Fiyero as well, closing her eyes and allowing herself to ravel in the feeling of his embrace for just the briefest time. He held her close, thanking every god he knew that she was safe. 'What happened?'

Elphaba pulled away and shook her head. 'No time. Tell you later. We have to get out of here first.'

'Shouldn't we have killed him, Elphie?' Glinda asked worriedly. 'What if he comes after us?'

Elphaba grunted. 'He probably will. And I told you we should kill him, but you didn't want me to.'

'He's just a very confused man, Elphie,' Glinda said. 'He lost his sister. He's probably grieving.'

Elphaba snorted. 'Yes, because people usually start kidnapping other people when they are grieving.'

'Wait a minute,' Corrin said, interrupting the girls' bickering. 'Are you saying the one who kidnapped you could be coming after us any minute now?'

The girls looked at each other uncomfortably. 'Um… Yes,' Glinda said a bit sheepishly, and Corrin looked at Fiyero. 'I think we need to go and finish that job then, while we still can, or he'll just kidnap them again.'

Fiyero nodded. 'We'll take care of him.' He took Elphaba's hand and kissed it. 'You and Glinda get in the boat. We'll be right there.'

She nodded and he and Corrin stalked off, but they hadn't even reached the door yet when Atol came stumbling out of the building, eyes blazing. He lifted his hands and shot a lightning bolt at Corrin, who only barely managed to avoid it. 'What's that? Is he a sorcerer?'

'It runs in the family!' Atol roared, cackling manically, lancing another lightning bolt – in Fiyero's direction, this time, and Elphaba leapt forward to push him out of the way. 'My dear sister was not the only one with power over the weather!' Atol sneered, and to prove his right, a thunderstorm suddenly broke loose, dark clouds and pouring rain making it nearly impossible to see anything, thunder clapping nearby, lightning nearly striking them. Fiyero tried to protect Elphaba with his body and turned his head to Corrin, to voice the one plan that he could think of at the moment.

'Run!'

And they did. Glinda and Corrin went in one direction, Fiyero and Elphaba in another, as lightning bolts kept chasing them. One of those struck the boat, destroying it completely, and Fiyero felt his heart sink. How were they ever going to get out of here without a boat?

'Swim!' Elphaba yelled, pulling him into the water and starting to swim herself. He followed her without further thought. The most important thing was to get away from this lunatic right now and so they swam for their lives. They couldn't see a thing because of the thick curtain of rain, there were thunderclaps nearly every two clock-ticks and lightning bolts were chasing them wherever they went, but they kept going. Fiyero didn't know where Glinda and Corrin were. Were they swimming as well? Had they found a way to escape? Or were they trapped again? There was no way he would be able to tell, and so he pushed the thoughts about them away from his mind and focused entirely on swimming.

They didn't seem to get any closer to the mainland, though. They swam for hours, but there was no land to be seen, and he was starting to grow desperate. He wasn't sure whether the lake was really this big or they had been swimming around in circles. It didn't really matter, either. What mattered was that they wouldn't be able to go on much longer. They had to do something.

'Elphaba, stop!'

He was panting when he caught up with her. 'We have to go back. We have no idea how big this lake is. We can't just keep swimming – we'll drown.'

She shook her head fervently, her dark hair moving like seaweed through the water, a few shorter strands whipping her face. She looks like a mermaid, he thought, not sure how he could think something like that at a moment like this, but he did. In the pouring rain, with her hair floating on the water and her skin almost luminescent, she looked like a creature from another world, like a mermaid from the deep waters below.

'I'm not going back,' she said. 'I'd rather drown than go back.'

'Elphaba…'

'Whatever he's planning on doing to me when he catches me will be far worse than drowning,' she pointed out to him. 'This way we might have a chance.'

He saw the determination in her eyes and knew there was no point in arguing with her. 'Then I'll come and drown with you.'

There was a smile in her eyes as he took her hand and laced their fingers together and they started swimming again. They had no idea which direction they were going in; they could barely see anything because of the rain. They just kept going, ignoring their fatigue and the pain in their muscles, swimming until they no longer could, and still they went on. There was no land to be seen. He was exhausted, and so was she, probably; he could see it in her eyes as she gave him a faint, tired smile. Finally, she stopped swimming and leaned back instead, drifting on her back. 'I suppose drowning is as good a way to die as any,' she murmured to the sky. He couldn't even argue with her. He knew neither of them had the strength to go on. The best thing they could do now was stay afloat for as long as they could – which, given their screaming muscles, would probably not be very long.

She used the last bit of her strength to swim closer to him, wind her arms around his neck and kiss him. 'I love you,' she whispered. 'But I can't… I really can't go on.'

He nodded; he knew.

'Seems like water… will finally manage to kill me… after all,' she breathed, a mirthless smile crossing her face briefly, as her eyes drifted shut of pure exhaustion and she started sinking, slowly, disappearing beneath the surface. He couldn't do anything but watch; he tried to will his muscles to keep swimming, to go on purely on survival instinct, but even his instincts were failing him now. He was too tired and it didn't take long before he disappeared underwater as well, already halfway gone. His eyes started to flutter shut… but then he caught sight of her.

She was a few meters below him and she looked more like a mermaid than ever. Her eyes were closed and her black dress was floating around her body. Her long, black hair came drifting behind her, almost as an afterthought, and she looked so peaceful, so otherworldly, that he could hardly stand it. Visions of her in the netherworld started pestering him and somehow, he found the strength again. His eyes snapped wide open and he dived down, catching her around the waist and pulling her up, back towards the surface. He could not let her die. Not ever. He would save her, even if it would cost him his own life; he had done it before, and he would do it again as many times as it needed to be done.

She started coughing when they reached the surface, even though she still seemed unconscious. He figured it was the natural reaction of her body to try and get rid of the water in her lungs. She coughed for a long while, throwing up all the water she had inside her, until she finally stopped and seemed to come to a little. 'Yero?' she murmured, only half conscious, as he started dragging her through the water, his strength almost magically returned to him. The mere thought of her dying was enough to chase him through the water, through the still pouring rain, to safety – wherever that may be. 'What are you doing?'

'I won't let you die,' he declared, swimming as if his life depended on it – which it did, of course, and hers as well. 'I refuse to do that.'

A faint smile curled the corners of her lips. 'Yero my hero,' she murmured, before drifting off again. He smiled at that and it only increased his determination. He swam on and on, carrying her with him, pushing his body to the very limits of his physical abilities and beyond, until they finally reached land.

It wasn't the mainland; it was a small island somewhere in the lake, only two square meters large, but he knew – for a fact this time – that he could not go on any further. This would simply have to do. At least they were out of the water now.

He dragged her ashore and fell down on his back, panting as the adrenaline slowly left his body, leaving a feeling of mere exhaustion and nauseating dizziness. He closed his eyes for a moment and turned onto his side, still holding her close to him, before he finally gave in and lost consciousness as well.

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