A/N: I'm baaaaaaaaaack! Did you all miss me? -complete and utter silence- Heh heh, well, um, okay, then.

Well, there's no excuse I can possibly give for taking over two months to update this story, especially when it's getting so close to the end. I can only hope that you, my fabulous readers (that is, if I have any left after such a long period of inactivity!), can find it in your hearts to forgive me, and that you still want to find out how the story ends.

Okay, so it seems I lied to you all again when I told you that this would be the final chapter. It was getting far too long, so I finally decided to split the last chapter up into two. I figured you all wouldn't mind if I stretched things out just a little longer. Hopefully I figured right.

Anyone who finds the Wizard of Oz quote I snuck into this chapter gets a virtual cupcake.

All right, that's enough out of me! Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: Do I look like Greg, Steve, or Winnie to you? (The correct answer is NO.)

Later that afternoon, Boq arrived with Glinda in tow to show Elphaba that the spell she'd cast on him had been a success, and to check on Fiyero. Since the spell she had created to change Fiyero back had worked exactly as she'd hoped it would, Elphaba was not terribly surprised to learn that her other spell had also served its purpose, but she was glad to see that Boq was back to his old self as well. The last thing she needed would have been to have Fiyero's spell work and Boq's fail – Oz only knew what the Munchkin would have thought of her then.

But as it was, Boq seemed happier than she could ever remember seeing him, even back at Shiz. To her pleasant surprise, he even made a point of thanking her quite sincerely for what she had done. When you got right down to it, she had to concede, he wasn't a bad person at heart. They would probably never be the best of friends, but she decided it was at least safe to assume that they wouldn't be enemies any longer.

For several days, any thoughts of the future were pushed aside by the elation they all felt at having Fiyero and Boq returned to their proper states. However, Elphaba's mind soon began to rebel against what it must have determined was too much joy. Try as she might, she could not rid herself of the belief that she simply was not meant to be happy like this for anything but short snatches of time. Something was bound to come along to ruin things sooner or later. And it didn't take her long to figure out what was going to spoil her happiness this time.

It occurred to her that the four of them had never discussed what they were all going to do once things reached this point. Their grand plot to remove Morrible and the Wizard from office had not gone any farther than undoing the spells she had cast on Boq and Fiyero. Glinda was now the ruler of Oz, of course. And now that Boq was human again, he could resume his life as an ordinary person. But only now did Elphaba realize that she had forgotten to consider what was to become of herself and Fiyero.

As the ruler of Oz, Glinda could see to it that the guards' instructions to kill Fiyero were rescinded, so he would be in no danger if he were to reappear in Oz. But the same could not be said for Elphaba. Not even Glinda the Good would be able to protect the Wicked Witch of the West from the citizens of Oz if it were discovered that she was still alive. No, Elphaba did not expect to be able to safely show her face in Oz ever again.

She had no desire to force any of the others to join her in such a life, and no expectations that any of them would choose to do so. However, when she ventured to suggest to Fiyero that he might be better off returning to his old life and forgetting about her, he gave her such a wounded and reproachful look that she knew better than to bring up the topic again. It seemed he was bound and determined to stay by her side come what may. And although she couldn't even begin to comprehend the rationale behind his decision, neither could she even begin to describe the relief it gave her. If there had ever been a piece of her heart that hadn't belonged to him, he won it forever with his refusal to leave her.

The two of them tossed around several ideas for ways in which they could somehow stay hidden and yet remain nearby, but ended up discarding all of them. When it came right down to it, it was simply too dangerous for them to stay. As things stood at the moment, the only way they could be sure of their own safety would be to leave Oz altogether. This was a possibility that neither of them wanted to consider, but they both knew they had no other choice.

Glinda, however, did not agree. When Elphaba told her friend what she and Fiyero intended to do, the blonde expressed her opinion of their plan in a single simple word.

"No."

Elphaba raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"I said no," Glinda repeated calmly. "Absolutely not. You're not leaving."

"Come on, Glin, be reasonable," requested Elphaba. "You're only making this harder for both of us. I don't want to leave any more than you want me to. But I can't stay. Surely you understand that. You know what would happen if anyone found out I'm still alive."

