AN: This one was hard to write, especially the ending. I really wanted it to be happy, but I also wanted to keep it realistic; and happy would have meant cheesy, and... eventually, like I said in the previous chapter, Humole gave me the answer and I'm quite happy with how it turned out :).

LetWickedNeverDie: I actually just pulled the name 'Xalo' out of thin air :P. I used it in a few one-shots before and I rather like it, so I decided to use it again here.

For Good

Fiyero looked at Galinda, his eyes wide and filled with so many things. Fear. Grief. Pain. Helplessness. So many others that Galinda could not even name.

She had to look away because she couldn't bear the look in his eyes.

They weren't sparkling anymore. The sapphire blue had dulled to a lacklustre colour. They were dead eyes, she realised. The life had drained from them.

"I don't know if I can do this," he choked out, near tears.

Galinda embraced him, holding him close and rubbing his back in an attempt to comfort him.

"You can," she told him firmly. "You can, Fiyero. I know you can. You wanted to do this and I still think it's an amazing idea… singing was your thing, Yero. Yours and Elphaba's. There's no better way, no more perfect way, to do this than with a song."

He took a few deep, shuddering breaths, attempting to compose himself. Then he nodded.

"You're right."

She squeezed his arm and made to move away, but he caught her hand. "Glin?"

She looked at him sympathetically. "Yeah?"

He closed his eyes for a brief moment before opening them again and meeting her gaze. "Will you sing it with me?"

Galinda's heart broke.

"Yes," she whispered. "Of course. If that's what you want."

He squeezed her hand. She stayed with him until it started, and then she stepped out with him, guiding him to his seat.

He wished his parents were here right now. Ever since they had passed away, all those years ago, he had missed them terribly, but he'd been okay. With Elphaba by his side, he would always be okay.

But now he was here and she was not. His parents were gone, his wife was gone… and he knew he had to be strong – for Xalo and for Bae, for his sons and his grandchildren.

But he couldn't.

The ceremony mostly passed by him without him really hearing anything that was being said. Nessarose spoke a few words, tearing up and saying that her sister had finally joined her parents now – which Galinda thought was a rather stupid thing to say, given Elphaba's relationship with her father, but she kept her mouth shut. Galinda herself spoke about her best friend, of their times at Shiz and afterwards, of their respective weddings and how amazing Elphaba had been, always being there for her friends. She cried, too, though much less dignified than Nessa – at one point she just started sobbing and found herself unable to stop. Xalo and Bae spoke, too, fondly recalling memories of their mother. Both of them cried as well.

Emiy, Xalo's daughter and Fiyero's oldest grandchild, played some music on the piano – something Fiyero and Elphaba had taught her to do. Bae's son Deloro, ten years old, read a short poem he had written himself.

Fiyero didn't speak. When it was his turn to step forward, Galinda by his side, he just stood there, staring ahead of him without really seeing the guests. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. No words could ever be enough and at the same time every word he spoke would be too much.

Words wouldn't bring her back.

For the first time ever, Fiyero's friends and family, his sons and grandchildren, didn't see him as a happy, vibrant and optimistic man or a loving father and grandfather. What they saw in that moment was an old and broken man.

He sat down behind the piano. He caressed the keys, the way he had done so many times before. He remembered every time he had played and sang a song for Elphaba – the love of his life, his everything – and he didn't think he could do this.

But somehow, his fingers started to press the keys. Somehow he started to play.

And then Galinda, sensing that he was too emotional to start, began to sing.

"I've heard it said that people come into our lives

For a reason, bringing something we must learn

And we are led to those who help us most to grow

If we let them, and we help them in return

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true

But I know I'm who I am today because I knew you…"

Her voice broke and she had to clamp a hand over her mouth to stifle a sob, tears threatening to spill from her eyes; but somehow, her voice and the song gave Fiyero the strength he needed to open his mouth and sing as well.

"Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulder, halfway through the wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

I have been changed for good.

It well may be that we will never meet again

In this lifetime..."

He choked, but he pressed forward. He'd written this song for her. Even if she couldn't hear him, even if she wasn't there anymore, he wanted the world to know what she had meant to him. What she had done for him.

"So let me say before we part

So much of me is made of what I learnt from you

You'll be with me like a handprint on my heart."

