Umm, so I could come up with a million excuses why I didn't update for like 5 months, but they probably would be lame. To tell the truth, I just lost interest and didn't know what to do with Thank Goodness because it's basically a plot moving machine. And I wanted to write a different story but told myself I wouldn't put it up until this one was finished. So here it is, finally. Hope you enjoy! Oh and by the way I had to abridge some stuff so the chapter wasn't like 20 pages long.
"FINALLY! Oo! Mom's here with my food!" Cynthia leapt up from her seat and headed down the row to the stairs.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" the author motioned to Rollo.
"No."
"That's nice. Well, I'm going to go check on the cast. Stay here Rollo and DON'T WANDER OFF!" the author scolded as she walked off to the black box. As she opened the door to the backstage area and walked down the hall to the black box, she was bombarded by several cast members dashing down to change costumes. She entered the black box which was full of either extremely tired or extremely hyper creatures. She gathered them around for a discussion.
"Alright everyone, you guys did. . ." she gulped, "Wonderful!"
"WONDERFUL! THEY CALLED ME WONDERFUL!" Cluny yelled out.
"Uh, very nice. Anyway, for Act Two, just remember to act natural and you'll do great! I've got to go now! Break a leg!" the author yelled behind her before closing the door.
She headed back to the audience. The second act was about to start. Cynthia was munching away at a Happy Meal.
"Hey where's Rollo!" the author asked, seeing the empty seat next to her. Cynthia shrugged.
"I would go look for him, but the show is starting. You go do it, Cynthia," the author said.
"No way! I'm eating!" Cynthia said.
"You're really nice," the author scoffed. Before she could say anything further, the music started. The backdrop rose to reveal the ensemble.
"Everyday more Wicked! Everyday the terror grows! All of Oz is ever on aleeeeert!"
"Like some terrible green blizzard throughout the land she flies!" Killconey sang.
"Defaming our poor Wizard with her calumnies and lieeees! She lieeeeeees!"
"What is going on? I forgot what happened before the intermission," Rotnose scratched his head.
"The green one flew and yeah," Fleabane described with luscious language.
"Oh yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaah."
"SHUT UP!"
"Fellow Ozians, as terrifying as terror is, let us put aside our panic for this one day... and CELEBRATE!" The curtain parted and there was Cornflower, Martin, and Constance on a structure.
"Celebrate good times, come on!" Fleabane started to do the Macarena.
"Urggg... SHUT UP!"
"THANK GOODNESS!"the ensemble sang.
"Let's have a celebration the Glinda way!"
"Thank goodness!"
"Finally a day that's totally wicked-witch free!" Constance sang from the platform.
"Thank goodness!" all the ensemble sang together.
Uh time for a swift author's note. The next few bits of dialogue are probably wrong because it's hard to tell what people are saying in fuzzy Youtube videos and I don't own the script. Did you think I was THAT obsessed? Anyway, back to our feature presentation.
"Today must be a very special day for you Glinda!" Constance announced in a tremulous voice, "and for your handsome swain, the new captain of the guard!" The ensemble applauded. "You've been on the forefront of the hunt for the Wicked Witch, haven't you dear?"
"Uh well I don't think of her as a Wicked witch," Martin stepped up to the microphone.
"Sir!" Constance interrupted. "How does it feel?"
"Frustrating. But I became Captain of the guard to find her and I'll keep searching until-"
"Oh and being engaged!" Constance yelled into his ear. It took a while for him to regain hearing.
"CONGRATULOTIONS!" Cluny's horde screamed as loud as possible. The author held her breath waiting for the sign to come down. It did, but with a crew member hanging for dear life on top of it. Normally, she would of laughed, but performances always made her a major perfectionist.
"Grrr. . ." she clenched her jaw together.
"This is an engagement party?" Martin asked, bewildered.
"Surprised?" Cornflower asked.
"Yes. . ." Martin answered.
"Good, we thought you would be, the Wizard and I." Cornflower walked up to the microphone. "We couldn't be happier, Right dear? Couldn't be happier, right here. Look what we've got, a fairytale plot, our very own happy ending. Where we couldn't be happier, true dear? Couldn't be happier, and we're happy to share, our ending vicariously, with all of yoooooou. He couldn't look handsomer, I couldn't be humbler, we couldn't be happier. Because happy is what happens, when all your dreams come true!"
