Elphaba paced in the empty hall of Kiamo Ko, beginning to feel a splitting headache come on, and all because of that miserable little girl. She's locked up in the dungeon, and Elphaba could still hear her manic sobbing up in the main hall. She rubbed her temples fervently, trying to make the sound go away.
"Oh, for Oz's sake, stop crying!" Elphaba shouted to the hall. Nobody answered her but her echo. The monkeys were all resting, and those sentries were just mindless good-for-nothings in over decorative uniforms. They wouldn't even bat an eyelash to save her if her life really depended on it. Still, the matter at hand was that stupid, stupid girl! "I can't take it anymore!" She approached the trapdoor to her prison room, and began shouting at it mockingly. "Do you want to see your Auntie Em?!" She spat 'Auntie Em' with contempt, the shattered dreams of long ago filling her with contempt. If that girl hadn't shown up, then Nessa and Fiyero would be alive!
And then there might have been an Auntie Nessa…
She couldn't stop herself from trying to make the girl's life more despondent as un-cried tears manifested as words. "And your Uncle…" Crap. Elphaba faltered. That girl had never said her uncle's name. Always 'Auntie Em this' and 'Auntie Em that'. "Uncle what's-his-name again?!" Elphaba improvised. She finally opened the trapdoor and shouted down into the cells. "Then get those shoes off your feet!" Elphaba slammed the trapdoor shut again, the sound resonating in the great empty hall. The crying had stopped. The girl was probably in shock now, but at least she was quiet. It made thinking easier. Dully, she remembered a time when thinking was clear, when she would sit in Father's library and read a book, take a side on a certain subject and argue it to the end sensibly. She pushed that away before she had time to dwell on it. Her past life didn't matter anymore. She hadn't deserved any of the goodnesses that Father and her friends had shown her. In the end, it didn't matter what she did. She was a Wicked Witch, and would always be wicked. Though still, the crying had stopped, and that meant that she could actually get something done. Which mostly consisted of moping nowadays, but Elphaba didn't admit that because she couldn't find a politically correct way to say it.
"Little brat…" She said to herself, listing all the ways that girl had wronged her and her family. She allied with the Wizard…she's helping Boq to come and kill her, no clue what that's about…She arrived, and killed Nessa…Nessa. "Takes a dead woman's shoes! Must have been raised in a barn!" Elphaba threw up her hands, disgusted by the lack of civilization the girl had. She looked up. Chistery was staring at her, trying to decide if he should approach her. Elphaba tried to calm herself down. The one good deed she couldn't stop herself from trying to do was to teach these Monkeys how to speak again. They stuck to her anyway, and wouldn't leave.
"Chistery!" She said. The Monkey tilted his head on hearing his name. "Oh, Chistery, there you are. Where are the others?" Chistery pointed away, his left wing twitching. They had incredible body language, and usually understood what she was saying, but couldn't speak themselves. Elphaba approached the Monkey, sorrowful for the torture that he had been put through. "Chistery, please, even if you don't, try to keep speaking!" Chistery understood that she was disappointed, and tried to look down. She took his head on one hand gently, stopping him. "You will never learn if…" Elphaba saw something move behind him. It was Glinda. She turned from Chistery and began to stalk off. "Go away!" She snapped. She did not need this right now! Glinda stayed at the top of the stairs, breathing hard. She hadn't dared use her bubble for fear someone would see, and now she was paying the price of having walked: physical exhaustion.
"They're coming for you," Glinda panted. Elphaba stopped at the far end of the hall and looked down at a trapdoor. Glinda had arrived a few halls down to hear Elphaba screaming at someone…Oh, sweet Oz, Elphie! Glinda thought, panicked. She's keeping Dorothy prisoner…
"Go…away!" Elphaba repeated. Glinda felt heartbroken. This Elphaba fit the mold that the Wizard and Madame Morrible tried to create so well. Her friend was gone.
"Let the little girl go!" Glinda said, desperately trying to make Elphaba see sense. She was only perpetuating the problem by keeping that girl a captive. "And that poor little dog…" What was its name? There were two 'o's… "Dodo!" She said at last. Elphaba turned and folded her arms defiantly, challenging Glinda to make her comply. She had all the power here, not like in Munchkinland with Nessa's shoes. This was her castle, and she could do anything. Technically, Glinda was trespassing anyway… Glinda faltered a little bit. She had to get through to Elphaba, and stop wasting time with the Wicked Witch of the West. She folded her arms, too, using the staircase for height.
