AN: Thank you so much for your lovely (and in some cases, again, murderous) reviews! (The murderous ones are my favourites, actually. What can I say? I like torturing my readers.)

I went to see Oz the Great and Powerful the other day, by the way. Really liked it, even though of course I couldn't help but look at it from a Wicked perspective... *spoiler* which makes the Wizard making out with both Glinda and the girl that would become the Wicked Witch of the West kind of disturbing. *end spoiler*

Anyway, on with the story. Fiyero and his bunch of fellow idiots to the rescue :).

Disclaimer: Not mine.

'Ladies and gentlemen, behold… the Wicked Witch of the West!' Atol spoke a few words in an old language and Elphaba felt her disguise spell being lifted. The crowd gasped in unison as her green skin became visible, but she didn't flinch – not even when the people started screaming for her blood.

'Kill the Witch!' someone shouted. 'We want to see her bleed!' another person screeched. Atol looked around with a smirk on his face, very pleased with himself. This was perfect. True, Glinda, Corrin and Fiyero had gotten away, but he didn't really care; he had made sure they wouldn't come near the Emerald City again or they would be captured instantly, and he didn't need them, anyway. He had Elphaba, he had Oz and he had power, and that was exactly what he wanted.

'Next Thursday,' he said threateningly in a low voice, 'the Witch will be burned to death on the large square in front of the Emerald Palace, for everyone to witness. This time, she will not escape!' He threw his fist up in the air and the crowd cheered. Elphaba rolled her eyes – she had managed to behave civil around Atol so far for fear that he would step out of their deal and hurt her friends despite it. It had been a few days now, however, and she had overheard Atol telling his guards that Fiyero had been taken back to the Vinkus and Glinda and Corrin had fled there as well, which meant they were safe, and so she didn't really see a reason to be polite to Atol anymore.

And so she snorted. 'We'll see about that.'

His black eyes bore into hers. 'There's no way you're getting away this time, dearie. I am going to finish what my sister started. I'm going to avenge her death. You're going to burn, you rotten witch. You're going to squirm and cry and scream and beg me to end your miserable life!'

She looked him right in the eyes, with a look so full of fire and hate that he involuntarily stepped back a little. 'Make me,' she suggested coldly, the challenge clear in her eyes.

'Gladly,' he hissed in reply, revealing a whip from behind his back. She didn't pull a muscle, just kept glaring at him; inwardly, however, she cursed herself for acting before thinking – again. Her and her big mouth!

She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth when he raised the whip and hit her with it, biting back a scream. She refused to give him that satisfaction. And so she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to imagine that she was someplace else. In her old room back at Shiz with G(a)linda, listening to the blonde as she chattered on about one thing or another while trying to give Elphaba a makeover. Or with Fiyero and his family back at Adurin Iir, having political discussions with King Harold in the library, or walking in the gardens with Rayenna, or dancing with Fiyero at one of those grand royal parties…

Her lack of response only made Atol more furious, but he managed to keep his composure. 'Fine. Try and defy me. It won't work.'

Despite the pain she was in, she still managed to glare at him. 'I've defied many things and persons in my life, the Wizard and gravity among them…'

'And look how that turned out,' the man snorted, smirking. 'One would think you'd have learned your lesson by now.'

She narrowed her eyes at him. 'What can I say? I'm a slow learner.'

'You could say that, dearie.' He cackled and turned back towards his audience. 'Dear ladies and gentlemen! Watch the Witch bleed!' Another slash of his whip, but again, no response at all. The green girl's silence seemed to unnerve the audience a little bit and they started muttering to one another. That was not really the response Atol had in mind, and so he hastily went on, 'If you want to see her suffer more, come to the grand square in front of the palace next Thursday and watch her die!' he shouted, with which he got the crowd on his hand again, for they resumed their cheering. Atol grabbled Elphaba's long hair and yanked her head back to force her to look at him. 'Who's laughing now, witch?' he growled.

She collected as much saliva in her mouth as she could and spit it right into his face. The crowd immediately went deadly silent and stared at her. Despite the circumstances, Atol's face was rather priceless, and she cackled her Wicked Witch-cackle. 'That would be me,' she smirked in answer to his question.

He flushed with rage and slapped her hard across the face. Then he ordered his guards to take her back to the dungeons.

'I'm not sure about this,' the Queen said solemnly when she and her husband heard about the plan. 'It's very dangerous – especially for you, Glinda, and Oscar… If you can't get them on your side and they'll turn against you, they'll kill you.'

'I know,' Glinda said softly. 'But that's a risk I'm willing to take.'

'I won't let anything happen to her,' Corrin promised immediately. 'As soon as it looks like things are going to get ugly, I'm getting Glinda out of there.'

'Cor…'

'I'm not endangering you or my unborn child.'

She closed her mouth and flashed him a grateful little smile instead. Oscar looked just as determined as the petite blonde. 'And I'm willing to take that risk, too. I've already lost her once. I'm not going to lose her again.'