"Ohhh and Glinda dear we are happy for you. As Press Secretary, I have striven to insure that all of Oz knows the story of your braverism. How vividly I remember. . ." Constance began singing extremely loudly. "The day you were first summoned to an audience with Oz, and although he would not tell you why initially. When you bowed before his throne, he decreed hence be known, as Glinda the Good officially!"
"That's not how you explained it to me," Martin said to Cornflower while trying to unblock his ears.
"Well, no not exactly but-" she tried to explain.
"Then with a jealous squeal! The Wicked Witch burst from concealment. Where she had been lurking. . . surreptitiously!" The crowd gasped in horror.
"I hear she has an extra eye that always remains awake!" Mangefur sang.
"I hear that she can shed her skin as easily as a snake!" Scumnose sang.
"I hear some rebel animals are giving her food and shelter!" Frogblood sang. There was a strange silence.
"Seriously Redtooth, again?" the author tried to control herself.
"Oh yeah! I hear her soul is so unclean, pure water can melt her!" Redtooth shook himself out of the daze.
"What?" Martin asked
"MELT HER! PLEASE someone go and melt heeeeer!" the ensemble sang back at him.
"Do you hear that? Water will melt her? People are so empty-headed they'll believe anything," Martin said before storming off.
"Fiyero! Oh. . .he's just gone to fetch me a refreshment. He's so thoughtful that way," Cornflower said heartbrokenly.
"That's whyyy, I couldn't be happier. No, I couldn't be happier. Though it is, I admit, the tiniest bit, unlike I anticipated. But I couldn't be happier. Simply couldn't be happier." she paused for a moment. "Well - not "simply", 'Cause getting your dreams, it's strange, but it seems, a little - well - complicated. There's a kind of a sort of , cost. There's a couple of things get, lost. There are bridges you cross, you didn't knooooow you crossed, until you've croooooossed! And if that joy, that thrill, doesn't thrill you like you think it will, still - With this perfect finale, the cheers and ballyhoo, who wouldn't be happier? So I couldn't be happier," she sang unhappily, close to tears, "Because happy is what happens, when all your dreams come true. Well, isn't it? Happy is what happens, when your dreeeeeeams cooooome truuuuuuue!"
The ensemble came into action. "We love you Glinda if we may be so frank!" "Thank goodness! Todaaaaaaaaaaay!" The lighting changed and a wardrobe came out. Matthias came out with Tess in the wheelchair. After he left, there was a voice from the wardrobe.
"Well it seems the beautiful get more beautiful," Rose's face appeared in the mirror. "While the green just get greener." She came out. "Sorry did I scare you?" I seem to have that affect on people."
"What on earth is going on?" Rotnose asked. "I can't follow this plot! I need Bert and Ernie to come on and explain it to me like in Elmo in Grouchland!"
The author shuddered at the vision of the evil Muppet chicken that haunted her dreams when she was 3.
"Father's dead," Tess said. Rose backed up, shocked. "Well what did you expect? After he learned how you disgraced us! He died. Of shame, embarrassed to death," Tess continued accusingly.
"Good. I'm glad," Rose said.
"That's a wicked thing to say!" Tess yelled. The author nodded in approval.
"No, it's true, because now it's just us! You can help me and," Rose tried to persuade Tess.
"Oh Elphaba, shut up!" She looked around. "I can't harbor a fugitive, I'm an unelected official." She turned accusing. "And why should I help you? You fly around Oz, helping animals you've never even met and not once have you ever thought to use your powers to rescue me!" She began to sing coldly while wheeling toward Rose menacingly.
"All of my life I've depended on you, how do you think that feels? All of my life I've depended on you and this hideous chair with wheels! Scrounging for scraps of pity to pick up, and longing to kick up my heeeeels," Tess motioned toward her feet.
Rose pulled out the Grimmiere and began chanting. Tess looked on in fascination and horror. Then, she began to stand up and shakily walking. They were both overjoyed.
