(AN: Still no reviews? You must not love the cute little kitties [No they doesn't, Precious!]. With power of the author, I can resurrect Gollum as surely as I resurrected [spoilers deleted] in Of Saints and Sinners.)

(A few words about our character's appearance. As I've stated before, I have a very distinct idea behind what my version of Wicked characters appear like in my fan-fics. In Ozian Adventures, Elphaba was Eden Espinosa, Fiyero was Kristoffer Cusick and Glinda was [of all people], Megan Hilty! For this one, I've kept the last two, but Elphaba is now Teal Wicks. Milla, I thought, felt like someone I could see Annaleise Van Der Pol playing - but much more serious than TSR, the Disney show about a prophetic teenager. For the most part I let the audience interpret the characters according to their discretion, but I say this in that, recently, the face of Jemma Rix has been floating into my subconscious, becoming Elphaba in almost every one of my Wicked ffs that have been updated recently. Now I'm undecided about whether I like her or not, but I've also found myself quite disturbed by this.)

(Just a little meep about what's going on inside my head. As you can see, the inner chaos is reflected by the tension among The People of Oz, as you have no doubt noticed in this story)

(As the title so aptly puts it, we finally hear back from the Wizard in this chapter!)


Bad Vibrations and Good News

By the time the People of Oz had made it to Frottica, things were hardly peachy among them. Elphaba was more than bushed by the performances and seemed more aloof and detached from the others. Galinda had not seen Nicolas Chuffrey in weeks, Fiyero wasn't paying any attention to her, and the only people who seemed fundamentally normal were Avaric, Milla and Ramon.

There had been no sound-check. Milla and Ramon, who were now good friends, were in charge of the full set-up. She was getting to be a better musician, able to sing now. At the Wittica show, she had backed Elphaba up with her singing, and the people loved it. Sometimes she and Ramon would share the keyboard: she would play rhythm and he would play the melody and improvise, with both of them singing. It was a little comical, the gritty baritone of the Raccoon and Milla's soulful soprano trying to make a harmony. But it worked, and that seemed to matter.

Avaric wasn't present for set-up because he was off looking for the nearest pub. Galinda had finally reunited with Shenshen and Pfannee, both of whom promised to be at tonight's show and were now shopping away to get Galinda's massive wardrobe back into shape - so far, she had with her only the white school uniform and her yellow formal dress.

Fiyero, on the other hand, was looking for Elphaba. He had checked almost every single place in this building, Frottica Music Hall, and there was only one place left. After looking around to make sure that there was no one nearby who could spot him, he ducked into the ladies bathroom.

Not much different than ours, Fiyero thought as he looked around. There were stalls, many of them, in fact: more than the men's bathroom had, by far. But there was still a laver-basins of copper lining the walls for washing of the hands, and mirrors for the more shallow girls like Galinda.

Then he heard a sigh, almost that sounded like a tiny sob. It was coming from one of the stalls. Looking down, he could see a pair of black boots sitting on the floor.

"Elphaba?" he asked.

She yelped.

"Get out!" she returned. "You're not supposed to be here."

"Neither are you," he said.

"Just get out! I'll be there in time for the show!"

"Elphaba, listen," he said. "I'm worried about you." Why am I saying this? "You haven't really been yourself since..." How long ago was it since our first show on this 'Gilikin Tour?' "...Red House, I guess. I may be brainless, but I'm not as stupid as you think. Something's bothering you, Elphaba..."

"Well, thank you for your concern," she said. "But that's none of your business."

He had had enough.

"Elphaba, come out of there." he sighed, walking over to the stall under which he had seen the pair of boots.

"Leave me alone!"

Without thinking, he pulled the door open. Elphaba cried out and something flew up out of her hand. He held out his hand and took it out of mid-air. Elphaba might have a good throwing arm, but he had a good catching arm. Maybe that was why they got along so well.

At least until recently.

Fiyero looked down and saw that, much to his relief, Elphaba was fully clothed, sitting upon the closed lavatory. In his hand, however, he saw an odd-shaped green bottle.

"What is this?" he asked.

"Give it back!" she insisted. "It was my mother's!"