"I know you don't want to hear this, Elphaba," Glinda deliberately used her friend's name. She saw the green woman falter the tiniest bit. It had been a long time since someone called her Elphaba. "But someone has to say it. You. Are out. Of control!" Elphaba let her bold stance go, staring at Glinda indignantly. Glinda rolled her eyes. Elphaba knew she was right, but continued to pretend that everything was fine. "I mean, come on! They're just shoes!" Glinda brushed her hands in the air as if sweeping something away. "Let it go!" She used her famous stage whisper. The words stumbled around Elphaba's head, making absolute sense but not being accepted. She had decided to go after Nessa's shoes to forget about her own pain. "You can't go on like this," Glinda said quietly. Oh, now Glinda was telling her what to do. Elphaba flared. Nobody told her what to do anymore!
"I can do anything I want!" She snarled up at Glinda, finally descending the old stone stairs. She had been a part of this all, she was part of the reason that horrendible girl had Nessa's shoes! "I am the Wicked-" Elphaba took a step forward. "-Witch-" and another. "-of the West!" She finished finally, staring straight at Glinda's face, at eye level due to the fact the Good Witch was still standing on the second stair. A chattering interrupted the beginnings of another rant. She turned to see another one of the Monkeys, a skinny one with a patch of bronze-red hair on his back. He was always begging for attention, trying to be helpful while showing Elphaba things and slowing her down. As a ghost from her past, she called it Deverig, (Take that, annoying original character!) and usually tried to send it out of fool's errands and scouting missions to keep it out of her life. It held out a small scroll to her. Always trying to find something important to tell her.
"At last! What took you so long?" Elphaba had never had much patience with this Monkey, despite his willingness to learn, and she needed to keep up the Wicked Witch act now that Glinda was here. She had to convince Glinda she had changed, that there was no point in staying around. She snatched the tiny piece of paper and unfurled it. There were four short lines, arranged like poetry. Who would write her poetry?! "Why are you bothering me with this?" She demanded, but then remembered that only one person would write her poetry. She looked down at the words on the paper, actually reading them this time.
Fake your passage to the realms of the dead
And the one you kept alive will find you.
Be careful when it rains; one sweet as you would melt
But only when there's a flame.
Oh, sweet Oz… Elphaba reread the message again. Fiyero… The cloud over her mind vanished, and she quickly understood the message. Pretend to die, hide, and Fiyero would find her. Stage a…melting… but make it look like they did it by starting a fire. It all made sense. She continued to stare at the note, still strangely dumbfounded. Where was Fiyero? When was he coming? Glinda stared at her friend and Elphaba's shocked expression at the note. Only one thing would put her in a state like that. Still, she couldn't help but ask.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Elphaba stopped. Glinda was still here. Fiyero intended to meet her alone, she was sure. She couldn't fake passage for two, and especially not Glinda the Good Witch of the North, thrice-beloved puppet of the Wizard. "It's Fiyero, isn't it?" Glinda guessed, finally stepping off the stairs to be at floor-level with Elphaba. "Is…is he…" Glinda tried to ask the question. Elphaba knew she had made the same assumption she had, seemingly so long ago, when she cast the spell. Somehow it worked. But Glinda couldn't know that, without having to be brought with them. Besides, good witches don't melt.
"Oz has seen his face for the last time." Elphaba chose her words carefully and quickly, refusing to full-out lie to Glinda. They would have to leave, she and Fiyero; hide, and never be seen by anyone ever again. Glinda clasped her hands to her face, and Elphaba could see tears welling up in her eyes. She assumed he died. Elphaba thought pityingly. The same way I did.
"Oh no…no…" Elphaba caught Glinda's words as she started to cry. Elphaba took advantage of the distraction to whisper to Deverig; for once the Monkey's eager intelligence would do her good.
"Bring me the book," she said gently, then turned back to Glinda. There was so much that needed to be done before one can die. "You're right," she said so Glinda could hear her. "It's time I surrender." One sweet as you would melt…She needed to have water conveniently lying around. She took a bucket and began to fill it at the pump on the wall. Glinda followed her curiously, not sure what her friend was doing.
"Elphie…?" Glinda questioned. Bucket filled, Elphaba placed it by a short flight of stairs. Please say someone sees it…She hoped silently, and then turned to Glinda.
