Wizard of Oz: The Return of the Witches
By Mutitoon90
Chapter Ten
As the two girls were being dragged towards the dungeon, Alice noticed that the flying monkeys were not pulling as hard as they could. Turning to Dorothy, Alice asked her a question.
"What's the matter with them?" Alice used her head to direct her meaning to Dorothy, since both girls were tied behind their backs.
"Well," Dorothy sighed out in pity, "they're only doing this because they're being forced to; with the Witches controlling them, they're doing everything the Witches wants them to do."
"That makes sense." Alice looked at the monkeys with pity.
Then, the flying monkeys reached the dungoen and unlocked the door, unknowingly altering Tech and Vicki that someone was coming. Vicki was grateful that she had enough sense to return to her cell by Tech's suggestion. Tech quickly started to 'work' on the machine.
Once the flying monkeys and their prisoners entered the dungeon, Tech and Vicki knew who the captives were right away, but they kept quiet until the captives were placed into a cell seperate from Vicki and the monkeys exited the underground part of the Witches' castle.
Once the door to the dungeon was close with a loud bang, everyone started to talk to each other.
"Vicki!" Alice exclaimed in happiness, "Are you unharmed?"
"I'm fine." The dark-skinned witch smiled as she exited from her unlocked cell.
"You're out!" Dorothy was surprised about Vicki being able to exit her cell.
"And soon enough, so will you two." Vicki announced as she showed her lockpick to the two girls.
As she started picking the lock, she noticed that someone was missing.
"Where's Toto and his basket?"
Alice and Dorothy looked at each other, sharing a worried expression with each other. Understanding what could be the matter with the girl, Tech stepped forward and asked, "Do the Witches have Toto?"
"Yeah..." Dorothy looked more worried about the little dog, and everyone saw this.
"You and Toto must be pretty close." Tech guessed, and Dorothy responded with a sob in her voice, "Ever since my sixth birthday."
"We'll help you get him back from those horrid witches!" Alice announced in an attempt at comforting the Adopted Princess of the Land of Oz.
"Thank you, Alice." Dorothy pulled out a bandana and blew her nose into it.
"We've got another rescue mission, girls." Vicki pointed out to the group, but Tech became a little annoyed and coughed a little to get Vicki's attention. The witch realized what she did wrong and corrected herself, "And you too, Tech."
"That's better." The human-like canine spoke with an aire of vanishing irritation.
"But we've got to be careful!" Alice pointed out as well, "Now that they've got Toto, they're going to do something horrid to him, if we tried something aganist them."
"That's not good." Tech verbally thought out loud as Vicki finished picking the lock, freeing Dorothy and Alice.
"Thanks again, Vicki." Dorothy nodded to the young witch.
"Thank you, Vicki." Alice said as she tried to wrestle the restraints that were on her wrists.
Tech noticed this, went to Alice and started to untie the ropes on the British girl's wrists.
Vicki saw this and quickly went to Dorothy's wrists, and she started to untie the princess's wrists.
"Thanks, Vicki." Dorothy said as she rubbed her wrists, since the ropes dug into her skin.
"Not a problem." The good witch smiled at the farmgirl as she saw Tech freeing Alice from her restraints.
"Thank you." Alice showed her gratitude as she realized that she did not know the canine's name.
With a chuckle, the coyote said upon seeing the look on the British girl's face, "My name is Tech E. Coyote."
"Coyote!?" Dorothy expressed a leery look towards the masked canine.
"Hey!" Tech was quick to defend himself, "I don't eat or steal from humans."
"You better not!" Dorothy nearly growled at the hero of Planet Blanc, who was confused about the young girl's strange reaction to him.
"Dorothy, you can trust Tech." Vicki stepped inbetween Dorothy and Tech, and she faced Dorothy, "So, please calm yourself down before doing anything else."
"All right." Dorothy agreed after a long moment of a tense silence.
"Now that's settled," Vicki sighed out of relief after the tense moment between Dorothy and Tech, "we've got to work a gameplan to stop the Wicked Witches and to get Toto and the Land of Oz away from their grabby fingers."
"Right!" Alice nodded, knowing that the Wicked Witches would try to show off their weapon now that Dorothy was their prisoner.
Tech, although he was still feeling the tense glare from Dorothy Gale, spoked to the adopted princess, asking, "Do you have any clue about where the Witches might be at?"
"I'll need some time to think about it." The brunette farmgirl spoke while still having no strong trust in the coyote, "I was seven years old when I was here last time."
"Seven years old!?" Tech was taken aback by the shock from hearing that statement from the foreign farmer, "They're trying to kill you for something that happened when you were just a kid!?"
