AN: I didn't add anything new to this story, I just re-edited and re-divided it because it seemed a bit clunky to me on my last read-through. This also still only takes the first film as canon even though the titles will reference songs from the second and third films. Hope y'all enjoy!
Galinda Upland had enjoyed a very privileged life in Oz until the day she was forced to become roommates with one Ms. Elphaba Thropp. At first, the humiliation of having to bunk with a green-skinned girl drove Galinda to bully Elphaba constantly and deny them any chance at peace, but as time rolled on, both of the girls began to warm up to one another and, eventually, they became friends. Best friends. And then they became something even more than that…
This beautiful relationship carried on throughout the years, even after Elphaba fled their college in order to start up a rebellion against their country's corrupt leader: the "Wonderful" Wizard of Oz. The two were rendered unable to see each other during this time that Elphaba was working with an underground resistance against the Wizard, but there did finally come a day when the two were reunited once more. Sadly, the circumstances were anything but good.
All of Elphaba's "wicked" deeds had finally caught up to her and the Wizard had since sent out a squadron of people to assassinate her. It was then that Elphaba and Glinda were reunited, in the thick of all the chaos.
"They're coming for you! You have to go!" Glinda cried as she tried to warn her beloved Elphaba of the oncoming danger.
"There's no point," Elphaba replied resignedly. "I refuse to spend my life running any further."
"But if you stay here, you'll die!" Glinda tried again, frantic.
"I don't care," the green witch replied stoically.
"Well I do!" Glinda collapsed into her beloved's arms, still weeping bitterly. The green witch's icy countenance melted away into sadness and pity.
"Oh Glinda, my sweet, I know it's hard, but this is how it has to be," she said, wrapping a comforting arm back around Glinda's trembling body.
"But what am I supposed to do without you?" Glinda sniffled into Elphaba's shoulders.
"Change Oz for the better," Elphaba replied, hugging her even closer. "You can do all I couldn't do, so now please, go. Go and do what I couldn't! Go and change Oz for good…"
Only a minute later, Elphaba's executioners arrived to her castle in the west. After instructing Glinda to hide, Elphaba went out to meet them head-on and, in a matter of minutes, she had been destroyed. The Wicked Witch of the West was no more. The very last thing Glinda ever heard from her was a dying scream as she was literally melted away into oblivion, the culprit being a young human girl who had thrown a pail of nearby water over the witch, realizing too late what water would do to her green-skinned target. It was a chilling cry that would haunt Glinda for the rest of her very, very long existence…
"ELPHIE!" Glinda woke with a shriek, Elphaba's own dying wails echoing in the back of her mind as she shot up out of bed at once. But in a matter of seconds, Glinda had settled back down again, a miserable expression twisting across her beautiful features. A nightmare. That's all it had been. Another horrible, terrible nightmare… Would they ever end?
"It's been years and yet still she haunts me!" the young queen of Oz lamented, finally pulling herself out of bed because she knew she would find no more rest that night. With nothing else to do, she began to pace her chambers like a rat inside a maze, only this maze had no way out. It was just an endless back-and-forth across the floor as her guilty and mournful thoughts whirled around her mind like a tornado.
But after some time, Glinda's eyes settled upon the spell book that was hiding beneath her bed. It was an ugly, evil, old thing that had once belonged to Elphaba. She had given it to Glinda right before she died, imploring the young blond to use it in her quest to change Oz for the better. Glinda had taken the book, the Grimmerie, but had never ever used it, not even once. This was due to a mix of factors. For one, she could not read it. It was written in a language she had never seen before. For another, she knew of the Grimmerie's terrifying powers. Even if she had been able to read what was in the book, there was no telling if any of the spells would bring anything other than chaos and despair anyway. Elphaba's own experience with the Grimmerie hadn't exactly been that pleasant either. And for a third reason, she was worried that even if she did manage to master the spell book, it would mentally and emotionally warp her, and turn her into something that she was not. She was worried the power would go to her head, and the last thing she wanted was to follow in her predecessor's footsteps. For all of those reasons, Glinda refused to even touch the Grimmerie, let alone use it. That was why it had been hidden under her bed for all of these years. But tonight, she found herself feeling drawn towards it, like it was calling out to her very soul…
"Oh Elphie," Glinda sighed sadly, staring at the book again. "If only you were here. You'd know what to do. Oh, if only!" then suddenly, it hit her! Like a bolt of lightning, inspiration struck Glinda. Maybe that book had something in it that could resurrect Elphaba! Glinda knew she was dabbling in some very risky magic now, but the hope of seeing Elphaba again overrode all of Glinda's fears. She dropped to her knees at once and yanked the book out from its hiding spot under her bed. It was covered in a very thick layer of dust, but she didn't care at all. Instead, she shook it all off with one impatient flick of the wrist before swiftly skimming through the pages, hoping that it would somehow know what she wanted…
A few minutes later, Glinda had found something! It really had been like the book could read her mind! Of course, Glinda could still hardly read anything on the page, but she somehow knew that it was exactly what she had been looking for: a resurrection spell. This would bring Elphaba back to her! She was sure of it! All she had to do was read it aloud and Elphaba would return.