The blonde shook her head. "I don't see why you can't stay here with me. It's worked so far. You're perfectly safe. No one except Rhia knows you're here, and she'll never tell anyone. And I'm right here, and Fiyero's here with you, too. You've got everything you need."

"Except freedom." When Glinda gave her a questioning look, Elphaba elaborated, "I can't spend the rest of my life in just a handful of rooms, no matter how comfortable they are. I might as well be locked up in the dungeon. I need to be free to go where I please and do what I please. I need to be able to live, Glinda. And I can't do that here."

At first, Glinda had believed, or at least hoped, that her emerald-skinned friend's notion of going away was merely a passing whim that she could be talked out of. Now, however, she saw that the green girl was in complete earnest about her plan. Her calm disappeared in an instant, and she began to panic. "But… but… you can't leave, Elphie! You can't!"

"Why not?"

"Because I need you here! I don't know what I was thinking, letting you talk me into becoming the ruler of Oz without you here to help me – I can't run a country by myself!"

Elphaba let a long sigh escape. "Glinda, we talked about this back at Kiamo Ko, remember? You knew I wasn't going to be able to stay with you forever. And you don't need me to. There are plenty of people out there who'll be able to give you advice in whatever areas you need. And the people of Oz have already accepted you as their leader, just like I told you they would."

"I remember," the blonde allowed. "And do you remember telling me that anyone I asked would be more than willing to help me?"

"Yes, I remember."

"Well, I'm asking you."

"Glinda, that's not fair! You know I'd stay and help you if there was any way at all that I could do it without endangering either of us. But I'm afraid it's impossible."

"Impossible?" Glinda echoed, sounding as though she could hardly believe that the word had come out of her friend's mouth. "Whatever happened to 'unlimited,' and 'dreams the way we planned them,' and 'there's no fight we cannot win?' Elphie, don't you want those things anymore?"

"Of course I want those things!" Elphaba shot back, frustrated that the blonde was apparently so determined to make what had been a difficult decision even harder. "But we can't always have what we want."

"Well, you know me. I don't handle it well when I don't get my way," the shorter girl warned.

Elphaba could hardly contradict her on that point, and smirked slightly in agreement. "Perhaps you ought to go lie down."

Glinda giggled a bit at the reminder of their first day at Shiz. But then something suddenly seemed to occur to her. A new gleam in her eye, she asked, "Elphie… what if I could make it safe for you to come out of hiding? You'd stay, wouldn't you?"

"Of course I would," the green girl confirmed without hesitation. "But I don't see how you could possibly do such a thing."

"Well, you're not the only one who can have brilliant ideas, you know," quipped Glinda.

"All right, then, what's this 'brilliant idea' of yours?"

"I'm going to tell all of Oz the truth. I'm going to clear your name."

"What?! Glinda, no! We've had this discussion before. I can't let you do that. You'll be putting yourself in great danger if people refuse to believe you, which they very well might do. I'm not going to let you take the risk."

But the blonde stood firm. "I'm going to do it, Elphie, and there's nothing you can do to change my mind. I can be every bit as stubborn as you when I want to be, and I'm not giving up until I convince you to at least let me try."

"But it will never work!" protested Elphaba.

"Why not?" demanded Glinda. "I'm the ruler of all Oz. And as you pointed out a minute ago, everyone adores me. There's no reason why they shouldn't believe me."

"It's not that easy, Glin," Elphaba persisted with a shake of her head. "Everyone has been conditioned for years to think of me as the Wicked Witch of the West. You're not going to make Oz safe for me again in a single day."

"Well, of course not. I never expected to. I'll do it in stages," the shorter girl explained. Beginning to pace back and forth as she thought aloud, she mused, "First, I'll hold a press conference and tell everyone the truth about the day we met the Wizard, and about how you really became the Wicked Witch of the West, and about everything that happened up until Dorothy got to Kiamo Ko. They already know that Morrible and the Wizard were evil, so I don't think it will be too hard for anyone to accept that the two of them were spreading false stories about you. I'll start off with that much of the truth and then give it a little time to see how they take it. If they seem like they're willing to believe that much, then we'll know it's safe to tell them that you didn't really melt. And if not…" She stopped her pacing and turned to look at her emerald-skinned friend once more. "…Well, if not, then at least everyone will still think you're dead, and you and Fiyero can slip out of Oz quietly like you were planning to."