"You can't be found here," she said. "You must go!" She gestured around her. A place to hide. Glinda didn't even have to leave, just…not be seen. Glinda folded her arms, pouting, with her tears for Fiyero still not dry.
"No." She said blatantly. She would not desert Elphaba now. Now, when she most needed a friend. Elphaba stared at Glinda. Now she started abiding by the truth? That would have been helpful a year or so ago!
"You must leave!" Elphaba said forcefully. Did she want to keep her power or not?
"No!" Glinda repeated, unwilling to leave Elphaba to fend for herself- again- in her greatest time of need. "I'll tell them everything!" She threatened. Elphaba would have rolled her eyes if the matter hadn't been so serious.
"No!" Glinda had a death wish, Elphaba was sure, if she was to make a promise like that. "They'll only turn against you!"
"I don't care!" Glinda protested. She shouldn't have had all that she did! Elphaba was the one who deserved it, and she chose this life for what was right! She had tried so hard, she shouldn't have been forced to bear such slander and propaganda! Glinda wished desperately to trade places with Elphaba, the final good deed that would have made up for all the misery Glinda had avoided.
"I do!" Elphaba said. Glinda bit her lip at Elphaba's bravery. Her friend was about to have to face off the counter-attack of her taking Dorothy captive, and she wanted to do it alone and be remembered as the rotten-to-the-core Wicked Witch of the West. "Promise me," she said quietly. "Promise me you won't try and clear my name…promise." Glinda had to stay in power, stay influential. She can stop what is happening if she kept those connections. Glinda just stared at her friend sadly, remembering the stages that one went through with a fatal disease. Disbelief. The throne room. Anger. The tower and resistance. Resignation. The wickedness. And now this, acceptance. Willing to let Glinda move on to greater things she could have had, wishing her to not clear Elphaba's name.
"All right…I promise." Glinda said sadly. This would be Elphaba's final wish, even if she made it through tonight. The crowd that sent off the witch hunters was homicidal. Insane. No amount of brains and magical brawn could battle with a force like that. "But I don't understand." Elphaba shrugged her shoulders hopelessly.
"I'm limited." She said simply. Glinda could feel the pain in her words, the knowledge that all she had done had been for nothing. Her dreams were impossible, and there was nothing left to do but admit defeat. "Just look at me. I'm limited." Glinda did look at her friend. Scraggly scraps of multicolored cloth were sewn clumsily into her skirt, hiding tears. Glinda could see the stains of wear, grass, mud, and the occasional blood blending in with the remaining dark fabric. Elphaba kept her hair loose after all this time, knots and split ends ravaging the black mane. "And just look at you, you can do all I couldn't do…Glinda," Deveriug returned bearing a heavy book. Elphaba took it, muttered a thank you, and held it out to Glinda. Glinda's eyes widened as she realized it was the Grimmerie. She took a step back.
"Here," Elphaba said, still holding the Grimmerie out to Glinda. "Go on. Take this." Glinda continued to stare at it, not seeing the sense in Elphaba's plan. She was about to be attacked, and she was giving away her best line of defense?! Why in Oz?
"Elphie…" Her voice trembled. This would be a great sacrifice on Elphaba's part, and Glinda wasn't really sure it was the best thing, either. "You know I can't read that…" Elphaba stared down at the book, annoyed it put such an obstacle in front of her. With resolve, she answered Glinda.
"Well then, you'll have to learn." She practically pushed the Grimmerie into Glinda's hands. Glinda could feel her legs trembling, absolutely sure that this meant the end. Elphaba knew what was important. The Grimmerie would have been high on that list. "Now it's up to you…" She looked down, admitting to her own failure. "For both of us. Now it's up to you" Glinda stared at Elphaba, her friend's gaze calm and focused. This was Elphaba now, not the Wicked Witch. She shuddered as she remembered where she had seen that look before. It was in the Wizard's tower, where Elphaba first sacrificed her dreams to do what was right. And now she was sacrificing all hope of redemption…and for what?
"You were the best friend I could ever have hoped for," Elphaba added. Glinda could feel pain, heartbreak filling the room, mixed with the anticipation of waiting for something to happen.
"And I thought I had so many best friends…but only one mattered." Glinda tried not to cry again. Elphaba wasn't crying. Maybe she couldn't, not now as she faced the ultimate threat to her life. Elphaba. She was finally giving up again, and Glinda might never see her again. She remembered years before she had met the green girl; blissfully empty, no purpose yet no trouble. Elphaba had marked the end of her childhood, and Glinda felt the need to thank her for that.