"I've done what long ago I should. Finally from these powers, something good! Finally, something good," Rose sang. Tess sat back down in her chair and beckoned Matthias.
"You!" he said when he entered and saw Rose. She tried to convince him she wasn't going to hurt him. He explain how he and the Munchkins were being stripped of their rights when Tess showed him that she would walk.
"Uh, Nessa, surely now I'll matter less to you and you won't mind me leaving here tonight," he sang while awkwardly somewhat holding her paws.
"Leaving?" Tess said in disbelief.
"Yes! That ball that's being staged, announcing Glinda is engaged to Fiyeroooo," he continued.
"Glinda!" Tess said heartbrokenly, turning to Rose for comfort.
"Nessa that's right. And I've got to go appeal to her, express the way I feel to her. . . I lost my heart to Glinda the moment I saw her, you know that."
Tess turned to him angrily. "Lost your heart? Well we'll see about that! Did you think I'd let you leave me here flat? You're going to lose your heart to me I tell you! Even if I have to, have to, magic spell you!" She collapsed next to the Grimmiere and began chanting. Rose tried to stop her but it was too late.
"My heart. . .it feels like it's. . . shrinking!" Matthias fell back into the chair and screamed like a little girl as he sat on the pin that had been left there from the dress rehearsal that had rolled back when Tess stood up. Rose and Tess tried to stifle giggles. The author tried to stay seated. "Uh. . . um. . . IT BURNS! AHHHH!" He tried to cover up the incident.
"Save him please, just save him, my-" she gulped, "poor Boq, my sweet my brave him. Please don't leave me till my sorry life has ceased. Alone and loveless here with just the girl in the mirror, juuuuust me and her. Wicked Witch offfff the Eeeeaaaasssttt! And we deserve, each other," she sang sadly. Rose tried to leave, but Tess wouldn't let her.
"I've done all I could for you and it hasn't been enough. And it never will be. . ." Rose said scornfully as she whirled her skirts before running off in a whirlwind of black.
Matthias awoke and stumbled off stage in his Tin Man costume with Tess yelling back at him "IT WAS ELPHABAAAAAA!" Chills went down everyone's spine. The author decided it was time for a visit backstage.
"Everything good back here?" she said as she opened the stage door.
"Yup. Oz Head's working, Cluny's out here, it's all good," Winifred said.
"Great. See ya later," she said heading back out.
"I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS, OR PLANNED IT IN ADVAAAANCE! I WAS JUST BLOWN HEEEERE BY THE WINDS OF CHANCE! I NEVER SAW MYSELF AS A SOLOMON OR SOCRATES! I KNEW WHO I WAS! ONE OF YOUR, DIME A DOZEN, MEDIOCRITIES. THEN SUDDENLY I'M HERE! RESPECTED, WORSHIPPED EVEN! ALL BECAUSE THE FOLKS IN OZ! NEEDED SOMEONE TO BELIIIIEEEVE INNNN! DOES IT SURPRISE YOU, I GOT HOOKED AND ALL TO SOOOOOOON. WHAT CAN I SAY? I GOT CARRIED AWAAAAAY AND NOT JUST BY BALLOOOON!" The author was surprised Cluny didn't pass out from lack of air. Though his singing was piercing and off-key, at least he wasn't dancing. Yet.
"WONDERFUL! THEY CALLED ME, WONDERFUL! SO I SAID WONDERFUL, IF YOU INSIST!," He began dancing a tap routine, starting slow and building up like the music. "I WILL BE WONDERFUL, AND THEY SAID WONDERFUL! BELIEVE ME IT'S HARD TOOOO RESIST! CAUSE IT FEELS WONDERFUL, THEY THINK I'M WONDERFUL, HEY LOOK WHO'S WONDERFUL! THIS CORNFED HICK! WHO SAID IT MIGHT BE KEEN, TO BUILD A TOWN OF GREEN, AND A WONDERFUL ROAD OF YELLOW BRIIIIICK!" He skipped down his imaginary yellow brick road. The author just facepalmed. "YOU SEE, I NEVER HAD A FAMILY OF MY OWN, SO I GUESS I JUST WANTED TO GIVE THE CITIZENS OF OZ EVERYTHING!" he yelled in Rose's ears.