Elphaba was still dubious. "And what are you going to do if the first part of your plan doesn't work, and the people turn against you once they learn that you were best friends with the Wicked Witch of the West?"

For the first time, the blonde looked unsure of herself. After a moment's thought, she answered, "Ask you if you and Fiyero would mind having an extra traveling companion, I suppose."

"Glinda, you can't just disappear in the night and leave Oz without someone to govern it!" the green girl pointed out, casting her eyes towards the ceiling in exasperation.

"Well, then, I guess we'd better hope it doesn't come to that, hadn't we?" replied Glinda serenely.

"You say that as though I might actually agree to this crazy scheme of yours."

"It's no crazier than the scheme you cooked up to get rid of Morrible and the Wizard. And just look how that turned out – it worked perfectly!"

"That was different," insisted Elphaba. "We weren't relying on anyone other than ourselves and our closest friends, and we were all completely dedicated to making sure the plan went off without a hitch. What you're proposing, on the other hand… there's no possible way to be even mostly certain it would work. It relies much too heavily on assumptions that you're making about the people of Oz, assumptions that may or may not turn out to be true."

Glinda gave the taller girl a confused look. "Assumptions? What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're taking it for granted that everyone will accept whatever you say as the truth, simply because it's you who's saying it," Elphaba elaborated. "No offense, Glin, but I'm just worried that you may be giving yourself too much credit. Yes, the people all adore you. But the people are fickle – just look how easy it was for you to convince them that the Wizard and Morrible weren't the benevolent leaders they claimed to be. Remember, they all still believe I'm wicked. And no matter how much they claim to love you now, if you associate yourself with me, that could change in a heartbeat."

"Well, I may be giving myself too much credit," conceded the blonde, looking more than a little offended, "but I really think you're giving me too little. I wouldn't be suggesting that we try this unless I thought it had an excellent chance of working. The people of Oz trust me, Elphaba. I would have hoped that my best friend might be able to do the same."

Elphaba winced. "Glinda, it's not that I don't trust you. That's not it at all. I just… I've been responsible for so many awful things happening to you. I don't want to see you get hurt again."

Glinda softened at this, and took her friend firmly by the shoulders. "Elphaba Thropp, I don't ever want to hear such a dreadful lie come out of your mouth ever again!" she scolded gently. "Nothing that's happened to me has been your fault. Not one single thing. Quite the opposite, in fact." When the green girl arched a skeptical eyebrow, the good witch laughed and wrapped her arms around her, capturing her friend in a quick version of one of her trademark hugs. Then she stepped back slightly to take the emerald hands in her own. "Elphie," she pleaded, "you've done so much for me… for all of us. Please let me do this for you."

The shorter girl's face was so earnest, so committed to making her plan a success, that Elphaba found it impossible to tell her an outright 'no.' But neither was she prepared to approve the idea just yet. So, instead of giving a definite answer, she settled for a compromise.

"I'll discuss it with Fiyero," she told her friend. "If he thinks it's worth trying, then I'll at least consider it. But that's as much as I'm going to promise at the moment."

"Fair enough," acquiesced Glinda, seeming pleased that the green girl had at least agreed not to discard the idea completely. "I'll be waiting to hear what you decide."

True to her word, Elphaba took the opportunity later that night to inform Fiyero of the blonde's proposed alternative to their leaving Oz. When she finished, neither of them spoke for several moments, both contemplating the possible pros and cons of Glinda's plan.

Finally, Fiyero broke the silence. "So… are you going to let her try?"

"I don't know," she confessed, shaking her head. "I told her I had to talk about it with you first – I wanted to see what you thought before I told her yes or no."

"I think it's a good idea, at least in theory," he opined. "If it worked, it'd mean that we could stay here, and you wouldn't have to leave your best friend."

"I know," she agreed, "and believe me, I want us to be able to stay just as badly as Glinda wants us to. The trouble is, ideas that are good in theory often turn out to be very bad ideas when put into practice."

"You don't think it will really work," he realized.

"No, I don't."