"I've heard it said," Glinda began, memories flooding her. "That people come into our lives for a reason." Her life with Elphaba flashed before her eyes: their first verbal battle, rooming, classes, homework, laughter, tears (usually Glinda's), and finally the Emerald City. A lifetime of memories was packed into the few months at Shiz. "Bringing something we must learn, and we are led to those who help us most to grow…" Glinda could still recall the silly dreams of her girlhood, blown away by her friendship with Elphaba. The first friend that mattered. "If we let them, and we help them in return." The popularification. That was one of the most fun nights of Glinda's life, despite not seeing eye to eye, and Glinda could see hints of that night in the grown-up Elphaba before her; the way she let her hair stay loose, the less icy expression, the way she seemed to make black the year's pink.
"Well, I don't know if I believe that's true," Glinda listed habits she had picked up from Elphaba during their friendship. Reading, listening, little tunes she would sing in the shower. "But I know I'm who I am today because I knew you." Elphaba smiled slightly, recognizing irony in the heartfelt pledge. The perfect Glinda attributed the way turned out to the Wicked Witch. "Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun," Yes, that was what it was like… Galinda Upland had been speeding along toward her dreams, when she passed Elphaba Thropp. The green girl's influence had changed her dreams, what she wanted to do in life. "Like a stream that meets a boulder, halfway through the wood." Glinda could feel the greatest gift Elphaba had given her; a conscience. She had made Glinda a better person, though said conscience wasn't very useful in a political lifestyle.
"Who can say if I've been changed for the better?" Glinda continued, some small part of her wanting to tell Elphaba that she had to keep fighting. To stop fighting meant to die, and death was pretty permanent. "But, because I knew you, I have been changed for good."
"It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime," Elphaba added, getting the sense Glinda knew that Elphaba knew her death was coming. But she can't know…Elphaba thought with despair. "So let me say before we part, so much of me is made of what I learned from you," The cape. Odd hat. Almost all of Elphaba's trademarks were influenced by Glinda and nobody knew it.
"You'll be with me, like a handprint on my heart." Elphaba held one green hand over the metaphorical handprint. "And now whatever way our stories end," Elphaba knew the end of the stories rather well, however. She would 'die' in scorn of society and Glinda would be thought of lovingly and frequently. But how would it have ended if Elphaba hadn't become friends with Glinda? "I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend…like a ship blown from its moorings, by a wind off the sea," That's what Glinda had done. She had moved Elphaba, changed her way of thinking ever so slightly, but enough for it to matter. "Like a seed dropped by a sky bird, in a distant wood…" Glinda had given Elphaba everything she needed to grow strong, strong enough to last those three years. "Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But…because I knew you…"
"Because I knew you…" Glinda echoed, begging whatever force controlled death to let Elphaba see life after the hunters arrived.
"I have been changed for good." They said together, minds thinking alike. They might never see their best friend ever again. So much was left unsaid, so much they could have done and never had the chance to do ever again.
"And just to clear the air, I ask forgiveness, for the things I've done you've blamed me for…" Elphaba began, about to apologize. For scaring Glinda so by running off. For never contacting her. For abandoning her cause, and truly becoming a Wicked Witch… Glinda stopped her deftly, reading each other's minds more than their actions.
"But then, I guess, we know there's blame to share." Glinda implored, thinking of how she should have gone with Elphaba. So many were hurt in her ascent, but she ignored it all just because she wasn't the one dealing the blows. If she wanted it done, it was done. Always by others, at the expense of others. Not anymore, Glinda thought. If Elphaba lives, I'm changing it all. Even if she doesn't…but please let her live! Elphaba practically sensed her resolution, and knew that the past was now irrelevant.
"And none of it seems to matter anymore!" They said together. They had been changed. There was no way to go back, and they could only look to the future. They could pay one last tribute to each other, and then they would have to leave each other.
"Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun…" Glinda tried to give credit to who she was to Elphaba.
"Like a ship blown from its moorings by a wind off the sea…" Elphaba denied, telling Glinda that she had made the biggest difference in her life.
"Like a stream that meets a boulder, halfway through the wood…."
"Like a seed dropped by a sky bird, in a distant wood…."
