A/N: Third chapter is here, ladies and gents; it's been interesting developing this one, but as always I can only hope its up to standards. As always, feel free to review and give me your opinions on how it's going and guesses as to what might happen next- the thought of them is what gets my corroded old heart started in the morning.

So, without further ado, read, review and above all, enjoy!

Disclaimer: Wicked is not mine. Sometimes I believe my brain is not mine, but the lawyers can neither confirm nor deny this.

1/6/15: Edited chapter to correct typos and misused words at long last.

Much to Elphaba's surprise, it was the sound of birdsong that woke her.

Groaning, she sat up. Immediately, several realizations hit her at once:

Firstly, she was still alive, astonishingly enough.

Secondly, she had a headache that felt as though someone was gently driving a nail into the back of her skull.

Thirdly, for reasons currently unknown, she was now sitting on grass.

Fourthly, there was a light breeze sweeping in from the west- another factor indicating that she was now outside.

Fifthly, for some reason, she was hearing birdsong from somewhere very nearby; Kiamo Ko hadn't seen much in the way of birds or birdsong in the last day or so.

Sixthly, much further away, a train whistle was sounding.

Suddenly driven by urgency, Elphaba forced her eyelids open and immediately regretted it: all of a sudden, the invisible man who'd been hammering a nail through her head changed position and went to work on her eyeballs. The glare from the sunlight didn't help much, either.

Once the glare had faded, she found herself sitting in the middle of a field under a cloudless sky, her body almost lost amidst the long grass. Close examination revealed that she was surrounded by a small halo of rubble and other junk: most of the wreckage appeared to be comprised of objects that had been nearby when the light had first appeared in the castle hall; tables, chairs, shelves, a chandelier, and the scattered contents of Elphaba's rucksack- including the Grimmerie.

To her relief, a glance to the left revealed that Glinda and Chistery were lying right beside her, still unconscious but otherwise unharmed; less welcoming, however, was the sight of Dorothy Gale in a similar condition not too far away.

Deciding to survey the area further, she sat up and found that a few dozen feet behind her lay a vast forest of densely-packed trees; perhaps two hundred feet ahead of her lay a railway line- and much further along it, a five-car passenger train had stopped. Nobody appeared to have left it just yet, so she was probably safe for the moment. But where the hell was she? As far as she could remember, there weren't any railways within miles of Kiamo Ko. More to the point, where the hell was Kiamo Ko? The last she'd seen of it, the entire building had been collapsing, but when a castle that size fell apart, it was guaranteed to leave some pretty distinctive ruins. So where were they?

And how had she gotten here? The last thing she remembered was tumbling into the light with Glinda and Dorothy as Kiamo Ko exploded around them; then, there'd been a dream- a very strange dream of being shot down, beaten up and dying... and Fiyero had been there. After that, she'd awoken to find herself in this field.

Fair enough, the light had magically transported herself across Oz. It sounded logically plausible enough, assuming there was any recognizable logic to whatever had happened to them. And yet...

Her eyes flicked to the opposite end of the track: about thirty feet away, a small brick hut stood- presumably an engineer's station or a guard post of some kind. That wasn't too unusual by the standards of railways; what had caught Elphaba's eye was the flagpole nearby: even without the aid of binoculars or a vision spell, she could tell that it was not flying the traditional flag of Oz. A brief whisper of magic revealed that the familiar emerald-green banner with its Z-Inside-O emblem was gone; in its place was a white flag marked with a sigil that Elphaba had never seen before, a golden sceptre surmounted by a gilded, mask-like face.

Either the local government had unexpectedly decided to design a new national flag and had the time to send one out here before Elphaba had regained consciousness...

Or this wasn't Oz.

In which case, where the hell was she?

As she pondered this question, Glinda stirred. "Elphie?" she mumbled. "Izzit time for magic class yet? Wanna sleep just a little longer... Tell Morrible 'm not gonna make it..." Her eyes fluttered upon, and awkwardly hauling herself upright, she looked out at the unfamiliar landscape for the first time.

"What happened?" she asked. "Where are we?"

"Your guess is as good as mine; I don't recognize this place at all. Even the flags don't look familiar."

"The flags?"

She wearily pointed in the general direction of the flagpole. "I don't know about you," she said, as Glinda took in the details of the fluttering pennant, "But I'm pretty sure the Wizard hasn't decided to make any drastic changes to the country's emblem."

"Well, if we're not in Oz anymore, where are we? I mean, how far could that light have carried us? More to the point, what was that light in the first place?"

Elphaba gritted her teeth, and made a noise at the back of her throat normally only produced by industrial accidents and freak thunderstorms. "I don't know," she said forcefully. "Okay? If I learn anything that might answer your questions, I'll be sure to tell you immediately; until then, Glinda, I'm just as much in the dark as you are. Now, please shut up and help me find my atlas; hopefully, we're still within charted territory..."

So they set to work in silence, the two witches awkwardly fossicking through the heaps of smashed furniture and scattered rubble, looking for anything that might resemble an atlas. Along the way, they gathered up as many of their belongings as they could: Glinda her wand, Elphaba the Grimmerie. Unfortunately, the broomstick hadn't survived the journey intact: the most the two of them could of it was the handle, snapped cleanly in half by a ton of shattered bricks.

Halfway through the search, Chistery regained consciousness; so, Elphaba went about bringing him up to date with everything that had happened thus far and checking him for injuries. Fortunately, he didn't seem badly hurt; he was slightly bruised about the wings and scratched across the knees and elbows, but that was the most of his injuries. Dorothy, on the other hand, remained both unconscious and unresponsive.