"It doesn't matter to them." Sighed a distrssed Dorothy, "I was tryin' to save a friend, when I splashed a bucket of water of the Wicked Witch of the West. As for Mombi, I escaped her tower, since she wanted my head when I was grown up, and because of my victory over the Gnome King, Mombi lost all of her powers and was sent to the dungeon in the Emerald City. Despite that they're in the wrong in most areas, I'm the target of their collective fury, because they thought of me as a threat and not a simple girl of Kansas."
"That's awful!" Tech exclaimed, feeling sorry for the girl that was the enemy of the Wicked Witches.
"Don't worry about it." Dorothy dismissed the statement, "This mess is comin' to the end, and I'm plannin' on seein' the end of this whole mess."
"Count on me to help end it." Vicki pointed to herself with her thumb.
Alice nodded with the young witch, saying, "So, will I."
"Same here." Tech joined in before adding, "Besides, I've got a few things that I've got to say to them before you stop them."
Feeling emotional since the whole mess with the Wicked Witches began, Dorothy's eyes started to fill with tears, but she quickly wiped her eyes to rid herself of the watery product of her emotion.
"Thank you, everyone." Dorothy finally spoke, earning a small giggle from Vicki and Alice.
Meanwhile, Toto was trapped in a small cage and in the same room of the two Wicked Witches, who were readying themselves and the area when they 'show' Dorothy Gale the capabilities of their machine.
"I cannot wait for when the machine finally blocks out the daylight in all of the Land of Oz!" Mombi wickedly cackled at the thought she was sharing with her ally, who cackled just as darkly, "And with that pretty little girl unable to do anything, our revenge will be complete!"
"After we kill her!" Mombi pointed out to the green-skinned witch.
"Right!" The Wicked Witch of the West stated while maintaining her evil glee about the situation.
Vicki checked the door to see if there were any guards outside, and when she saw no one out there, she turned to her friends and said, "No one's out there."
"That's good to hear." Dorothy sighed, "However, we should be careful; just because they've caught us doesn't mean that they won't let their guards down."
"That's a very good point." Alice agreed with Dorothy Gale, recalling her times in Underland with her friends.
"Let's take our time about getting to the Witches and Toto." Tech suggested, which was meant with a strong agreement with the girls.
As the four allies carefully exited the dungeon, Vicki, Dorothy, Alice and Tech looked around for any guards, and when they found any, Vicki would freeze them in place.
"I'm really grateful that you've got that power, Vicki!" Dorothy whisper in glee after the first few guards were frozen.
"The same can be said about how I feel." Alice whisped to the ear of the younger witch.
Tech's only statement was: "Just remind me of her temper every now and again."
That caused the girls to giggle quite a bit, but the laughter ended when they found themselves in front of the room that the Witches were inside of, and that scared Dorothy more than anybody else in the group.
"Oh, boy..." Dorothy gulped loudly upon hearing the Witches' scheming.
"You can say that again." Tech gulped with the farmgirl, since his hearing was stronger than the human girls' ears.
The group of four peeked into the room, where the Witches were at, and they also heard their scheme unfold.
"So, what are we going to do after we start up the machine?" Mombi asked the green-skinned hag, who answered, "Vexed that brat!"
"I meant after we torture and kill that girl!"
The Wicked Witch of the West thought for a moment before she gave her dark reply to Mombi.
"We kill either Tech or that little witch."
"What about that girl we've caught along with that little plan-destorying brat?" The tone in Mombi's voice was dripping with desire.
"You can do whatever you want with her; she's got no holding interest to me." The hag waved a dismissive hand to Mombi, who started to grin even darker than her own clothing.
"Then, I'll take her head, and right in front of Dorothy's face too!"
The chuckling from Mombi shook Dorothy and Alice to the core, but what following the cruel laughter really scared everyone in the small group.
"But what about the little witch, Vicki?" Mombi was sounding concerned about the younger witch.
"As long as Dorothy Gale is the last to die, I don't really care!" The Wicked Witch of the West hissed out at the other hag.
"You just want to see her suffer, don't you?" Mombi cackled at the thought of Dorothy being in so much despair that she would beg for death.
"Of course!" The Wicked Witch of the West hissed out at the other Witch, "First, she killed my sister, and then she killed me! I want her to suffer like I've suffered."
Mombi backed from green-skinned magic-user in sincere awe, and she was not only one that was feeling that way. Dorothy, having no idea of the pain that the Western Witch had felt, could not help herself from crying.
"Dorothy," Vicki went to the farmgirl's side while trying to make sure that the Witches could not hear them, "it's okay; it was an accident, and you were seven years old."
"I know," Dorothy replied in a whisper, "but I still feel bad about it."
Alice, then, hugged the farmgirl in an attempt to calming her, quietly saying, "I don't know what to say in this moment, but I know that you're not guilty about killing them."