Galinda smiled shakily at him, coming over to stand next to him and placing her hand on his shoulder as she wiped her tears away and sang on.

"And now whatever way our stories end

I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend

Like a ship blown from its mooring like a wind off the sea

Like a seed dropped by a sky bird in a distant wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

I have been changed for good."

By the time they reached the final chorus, nearly everyone was crying – Nessa had buried her face in a handkerchief and some of the children were actually sobbing, Xalo and Bae and their wives trying to comfort them as they themselves cried as well.

"Who can say if I've been changed for the better?" Galinda sang, closing her eyes. She squeezed Fiyero's shoulder.

"But because I knew you…" Fiyero swallowed with difficulty.

"Because I knew you…" A tear spilt over, slowly making its way down Galinda's cheek. She did not wipe it away.

"I have been changed," Fiyero finished, his voice soft, almost inaudible. "For good."

There was a long silence after the song had ended, no-one daring to speak or even breathe – a silence only broken by the muffled sobs coming from the guests. Fiyero, somehow, felt strangely empty, as if he had run out of tears. He looked up at the sky, part of him expecting her to suddenly appear and sing for him, but of course she didn't.

He didn't remember much of the rest of the service, only the horrible feeling in his stomach and the sensation of his heart being ripped in two when he watched the coffin being lowered into the earth.

King Fiyero Tiggular of the Vinkus died five months later, passed away peacefully in his sleep, making his son, Crown Prince Xalo, the new king. The official statement was that the king had had a heart attack; but the people whispered that he had died because he had not been able or willing to live without the love of his life, the late Queen Elphaba.

Their best and oldest friend, Galinda Upland of the Upper Uplands, sang a song at the ceremony. The king was buried with his queen under the watchful eye of their children and grandchildren and their closest friends.

When the couple's youngest grandchild, six-year-old Rosey, came running into the castle one day, gasping something about hearing voices in the graveyard when no-one was there, everyone dismissed it as a child's fantasy… everyone except for Galinda.

And when she took Emiy and Deloro there one day, they heard it, too. Two voices, a man and a woman…

…and they were singing.

Emiy looked up at the former blonde woman in slight fear. "Auntie Galinda?" she whispered, using the name all Fiyero and Elphaba's children and grandchildren always used for their mother and grandmother's best friend. "What is that?"

Galinda just smiled and stroked the girl's raven hair.

"That," she said, "is a sign. Those are your grandparents, sweetie."

Deloro furrowed his brow. "But that's not possible," he protested. "They died."

Emiy arched an eyebrow at him, reminding Galinda painfully of Elphaba. "You said the same thing when I told you that I had magical powers," she said. "That it's 'impossible'." She used her fingers as quote marks. "And then it turned out you have them yourself."

Galinda laughed and pressed both children closer. "That's right, darlings. When it comes to your grandparents, nothing is impossible."

She could still hear their voices, echoing across the graveyard, and Galinda closed her eyes for a moment.

"What is it a sign of, Auntie Galinda?" Emiy asked softly.

Galinda opened her eyes again to look down at the girl.

"It's a sign that they found each other again," she replied. "Do you remember how sad your grandfather was when Grandma died?"

Emiy and Deloro both nodded vigorously.

"They loved each other very much." Galinda got a faraway look in her eyes for a moment. "And now they are back together again."

"That's good," Deloro said solemnly. "Then they don't have to be sad anymore because they miss each other."

Galinda mussed up his hair. "Exactly."

They fell silent. Galinda put her arms around both children.

Together, they listened to Elphaba and Fiyero's song.

That was it. The end of the Dances with Princes universe.

I'm still working on my next fanfic, and I promise it won't be very long until I start posting it; but what with uni starting again, it's all just completely crazy and I can barely find the time to write at all right now, let alone the elaborate plot planning I have to do for my new fic (I was glad I'd written this one in advance or I wouldn't have been able to update every day).

That'll get better soon (or, well, soon... in a week and a half) but until then, I'm hesitant to start posting because I'm afraid I'd have to go on hiatus later in the middle of the story, and I don't want that. So please just bear with me for a while longer.

In the meantime, my mind does allow me to write light and fluffy stuff that does not require much thinking; so look out for a one-shot. I secretly call it "the Fiyero Is Sick Fic" :P.