AN: Heheheheheheheheh. Mwahahahahahahahah.

That's really all I have to say :D.

Only two or three more chapter to go, I think - because I'm starting to feel bad for Elphaba, and because I can't write forty chapters in which Fiyero dies :P. Or, well, I could, but I don't think that would keep things interesting :3.

Chapter 5. The fourteenth time

She couldn't take it anymore.

Once she had been sent back to Oz, to her life, to that one night with Yero, she had tried everything in her power to save him. Again and again, she had cast the spell, doing something differently every time, hoping that this time, she would get it right; they had moved along or stayed where they were, travelled by broom or by foot, they had gone north and south, east and west, and she had tried with all her might to protect him. She hadn't given up, because she had fiercely believed that somehow, one way or another, she would be able to save him.

Now, she lay in a crumpled heap next to his lifeless body, a sobbing mess. For the past days – many, many days, perhaps even weeks – she had tried to get it right, yet she had failed, over and over again. She'd seen him being strangled, shot, stabbed, and beaten to death; she'd seen him drown, burn, die from several different diseases, stumble and hit his head, and just now, she had watched him plummet to his death after she had lost control of her broom in a storm. No matter what she did, she couldn't prevent it from happening, and it was killing her inside.

'I don't normally do this,' said Melena, 'but in this case, I feel like I don't really have a choice. I know my daughter and she's the most stubborn woman in the world – she's worse than I am! I need her to give up, but I know she will never do that!'

Fiyero blinked at her, looking utterly confused. 'What?' He looked around him. 'Where am I, anyway? And who are you?'

Melena sighed, a sense of déjà-vu washing over her. 'This way,' she said. 'We need to talk.'

'Okay, so let me see if I get this straight,' Fiyero said when she had finished her story. 'You're Elphaba's mother – her dead mother.'

She nodded.

'And I'm dead, too.'

Another nod.

'And it's supposed to be like that, right? That's what you're trying to tell me? I have to die for the greater good, something like that?'

She smiled at him. 'Fabala was right – you're not as brainless as you pretend to be.'

He couldn't hide a smile of his own at that, but then he frowned again. 'What about Fae?'

Melena sighed. 'That's the problem,' she said quietly. 'You're supposed to die, Fiyero – it's your destiny. But Elphaba can't accept that.'

'But she has to,' he protested. 'She can't change anything about it, can she?' His eyes suddenly widened. 'Or do you mean-'

'Yes, she's tried to kill herself once, too,' said Melena tiredly, causing Fiyero to wince. 'She didn't literally take her own life, but she knew that her actions would lead to her death, so I guess it still counts. But unlike you, she was sent back. She can't die. You have fulfilled your destiny, but she has hers still ahead of her, and it cannot be stopped. So when she died, she was sent back in time to do it over. Only she's found a time travelling spell of her own.'

Now he looked utterly confused. 'I don't understand.'

Melena locked eyes with him, her expression serious. 'Fiyero, she can't accept your death, so she's been travelling back in time to try and save you. She's been reliving the same day time after time for the past weeks – she has seen you die nearly fifteen times now, because she can't save you – even she can't change what's meant to be. And it's killing her, Fiyero. We have to stop this somehow.'

He blinked at her, clearly trying to process what she was saying, and she sighed again. 'I'll show you.' She made a gesture and suddenly a scene came to life right in front of them, as if it was happening right then and there; the only thing that revealed that it wasn't, was the fact that the scene was slightly transparent. 'Watch.'

Over the next few hours, Fiyero saw himself die time after time, the days that Elphaba had been through played out in front of them, only faster, as if they were sped up. Horrified, Fiyero saw himself dying, again and again and again, and almost every time was the same; he died, she broke down, and then she chanted the spell again, taking her back in time. After the sixth or seventh time, she mysteriously lost the Grimmerie – Melena explained to him that it was hidden from her by this mysterious higher power she was constantly talking about, in an attempt to prevent Elphaba from casting the spell again; but by then, the young witch knew it by heart, and so she just continued casting it. The power behind the words was magic, which couldn't be taken away, and so it was of no use. She kept going, on and on and on, no matter how many times she lost the fight.

His jaw literally dropped. 'This really happened?'

Melena nodded gravely. 'It did. Elphaba is the only one who remembers – the only living person that remembers – because she's the one that cast the spell. That's why you can't remember any of it… unless you try really hard.'

'I can remember?'

She nodded again. 'You can now. You couldn't while you were still alive, but this is, well, the afterlife. Everything is possible here.'

He looked at her pointedly. 'Everything?'

She sighed. 'Not everything,' she relented. 'But many things.'

He nodded, a bit crestfallen. 'I see.' He closed his eyes and tried to remember, recalling the images he had just seen, remembering Elphaba's face every time he woke up and every time she realised he would die, and he gasped when it suddenly all came back to him.

Melena watched him, saw the realisation and horror in his face as it dawned on him, and he gasped again. 'But… I… she…'

'Do you see now,' asked Melena softly, 'why I told you this? You need to stop it, Fiyero. You need to talk to her.' She sighed. 'The last time, as you now probably remember, you died because she lost control of her broom in a storm and you lost your balance and fell off. You died, she didn't, and she's losing it. She will cast the spell again – I'm sure of it. And this time, Fiyero, you have to stop her from turning back time once more.'

