AN: I tried to resist posting so soon but I just couldn't lol. This is a relatively short one. The song quote is for Glinda. For Good has been heavily plagiarised.

If this is the moment I stand here on my own
If this is my rite of passage that somehow leads me home
I might be afraid, but it's my turn to be brave
If this is the last chance before we say goodbye
At least it's the first day of the rest of my life
I can't be afraid, 'cause it's my turn to be brave.

Brave – Idina Menzel

Chapter 26 – Whatever Way Our Stories End

Glinda knew she'd woken up in another of those odd dreams, because she remembered having the dreams and she knew the Glinda standing in this…room was that deeply buried inner part of herself.

"This must be the castle!" she realised suddenly. "I have to warn Elphaba!"

Picking up the skirt of her elaborate gown, it didn't seem strange to her that she was wearing even though the physical part of her was asleep in the Emerald Palace, she looked frantically around what appeared to be a bedroom – she recognised the bag Elphaba had taken with her from Shiz and the Grimmerie too – but there was no sign of her friend.

"Elphie!" she called urgently, throwing open the door and shouting down the stairs. "Elphie, where are you?"

She entered the main hall, obviously such because it was huge with a ceiling that reached three stories up, and called out again.

"No need to shout, Glinda, nothing wrong with my hearing!" protested the green Witch, sitting at the bottom of the stairs, as Glinda nearly fell over her. She stood up and held out her arms to the younger woman, who promptly hugged her enthusiastically.

"Elphie, you have to get out of here, you're in terrible danger!"

Elphaba didn't reply immediately but took a few moments to relish the feeling of holding her best, her only, friend for the last time – at least until Glinda died as well.

"Hush, my sweet, there's nothing to worry about."

"How can you say that?" shrieked Glinda. "Boq is coming to kill you! He said he was going to help the girl steal your broom but I've heard the way he talks about you!"

"Glinda, listen to me please," said Elphaba quietly. "You don't know…you don't know what's happened, you have to listen."

"No I don't!" contradicted the blonde woman. "Whatever you have to say, it can wait until you wake up and get out of here!"

"Fiyero is dead!"

Elphaba blurted out the news, not sure how much time she had left in this place between life and death before she had to move on, she wanted Glinda to hear it from her first even though it was unlikely she'd remember the dream

"I'm so sorry, Glinda, it's my fault. I should never have let him come with me but I was selfish! Now he's gone and you have to go on alone. Oh Glinda I'm so sorry!"

"Fiyero…" repeated Glinda slowly, collapsing against Elphaba and bursting into heartrending sobs. "No, no, he can't be!"

They stood that way for a few minutes then the rest of Elphaba's words slowly made their way into Glinda's conscious mind.

"Wait, what do you mean 'alone'?" she demanded with a rising edge of hysteria in her voice. "Elphie, you'll be with me won't you? You'll come to the Emerald City and help me defeat Morrible and the Wizard and make everything better won't you?"

"I'm sorry, Glinda, I'm so sorry but it's all up to you now."

"Elphaba! What are you saying?"

"You know this is a dream, yes? Well Boq has already been here and done what he came to do."

"No!"

Glinda's immediate shout of denial echoed through the cavernous room.

"No," she repeated more softly, her voice drowned out by sobs. "Oh Elphie, you can't be…I was going to warn you, I was! But the storm!"

"Hush," said Elphaba soothingly. "I don't blame you. Thank you for trying."

"Oh Elphie!"

"Glinda," she stroked her friend's elaborately curled and styled hair. "You're the only friend I have ever had."

"And I've had so many friends!" sobbed Glinda, causing Elphaba to chuckle softly, she looked up with tear-filled eyes. "But only one that mattered!"

"You're one of the only people who have ever mattered to me too," Elphaba told her friend gently as the blonde clung to her fiercely. "And we will see each other again, believe me, I know. Death is not the end of everything, the soul goes on to another place – I don't know if it's what Unionists call Heaven but it's close enough to make no difference. I hope you won't take it the wrong way when I say that, this being the case, I do not want to see you again for a very long time."

