A/N: Alright, I've come up with a compromise. The twins will be going to a high school that filters into Shiz. It's also so I can make this story longer. Thanks so much for everyone who reviewed with their input, alerted, and favorited this story.

This starts off nine years after the end of the last chapter. So Arii, Liir, and Nor are 14.

"Wake up you!"

Liir shivered at the sudden cold as the bedding he had cocooned himself in was swiftly ripped off. Groggily, he opened one eye to find his twin sister standing next to his bed, hands on hips and scowl on face. With a moan he rolled over and promptly fell back to sleep.

"Argh! Why do I even try?" Arii sighed, exasperated, "It's not my problem if you're late for your first day at EC High."

"EC High is today?!" he shot out of bed at her words.

"Yes, I just said that." she disappeared out of the room, which had become Liir's when Irji and Manek went to Emerald City High. EC High was a boarding school that filtered into Shiz University.

In the neighboring room she and Nor shared, Arii put on her outfit for the first day: a green dress with a yellow sash and headband. She examined herself in the mirror, debating how she should arrange her hair, Elphaba entered the room unnoticed.

"It's time to go. Nor and Liir are downstairs waiting." Her emerald mother said simply and proceeded to brush her daughter's long hair into a tight braid.

"I'm sorry Mama; I didn't know I was taking so long." Arii smiled at the solution that was obvious only after it had been done.

"That's alright Arii," Elphaba gently prodded her out the doorway and to the back door of the palace, "Now that's everything--"

"Wait! I have something for you!" Glinda's high-pitched voice hit their ears a second before she nearly did in a streak of blue and blonde. Breathing heavily, she produced three small white boxes and instructed that they not be opened until the group was on the train.

Around the corner came Fiyero, whom Elphaba had found a way to more permanently suppress the scarecrow spell. A pale, blonde girl clung to his neck fervently, her face ashen.

"Poppy had another attack," he explained as he set the child on the ground so she could sit up.

Popiela, or Poppy for short, was Glinda and Boq's daughter. Now before anyone questions why Boq was able to father a child, let it first be clarified that out of kindness Elphaba lifted the spell that affected him as well at the same time she did Fiyero's. Poppy had adopted both her parents' small stature, but the debilitating pain in her heart was clearly from her father. Over the years the seven year old had been on a steady stream of medications prescribed by various doctors who could do no more than sit back and hope. Several times Elphaba had searched the Grimmerie for another way to save someone with a failing heart, yet always came back to the tin and straw spells. The 'attacks' Poppy had could not be identified by any Ozian doctor, but they had told Glinda and Boq( known to them as Toc) that the slightest increase in her heartbeat could kill her.

Elphaba knelt by the frail child and felt her pulse. It was clearly slowed, but that was better than if the little heart had been racing a mile a minute.

"Arii," she turned to her green-eyed daughter, "get the bark extract and a blanket." It was an order, not a request.

"Yes, Mama," Arii turned on her heel and ran into the house. She returned momentarily holding a dark blue ceramic jar full of oak bark that had been soaked and ground so the aspirin separated out. A gray flannel blanket was slung over her shoulder. Her thoughts turned to the horrible events in recent years that had gripped other areas of Oz.

The Thousand Year disease had arisen in the Vinkus and become a full-fledged epidemic in the past six years. Among the death count of the first year had been Sarima Tiggular. Kiamo Ko had been torched to remove all traces of the disease so it left only the stone skeleton. The refugee camp the green knew so well had been discovered and burned by those discontented with Lady Glinda the Good's rule, which had become much stricter over the past twelve years. It was unknown whether there were any survivors. In Quadling Country, the Badlands were consuming the marshy lands at an alarming rate. The desert was reclaiming the oasis of Oz.

Boq stood in the doorway, watching as Glinda pulled their child into her lap and wrapped the blanket around the small shoulders. As the aspirin took its affects, Poppy cried softly against her mother's neck.

"Oh…shhh…shshshhhh…"she stroked the white blonde hair of her daughter and gently rocked from side to side.

"Come stop you're cryin',

it will be alright.

Just take my hand,

hold it tight.

I will protect you from,

all around you.

I will be here,

don't you cry.

For one so small,

you seem so strong.

My arms will hold you,

keep you safe and warm." Glinda sang gently.

Boq continued the song,

"This bond between us,

can't be broken.

I will be here,

don't you cry."

They sang together as she slipped into a healing slumber

"Cuz you'll be in my heart

Yes you'll be in my heart

From this day on

Now and forever more

You'll be in my heart

No matter what they say

You'll be here in my heart

Always…"

Elphaba observed the couple smugly, "And to think all those years ago you pawned Boq off on my sister and convinced yourself Fiyero was your soul mate. Ah, the irony of finding the love of your life…"

"Shouldn't Nor and the twins be on their way to EC High by now?" Fiyero asked, eyeing the small pile of three suitcases and bookbags.

"Oh crap!" Living in the presence of impressionable children for so many years, Elphaba had learned to curtail her swearing or at least substitute words.

"Aunt E, we really need to get going. We'll miss the train." Nor said picking up her things from the pile. Arii and Liir followed suit.

At the train station, Elphaba had shrouded herself as she did so many times before, but this time instead of leaving her hat at home, it sat on her head in its rightful place. It didn't even cross her thoughts that the hat would have come to be associated with her.

"Is that--? It can't be--." The murmurings of the group of students beside them on the depot on their way to EC High and Shiz could be over heard in small portions.

Suddenly, a voice rose above the rest of the crowd, "It is! It's her! The Wicked Witch of the West is alive!"

Elphaba whirled around and unwound her scarf in a swift motion. The students moved back in shock.

Before any of the students could say anything, before the green could explain—Arii spoke.

"She is not wicked. Elphaba Tiggular is a woman. And she's our mother." The emerald-eyed one pulled her twin next to her.

"Your mother?!" another student asked incredulously.

"Yes, I am their mother, and her aunt." She explained, moving closer to the group. The morning sun hit her sharp features in such a way that the brim of her conical hat shielded her eyes. "We've all been living in Lady Glinda the Good's palace the past nine years. Glinda and I were roommates at Shiz and we're still best friends."

"Their surname is Tiggular. But the Tiggular family died out." A man sitting on a bench in front of the ticket office said.

"No, only Sarima Tiggular is dead. Fiyero Tiggular is their father, her uncle, and my love. Irji and Manek went to EC High a couple years ago. That's where Nor, Arii, and Liir are headed. Then again, Irji was registered as Jir and Manek was registered as Mak. They picked those names themselves." The green woman explained. There was a strange familiarity about the man. He had probably been one of the witch hunters, but there seemed to be no underlying hostility towards her in him.

"You don't recognize me Elphaba Thropp-Tiggular?" He stood, "I'm Crope."

She was nearly floored by this revelation. "What is this, Reunion Day? Nessa and Tibbett are the only ones missing."

Crope rapped sharply on the ticket window, a woman with a significant scar across her face came out the door.

"E-Elphaba?" she asked just at the same time as the green asked, "Nessarose?"

Review please!

The Gloq lullaby for Poppy is "You'll Be In My Heart" from Tarzan by Phil Collins.

Just so you know, I don't like Gloq, or Boq for that matter. So that's why I brought Nessa back.