"Why not?"

"Because all the best intentions in the world aren't enough to dislodge a belief that's been held for years by an entire country."

"I think you ought to give Glinda a chance to try," Fiyero maintained. "You never know – she might surprise you."

"Yes, and she might just as easily get herself lynched by the same bloodthirsty mob that was screaming for my death not too long ago," she pointed out.

He shook his head. "Elphaba, you never think twice about putting yourself at risk to help the people you care about. Why shouldn't Glinda be the same way?"

"I have no problem with her wanting to help me, or with the general idea of letting her," she conceded. "But… but she doesn't seem to understand just what she could be walking into in this case if something goes wrong! I'm not going to let her get hurt again because of me. I refuse." She planted her hands firmly on her hips and fixed him with a determined look, daring him to challenge her decision.

But Fiyero was unfazed, and met her look with one of his own. "Now, be honest – what would your response be if Glinda or I said something like that to you?"

Elphaba considered this for a moment before admitting grudgingly, "I suppose I'd tell you that you were being absolutely ridiculous, and that I'm a grown woman and perfectly capable of taking care of myself, and that if I think it necessary to take a risk once in a while to protect someone I love, it's my own business."

"Well, there you go," he nodded, satisfied that he had made his point. "That's exactly what Glinda is trying to say to you. Look, I agree with you that what she wants to do could be very dangerous. And I don't want her to get herself into trouble any more than you do. But I also think she has every right to decide for herself if she wants to put herself in harm's way."

"But Fiyero, she doesn't have a sufficient grasp of the danger involved!" she persisted. "I've tried to make her see reason, but she simply won't listen to me. The girl has no common sense to speak of!"

"Well, be that as it may," he remarked, tactfully avoiding the issue of the quantity (or lack thereof) of common sense possessed by their blonde friend, "she doesn't want someone else – even you – making her choices for her, any more than you would want someone else making your choices for you. I know you may not like that, but surely you can at least respect it."

She fumbled about for a moment in an attempt to come up with an adequate rebuttal to that point. But, to her immense frustration, she found it impossible to argue with the truth of what he had said. Defeated, she flung herself down to sit on the edge of the bed and shot him a half-hearted glare. "You know, I really hate it when you're right," she complained, crossing her arms petulantly.

"I know, I know," Fiyero laughed as he came over to sit beside her. Then, putting an arm around her, he reiterated, "I really do think you should let her try. Just think of what it'll mean for us if her plan works! And even if it doesn't, we certainly won't be any worse off than we are now. Either way, it won't cause us any harm to let her do it."

"And I also hate it when you and Glinda gang up on me like that," she informed him with a frown.

"Well, you can't be right all the time," he shrugged in his own defense, "and combining forces is about the only way anyone could hope to win an argument with you."

"I don't see how that's fair to me. I'm outnumbered."

"Not really. You're worth at least three of any of us ordinary people."

"That's not going to work, I'm afraid. I'm not susceptible to flattery, my sweet."

"Except when it's coming from me," he corrected her declaration with a grin.

Elphaba couldn't help but laugh at that. "All right, maybe then I am. But only then."

He nodded, pleased. "So you'll let Glinda see what she can do to clear your name?"

"I suppose so," she acquiesced. "Although it doesn't really seem like I have much of a choice in the matter, since you two are apparently both so dead set on it."

"Elphaba, you always have a choice," he told her, quickly becoming serious. "We would never make you do something you really didn't want to do."

Sighing heavily, she conceded, "I know that. And I really do want to stay here with Glinda if she can make it possible."

"Well, the sooner we tell her to go ahead, the sooner we'll know if she can."

So it was settled. Elphaba gave Glinda permission to proceed, and the blonde began to make arrangements for the public appearance that would kick off the first phase of her plan to clear her friend's name. It took her an entire ten days of serious deliberation and no fewer than six preliminary drafts of her speech to decide, with a great deal of input from Elphaba, exactly what she wanted to say. Glinda had gained more political savvy during her years spent in close proximity to the Wizard than any of them, including herself, would ever have suspected. She knew that she had to choose her words with great care. These things must be done delicately if one wanted to keep one's political credibility intact, after all; she could not afford to come on too strong too soon.

