AN: I AM GOING TO LONDON TO SEE WICKED.

I BOOKED THE TRIP. YES I DID. I'LL BE IN THE SECOND ROW FOR THE SHOW. WITHIN A FEW WEEKS, I'M GOING TO SEE WICKED. AND WILLEMIJN VERKAIK. AND WICKED. AND OMO I'M FREAKING OUT (in a good way).

Sorry, I just HAD to share that with you guys! I'm constantly singing Wicked songs and doing little dances and grinning like an idiot - I think my friend is already starting to regret agreeing to come with me, but who cares? I'M GOING TO LONDON TO SEE WICKED!

It will be the 23rd of November in the afternoon - the performance of 2.30 pm, that is, because we arrive in London on Saturday morning and we leave again Saturday night. We couldn't stay any longer because we both have uni to take into account, and people call us crazy for travelling all the way to London and only spending one morning actually sightseeing in London, but I don't care. WICKED WICKED WICKED WICKED. AAAAAAAH.

So, I'll just stop squealing for a moment to reply to your reviews.

EmeraldElphaba: Mindreader. That's all I'm gonna say.

Vinkunwildflowerqueen: You're right. Never trust the Morrible ;). And yes, I'm not sure why, but in my head, Morrible's first name is Morgana - I guess that is partly because of the Little Mermaid II, but also just because it fits her somehow, I think. I use that as her first name in all of my stories :).

Artsoccer: You thought her first name was Horrible? That made me laugh so hard xD.

And a cliffy again, 'cause I can.

Chapter 21. Under the sea

'So…' Fiyero stared at the water suspiciously. 'Now we go under?'

'Unless you were planning on walking on it,' Morrible said sarcastically, at which Elphaba chuckled faintly, despite everything.

Fiyero, however, wasn't reassured. 'And you're absolutely sure that the spell works?'

Morribles eyes were cold as she turned them on him. 'I am not an amateur, Master Fiyero,' she told him coolly. 'I have been practicing sorcery all my life, and I know which spells work and which don't.'

Fiyero didn't look convinced. 'Alright, then.' He already wanted to take a deep breath, then figured that wouldn't be necessary, and dove under, Elphaba and Morrible following close behind.

Morrible watched for a while in amusement as Fiyero tried to hold his breath out of pure instinct. 'Dearie, the whole purpose of this spell is that you don't need to hold your breath,' she sniggered.

Fiyero scowled at her. 'Maybe, but I still think it's creepy that I…' His eyes widened when he realised what he was doing. 'Oh my Oz. I'm breathing. And talking. Under water!'

Elphaba smiled at him and Morrible rolled her eyes. 'When you've recovered from your shock,' she said sarcastically, 'shall we get moving?'

Fiyero looked up, realising that the water surface was now almost ten meters above his head. 'Cool,' he muttered. Then he looked at Morrible. 'Now what? We just… swim?'

Morrible looked at Elphaba, her gaze unreadable. 'Actually… there might be something I should inform you about first.'

She swam closer to Elphaba. 'You've probably realised by now that you're not human,' the woman said matter-of-factly. 'Or, well, half human, technically, but still not entirely human.'

Fiyero half expected Elphaba to throw him an 'I-told-you-so'-look, but apparently, she was too nervous for that. 'So if I'm not human, what am I?' she asked.

Morrible grinned at her. 'You, dearie, are a mermaid.'

They both stared at her.

'A mermaid,' Elphaba repeated flatly, and Fiyero shook his head. 'That's not possible, is it?' He pointed at her legs. 'I mean… don't mermaids usually have tails?'

Morrible nodded. 'Usually, yes. But someone cast a spell over our dear Miss Elphaba here when she was six years old.' She turned her penetrating gaze on Elphaba. 'Before they left you on the beach near Adurin Iir.'

Elphaba was struck speechless.

Morrible cackled. 'Don't believe me? Watch.' She made a few hand gestures, then muttered a spell under her breath. Immediately, the water seemed to collect around Elphaba, hiding her from view for a moment; and when Fiyero could see her again…

'Oh. My. Oz,' he said slowly, staring at his girlfriend wide-eyed.