"I'll save her and everything will be ok again!" Glinda declared happily. "Besides," she added, still trying to justify what she was about to do. "It's not like I'm doing this for evil purposes or anything, I'm just trying to bring Elphaba back. Is that really so bad?"
Well, unfortunately, it seemed like the answer was yes in this case. Intention did not matter when it came to the dark, deadly, dangerous art of Necromancy. It was the most mysterious and frightening type of magic in all of Oz! Precious few knew anything about it at all, let alone how to properly perform it. Glinda was not among this number in the slightest. This was shaping up to be a recipe for disaster. Not only was she dabbling in the most dangerous and feared magical art of all time, but she was totally untrained in it as well! She had mastered in charms, not necromancy! For this ignorance and arrogance on her part, Glinda would pay a most terrible price…
About a month after first discovering the resurrection spell, Glinda finally felt ready enough to try it out for real. She had been practicing endlessly for these past 30 days and it looked like all of her efforts were finally about to pay off! She waited until midnight to begin the chant, but the second her chamber's clock began to strike 12, she quickly opened up the book, set it on her bed and began to chant…
For a while, the spell actually went fairly well. Nothing felt wrong to Glinda and she was saying everything correctly and a thin, misty outline of Elphaba's body did begin to take shape, but that was where it all ended. Glinda had been so absorbed in her chant that she failed to realize all the green light emitting from the book. It caught the eyes of many curious servants down below and when they, accompanied by several Ozian guards, came to realize what was causing it, they went into an absolute frenzy.
"Look! Queen Glinda is trying to summon the Wicked Witch of the West!" the servants cried.
"What?! No! I swear this isn't what it looks like!" Glinda begged, whipping around in a panic and raising her arms defensively as six guards stormed into her room. With a cry of dismay, Glinda waved a hand at them and sent them all flying back out of the room. It wasn't much, but Glinda didn't have time to think of anything better. Instead, she turned around to the Grimmerie once more, desperately trying to pick up where she had left off. But it was too late. Trying to restart a spell in the middle of its process never worked. Besides, Glinda was already so stressed out from being caught that even when she managed to pick up where she left off, the spell began to botch immediately. She mispronounced words and did the motions all wrong. For that, the spell went awry in an instant. Some of the green light struck Glinda directly and she screamed in pain as she felt something piercing up out of her very skull.
"Horns!" it was one of the guards who first realized what they were, and he was right. Curling up right out of the top of Glinda's head were two, big, black horns, razor-tipped and twisted. They pushed up past her golden curls until they were painfully visible for all to see.
"She's the devil!" a servant swooned while Glinda, herself, began to feel the horns in horror and dismay.
For a moment, there was only silence, because no one knew exactly what to do next. But that moment ended the instant a particularly daring servant girl made a mad dash for the Grimmerie, shooting into Glinda's room and snatching it right up from underneath her before flying back out of the room at top speed. That acted as a spark for a major reaction, Glinda also leaping to her feet and giving a cry of outrage before boldly shoving past all of the other guards and servants in her way to get the one who had so foolishly tried to steal her spell book.
"Bring that back at once!" she commanded, using her best queenly voice, but the little servant girl refused. Instead, she continued to run until she reached the palace's kitchens, quickly tearing out the page Glinda had read and hurling it into a small fire still going in the corner of the room.
"NOOO!" Glinda howled her dismay, but it was too late. By the time she reached that tiny little fire, the pages were nothing but ash and dust. Glinda's dismay quickly turned back into fury and she hopped right back up again, prepared to face the impudent servant girl once more, but she had already escaped into the darkness. Before Glinda could even attempt to find her again, though, the entire Ozian guard suddenly appeared. Glinda was forced to surrender her search for the servant girl and focus instead upon saving her own life that night.