'You could die,' the Queen insisted. 'Believe me, I want to save Elphaba, too, but have you really thought about this? Are you willing to sacrifice yourselves for her? For even the slightest chance of saving her?'

Fiyero looked at his mother as if though she were crazy. 'Of course I am.'

Rayenna whacked him in the back of his head and he spun around. 'What was that for?'

She smirked slightly. 'For Elphaba not being here to do it herself.'

He had to admit that she was probably right – Elphaba usually whacked him in the head every time he dared to even mention sacrificing himself for her. Not that that would ever keep him from doing so. 'Whatever way, I don't care. I'm in, no matter what.'

'So am I,' Nuki agreed immediately. Maráni nodded and the others looked determined, as well. The Queen smiled a little sadly. 'Fine, then. I see you've made up your minds. Just please try to be careful.'

'We will, Mom,' Anwen promised, and her mother quirked an eyebrow at her. 'Oh, you aren't going.'

'Mom!'

'I am,' Rayenna said firmly. Her mother opened her mouth to protest, but the princess cut her off. 'I'm nineteen. I'm not a child anymore. I can do whatever I want.'

Fiyero squeezed his younger sister's hand, secretly proud of her, as the Queen gave in. 'You can go, if you insist. But Anwen, you're staying here. You can help me write a speech.'

'What kind of speech?' the blonde girl asked, making a wry face. Queen Yasminia smiled at her daughter. 'A speech in which we announce that the Vinkus will support the Wizard and Glinda and accept the notion that the Wicked Witch is no longer wicked.'

Anwen's face brightened and she hugged her mother. 'I knew you would help!'

'All right,' Rayenna said in an authoritarian tone of voice. 'First, we're going to find out when Elphaba will be burned. Oscar, Glinda and Corrin, on that day, you are going to sneak inside the palace and prepare the Wizard's return. Make sure you are ready at the time of Elphaba's almost-execution. Maráni, Nuki and Fiyero, you will be coming with me.' Her eyes twinkled with mischief. 'We're going to create a little distraction to keep Atol busy.'

On the day of her execution, two guards came down to the dungeons underneath the palace, where she had been staying for the past few days, and quite literally dragged Elphaba out of there.

She barely noticed it. She was exhausted and weak from lack of food and water and from blood loss, and she had to close her eyes against the bright sunlight when they reached outside. They kept dragging her and she stumbled a few times, but they just urged her forward until they reached a heap of wood and her stomach twisted when she saw the stake poking out from the middle of the pile. This was it. She hated to admit it, but Atol had been right: no escaping for her this time.

Not that she hadn't tried. Several times, actually, but none of her attempts had succeeded. Atol had anticipated her every move and prevented her from even leaving the dungeons, let alone leave the palace unharmed. He had beaten and whipped her until she had fallen unconscious and after that, she had simply stopped trying.

It didn't really help, either, that she didn't have her powers anymore. It felt uncomfortable, like something was missing the entire time, but she had kept her end of the deal to keep Glinda and Fiyero, and Corrin, too, safe. She had chanted the words that would transfer her powers to Atol, and he had merely smiled wickedly as the green glow surrounding her crept slowly away from her and towards him, until he was the one engulfed in it. He had accidentally blown up the bars of her cell in his excitement – which had caused her attempting to escape, dashing towards the door and almost making it outside, but then she had bumped into one of the guards who had immediately taken her back. As she was standing there, looking at the stake she would be burned at, she felt powerless.

But that didn't mean she was going to go down without a fight.

She started to struggle against the guards holding her, gritting her teeth against the pain her whipped back caused her. They hadn't expected her to resist and she caught them by surprise, but they recovered quickly and tightened their grip on her as they dragged her up the pile of wood and pulled her arms behind her, around the stake, after which they tied up her wrists.

She couldn't help but recall the last time she had been about to die. She had given up back then, mainly because she knew sacrificing her own life was the only way to save Fiyero, and she didn't regret surrendering – at the time, it had been the right thing to do. She smiled wryly as she thought of how different it was right now. Last time, she had surrendered herself to Morrible's mercy, allowing the older woman to kill her without even a second thought. Now, however, there was no other life at stake than her own… and so she was willing to fight for it.

Which was why she started to squirm, trying to be inconspicuous as she slowly felt the ropes around her wrists starting to loosen up. She looked around. The people of Oz were gathering at the square, eager to witness her death, but there weren't too many yet; she wouldn't be burned until noon, so they still had half an hour to go. There were people, but not enough of them to overpower her – assuming that the citizens of Oz would be too frightened to really try and capture her.

It was now or never.

'All right,' she muttered under her breath, pulling away the final strands of rope. 'Here goes nothing.'