"Espeically since she was trying to kill you and your friends." Tech, still angry about being prisoner, muttered sharply.
"First," Vicki quietly announced to the group, "let's get Toto out of there."
"And quick!" Dorothy stressed the importance of the rescue of the small dog, "Toto's got the last Power Emerald, and if they take it from Toto, he could..."
Dorothy's tears filled up her eyes and overflowed again, causing Vicki to see that Dorothy was not exaggrating about the age of the little dog.
"Let me try something." Vicki whispered as she opened the door wide enough to see Toto, and she had to do it without allowing the Wicked Witches from seeing her or her allies.
Once she saw the caged canine in her sights, Vicki tried to orb the dog from the cage. Sadly, all she did was cause the cage to rattle, causing the group, mostly Dorothy to became fearful about Toto's fate.
"Stop squriming!" The Witch with green-skin hissed before turning her attention back to Mombi.
Seeing that the Witches had failed to realize that the rattling was the result of a failed attempt by Vicki, the younger witch tried to rescue the little dog, but this time, Vicki was going to orb the whole cage to her.
"Be careful, Vicki." Dorothy warned quietly, and Tech voiced in after the farmgirl.
"She's right; you were just in a holding cell that could block out your magic."
"I'll be careful." Vicki tried orbing once again.
However, she was about as successful as the first time, causing the young witch to nearly use a curse word.
"What now?" Dorothy asked as the worry in the adopted princess's voice started to become more evident to everyone in the group.
Alice hushed the farmgirl by placing her finger to her lips before turning to Vicki and asking, "Maybe a frontal assault?"
"While they won't expecting that," Tech interjected his thoughts about Alice's plan, "but that could get Toto harmed."
"Isn't there a way to stop them or freeze them in place?" Dorothy asked, unintentionally giving Vicki a good idea.
"I forgot that I've got the power to freeze power in the molcular level!"
"I forgot too!" Tech laughed at himself under his breath.
Vicki looked at the two Witches and waved her hand at them. The wicked hags were hit with the spell, but they only looked like they were only slowing down.
"Go get Toto, while they can't move much!" Vicki told Dorothy while trying to maintain her freezing hold on the two Witches.
"Right!" Dorothy nodded as she ran into the room and grabbed the cage that held the little dog.
While Dorothy went to rescue Toto, Tech went into the room with the collar that was used in controlling and punishing him and placed it on the wrist of Mombi.
"What are you doing?" Dorothy asked as she reached the door and the rest of the group.
"Just giving her her just desserts!" Tech quietly chuckled as he finished tying the collar and followed Dorothy out of the room.
Given the situation, Vicki made sure that the Witches were slowed down enough to keep them from seeing Tech and Dorothy. Once the both of them were out of the room, Vicki unfreezed the Witches.
"Let's going while the going's good!" Tech suggested with great haste, which all of the others made no arguement.
After Vicki 'freed' the Witches, the group retreated back to the dungeon as quickly and as quietly as they could. As they passed each frozen guard, Vicki 'freed' them after the small group passed by them.
As soon as they reached the dungeon, the group went to their respective places, while Toto, who was no longer in the cage, was told by Dorothy to stay still and hiding.
"So, we're waiting for the untimely arrival of the Wicked Witches." Dorothy stated bluntly.
"Pretty much." Tech shrugged his shoulders towards the adopted princess.
After a few tense mintues of silence, the two Witches entered the room, and the both of them were feeling victorious about capturing the small group. Upon entering the room, they started to inform the prisoners, mostly Dorothy, about their plan.
"So, Dorothy," hissed the green-skinned hag looked at Dorothy with a nasty smile, "I finally get back at you for what you've done to my sister!"
"And getting me out of favor and power!" Mombi added, sounding just as outraged as the Wicked of the West.
"You're a backstabbing traitor!" Dorothy barked at Mombi, who was angry when the farmgirl snapped at her.
"What do you mean?" The green-skinned Witch asked Dorothy, who was more than willing to say what she meant.
"Mombi was working with the Gnome King to destory all of Oz, regardless of whomever lived there, and all she wanted was a bunch of heads to replace her ugly face!"
"I'll teach you about what happens when you spread lies!" Mombi threatened Dorothy.
"Like the lies you told me when I was seven?" Dorothy was unfazed by the Witch's threat, "Or maybe like the ones you told Princess Ozma?"
"You're a liar!" Mombi screeched at Dorothy, and the farmgirl said, "Funny, I didn't see you in the mirror this morning."
With a dark fury in her eyes, Mombi flew a spell at Dorothy, and the Wicked Witch of the West tried to stop her.
"Don't cast that spell!"
It was too late; Mombi casted the spell, and it hit the bars of the cell. As the magic hit the cell, the spell bounced off the bars and flew straight back at Mombi, who ducked and was angry at Dorothy's attempt at tricking her.