"So you lied to them?" she said, subtly rubbing her ears.
"ONLY VERBALLY! AND BESIDES IT WAS THE LIES THEY WANTED TO HEAR! Um, wait what was your name again? Wait for it, wait for it. . ." he scratched his head thoughtfully.
"Cough cough, Elphaba, cough cough," The author coughed extremely loudly.
"OH YEAH! ELPHABA, WHERE I'M FROM, WE BELIEVE IN ALL SORTS OF THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. WE CALL IT, HISTORY. A MAN'S CALLED A TRAITOR," he pretended to hang himself, "OR LIBERATOR!" he pumped his fist in the air, "A RICH MAN'S A THIEF OR PHILANTHROPIST!" he spun around in a circle. "IS ONE A CRUSADER? OR RUTHLESS INVADER? IT'S ALL IN WHICH LABEL, IS ABLE TO PERSIST!" he began to dance a gangster hip-hop routine. Somehow, vaudeville and hip-hop don't go together. "SO THEY ACT AS THOUGH THEY DON'T EXIST! THEY. . .CALL. . .ME . . . WONDERFUL! SO I AM WONDERFUL! IN FACT IT'S SO MUCH WHO I AM IT'S PART OF MY NAAAAAAME! AND WITH MY HELP YOU CAN BE THE SAAAAAME!" Then he turned to Rose and took her broom and leaned it against a set.
"AT LONG, LONG LAST, RECEIVE YOUR DUE LONG OVER DUE. ELPHABA, THE MOST CELEBRATED, ARE THE REHABILITATED! THERE'LL BE SUCH A WHOOP-DE-DO! A CELEBRATION THROUGHOUT OZ, THAT'S ALL TO DO WITH YOOOOOOU!" He tried to get Rose to do dance with him, but instead ended up skipping around her in a circle. "WONDERFUL! THEY'LL CALL YOU WONDERFUL!"
"It does sound wonderful!" Rose reluctantly admitted.
"TRUST ME IT'S FUUUUUN!"
"When you are wonderful, it would be wonderful! Wonderful, wonderful," they sang together.
"ONE! TWO! AAAAANNNDD!" Cluny and Rose began ballroom dancing, but it soon progressed into a Swan Lake style pas de deux.
"Hey that looks like the pas de doo I did last week in my partnering class," Fleabane remarked.
"Whoa! You take ballet? As much as I admire that, it's called a pas de duh," the author corrected him. Back on stage, Cluny was too concerned on making sure that their fish dive was held as long as possible than setting any monkeys free.
"Uh Cluny, we need to get on with the show!" Rose whispered.
"I know, I just thought we could do it in this position," he whispered back.
"How are you and I supposed to get off stage at different times? And we can't act like this and it's painful," Rose said.
"Ugg fine," Cluny let her get down. The audience was throughly confused. Cluny set the monkeys free and Rose went to discover Dr. Dillamond from under the blanket. Thankfully he was there. Martin entered with the other guards. Rose whirled around.
"Fiyero!" she exclaimed. Martin told the other guards to leave.
"Fiyero, you frightened me! I thought you might have. . .changed," Rose said.
"But I have changed," Martin put down the gun he was pointing at Cluny and walking toward Rose.
"What's going on?" Cornflower said as she entered. "Fiyero are you out of your mind? What are you doing?" She turned to Martin. He stood there staring at Rose.
"I'm going with her," he said.
"What are you trying to say? All this time, the two of you behind my back," Cornflower said, choking up.
"No! No it wasn't like that!" Rose tried to explain.
"But it was, it was," Martin stepped closer towards her. "But it wasn't." He stepped back reassuring Cornflower. Then they ran offstage.
"Don't wish, don't start. Wishing only wounds the heart. There's a girl I know, he loves her so, I'm not that. . . girrrrrrrrl," Cornflower sang, pretending to be in tears. The music turned more passionate.
Bryony, who was seated nearby, groaned, "Oh goodness, I read the book and there was this part where– "
"Whoa stop right there! Unlike the book, this musical is PG," the author said.