He looked inside the open lid and saw that there was still something inside it. He didn't know how old it was, but if it was anything like alcohol, he knew that it got stronger with age.

"Have you been drinking this?"

"I don't think you have anywhere to talk about substance abuse," Elphaba returned. "Now give me the bottle, dammit!"

"Why?" Fiyero returned. "What does it do, huh? How does it make you feel?"

"Just give it to me!" She lunged up at him from off the loo and tried to wrest control of the bottle out of his hands as she had with Galinda that night in their room. Unfortunately, for her, Fiyero was much larger and more powerful than Galinda. Even though she was punching at his chest with her green fists, he did not relinquish control of the little green bottle.

"Ow!" he playfully said.

"Give it back!" she shouted, throwing herself upon him. They fell back onto the floor, with Elphaba laying on top of Fiyero.

All thought of the little green bottle, of the show, of how angry she was at the world, at Fiyero, at her father and at herself evaporated before her mind. Here she was, finally with Fiyero - pretty much on top of him, staring down at his handsome face. Her heart was racing, the hair on the back of her neck stood up, she couldn't breathe and the room seemed to suddenly grow a bit warmer.

But this is so wrong, she told herself. He's still Galinda's boyfriend! I can't be doing this!

"Well," Fiyero smirked. "Now that you have me where you want me..."

She slapped him across the face, then pulled herself off him. That comment brought her back down to earth as if she was a Stork and her wings just got clipped in mid-air.

"Just give me the bottle."

"Promise me you won't drink from it tonight." Fiyero said.

"Just give it..."

Before she could finish, Fiyero was up off his back and was staring down Elphaba like a hunter seeking his prey. This was hardly appropriate.

"Promise!" he insisted. "Or next time, I'll be on top!"

She rolled her eyes, trying to banish the image from out of her head.

"Okay, fine, whatever." she said at last. "I promise."

Fortunately, he didn't make her 'pinky promise' like Galinda would have if they were in the same situation.

Fiyero placed the bottle on the floor of the ladies bathroom then walked out as if nothing had happened. Elphaba snatched the treasured trinket back into her hands, watching Fiyero's every step.

Thank Oz nothing happened, she thought. But she felt that she was lying to herself by letting him go. She had been closer to him than ever before on this venture - and she had just let it slip away like that.


The concerts lately were becoming more and more populated. Ever since the news story about the riots in Tenniken, more and more people were showing up to their concerts. Tonight was no exception.

There they were, on stage, doing what they did best. The crowd, however, was much less enthusiastic about this show than most of their others. In fact, as Elphaba looked out at the crowds, she noticed that there were fewer and fewer people genuinely cheering for them.

At last the song came to a conclusion, with fewer cheers and more scattered murmuring.

"Was that good for you?" she called back to the audience.

Very few cries of yes were heard, out-done by the 'no's and 'boos' that were now filling the Frottica Music Hall. Something that sounded like 'ore' was shouted from somewhere in the crowd.

"Are you saying 'more?'" Elphaba asked. When she heard what the person had actually said, her expression fell. This was not going well. She turned back to the others, waving them over.

"We need to do something big," she said. "What have we got left on the set-list?"

"One of Galinda's songs, and the one you wrote." Fiyero said, checking the list that he had put in his pocket. "The good one."

Elphaba was taken back by this. Did Fiyero just call that song 'the good one'?

"Well," Avaric said. "We'll try and do something, if we can."

Elphaba nodded, then walked back to her microphone stand.

"This next song," she said. "Was co-written by our drummer, everyone say hi to Glinda!"

Scattered applause was heard, though the way Galinda ate it up, it seemed like all of Oz was bowing down, treating her like Ozma returned in the flesh.

Avaric began the guitar piece, which featured a few, clean chords played over Milla's vocalization. After four bars, the guitar's distortion turned on, Galinda started playing and Fiyero joined in on the bass. Once the verses hit, Ramon and Milla began playing some backing parts on the keyboard.

This song had been written recently, both by Galinda and Elphaba. It was, in fact, written on a mis-understanding. Elphaba started writing lyrics, Galinda, not knowing that they were about how Elphaba had seen her when they first met, joined in and helped her finish the song.

