Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.
Author's Note: Rating upped to T now because of this and future drabbles.
Time to Think
027. Parents
by Fiyero Oberon
The balloon ride gives me plenty of time to think.
The people of Oz never knew my name – I was always just the Wizard. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Oscar Diggs more or less ceased to exist after the balloon landed. And after I had the Yellow Brick Road built and Ozmatown became the Emerald City, my life in Omaha was officially over. I was now the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Great and Terrible, who could grant any wish but granted very few.
More because I was incapable of granting the wishes than because I found them unworthy.
The wishes were really just a way of getting things done. It was very simple: in order to have a wish granted, you must prove yourself by performing a task. I told you to do something that I needed to get done – like wiping out a threat or providing me with defenses of some sort – then I told you that the way you had accomplished the task was unacceptable and I banished you from my sight.
But Elphaba had been different.
She proved herself more than worthy, and I couldn't reject it. After viewing what she was capable of, it would have been dangerous to deny her what she wanted. Unfortunately, what she wanted could have put my plans in jeopardy and suddenly I was in danger either way.
Maybe I just made the wrong decision.
I know I made the wrong decision.
Who knew a little green bottle could bring so much pain? If I had known… Oh, if I had only known I would have stopped the restriction of Animal rights. All I ever wanted was a child… and I had been foolish enough to have my only child killed.
The balloon has caught fire now. The ropes are burning through and the wind is changing directions, blowing me dangerously off course.
And I do nothing to stop it.