"Thank goodness for that!" she sighed.
The set had turned into the Great Gillikin Forest. Martin and Rose sat in the stage right corner."Kiss me too fiercely, hold me too tiiiight. I need help believing, you're with me tonight. My wildest dreamings, could not foresee, lying beside you, with you wanting meeeee," Rose sang, "Just for this moment, as long as you're mine, I've lost all resistance, and crossed some borderline. And if it turns out, it's over too faaaaast, I'll make every last moment last, as long as you're miiiiiiiine."
"Maybe I'm brainless, maybe I'm wiiiiise. But you've got me seeing, through different eyes. Somehow I've fallen, under your spell, and somehow I'm feeling, it's up that I feeeeell!" Martin joined in.
"Every moment, as long as your mine, I'll wake up my body, and make up for lost time," they sang together.
"Say there's no future, for us as a paaaaaaiiiiir," Martin sang alone.
"And though I may know, I don't caaaaaaare! Just for this moment, as long as you're mine, come be how you want tooooo, and see how bright we shine! Borrow the moonlight, until it is throooooough. And know I'll be here, holding yooooooooou, as long as you're miiiiiiiiine," they sang.
"What is it?" Martin said.
"Nothing, it's just, for the first time, I feel. . .Wicked," Rose said. Then she heard a strange sound. "It doesn't make any sense. It's a house. But it's– flying through the sky! I have to go to Nessa!" And she ran off.
The set changed to a cornfield where Cornflower was waving off some unseen travelers. "Oh Nessa I'm sorry," she knelt to the ground.
"What a touching display of grief," Rose said, appearing from the cornfield.
"I don't believe we have anything further to say to one another," Cornflower said, turning away from her.
"I wanted something to remember my sister by, and all there was were those shoes! And now that wretched farmgirl has walked off with them!" Rose said angrily.
"And with that, you just lost me. Why don't they explain what's happened like in the Electric Company?" Rotnose asked.
"SHUT UP!" the author growled.
"Oh Nessa, please forgive me, please," Rose said kneeling as Cornflower did. Cornflower knelt next to her.
"I know how dreadful it is to have a house fall on you, but accidents will happen," Cornflower said. Then they began to argue.
"Well what have you been doing besides flying around on that filthy broomstick?" Cornflower said accusingly.
"Well we can't all come and go by bubble!" Rose sneered.
"Lots of us are taking thing that don't belong to us," Cornflower said to Rose's conspiracy theory.
"Now you just wait a clock tick! I know it may be difficult for that blissful blond brain of yours to comprehend that someone like him could actually choose someone like me, but it happened!" Rose yelled back. "He never loved you!" That's when Cornflower slapped her. Rose just cackled.
"Feel better now?" she asked menacingly.
"Yes I do," Cornflower replied.
"Good," Rose said as she slapped her back. Then they walked around in a circle holding up their broom and wand defensively. Cornflower wildly swung her wand around. Then they went in, pulling hair and hats and crowns. Guards entered trying to pull them apart.
"Let me go! I almost had her!" Cornflower yelled. Martin came in on his rope with his. . .
"Wait, is that. . . his sword?" the author leaned in. The audience roared with laughter. The author smiled. Why hadn't she thought of that?
"Let the green girl go," he said, pointing the sword at the guards. "Or you'll have to explain how the Wizard's guards watched as Glinda the Good was slain." He pointed it at Cornflower. Rose ran off and the guards closed in on Martin. He dropped the sword and was carted off to the cornfield for interrogation.
"FIYEROOOOOOOO!" the two girls voices melded into one. Rose began trying to find a spell to save him.