Elphaba herself seemed even more shocked than he was. She looked pale and almost ready to faint when she looked down at what once were her legs, but what now was a silvery blue, scaled… fishtail.

'Oh my Oz!' Fiyero repeated, looking excited. 'That is amazing! Can I touch it?'

'What am I, some kind of tourist attraction?' Elphaba snapped at him, her voice slightly higher than usual. He quickly moved back a little, suddenly realising how she must be feeling. To him, this was something wondrous, something he had never seen before – something awesome; but to her, it must be life-changing and probably pretty scary. She was a mermaid. A mythical creature – or so they had thought. His girlfriend was an Oz-forsaken mermaid.

Now he understood why they called this the Mythical Sea.

He only realised just how shocked and shaken Elphaba was when she reached up to pull a strand of hair over her shoulder and started chewing it – something she only did when she was really nervous or scared. He saw that her hand was trembling, and he quickly swam over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. 'Hey,' he said gently, removing the hair from between her teeth. 'Don't be scared.'

She let out a hollow laugh. 'That's easy for you to say. You're not the one that's half fish.'

'Must I feel offended?' Morrible asked pointedly. 'Because you're not the only one, dearie. I am half fish, too.'

'What are you?' Elphaba whispered, and Morrible bowed – quite the accomplishment, given that they were still under the water. 'I am a Witch of the Sea,' she declared proudly. 'Part fish, part sorceress, and I know every spell there is to know out there.'

Elphaba nodded faintly. 'Of course you are. A Witch of the Sea. Just wonderful.'

Fiyero could tell that she was starting to panic, and he rubbed her arms soothingly. 'Fae? You'll be okay, a chroí. Just breathe.'

'I would,' she said drily, 'but then I think of the fact that you're telling me to breathe under the water, and the fact that that is actually possible, and that kind of makes me freak out again.'

He chuckled softly. 'I know it's a lot to take in, Fae, but you'll be fine. You just need to get used to the idea.' He looked at her. 'And at least this proves you're not from the moon,' he offered.

She looked at him. Then a small grin spread across her face. 'You are such an idiot.'

'I know, right?' he agreed cheerfully, and she leaned against him a little as she tried to get used to the feeling of having a fishtail.

Morrible rolled her eyes. 'Just flap it, dearie,' she advised. 'That's all there is to it, really.'

Slowly, Elphaba let go of Fiyero, trying to get herself to swim. It was a bit clumsy at first, but soon she got the hang of it and she started swimming circles around Fiyero and Morrible. 'I think I've got it,' she said in wonder.

'Good,' Morrible said impatiently. 'Shall we go, then?' She muttered another spell and ended up with a fishtail herself.

Elphaba looked confused. 'Are Sea Witches mermaids, too?' she asked, and Morrible rolled her eyes. 'Dearie, I can take many, many forms,' she assured the green girl. 'All kinds of sea creatures – mermaids, fish… and my human form, of course.' She beckoned the other two. 'We're going to be a lot faster using our tails than Master Fiyero will be using his legs, so we'll just have to drag him along.'

'Can't you change me into a mermaid as well?' Fiyero asked, slightly disappointed, and Morrible shook her head. 'First of all, it's merman,' she corrected him. 'Unless you're not really a man.'

Elphaba suppressed a snigger.

'And second of all, no,' Morrible continued. 'I can only transform myself into a mermaid, and Miss Elphaba here has always been a mermaid – or part mermaid, anyway – so that was just a matter of reversing the spell this… person… cast on her.'

They started on their way, Fiyero in between them. Morrible seemed keen on getting there as soon as possible, but Elphaba just had a million questions.

'This person,' she began. 'Who was that?'

'The one that turned you into a human?' Morrible rolled her eyes. 'Your Aunt,' she replied. 'Has some magical abilities as well – many merpeople do – and she was jealous of Melena, because Melena was the oldest and thus inherited the throne.'