"How about I fry your witchling friend's beloved because of your mouth?" Mombi announced before she used her magic in an attempt at killing Tech.
However, she had failed to notice that Tech's collar was on her wrist, and when she did that, the fake princess was sent flying back into the other side of the dungeon. Mombi would have been dead, if the Power Emerald that was around her neck did not protect her.
The Wicked Witch of the West was quick and went the Darkness Machine and grabbed the lever. Then, she glared at Dorothy and shouted at her.
"First, I'll drown the whole of Oz into eternal darkness, and then I'll pick off your friends one-by-one before I kill you!"
Then, she pull the lever, causing the Darkness Machine to start up with life. Dorothy revealed that she was able to free herself upon the Western Witch activated the awful machine.
"Please, stop this!" Dorothy gave a futile plea for the green-skinned Witch to stop the horrible plan.
"NEVER!" The horrid woman shouted in her time of triumph as the machine's function was about to start.
"Dorothy!" Tech grabbed her by the arm, "Get back into the cell!"
"Why?" Dorothy asked as the coyote dragged her into the cage.
"Because what's about to happen isn't going to be pretty to anyone that's close enough to the blast!" Tech pulled Dorothy into the cage and closed it behind him.
As the machine finally started to function, the Wicked Witch of the West realized that there was something added into the Darkness Machine.
"OH, NO!" The green hag screeched as she tried to stop the machine.
"It's too late, you ugly old hags!" Tech pointed a final jab at the Witches as the machine started to radiate a glow, which grew brighter by the second. Then, Tech shouted to his allies and his girlfriend, "Girls, cover your eyes!"
"Come here, Toto!" Dorothy shouted to the small dog, who went to the farmgirl's arms, and she was quick to cover the small dog's eyes.
As the light became so bright that someone would need to cover and/or protect their eyes, the Western Witch was frantic about trying to stop the machine from emitting the light from the crystal that Tech and Vicki managed to put into the machine.
"Stop! I command it! I demand it! STOOOOOP!"
As the light shallowed the Wicked Witch of the West, Mombi recovered from her daze to see the Western Witch become engulfed by the shroud of light.
"No, no, NO!"
The last things that was heard by anyone in the magic-blocking cells were the screams of the Witches as the light engulfed the dungeon and spread out throughout the castle. No one was spared from being hit by the light as it engulfed the castle and the Dark Forest.
At the Emerald City, Howl was in an argument with Oz and the Scarecrow, and the argument had started when Howl found out that he was not powerful enough to chase after Vicki.
"Don't you realize that she's gone after a guy that she's barely met!" Howl tried to defend his reasoning, but the acting rulers of the Emerald City and the Land of Oz were quick to rebuff the statement.
"I'm sorry, Howl," Oz was trying to talk some sense into the powerful wizard, "but I'm under strict orders not to let anyone out of the capital unless it's an emergency or the Witches were subdued."
Then, a roaring cry of horror rang out, causing the arguement to stop. The three turned their attention to the panicked form of the Cowardly Lion, who was racing into the room.
"What's wrong?" The Scarecrow expressed his concerns of his good friend.
"There's a strange light coming from the West!" The Lion shouted out due to being frightened by the strange occurance.
Hearing the news caused the three males to exit the room and went to the balcony, where many others were also looking at the unusual occurance. Of all those that were there, Howl was shocked to see a fellow magic-user there.
"Miss Irene!" Howl exclaimed upon seeing the member of the Witches' Council, "What are you doing here?"
"I came to investigate Vicki's progress with the Wicked Witches and to confront you about turning Beatrix into a statue." The white-claded witch glared at the wizard.
"Isn't she back to normal yet?" Howl asked, showing sincere concern about the witch that he had hexed.
"If she wasn't, I wouldn't be talking to you so calmly."
Howl gulped, since he realized that he was going to be in a lot of trouble with the Witches' Council for slowing down Beatrix long enough to try to stop Vicki from confronting the Wicked Witches. However, he hoped that with his reasoning that he would be given a light punishment for his actions, especially since Beatrix was not permanently turned into a stone statue.
As the light was sent throughout the Land of Oz, everyone in the North, South, West and East saw the strange light that reached at all of the corners of the land. Even the Witches' Council saw what was happening with the use of a giant looking glass that used only by members of the council.
"What is happening?" One of the Witches' Council asked the head of the group.
"I don't honestly know the answer," the leader of the group replied, sounding unsure, "but I believe that Vicki managed to complete her mission."
"Good." Another member huffed up upon hearing the Head Witch's answer, "Just think what would have happened if Howl had messed up for the rest of the known universe!"
Following that statement, a group of mumurs came from all that were there. There was none that disagreed with the statement.