Perfect by nature
Icons of self indulgence
Just what we all need
More lies about a world that

Never was and never will be
Have you no shame? Don't you see me?
You know you've got everybody fooled

The audience was not very receptive of this, some of them even beginning to throw things their way. Fortunately, Elphaba was prepared for this and the incident at Tenniken was not repeated tonight.

Look here she comes now
Bow down and stare in wonder
Oh how we love you
No flaws when you're pretending
But now I know she

Never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled

The breakdown-like riffs that were being played during the verses were now being taken away by Fiyero while Avaric began a little guitar solo. He ended on a high note, bending the string almost to the breaking point while he lifted the guitar high up above him. Galinda smote the cymbals with her fuzzy drum-sticks, noting the calm bridge that was to follow. Ramon played on the keyboard while Milla vocalized over Elphaba's singing.

Without the mask, where will you hide?
Can't find yourself lost in your lie

The drums signaled in the return of the heavy chorus. Elphaba was now standing on the sound-boxes, belting out the pre-chorus. She was no longer singing to the audience, but turned around, her finger pointed at the drummer.

I know the truth now
I know who you are
And I don't love you anymore!

There was a moment where the chorus played on by Fiyero and Avaric. Galinda kept the beat, but her eyes were now turned toward Elphaba. The whole third chorus was now forgotten and they were playing again. Milla looked back and noticed that Elphaba was not singing, her fiery gaze fixed on Galinda. She took up the last verse to save from a fiasco starting.

It never was and never will be
You're not real and you can't save me
Somehow now you're everybody's fool

Unfortunately, this meant that the song would not end with her vocalization. Her recognition of Milla's sudden jumping in, Elphaba turned back to the audience and finished the vocal-line on her own. At last the song ended.

No applause. In fact, the people were booing them and things were once again being thrown at them.

"We'll be right back," Elphaba spoke into the mic. She then walked off-stage, the rest of the band following after her.


"And what exactly did you mean by that?" Galinda asked.

"I haven't the foggiest idea what you're talking about," Elphaba said. "Maybe all that hair-spray has finally sunk into your head and has affected your brain!"

"Elphaba, what's wrong?" Fiyero asked, as he saw Galinda's face fall into a grimace of sadness.

Just then, Milla walked in from on-stage. Upon seeing her, Elphaba jumped at her, knocking her down to the floor of the stage, fuming with rage and her eyes seething with anger.

"Don't you ever do that again!" she shouted. "Do you hear me? Ever!"

By now, Avaric and Ramon were back-stage. The Raccoon was looking modestly at the floor, while Avaric slapped his forehead.

"I can't believe it!" he said, almost laughing. "And I thought all along it was just me."

"Believe what?" Elphaba shouted, getting up off her feet. "No, come on, Tenmeadows! Tell me!"

"You're obsessed with yourself!" he shouted back. "Hell, even the dead Ozma knows that!"

Elphaba's lower lip quivered in pent-up rage. If looks could kill, Avaric would be dead by now.

"How dare you!" she seethed.

"Oh, it's not that big of a deal!" he returned. "I've learned to accept myself for it. But you! This whole band's been about you, hasn't it? You like having a thousand people screaming your name every night, having all those eyes look at you. You enjoy it, don't you? You've grown so accustom to people staring at you, now you need to have them look at you, whether clothed or half-naked."

He took a step forward.

"How many songs have we played?" he asked. "And how many of them were your creations? This isn't about you, freak, it's about me! It always has been! I'm the only one who sees what's as plain as daylight: you're stealing my band from me!" His voice now rose into whines of hysteria. "Well I won't let it happen, you hear me? It's my band, Thropp! Mine! All me!"

She punched him in the face.

To their surprise, he punched her back. It was strong enough to send her to the floor. Avaric didn't look one bit remorseful about his decision: who could have mistaken that mocking smile across his pale, blond-haired face, or the joy in his steel-blue eyes at seeing Elphaba thrown down, for remorse?

Fiyero was ready to jump on him, but Galinda and Milla held him back.

"Fifi, don't!" Galinda said.

"We can't fight now!" Milla added.