With a terrifying shriek, she launched herself forward, knocking over a guard in the process. She got hold of his gun and pointed it around her at random guards and citizens, effectively causing them to freeze. Women screamed and children cried as they tried to get away, while the Captain of the Guard barked some orders to his men; to capture her no matter what. She knew he would rather have his men killed than have her escape, and so she wasn't really surprised. She also knew, though, that she would have to hurry if she wanted to have a chance at escaping.

Atol's arrival spoiled her badly elaborated plan.

Lightning flushed around her as he arrived, eyes blazing, green sparks – the ones that had always danced around her hands when she had been very emotional – crackling around his fingers. 'Going somewhere, dearie?'

She flinched and he cackled maniacally. 'You can't escape me!' he roared. 'I am all-powerful! No one is greater than I am!'

Power and insanity was a dangerous combination, and she knew he possessed lots of both. Her mind was raging as she tried to work out what to do. Attempt to escape? Surrender? She didn't really think it would matter – she would die anyway.

He gestured with one green-sparked hand towards the stake. 'Get back there, dearie.'

She obeyed, closing her eyes and focusing on her breathing in an attempt to calm herself down as some guard tentatively came closer to tie her up again, much tighter this time. The people cheered in awe at Atol's display of power and his wicked grin widened. Elphaba glared at him, since there wasn't very much else she could do, but then a movement caught her attention. A furry blur of gray, white and orange sneaking around the people's feet… A blur that looked an awful lot like a certain tortoiseshell Cat she knew of.

Her heart started pounding in her chest – with some sort of giddy hope or with anger and annoyance, she wasn't sure. Of course they had come to attempt to save her. She would probably have to magic spell them all to get them to stay put when she told them to. She only hoped that they either had come up with a really good plan or that they would manage to get away when everything would go horribly wrong.

What could she say? She had always been a pessimist.

'Ladies and gentlemen, people of Oz!' Atol shouted, earning himself another applause from his audience. 'Today we have gathered here to witness the end of the greatest enemy Oz has ever faced… The Wicked Witch of the West!'

'The greatest enemy ever?' Elphaba repeated sarcastically, purposefully loud enough for Atol to hear. He looked over at her with barely contained rage in his eyes. She merely quirked an eyebrow at him. 'Why, I'm flattered.'

'Silence, witch!' he snarled, pointing at her with the golden sceptre he had taken from the treasury in the palace. She held her head high and stared at him defiantly. If she was to go down, she was going to go down with her dignity intact. She wouldn't cry, she wouldn't scream, she would not break down. She refused to give them that satisfaction. She would defy him until the very final breath she drew.

She didn't stir when a guard approached with a torch, ready to light the dry wood and thus to seal her fate. Atol gave the people a speech which he himself clearly found extremely impressing, but she didn't even listen to him. Instead, she watched as inconspicuously as possible as Nuki slipped up the steps of the Emerald Palace and directed her orange gaze at the large clock opposite the palace. Elphaba followed the Cat's gaze. Only ten more minutes to go. If they had a plan, they would have to work fast.

Suddenly, a very wolf-like howl overwhelmed the excited chattering of the people and the entire crowd suddenly went eerily silent. Atol looked around in rage, lightning bolts flashing in the sky. 'What in Oz is going on?'

Another howl and suddenly, a large, dark form shot through the people, knocking them over. They started to run around, screaming, meanwhile tripping over a certain small Cat that happened to be in just the right places to make just the right people trip – mainly guards and strong men. The black form, Maráni, also kept dashing about, scaring the living daylights out of the Ozians. She also noticed Glinda, Corrin and Oscar using the commotion to their advantage as they managed to sneak inside the palace and Elphaba smirked slightly. That smirk disappeared, however, when the guard who had been holding the torch suddenly dropped the thing and fled, frightened. She was happy he was gone; she was just a lot less happy with the fact that the already lit torch had fallen down on the heap of wood surrounding her. The dry wood caught fire immediately and the flames started creeping up to her.

She forgot even that, however, when there was suddenly someone else shouting at the people from the top of the steps at the Emerald Palace. 'Hey, Atol! It's me! Come and catch me if you can!' Fiyero was jumping up and down to catch the older man's attention, and the sorcerer glared at the Vinkun Prince. 'Don't make me do this, you idiot. Your little girlfriend talked me out of killing you, but I wouldn't push my luck if I were you. It's not like she can stop me now and you are really starting to irritate me.'

Fiyero stuck out his tongue at Atol in a very childish fashion. 'Try and do something about it.'

Atol shot a lightning bolt at the prince and for a clock-tick, Elphaba's heart stopped, but he darted out of its way just in time and raised his eyebrows at the sorcerer. 'Is that the best you've got? Come and get me – I know you want to!'

Elphaba would have whacked her forehead in exasperation had her hands not been tied. Any doubts she had had before about him being brainless had vanished in the past minute. Right now, she just feared for his life, but if they would somehow manage to both survive – or meet up in the afterlife – she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

Oz, was she going to kill him.