"Elphaba! How can you joke at a time like this?"

"Insufficient development of my sense of humour I expect, sorry Glinda."

Something as simple as one of Elphaba's classic double-edged apologies was enough to set Glinda weeping again and it was several minutes before she could pull herself together and speak coherently.

"There's a saying in Gillikin, I forget exactly how it goes, but what it means is we sometimes seem to meet people by coincidence when actually we've been brought together for a reason because there's something we have to learn from each other so we can grow as people.
I've never really believed it, you met enough of my so-called friends at Shiz to see why, but I really believe that I am who I am now because I knew you. I expect it seems to you like I haven't changed at all, I couldn't blame you for thinking so, you're the (I admit frequently ignored) voice in my head telling me I can be better than I am and I think you always will be."

"Oh Glinda."

This time it was a sobbing Elphaba who pulled her friend close and clung tightly to her for a few minutes before she could make any kind of coherent reply.

"I don't know how much time I have left so I want to tell you that so much of who I am now came from what I learned from you. I know my life would have been so much different, so much worse, if I had never been your friend. I couldn't forget you if I wanted to and I certainly don't intend to try!"

"I will never forget you, Elphie, and I…I'll tell everyone the truth!"

"No!" protested Elphaba immediately. "You mustn't do that, Glinda, promise me you won't try to clear my name!"

"But Elphie…"

"Promise!" demanded Elphaba so fiercely that Glinda backed away a little and looked up at her with hurt in her eyes.

"I promise," she said meekly. "But I don't understand!"

"You're going to be the only person left that the Ozians can trust, if you tell them the truth they'll only turn against you and that will land them in more trouble than they can get out of."

"Well what do I care about them?" declared Glinda in an almost sulky tone.

"Don't say that," scolded Elphaba. "You can make everyone else believe whatever you want them to but I know you too well for that to work!"

"Fine," Glinda grumbled half-heartedly then crying again. "So I do care about the people of Oz, even though they want my best friend in the world dead, what exactly does that say about me?"

"Much more about the people than it does about you, dearest Glinda. This is your chance to make the title 'Glinda the Good' more than just a publicity stunt."

"Do you really believe I could do that?"

"I always have and there's no reason to stop believing it now."

"Oh…"

"Your low self-esteem is showing," teased Elphaba, gently hugging her friend who buried her face in Elphaba's dress and replied softly.

"Shh, no one else has realised yet."

"As I said…"

"I know, I can't fool you about anything," interjected the blonde tolerantly.

They stood there, silently holding each other, for awhile – neither of them could say exactly how long it was because time seemed, in their limited experience, to run differently in these dreams.

"It's nearly dawn," said Elphaba finally, reluctant to break the peace of the moment but knowing they had only a little time left together.

"The dream will finish when the sun comes up won't it?" stated Glinda, it wasn't really the question it sounded like.

"Yes," confirmed Elphaba, taking a small step away and holding Glinda's hands in hers. "Glinda, before I go I have to ask…can you ever forgive me for all that I've put you through? Fiyero and…everything?"

"Elphaba…of course. After all just about anything I could blame you for, including…Fiyero, is at least partly my fault. There are so many 'if only's…so much left unsaid."

"Don't let the 'if only's rule your life, Glinda," cautioned Elphaba, obviously speaking from some past experience.

"I won't," promised Glinda. "I'll try not to."

"Now there's only one thing left to say isn't there?"

"Elphie…I can't be the first one to say it. Couldn't you stay until I wake up?"

"That will be any moment now, we've spent the whole night here, but if it will make this easier for you…"

Elphaba gave her friend one last embrace then, still holding one of Glinda's hands in both of hers, she stepped backwards and looked at Glinda for a moment as if she were committing her friend's image to memory while the blonde woman did the same.

"Goodbye, Glinda," she whispered her farewell as she sensed that their time in the dream was nearly over.

The last words either of them heard spoken in the dream was Glinda's heartbroken reply.

"Goodbye, Elphaba."