Elphaba immediately stopped swimming. 'You've said that before,' she said slowly. 'That Melena was a Queen. What… what does that make me?'

'A whale,' Morrible said sarcastically. 'Honestly, dearie, what do you think that makes you?'

'Oh my Oz,' Fiyero said again. 'You're a princess!'

Elphaba was just stunned. 'I am?'

'The Crown Princess, to be exact.' Morrible gestured for them to start swimming again, but talked at the same time. 'Melena was the Queen of the merpeople, but she was murdered not too long before you were left on that beach. Your Aunt, Aurya, did it, because she was jealous. Needless to say the people didn't accept her as their Queen after that, and so they crowned me instead. What can I say? They have good taste.'

Elphaba tried to wrap her mind around all of this. 'What about me?'

'After murdering your mother, your Aunt turned you into a human and left you on that beach. I guess she at least had enough of a conscience to not murder a six-year-old, but she couldn't let you stay, because she wanted the throne for herself. Only like I said, she never got it. She was banished from these waters after we found out what she did.'

The green girl had fallen silent, completely overwhelmed by all this new information. 'And my father?' she asked finally. 'Governor Thropp. How does he fit into all of this?'

'He doesn't,' Morrible snorted. 'He barely knows anything. But I'll tell you about him later.' She gestured towards a network of underwater caves, right in front of them. 'We're here.'

'Already?' Elphaba asked, amazed, and Morrible snorted again. 'Dearie, you have first spent over an hour mulling everything over in your head, and you spent the past two hours or more bombarding me with questions. I wouldn't say we're here 'already'.'

Elphaba blinked. She hadn't realised it had been that long, but then again, Morrible was right – she had been caught up in her thoughts and in Morrible's story.

The Sea Witch entered the caves, swimming through the opening of the biggest one. Elphaba and Fiyero exchanged a look before they both followed her, the green girl clutching Fiyero's hand as if it was a lifeline.

He squeezed hers softly. 'Are you scared?' he whispered, and she shook her head stubbornly. 'I don't do 'scared',' she declared.

He chuckled. 'Fae, it's okay to be scared, really.'

'I'm not scared,' she insisted. 'I'm just…' She paused. 'Fearful?' she tried. 'Worried? Anxious? Slightly frightened?'

He rolled his eyes fondly. 'That's the same thing, Fae.'

She stuck out her tongue. 'Fine. Whatever you want,' she grumbled. 'I'm scared. Happy now? It's just… we're in this strange place under the water, I have no idea what's going on, where we're going or what's happening. I don't even know for sure if we can trust Morrible, if she's telling the truth… It just all seems like a really weird dream.'

'You can't know any of those things for sure.' He squeezed her hand again in a reassuring gesture. 'If you want to go back, we can.'

She hesitated, then shook her head. 'We've come so far already…' she said quietly. 'It would be stupid to give up now. And… I'd like to meet them. My family.' She paused and a combination of horror, fear, and amazement crossed her face for a moment. 'And my… people.'

He grinned at her. 'That's a pretty amazing thing, too, you know. You're a princess! Princess Fae of the Merpeople!'

She rolled her eyes and swatted at his arm. 'Stop it, you idiot!' But she was smiling. 'I'm not sure if I should be terrified or excited about that fact,' she admitted to him, and he made a face. 'Trust me, I know the feeling.'

She softly rubbed circles on the back of his hand with her thumb. 'I know you do,' she said quietly. 'And you let it get to you at first, but you got over it, didn't you? You got yourself together.' She moved closer to him and wrapped her arm around his waist, letting her head drop against his shoulder. 'I don't know if I told you this,' she began a bit hesitantly. 'But… but I'm really proud of you for that.' She blushed. 'Getting out of that dancing-through-life stuff, I mean. Getting yourself together and accepting your responsibilities as the Crown Prince of the Vinkus.'

He smiled at her, feeling as if he might burst with joy. He kissed the top of her head. 'I love you,' he sighed happily.

He felt, rather than saw, her smile, and she squeezed her arms around his waist briefly. 'I love you, too.' Her tail flapped against his legs and she pulled away, a guilty expression on her face. 'Sorry. I'm still not used to the fish-part of me.'