Finally she managed to write up a version of her speech with which both she and her emerald-skinned friend were satisfied. She practiced it over and over for Elphaba, Fiyero, and Boq, accepting and implementing their suggestions and corrections each time, until she knew every word by heart and was confident that she could have done it in her sleep. She was as ready as she would ever be. Now all that remained was to wait patiently until the date set for the announcement arrived.

On the day selected for Glinda's appearance, the enormous public square near the palace was packed full of Ozians waiting with bated breath to hear their new ruler's reason for calling such a meeting. Workers had just the day before finished constructing the platform from which she would speak. In the throng, reporters from every major Ozian newspaper stood ready and waiting to take down her every word and gesture. Her speech would be printed in all the papers in its entirety the next day, along with the crowd's initial reaction, in which manner it would soon reach the rest of the citizens of Oz who could not be present to hear it in person. The stage was set, and now it was time to begin the performance and let it unfold to its conclusion. The good witch just wished that she knew for certain what that conclusion was going to be.

At precisely the time appointed for the day's events to begin, Glinda made her appearance, to applause and murmured comments of admiration from the onlookers. She acknowledged their support and approval with a gracious smile and waited for them to quiet down and give her their full attention. When they were all watching her expectantly, she stepped up to the microphone that had been provided for her, drew a deep breath, and began to address the assembled crowd.

"Fellow Ozians: as you know, it has now been some weeks since Dorothy Gale arrived here from Kansas and rid our land of the Wicked Witch of the West. Rest assured, I share your joy that Oz has been cleansed of the stain of evil."

Scattered cheers and applause broke out at her words, and she held up both hands for silence so she could continue. "However, it has come to my attention that the things we have all come to believe about this Wicked Witch may not be entirely true."

Her audience gave a collective gasp, and currents of shock rippled through the square. All eyes remained glued to Glinda, waiting for her to explain herself.

"You see, the things that we have all been told about her were told to us by the Wizard and his press secretary, Madam Morrible. And as you all know, both of them later proved to be corrupt and dishonest leaders who could not be trusted. So, in the spirit of honesty and justice, I took it upon myself to personally investigate the rumors and stories about her that have sprung up over the years. And, my dear fellow Ozians, I know you will be every bit as surprised and outraged as I was at what I found. I learned that the Wizard and Madam Morrible knew full well that all the things they told you about her were lies. And furthermore, I was able to discover her real story, which they kept hidden from you because it exposes their true cruelty and wickedness. Would you like to hear it?"

For a few moments, it seemed that the crowd was still too stunned by the bold assertions she had made to respond to her question. But then, here and there, a few people began to nod slowly. Then a murmur of assent came from someone towards the rear of the throng, and the affirmative answer was quickly taken up by the rest of the audience. They could scarcely comprehend what Glinda was saying, and had it been anyone else making such an outrageous claim, they would never have listened to another word. But the good witch seemed so confident standing before them – she obviously believed what she had told them without a shadow of a doubt. From what she had said, it sounded as though she had been deceived right along with them, and now that she knew the truth, she wanted to make sure that they heard it as well. Surely such a noble purpose made what she had to say worth listening to. And besides, this was their beloved Glinda the Good. She would never lie to them, not about something this important. And so they turned their attention back to the platform, cautiously curious to hear more.

Encouraged by the way things were going so far, the blonde nodded to herself in approval of the crowd's reaction. The difficult part, getting the people of Oz on her side, had been accomplished. Now she just had to ensure their sympathy by telling them Elphaba's story in such a way that they couldn't help but realize that she was the victim, not the criminal.

"Why does wickedness happen?" she began in a thoughtful tone. "This is a good question, one that many people find confusifying. Are people born wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them? After all, she had a childhood. She had a father, who just happened to be the Governor of Munchkinland. And she had a mother, as so many do." She paused for a moment or two to let them contemplate the idea of the Wicked Witch of the West as a little girl. Judging from the looks on their faces, they had never bothered to consider that even a wicked witch had to come from somewhere. Then, lowering her tone to sound more confidential, she continued, "And, like every family, they had their secrets…"

Glinda then proceeded to tell her listeners, who were now hanging on her every word, about Melena's affair with a traveling salesman who peddled a strange, intoxicating green elixir, and about the birth of a green-skinned baby nine months later. She told them how Frex had rejected his abnormally-colored daughter from the very beginning, and how he had made his wife chew milkflowers when she became pregnant a second time to ensure that the baby would be the proper color, and how the milkflowers had led to the new baby's premature birth and twisted legs, Melena's death, and the older daughter's being blamed for all of it.