"Eleka nahmen nahmen, ah tum ah tum, eleka nahmen! Eleka nahmen nahmen, ah tum ah tum, eleka, eleka, AH!" she chanted. Frustrated, she slammed the book shut. "What good is this chanting?I don't even know what I'm reading! I don't even know what trick I ought to tryyyy! Fiyero, where are you? Already dead, or bleeding? One more disaster I can add to myyyyyy generous supplyyyyyyy?" she walked upstage and then suddenly whirled around. "No good deed goes unpunished! No act of charity goes unresented! No good deed goes unpunished! That's my new creeeeeed! My road of good intentions, led where such roads always lead! No good deeeeeeed, goes unpunisheeeeeeeeeeeddddd!" she sang loudly and angrily, but then came down on the 'punished'. "Nessa. . . Dr. Dillamond. . . Fiyero," she sang softly and sadly, reaching out. Then the music grew again. "Fiyeeeeeeeeroooooo! One question haunts and hurts, too much, too much to mention. Was I really seeking good? Or just seeking attention? Is that all good deeds are, when looked at with an ice-cold eye? If that's all good deeds are, maybe that's the reason whyyyyyyyy!" she backed up and flew her cape out menacingly.
"No good deed goes unpunished! All helpful urges should be circumvented! No good deed goes unpunished! Sure, I meant well -Well, look at what well-meant diiiiiiid!" she came back into to the softer lights. "All right, enough - so be it!," she yelled, "So be it, then. Let all Oz be agreed, I'm wicked through and through, since I can not succeed, Fiyero, saving you, I promise no good deed, will I attempt to do agaaaaaain, ever agaaaaaaiiiiin! No good deed, will I dooooooo agaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiin!" she sang wildly and on the last note, turned and flung her arms up in the air. Next there an angry mob appeared.
"Go! And hunt her! And find her! And kill her! Go! And hunt her! And find her! And kill heeeeeer!"they sang, waving their weapons. "Wickedness must be punished! Evil effectively e-li-minated! Wickedness must be punished! Kill the Witch!"
"And this is more that just than just a service to the Wizard! I have a personal score to settle with Elph- with the witch!" Matthias as the Tin Man appeared on the balcony. "It's due to her I'm made of tin, her spell made this occur. So for once I'm glad I'm heartless! I'll be heartless killing her!" The crowd cheered. Matthias tried to pull the 'Cowardly Lion' out of a door. "And the lion also has a grievance to repay. If she'd let him fight his own battles, when he was young, he wouldn't be a coward todaaaaaaay!"
"Kill her! Kill the witch!" the crowd yelled.
"No that's not how it happened! Madame we've got to stop this, it's gone too far!" Cornflower tried to tell Constance.
"Oh I think Elphaba can take care of herself!" she replied.
"Wickedness must be punished! Brave Witch-Hunters, I would join you if I could! Because Wickedness must be punished! Punished! Puniiiiiisheeeeed! But gooooooood!" they sang running off, leaving behind Rose pacing back and was the sound of somebody crying and Rose lifted a trap door.
"Oh I can't stand it any longer! You want to see your Aunt Em? Or your uncle. . .what's his name again–– well take those shoes off your feet!" she screamed down the hole. She continued to pace, talking to herself. "Insolent little brat. . . Who takes a dead woman's shoes? Must of been raised in a barn!" Ironbeak entered like demons were chasing him, squawking and cawing the place down. The author thought she heard giggling and Ironbeak swearing under his breath. Then Cornflower came running in trying to convince Rose to let Dorothy and her little dog 'Dodo' go.
"You are out of control! I mean they're just. . .shoes. . ." she looked dreamily of in the distance, "Let it go!" Rose remain harsh. Ironbeak came on stage a little more dignified this time, handing Rose a decided to surrender.
"Promise me you'll never try to clear my name," she asked Cornflower. "I'm limited. Just look at me - I'm limited. And just look at you, you can do all I couldn't do, Glinda." she sangsadly. Then she handed herthe Grimmiere. "Because now it's up to yooooou. For both of us - now it's up to yooooou. . . You're the only friend I've ever had," she said.
"And I've had so many friends. But only one, that mattered," Cornflower said sadly. "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 yoooooou," she sang softly standing next to Rose. "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."
Rose began to sing. "It well may beeeee, that we will never meet again, in this lifetime. So let me say before we part, so much of meeee, is made of what I learned from yooooou. You'll be with me, like a handprint on my hearrrrt. And now whatever way our stories end, I know you have re-written mine, by being my frieeeeeeeeend," She pointed out into the distance. "Like a ship blown from its mooring, by a wind off the seeeea. Like a seed dropped by a skybird, in a distant wooooood. Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I knew you," She turned toface Cornflower.