"I don't want to fight," Fiyero returned. They let him go. "I just want to wipe that stupid grin off Tenmeadow's ugly face!"

The two girls jumped back onto Fiyero, trying to keep him back.

"Excuse me?" Ramon shouted. "I say...can you all just shut up?"

They looked down at the Raccoon who had shouted at them. He coughed.

"I think we should go back on-stage." he indicated. The booing had grown worse, and the sound of broken glass was now punctuating the noises of protest.

"I'll go." Avaric said. "This is my band, after all."

"We'll finish this after the show." Fiyero threatened.

Avaric picked up his guitar and walked back on-stage. No one cheered for him as he appeared.

Fiyero walked out next, followed by the bouncing Galinda. The sound of a guitar tuning was then heard, followed by a melodic arpeggio. Milla and Ramon were the last two left, with the unconscious Elphaba.

"Well?" she asked. The image of the angry green girl, her face like a sea of daggers all aimed at her, still burned in her mind.

"Well, we need our singer." Ramon stated. "We'll have to try to wake her."


The sounds of booing subsided as the arpeggios were now being backed by Galinda with a mid-paced beat on the drums and Fiyero playing along with his bass.

Suddenly, Avaric began shredding harder and faster than he had ever done before in the last seven concerts they had played at before tonight. His fingers moved faster than they had ever seen, and all of them, Galinda the most, had to try hard to keep from looking at him and therefore lose the time they were keeping.

Two minutes had passed since they started playing, and Avaric was still playing his heart out. The others were still keeping a solid foundation with the drums and bass behind him as his soloing seemed to soar to new heigths. Where did he keep all this energy, all this stamina, that allowed him to keep playing as fast and as hard as he was still playing? He showed no sign of giving up.

Elphaba had now appeared from back-stage, sporting a purple-blue bruise next to her left eye-brow. She was mesmerized by how Avaric just seemed to be playing his heart into this one solo, that seemed to go on forever. Fiyero was right about him being the best guitarist at Shiz, she saw that plain as daylight.

Suddenly her thoughts drifted again. She didn't know how she had gotten to where she was at, exploding at the band in rage, writing hateful songs against her friend and assaulting poor Milla. Over his solo, her thoughts began to fly back to her childhood, and the memories she had of her father.

With shock, she realized that she had become just like him in that one moment back-stage. Was that really what her whole desire for the welfare of Animals had become? Just a desire of a brain-sick child to keep all of the attention on her? She was greatly humbled at the thought that these five had put up with her and all of her behavior just for their mutual love of music. It was as if by magic that they were brought together and had rocked Gilikin this summer. But now the magic had died, and she felt for sure that the People of Oz would break up, tour no more. Tonight was the end.

She saw the lights of candles flicker up from the crowd, as when they had first played the song. After almost three minutes, Avaric had finished his intense soloing and the arpeggios had returned. This she took as her cute. With a hard gulp of air, she pushed herself past the curtains and onto the stage. Fiyero and Avaric were now having the people clap for them.

One more show, she said to herself. One more song. Then it is over.


Withdraw a step away, just to find myself
This door is closed again, I'm the only one left
This storm that's broken me my only friend

In this river all shall fade to black
In this river there's no coming back
In this river all shall fade to black
Ain't no coming back

This was not how she had written the song, but it just seemed to reflect power and the finality of this, what could possibly their last show. Once she spoke the lines that would have brought in the solo, Avaric played his second guitar solo, with just as much intensity as he had played for the first three minutes. It faded away back to arpeggios, and Elphaba sang the chorus.

Was this how it was to die? The end would be in sight, but the poor person had nothing left to do but face it and take it on full force. There would be no stopping it.

Even so, Elphaba thought. It won't end on a bad note.

For one moment, four minds thought the same thought at the same time. Galinda pounded out the hardest, faster drum-fill she had ever played in her life. Fiyero played a bass-riff that even he was surprised that he had the skill to accomplish. The arpeggios now turned into heavily distorted chords. Elphaba thought of her mother, let herself be vulnerable in front of these hundreds, if not thousands, of people who, a moment ago, were booing her, and belted out the chorus a second time.