"But… but that's not fair!" a little girl near the front of the crowd piped up, an indignant frown on her small face. "It wasn't her fault that her mama died! It was the milkflowers!"

"You're absolutely right, it was the milkflowers' fault. And it's not fair at all," Glinda agreed. "But unfortunately, it happened anyway."

"And just how do you know all this?" a woman nearby asked, more than a hint of skepticism in her tone. "Where did you find out so much about her childhood?"

Before Glinda could reply to that, a man spoke up. "I heard somewhere that she knew the Witch," he answered the woman's inquiry. Then he turned his attention back to the good witch. "Glinda, is it true you were her friend?"

A woman standing next to him smacked him reprovingly on the shoulder, looking furious and horribly embarrassed that he would dare insinuate such a relationship between their goodly ruler and the Wicked Witch of the West.

But the blonde had been intending to reveal this particular piece of information anyway, so the question did not faze her in the least. She smiled gently at the man and nodded. "Yes, it's true," she confirmed, generating another round of gasps and muffled exclamations of surprise. "Our paths first crossed at school – Shiz University, to be exact…"

Telling this part came as easily and naturally to Glinda as breathing, because this was her story just as much as it was Elphaba's. She had lived it all herself, and she knew the ringing sincerity in her voice and all the precise details she provided would wipe any doubt from the listeners' minds that she was telling the truth. She recounted how she and Elphaba had become friends at the Oz Dust Ballroom, and how Elphaba's magical abilities had earned her a meeting with the Wizard, to which she had invited Glinda to accompany her. Then came the story of their meeting with Oz the Great and Terrible, followed by how Elphaba had fled after refusing to allow the Wizard and Morrible to exploit her talents, and how this had prompted them to label her the Wicked Witch of the West so that no one would believe her if she tried to tell them what Oz's leaders were really up to.

"Wait a minute," a second man called out then. "If all the things they said about her were lies… then was there ever anything evil about her in the first place?"

A woman standing nearby overheard his question and commented, "You know, come to think of it, I don't remember them ever telling us about any specific wicked things that she was supposed to have done. It was always just reminders that she was an enemy of Oz and warnings to beware of her."

"She mutilated those poor, innocent monkeys," pointed out the man who had asked if Glinda had been the Witch's friend. "It was her spell that made them sprout wings."

"Weren't you listening to anything Glinda said? The Wizard and Madam Morrible tricked her into doing that," the woman shot back. "She wasn't trying to hurt the monkeys. She didn't know what the spell was they asked her to cast."

"And you actually believe that?" scoffed the man, giving her a disparaging look.

The woman countered his disdainful superiority with a calm assurance. "Since it was Glinda herself who told us so, yes, I do believe it. And so should you."

"Or are you trying to call Glinda a liar?" piped up the woman standing next to him, the one who had hit him earlier, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at him.

This simple question also provoked the rest of the crowd, who began to turn their attention towards the man in a distinctly threatening manner. Several of the people closest to him began to press in, ready to take action to defend their new ruler.

Startled by the sudden animosity that was being directed at him, the man shrank back a little, looking around nervously. "No, no, I would never! All I meant was… I just think…"

"Well, maybe you shouldn't," suggested his companion sharply, earning herself a few appreciative laughs.

Properly chastened, the man ducked his head, and sensibly kept his mouth shut from that point on.

Glinda couldn't help but smile, thinking that Elphaba would definitely have approved of the woman's quick and witty response. Holding up both hands once again for silence, she addressed the question that had set off the crowd. "After looking into the matter thoroughly, it is my belief that there was never anything even remotely wicked about the so-called Wicked Witch of the West. She was cruelly used by the Wizard and Madam Morrible as a tool to maintain their power over Oz. In reality, she was no wickeder than any of the rest of us."

