(AN: Horay, we get a new chapter update [along with a cute title]!)


A Witch to Save a Witch

To Quadling flew the Witch, flanked by Chistery and Nikko. Galinda and her Freedom squad had disappeared and she knew not where they went, but Chistery told her that Glinda in the South could help them. After a moment of perplexity, brought on no doubt by the fact that Elphaba had just seen Glinda be captured by herself and wondered how there could be two of them, much less three, Elphaba decided to let the Monkeys lead her and she flew as fast as lightning to the land of the swamps. From the air, she had no problem spotting the floating palace, and landed on the roof. She let herself down and told the Monkeys to wait for her, while she pushed open the doors and entered the room of Glinda.

"What in Oz's name?" she stammered, hands over her mouth in shock, surprise and amazement. "Elphie? You're alive?"

"Of course I am," replied the green-skinned woman. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"B-B-But-But...But Glinda said you were dead!" she exclaimed. "I mean the other one, the real one. She said..."

"She said I was dead?" Elphaba replied. "But why?" She reached up and touched her head.

"But that doesn't matter now," red-haired Glinda dismissed. "Because you're back home, you can help us, you can save Oz, hmm?"

"Why should I want to help Oz?" Elphaba returned, placing her broom up against the wall and taking a seat opposite from Glinda. "What has Oz ever done for me?"

"But this is your home!" Glinda plead with her friend. "Oz is your home. It doesn't matter if the Wizard was your father or not, because you were born in Oz, raised in Oz, and loved by Oz!"

"Loved? Ha!" snorted Elphaba. "All of Oz couldn't wait to see me killed! Why should I help Oz now?"

"I don't think you're being fair, Elphaba!" Glinda said sternly, putting her slipper-clad foot down. "You didn't have a moment's hesitation about helping the Fellowship and the people of Middle Earth, even though their world had nothing to do with ours! Do you have so little regard for your own world?"

"I care about myself and only for myself," Elphaba replied.

"Then why are you here?"

"The Monkeys wanted me to come here," she began. "The other Glinda, the one with dark hair, Galinda: she kidnapped the real Glinda."

"Oh, Shiz!" sighed red-haired Glinda fearfully. "She's been threatening to do this! That's why there are wanted posters all across Oz. Your name is on them, and Glinda's too."

"What does she want with Glinda?"

There was silence for a moment, as red-haired Glinda scrutinized Elphaba. "What did you say?"

"I said 'What does Galinda want with Glinda?'"

"Aha!" said red-haired Glinda triumphantly. "I knew it, I knew it! You do care about people other than yourself!"

"What? It's just Glinda," returned Elphaba with a shrug. "She needs looking after or she'll end up in all sorts of trouble."

"Thanks a lot, Elphie!"

"I mean it! She's naive and far too trusting. People can't wait to take advantage of that, and she'll be crushed!"

"Or worse," red-haired Glinda added, kneeling at Elphaba's feet. "Elphaba, listen to me. You have to rescue her, you just have to! If Galinda succeeds in assimilating Glinda, she will become the one true Glinda, powerful and wicked, and the Glinda you know and love will cease to exist."

"Why don't you go save her?"

"I can't go!" the red-haired Glinda said. "I'm not as powerful as Galinda. And, if I touched the real Glinda, it would be the end for me as well."

"What do you mean?"

"When you and Fiyero left Worms," the red-haired Glinda began. "Glinda remained behind. She had been reading the Grimmerie and learned a spell that split her soul into four pieces and created three bodies to house the other pieces. I was one, Galinda was another one, and the Glinda you remember, the one who lies buried beneath the Cloister of St. Glinda, is the third. But the spell was very complex: it said that if the host touched any of the bodies, it would absorb it back into herself. You see, I cannot touch Galinda or the real Glinda, or I will die."

"But what about Galinda, this so-called Goddess of Freedom?" Elphaba asked. "If she's just a doppelganger, why is Glinda in danger of touching her?"

"Didn't you hear what I said?" an annoyed Glinda asked. "She's grown so powerful that she's almost a host of her own!"

"But we ran into..."

"You saw Galinda?" gasped the red-head in fear. "Elphie, that's mad! She's got all of Oz under her control, going up against her..."

"We didn't go up against her," Elphaba admitted. "A bull attacked Glinda and I used my magic to fight him off."

"That was foolish also," red-haired Glinda said. "Galinda has passed a law saying that no magic may be used in Oz. She enchanted a tapestry of Oz to show her everything that happens in Oz while it's happening, and she can teleport her Freedom squads to any location instantly!" She snapped her fingers to punctuate her statement.

"Wait, I thought you said she outlawed magic."

"For everyone else," Glinda replied. "She alone allows herself to use magic for whatever reasons she chooses."

"Still," Elphaba continued. "I don't think she's as as serious a threat as you think. I was there, I saw her grab Glinda by the throat. There was this golden light, but Galinda looked like she was straining, like it caused her great pain just to touch Glinda. I think she's not as powerful as she says she is. Glinda can manage on her own."

"Elphaba, please..."

"I don't care what she's done!" Elphaba retorted. "Oz is better off as it is now."

"Oh, Elphaba! How could you?"

"I mean it!" began Elphaba. "This is what I've wanted for Oz: to be free, for everyone to do whatever they will. I'm no leader, I never would have taken over if I overthrew the Wizard. Sometimes I asked myself if I really had a plan, besides just causing trouble for the Wizard. I guess that was all I really ever wanted: to cause trouble and see my name everywhere."

"Elphaba," Glinda replied. "I can't believe I'm hearing this from you! All you wanted was to see your name everywhere? That's what I wanted, and you see how it turned out for me? You can't think about nobody else but yourself, Elphie!"

"Why not? No one else will!"

"I do, Elphie!" Glinda shouted. "And Fiyero cares about you, I know he does! We care about you, but you need to care about more than just yourself. Can't you see that you're letting people die because you won't help?"

"Oz let me die!"

"Oh, get over yourself, Elphaba! If you're going to sit here and whine about how nobody ever cared for you when one is standing right in your face, then I think you were better off dead!"

Elphaba did not respond, but watched as a furious Glinda stormed out of the room, sobbing as she went. Glinda's words had hurt her more than that magically-enhanced punch from Galinda, and yet what made her words all the more painful was the fact that they were true. And yet she did not want to believe them, because believing would mean that she was a horrible person, worse than she had ever believed, and that at least some of the lies spoken about her were true.

No, Elphaba thought. It's not true, it just isn't! I cared about the Animals, I...did some good. But I can't get involved again, not like this, when...when...

But she had no answer, no more excuses. She could dish them out to whoever argued, but deep down inside, she knew where lay her true loyalties. It didn't frighten her very much to be considered wicked or evil, because she had been that way for three years in Oz. But to be alone, even as she was now without Glinda, without Fiyero, without Nessa, without any of them, was worse than she could ever possibly hope to endure.

And now that was upon her.


(AN: Well, it seems I have more readers, so I give you a chapter update.)

(I had originally wanted this chapter to end better, but then I remembered why I'm beginning to lose faith in Wicked to begin with. It's not because of the fans, because a-hole fans are everywhere. It's the fact that Elphaba isn't the heroine I thought she was, but actually rather self-centered. I've said this before in the author's notes of the other Ozian Adventures stories, her motivation is herself, which is why her highest moment is "Defying Gravity", when everyone is looking at her, and she even comments on that she was really seeking attention in "No Good Deed." Now she's been brought to a point where she absolutely has to make a decision, either one way or another. But how will she choose?)