"Because I knew you," Cornflower replied.
"I have been chaaaanged for good." they sang together.
"And just to clear the air, I ask forgiveness, for the things I've done you blame me foooor," Rose turned away.
"But then, I guess we know, there's blame to shaaaaaare," Cornflower turned her back.
"And none of it seems to matter anymooooooooooooore!" their voices soared in harmony.
"Like a comet pulled form orbit– like a ship blown from its mooring– as it passes a sun– by a wind off the sea– like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through– like a seed dropped by a bird– in the woooooooooooood." The choruses mingled and blended on the last note. "Who can saaaaaaaaaaaay," they held the note, "If I've been changed for the better. I do believe I have been changed for the better. . ." The author thought she saw a glimmer of tears in both of their eyes.
"And because I knew you," Cornflower sniffed.
"Becaaause I knew you," Rose sang.
"I have been chaaaaaaaaaanged. . . for good,"they smiled and sang and they hugged for the last time.
"Hide yourself!" Rose said, dodging behind the screen as the ensemble sang solemnly. She screamed and 'melted'.
"Oh Elphie," Cornflower got up and took the hat, hugging it close.
"Miss. . .Glinda?" Ironbeak came up and handed her the green bottle. A light shone on Cluny and Constancediscussing things. Cornflower walked up to them, holding out the green bottle to Cluny.
"This was Elphaba's. It was her mother's. I've only seen a little green bottle like this one other time. And it was right here in this room. You offered me a drink from it," she said scornfully.
"O . . . M. . .G . . ." Cluny said taking the bottle and singing loudly as usual, "I AM A SENTIMENTAL MAN. WHO ALWAYS LONGED TO BE. . . A FATHER!"
"I want you to leave Oz. You better get your balloon ready!" Cornflower said as he wandered off. Then she turned to Constance. "Madame have you ever considered how you would fare in captivity?"
"What?" Constance said.
"Captivity. Pri-son. Personally I don't think you'll hold up very well. My personal opinion is that you do not have what it takes. I hope you prove me wrong. I doubt you will. Take her away!" The guards came to take Constance away while the opening of the musical played again, but this time with the celebrants behind the backdrop. Cornflower's bubble came down. A scarecrow came out on stage, wandering until he found a trapdoor. He opened it and up popped Rose.
"Fiyero?" she said. He pulled her up.
"No one mourns the Wicked. Now at last she's dead and gone. Now at last there's joy throughout the laaaaand," the ensemble sang softly, coming on stage.
"Fellow Ozians– friends– we have been through a frightening time. And there will be other times and things that frighten us. But if you'll let me, I'd like to try to be. . .Glinda. . .the Good," Cornflower said up in her bubble.
"GOOD NEWS! Good news. . ." the ensemble sang first loudly, then softly.
"It's time to go," Martin said.
"I only wish Glinda could know," Rose said.
"No, she can't know. Not if you want to be safe," Martin replied.
"Who can saaaaaay if I've been chaaaaanged for the better, but," Cornflower sang sadly.
"Because I knew you," they sang together.
"No one mourns the wicked. . ." the ensemble sang.
"Becaaaaaaause I knew yooooou," Cornflower sang.
"I have been chaaaaaaanged. . .No one mourns the WICKED! WICKED! WICKEEEEEEED!" Martin and Rose ran off and the ensemble sang wildly. Then, the curtain fell. There was a standing ovation. The cast and crew came out for bows. Everyone in the audience was standing, thrilled. The author just smiled.
Afterwards, she said good bye to everyone and headed home. How you ask? Teleportation, duh! Anyway, she sat down at her computer, opened Word, and began to write.
Ok it's a bit of a cliched ending, but who cares? It works. Anyway, I'm glad to have this project off my shoulders. I hope you somewhat enjoyed this story. My cast was pretty bad I realized but when I first started this story, I had only recently become obsessed with Redwall again and had only read like 4 and a half books. Now I've read like nine, so yeah. And I read the Wicked series. But anyway, thanks for reading!