A young woman in the middle of the crowd raised her hand, in which was clutched a pencil. Her other hand was occupied by a small notepad, marking her as one of the many reporters in the audience. "Glinda," she addressed the blonde in a clear voice, "after what you've just told us, no one could doubt that the Wizard and Madam Morrible did lie to us about the woman they called the Wicked Witch of the West. But can you of all people really believe that she wasn't wicked? After all, she kidnapped your fiancé on the very day of your engagement party, and he hasn't been heard from since – some people have even gone so far as to claim that she killed him! Forgive me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't sound to me like something a good person would do."

"You're absolutely right. Doing such a thing would make her very wicked indeed, wouldn't it?" Glinda agreed. "But it never happened. That is yet another of the lies that were spread about her." She sighed heavily as she met the gaze of the girl who had spoken. "And I am afraid that I myself must take some of the blame for this one. No, I did not make up the story, or spread it, but I allowed it to be spread. I let them tell it because it seemed easier at the time than accepting the truth."

"Then, if I may ask… what really happened?" inquired the female reporter, her pencil poised to take down the response.

Glinda closed her eyes briefly. The words to answer that question were difficult for her to say in the privacy of her own mind, let alone in front of a crowd of people. But everyone was waiting to hear what her reply would be; she had to answer. She drew a deep breath, hoping it would give her the strength to admit to the people of Oz what she had to.

"He chose to leave with her of his own free will. And although many of you may believe otherwise, his decision was the right one. He was in love with her, you see. I think he had been for quite a long time, only… I had refused to see it. But none of us can decide who our hearts will choose. All we can do is follow them once their choice is made. And Fiyero had to follow his. I can't blame him for it. He did nothing wrong by leaving. And she certainly did not kidnap him."

The young journalist's features softened into a slight smile. She jotted down the blonde's remarks with practiced ease, and then gave an appreciative nod. "Thank you, Glinda."

Glinda acknowledged her gratitude with a smile and a nod of her own before turning her attention back to the rest of the audience. "Well, as you can imagine, I have much to attend to, what with the Wizard's unexpected departure, so if there are no further questions, I'm afraid I must be on my way." She paused for a moment to ensure that no one else had anything to ask her. Then, in the most serious, convincing tone she could muster, she concluded, "Fellow Ozians, I give you my solemn word that everything I have told you today is the absolute truth. What you will do with that truth now, each of you must decide for yourself. But I hope that you will all trust me enough to accept it."

Seldom had Oz seen a declaration as controversial as the one its new leader had made today. After Glinda had finished speaking, the reporters in the crowd remained only long enough to put the last touches on their notes. Five minutes after the blonde had bubbled off into the clear blue sky, they were all rushing back to their respective newspapers' headquarters as fast as their feet could carry them. A quarter of an hour after that, every one of them was seated at his or her desk, banging out the first rough drafts of the articles that would dominate the front pages of the next day's editions.

Twenty-four hours after Glinda's speech, the entire Emerald City was abuzz with the astounding truths she had revealed. No one within walking distance of the public square could speak of anything else. And it didn't take more than a few days after that for the uproar to reach the farthest corners of the country. Every paper in the Emerald City had dispatched one or two of their reporters to deliver special editions containing Glinda's speech and what the people who heard it had thought of it, and the enterprising journalists took the opportunity to observe how the people of Oz reacted to the news.

In another week, the reporters began to return, bearing the results of their news-gathering. Glinda's speech, it seemed, had been met with considerable surprise, but almost unanimous acceptance. By the time that two full weeks had passed since her announcement, it was clear that the first part of her plan to clear Elphaba's name had been a resounding success. Just as the blonde had predicted, the people of Oz had taken her words to heart and believed them simply because they had come from her mouth. Being the goodly person that she was, Glinda managed to restrain herself from gloating or even saying, 'I told you so.' However, she was unable to completely conceal her grin of triumph, and the wry look Elphaba cast her proved that she knew exactly what her friend was thinking, even if the blonde was too polite to say it aloud.

So, phase one of Glinda's master plan went off without a hitch. But they still have phase two to go. Will it be as successful as phase one? Stay tuned for the final chapter of Lost and Found (for real this time!) to find out!

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