Oh! In this river all shall fade to black, oh yeah!
In this river ain't no coming back, oh yeah!
In this river...
(Elphaba gasped. She realized she was crying) All shall fade to black, now!
Oh yeah! Ain't no coming back!

Avaric played on with his guitar and the others continued on as well. Elphaba could not. She ran back off-stage, hot tears swimming down her cheeks. She slumped against the side of the wall and wept. Her mother had died, and now all the Animals in Oz were being pressed into slavery, if not dying as well.

And what had she done? She had wanted this band to be something real, to spread the message about Animal rights and to help get things moving. Now it had become all about her: the songs they wrote were about her feelings, her emotions, everything about her. Ramon, who liked her as a friend, had no problem. Milla wasn't officially a band member, so she didn't say much. The others, however, had definitely noticed.

She had destroyed the People of Oz.


Nine minutes. This version had lasted nine minutes; almost ten minutes actually. When at last they were done, there was some scattered applause - much more than with the previous songs. Fiyero signed the People of Oz off and they all walked back stage. None of them felt like looking Elphaba Thropp in the eyes, and she had not the heart to face them down either.

Just then, while the six of them sat about in sorrowful silence, awaiting the inevitable end, the premature conclusion of the People of Oz, someone appeared.

"Excuse me?" the teenager, not but three years younger than Milla, the youngest in their group, said. "Is there a Miss Elphaba Thropp here?"

"Yes, that's me." Elphaba said, wiping her eyes before turning around. Predictably, the youth gasped in shock. Elphaba was used to this, she even welcomed it.

"Uh," he said sheepishly. "I have a letter here for you, from the Emerald City."

This banished all sad thoughts from her mind. At last, she had her chance. She would leave this nightmare that had been the People of Oz behind and become the Wizard's Grand Vizir. What she had begun with them, she could complete at last! The equality of Animals was not far beyond the corner...all of Oz would soon celebrate her. She practically jumped at the young post-man and took the letter from his hands, tearing it open. Her heart leapt as she read the words: the Wizard wanted to see her, he had asked for her personally. His signature was on the letter inside the green envelope.

Ironic, she mused, that the Wizard finally notices me once the People of Oz ends. It seemed the old Gilikin saying had come true: Perservere: when one door closes, another one opens.

"Uh," the young man said again, looking about to see if there were any other green people around. "I have another letter, for a Glinda, care of the People of Oz."

"That's me!" Galinda sang, jumping out and standing front and center before the youth. Though her loud exclamation had possibly done irreparable damage to the ear-drums of her band-mates, the youth was much more pleased at seeing her than Elphaba.

"And that's just my stage name," Galinda stated. "My real name is Galinda, with a 'ga'."

"Whatever you say." he said. He handed her the letter. Galinda tore it open, and gasped when she saw the letter.

"What?" Fiyero asked.

"What is it?" Avaric returned.

"It's from the Wizard!" she squealed. "He's heard about the People of Oz. He wants us to visit him at the Emerald City!"

They all exploded into cheers and hugs all around. Even Avaric managed a quick, three-second shoulder embrace of Elphaba. All thoughts of an end or breaking up were out of their mind. The Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz himself, wanted to see in the Emerald City of all places!

Tonight was definitely a happy night.


(AN: Surprise! Elphaba is a bit of an egocentric attention-whore. That's her musical-verse fault, imo. She wants people to notice her, as we saw in "The Wizard and I". Also double surprise! That was Avaric Tenmeadows' finest hour!)

(The song they played, the one Elphaba wrote as an attack against Galinda, is "Everybody's Fool", which I also don't own, or Evanescence. The whole reaction of the crowd is based on your reaction towards Evanescence: it seems like they're one of the world's most hated bands, right up there with Metallica and Ozzy.)

(The People of Oz are NOT metal. I've just used metal because I suck at writing lyrics and, well, let's face it, people have been avoiding my stories like the plague! Yes, the last chapter was boring, but it's a bit needful. You will see why in the interim chapters [between the Defying Gravity and Thank Goodness portions]. Once again, I don't own "In this River". This performance was based on a live performance, very epic. It felt like a good way to close what they thought was the last show of the People of Oz. Now all I've got to do is top that.)