She was a little shocked when he turned to face her and she saw tears shimmering in his eyes. 'Mrs. Thropp… I'm sorry,' he said, quietly but firmly. 'I can't.'

She blinked. 'What do you mean, you can't? Fiyero,' she grasped both his shoulders and shook him gently. 'You can see what's happening to her. Every time you die, she breaks a little bit more inside, her heart cracks a bit further, and it won't be long before she can't take it anymore.'

'She already can't take it anymore!' Fiyero gestured wildly to the spot where the scenes had been playing for them before. 'Just look at her, Mrs. Thropp! This isn't caused by her turning back time – it's caused by me dying! I love her, and I would gladly die for her millions of times, but I can't stop her from doing this because if the roles were reversed, I'd do the same thing!'

Melena looked at him silently, before softly speaking. 'Then all will be lost.'

He bristled and turned away from her, crossing his arms over his chest. 'All is lost.'

'Not yet.'

'Let me rephrase that. All that matters is lost.'

'Fiyero, you and Elphaba are not all that matters!' Melena was slowly growing desperate now. 'Please, I need you to understand – do you think I want you to die? That I want to see my daughter in so much pain? Of course I don't! But I was sent here to set things right again, not to ensure Elphaba's happiness! There are bigger things at stake here than that, no matter how hard that is for me to admit!'

'Still,' Fiyero replied flatly. 'I can't do it.'

Melena sighed. 'Fiyero… You will be sent back now,' she said quietly. 'You will be given one last chance to make it right. After that…'

'After that what?'

She sighed. 'I don't know. Knowing Elphaba, and her stubbornness… this could go on for many, many more days. Because she won't give up. Do it for her, Fiyero. It would kill her if she had to live through this again.'

'It will kill her no matter what happens,' he replied softly, and Melena didn't say anything, because she knew it was the truth. She touched his arm softly. 'I really am sorry, Fiyero,' she said.

He nodded. 'I know. Fae told me about you, and I know you only want the best for her.' He was quiet for a while, thinking things over. Then he gave the woman a sad smile. 'It's strange to think that, had things went differently, you would have been my mother-in-law.'

Melena's eyes nearly bulged out of her head. 'Y-you… and Elphaba…'

He shook his head. 'I didn't ask her yet,' he said. 'But I would have. Eventually, once things got a bit calmer.' He looked at Melena. 'Guess that will never happen now.'

She swallowed, feeling guilty, even though she was just the messenger. Fiyero slowly started to fade, and he shook Melena's hand. 'I'm glad I got to know you after all, Mrs. Thropp,' he said honestly. 'I think we would have gotten along just fine if we hadn't both… well, died.'

She let out a choked laugh at that. 'I think so, too,' she replied softly, and he smiled sadly at her.

Then he vanished.

Elphaba was standing on a cliff of a mountain in the Great Kells, her ebony hair and cloak billowing around her. She was gazing up at the night sky, her face blank, but her eyes showed all the emotions anyone needed to see. They were haunted, empty, broken, but still burning at the same time. Because Elphaba Thropp never gave up. Ever.

She was all but glaring at the sky, as if this great destiny her mother had told her about was up there, looking down at her. As if it could hear her. Maybe it could, maybe it couldn't; she didn't really care. Nevertheless, she shouted up at the clouds, 'If you won't let me save him, the least you could do is let me die with him!'

And with that, she jumped off the cliff.

When Elphaba arrived in the afterlife again, she found her mother already waiting for her, looking gentle, stern, proud, disapproving, and understanding, all at the same time. 'Oh, Fabala…'

Elphaba allowed her mother to embrace her. 'I'm sorry, Mom, but I can't let it go,' she said, her voice sounding choked with tears, and Melena nodded, wiping the tears from her daughter's face, while they were already filling her own eyes as well. She just couldn't believe fate could be so cruel as to take Fiyero and Elphaba away from each other. 'I know, sweetheart,' she whispered, hugging Elphaba again. 'I know. But it can't go on.'

'It will.' Elphaba stuck her chin in the air defiantly, crossing her arms and glaring at her mother. 'Until you give him back to me, or allow me to die instead of or with him.'

Melena sighed. 'It's not in my hands, darling,' she whispered. 'And I don't think it will happen. Let it go. Let him go. It's our only chance.'

Elphaba shrugged, clearly worn out and just plain broken because of everything, yet still stubborn as ever. 'No.'

'I love you, Fabala,' said Melena. 'Always remember that.'

Elphaba nodded. 'I know. You're just doing what you were sent here to do. But it's my life, and I get to choose. I wasn't given this magical ability for nothing, Mom. I'm going to use it. Again and again and again, until I drop dead or until I get Fiyero back.'

With that, she was sent back to Oz again, ready to join Fiyero in the forest to relive the day for the sixteenth time.

Melena could only hope that Fiyero would do the right thing.