In the end, Glinda managed to lose the guards long enough to recollect her spell book (minus a page) and escape into one of the many secret passages threaded throughout the Emerald City Palace. For about a week, she lived in these passages and tunnels, trying to find a way out of the castle completely while also dealing with the threats of recapture and starvation. It was a rough seven days for the poor Ozian queen. Ultimately, she was forced to undergo a drastic change in appearance.
First, Glinda ditched her beautiful blue bubble gown for a ratty old black cloak laced with purple lining. It blended in well with the dark. Next, Glinda shaved off all of her hair. It hurt her heart to watch those beautiful golden curls fall to the floor, but they were too bright. They had to go. In replacement, Glinda used more dark cloth to fashion herself a hood that would conceal her bald head. Then lastly, using the Grimmerie, she changed the appearance of her wand. It was about her size, a silver staff topped with a glittering diamond star. After the transformation spell, however, it became a long and gnarled tree branch. It was wooden and rugged and rough, but it would keep Glinda from being discovered.
Another appearance change Glinda underwent, though this one was about as planned as the horns had been, was an eye-color change. Her eyes were once a big, bright, beautiful sky blue. Now, though, they were a bright, sickly green. They weren't an Elphaba-green, they were a putrid Emerald-green. Oz was Glinda sick of emeralds! And to think, all of this had happened in only a week!
"All I wanted to do was to save my Elphie!" Glinda cried to herself sadly. "Was that really so wrong?" apparently so. But it was like Elphaba had said before, no good deed goes unpunished. This was something Glinda was starting to learn just as much as Elphaba ever had. If only she had been stronger. If only she had been smarter. If only she had been faster. Then maybe all of this could've been avoided. If only she knew what to do now. If only she knew what the right decision was and what the wrong one was. If only life were that simple! If only, if only, if only.
But despite her best efforts, Glinda's escape plan failed and she was ultimately caught again. She had just finished stealing a few leftovers from the royal kitchen when she wound up getting her horns stuck in the door.
"Gah! The horns! The horns!" she cursed softly, trying to wiggle herself to freedom. It was halfway during this embarrassing little slipup that one of the castle chefs noticed Glinda and he didn't waste a second sounding the alarm. Great. Not again!
After another mad chase around the castle halls, Glinda found herself trapped in the throne room where all of this nightmare had all begun decades ago, only this time, she was all alone in her predicament. No more Elphaba, no more Wizard, no more Morrible. Just her.
"Be careful! She's crazy!" one of the guards shouted to the other as they broke into the throne room after Glinda. He raised his gun and closed in on the horned queen. The others followed suit and Glinda was backed right up into her very own throne.
The irony in being held against her own throne at gunpoint went lost on Glinda, so busy was she in trying to find another way out of this nightmare. Her bright green eyes darted wildly around the throne room in search of something, anything, that might save her. At last, then, her eyes settled upon a picture of Oz's great and mighty Time Dragon. A burst of inspiration struck her and, immediately, she began to chant. This time, though, she wasn't using a resurrection spell, she was using a transformation one. But this spell was going to be changing a little bit more than just a wand. This time, Glinda was changing her own body, turning it from human to dragon!
As Glinda finished the chant, everything in the throne room suddenly became pitifully small. She had done it! Glinda had successfully turned herself into the Time Dragon! Or at least, a dragon, since the Time Dragon was not black and pink-purple the way she was… But hey! It wasn't bad for a first time! Besides, Glinda didn't exactly have time to muse over the accuracy (or lack thereof) of her transformation. Instead, as soon as she felt her leathery wings grow, she took to the sky immediately, crashing straight through the palace's ceiling to get to her freedom…
For a time, Glinda only had one thing on her mind: escape. Leaving the Emerald City behind her, she flew as far and fast as she could, not even caring where she wound up so long as it was very, very, very far away from the Emerald City Palace. But after a couple days of flight, Glinda realized that she would need to land eventually. She couldn't just fly forever, so she needed a safe place to go. The first thing she could think of was Kiamo Ko, Elphaba's old castle in the west.
"Oh, the bitter irony!" she growled, voice far lower and louder than it had ever been before. But with no place else to go, the dragon queen continued to fly west. Hopefully, the castle would be large enough to house a dragon of her size…