He chuckled and drew her closer again. 'That's okay. You will get used to it… eventually.'

She looked up at him, her large, dark eyes uncertain. 'And you are not freaked out by that at all?' she demanded a bit anxiously. 'The fact that mermaids are not only real, but that your girlfriend is one?'

'Don't forget who you're talking to, Fae,' Fiyero reminded her with a smile. 'This is the guy that spent half his childhood looking for mermaids and sirens in the sea, and the other half of it reading about them. The boy that always wished desperately for a mermaid, or a siren, to wash up on the…' His eyes widened and he stared at her for a moment when he realised the irony of that. '…beach,' he finished.

She looked at him, amused. 'Looks like your dreams came true,' she teased him. 'And you didn't even know it. Perhaps that's what I am – a wish upon a star.'

His grin could compete with the sun as he leaned down to kiss her. 'I like that thought,' he murmured.

'When you're done making eyes at one another, would you just follow me?' Morrible asked irritably, and they quickly let go of one another, Elphaba running her fingers through her hair, Fiyero giving the old woman a sheepish grin. Morrible just rolled her eyes and swam deeper into the cave network, stopping in front of one and gesturing for Elphaba and Fiyero to enter first.

Elphaba hesitated, looking up at Morrible. 'Where are you taking us?' she asked a bit warily, and Morrible gave her a reassuring smile. 'Trust me, dearie,' Morrible told her, her eyes gleaming. 'I'm taking you to your family.'

Elphaba couldn't help the excitement that bubbled up inside her once more and she held her breath. 'Really?'

'I promise,' Morrible assured her, and Elphaba gave her a small smile, then swam inside the cave, with Fiyero right behind her.

Morrible raised her arms and muttered something under her breath, and suddenly, a barred fence came down, blocking the entrance of the cave, locking Elphaba and Fiyero up inside.

They both flew towards the bars, shocked. Morrible looked back at them with an amused expression on her face. 'Finally, I've got you.'

It took a while for Fiyero's brain to catch up with what was happening, but Elphaba was quicker, starting to yank at the bars, then swimming back and throwing her entire weight against it, but to no avail. 'Let us out, you evil fish-witch!' she screeched. Inwardly, she was cursing herself. Her instincts had practically been screaming at her from the moment she had first met Morrible, but she had let her curiosity get the better of her, and for that, she would never forgive herself; because now, she hadn't only endangered herself, but Fiyero as well.

'Was anything you told me even true?' Elphaba demanded hotly. 'Or did you just make all that up to keep me from growing suspicious?'

'Most of it was true,' Morrible stated calmly, looking at her prisoners with an evil glint in her pale blue eyes. 'But that doesn't really matter anymore now, does it? The problem, Miss Elphaba,' she continued, swimming back and forth in front of the bars, 'is that you are the rightful Crown Princess. And if you come back, you will be Queen, and I will be discarded as such. I can't have that.' She bored her eyes into Elphaba's. 'And so I can't let you live.'

'Then at least let Fiyero go!' she pleaded, but Morrible shook her head. 'Never,' she declared smugly. 'I'm having way too much fun with this.'

She cocked her head a little bit to the side. 'I think I'll come back in the morning,' she mused. 'You know, when the spell wears off. It will still take a little while longer – only six hours or so have passed since I cast it – but when the twenty-four hours are up, I want to be there. I think it will be quite the show to watch Master Fiyero drown.' She threw her head back and cackled.

'And when he is dead and gone,' she turned again to lock eyes with Elphaba once more, 'then I'll deal with you, dearie.' She looked amused. 'And do you know what the best part is? That I'm going to keep my promise.'

Upon seeing the confused look on Elphaba's face, Morrible grinned at her. 'I promised you I'd take you to your family,' she reminded her. 'And in a way, I will. You will be reunited with your mother in Heaven, if you're lucky, dearie.'

She cackled again, then left, leaving Elphaba and Fiyero locked up in the cave.