"Who can say if I've been changed for the better?" They asked each other, hoping they were, indeed, better people despite public opinion. "I do believe I have been changed for the better…"
"And, because I knew you…" Glinda said.
"Because I knew you…" Elphaba added, the pain that she knew Glinda would feel resounding in her heart.
"Because I knew you… I have been changed for good." Finally, it was too much. The two shared on last best-friend hug, the last they would see of each other. They were both sure of it. The hug was broken by a disturbance in the hall. A faint roar. A distant scrape of metal on stone. Those I have helped have come to kill me… Elphaba thought pensively. The Lion cub. Boq, the man of tin. Scarecrow's probably just along for the ride, Elphaba assumed. She turned to Glinda, knowing her time was coming.
"You have to hide." Elphaba strode over to one tapestry, pulling aside the worn cotton wall hanging. There was a small door less closet with a single stool, dusty with such a long period of neglect. Elphaba motioned her inside. "No one can know you were here." She grabbed Glinda's arm, almost pushing her inside. "Hide yourself!" She let the tapestry fall again, concealing Glinda save the shadows that fell across the tapestry. She could easily recognize Elphaba's silhouette, directing sentries and Monkeys and threatening the hunters. Just like the Wicked Witch of the West. What happened to Elphaba I saw just moments ago? Glinda thought. The girl was there, a bright fire, and she tossed a bucket of water. Most of it landed on Elphaba, and her dying scream haunted Glinda until the day it was the Good Witch's turn to leave Oz herself.
Boq stared at the pile of black fabric, barely believing that all it had taken was a bucket of water. Elphaba's dying scream rang in his head, such an intense and sudden pain that it broke through his anger. Elphaba. She had been his classmate, his idol's best friend. How could she have been wicked? The Scarecrow's naïve assumption of so long ago made sense now. She had meant well when she turned him to tin. She probably could have fixed it, too. He had just participated in the death of an innocent woman. He looked up at his friends. The Lion watched the pile of cloth, puzzled, as if he expected her to solidify again. Dorothy was looking around at the Winkie sentries; fearful one might deliver reprimands for the death of the castle's inhabitant. The Scarecrow nursed his burn, seemingly uninterested in the melting. Boq looked at his own feet, the tin feet that he would have to bear for the rest of his immortal life, now as a punishment for this crime.
"Take the broom and let's go," He said quietly. Dorothy picked up the smoldering broomstick anxiously and started to the exit, followed closely by the Lion, clinging to her for protection. Boq was about to go when he noticed the Scarecrow was still looking at Elphaba's melted remains. The straw man seemed surprised, the ghost of a knowing smile on his rough cloth face.
"What is it?" Boq asked. A different emotion, unfelt for so long, was chasing away the haze: Curios concern. The Scarecrow looked up at him, any potential smile vanishing.
"Nothing," he said simply. "Let's go." He followed Dorothy and the Lion to the exit.
"Elphie?" The eerie calm seeped into Glinda's skin, a cold, damp feeling that something terrible had occurred. "Elphie?" The tapestry was pulled aside, revealing Chistery. He hopped aside, allowing Glinda out of the hiding place. The large hall was deserted, the dying shouts of joy from the sentries fading into the air as they left their posts at long last. The only thing they had left of her was the hat and a dirty pile of black cloth, the cape. Glinda felt the tears coming again. All that was left of her friend was what Glinda had given her. Water had melted her… Could water melt a person? No, there had to be something else, too. Maybe rust from the bucket reacted, or something… she had never been a chemist, so she wouldn't know. She picked up the hat, the hat she had once held with disgust and hugged it close to her, willing Elphaba back to life, but knew it wouldn't happen. She was dead. It couldn't be changed. Chistery picked at the cape, searching for something. Finally, he produced the little green bottle. He held it out to her, struggling to form words.
"Miff…Miff Glinda…" It sounded like. Miss Glinda. Glinda took it, the final token of Elphaba's existence. It seemed so familiar. The night after the party. And the night Fiyero had run away…
She could do one last thing for her friend. She would do it.
For Good is done! I almost cried. It was painful to do such a terrible thing to Glinda, and kind of to Boq. Poor Ozians. ONE….MORE…..CHAPTER…..And then I get full nights of sleep. Review if you want me to finish it, but please don't do too many spoilers unless you PM me. Reviews are happy-making. Keep reading and writing! -LostOzian