Eventually, Glinda looked up from the pile of junk she'd been sorting through, and asked, "Do we really have to keep looking here?"

"Why, have you broken a nail again?"

"Very funny. But seriously, there's a train right over there, in case you hadn't noticed; we can easily just walk right up and ask for directions."

Not for the first time that day, Elphaba found herself exasperatedly massaging the bridge of her noise. "Ginda," she sighed, "Do you seriously think I'd be able to get within ten yards of that train without starting a panic? Even if they don't know that I'm the Wicked Witch of the West, they're bound to ask questions."

Glinda at least had the decency to look embarrassed. "Well... I mean, if I walked up and asked for directions... that would work, wouldn't it?

"It depends on how far outside of Oz we are right now. If you're recognized, they'll start asking questions, they'll find me, and before you know it, its pitchforks and torches time all over again."

"Well, just stay out of sight, then! They shouldn't be able to see you from up there, and besides, it's not as if I'll tell them about you or how to find you or anything like that." A brief spasm of pain inexplicably flickered across Glinda's face for a moment; then, before Elphaba could ask what was bothering her, the expression was gone. "It'll only take a minute or two," she continued briskly, "And if I don't find out anything, we can always have Chistery have a look around the place."

Chistery hooted in agreement.

"You see?"

Elphaba took a deep breath, and mulled over her options as best as she could; under different circumstances, she'd have dismissed Glinda's suggestions on general principle, gotten on her broomstick and scouted the area for any recognizable landmarks from above. But right now, her broomstick was in pieces, and she didn't want to exert Chistery's bruised wings too soon just in case he lost control and crash-landed; that left her with the singularly unpalatable option of allowing Glinda to stick her hand in the proverbial hornet's nest. But apart from wandering aimlessly through the forest or along the railway for the next few hours, this was the only real option they had at this point.

"I'll give you two minutes," she said firmly. "Check out the train, speak with the crew, ask for directions, and walk right back here; if anything goes wrong, don't try to talk your way out, don't try to fight them off- just run. If you're not back in two minutes, I'll be coming after you with as much fire and lightning as I can handle. Clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good. Now go- and please, be careful."

"Elphie, it's a train. What could possibly go wrong?"

And before Elphaba could groan, "Did you really just say that?" Glinda had hitched up her dress and started running, moving at a brisk jog towards the railway line.

Perhaps twenty feet away from the train, Glinda realized that something was wrong: quite apart from the fact that it didn't appear to have a smokestack, cowcatcher or anything else that most Ozian locomotives were usually equipped with – though admittedly, it had been a very long time since Glinda had been anywhere near a passenger train, thanks to her Bubble – it was clear that the crew was trying to get the engine started again, without much success.

Furthermore, there appeared to be something of a panic looming: even at this distance, she could clearly hear the sounds of shouted orders and expletives from the crew, and see the anxiety on the faces of the passengers looking out the window. Glinda could tell that the mood of the crowd had nothing to do with arriving at the station late; she'd seen this kind of unrest before – often during Elphaba's so-called reign of terror, when the Wizard's propaganda machine had some people too scared to even leave their homes. But since this wasn't Oz, what were these people so scared of? What were they trying to escape from?

Focus, Glinda; you're here to ask for directions and then walk away. Don't get distractified, don't waste time.

By now, she was almost right next to the engine, a streamlined, black-armoured creation that looked more like an upturned boat than anything designed to run on rails; much to Glinda's surprise, running along the machine's sculpted flank were – of all things- gold filigree and bas-relief carvings of statuesque, heroic figures. Clearly this wasn't just a run-of-the-mill passenger train: this was something much more special; maybe some wealthy nobleman's private train or perhaps a government model used by diplomats- or even heads of state.

And they're armed, too, she realized with an unpleasant jolt to the heart: behind the thick-paned windows of the engine, she could clearly see that most of the crew were holding rifles. They were obviously expecting trouble out here, but once again, Glinda had to wonder: from what?

Of course, staying here and wondering wasn't going to do her much good, now that she had less than a minute a half to go before Elphaba came after her. So, pausing only to hastily brush a few errant leaves from her hair and check her dress for rips and tears, she edged around the train towards what appeared to be a door, took a deep breath and called out, "Hello? I was wondering if you could help me-"

The door shot open, and Glinda suddenly found herself staring up into the business end of a rifle. "Who the hell are you and what do you want?" hissed a voice from the other end. "Stay still, talk fast, keep your hands where I can see them, and I'd better like your tone of voice, or you're dead."

Glinda blinked rapidly. "I'm Glinda Upland," she said, trying to sound as unthreatening as possible. "Of the Upper Uplands," she added helpfully, just in case this place was close enough to Oz for the locals to know about her family.

"Never heard of you. What do you want?"

"I've gotten lost, and I was just hoping for directions."

The rifle lowered slightly. "Fair enough. Where were you planning on going, exactly?"

"Well, anywhere within Ozian territory would be nice, but-"

"Where?"

"Oz," Glinda clarified. "The Land of Oz."

Given that the rifle had been in the way for most of the conversation, Glinda hadn't seen much of her assailant's face. But now the rifle had lowered, she could clearly see the look of utter confusion that was spreading across the guard's features. "Where exactly is that supposed to be in relation to this country?" he asked.

"I... don't know," she admitted sheepishly. "I don't even know how I got here; I just woke up in that field over there."

"Really?" A note of suspicion trickled back into the man's voice. "Wouldn't be the first time that it's happened but-"

From somewhere over the crewman's shoulder, a voice said, "Vesh, what's taking so long back there? Who is she?"

"It's another random teleport, sir; I think the Hellion's been at work again- but this one's from outside the country."

"She look human to you?"

"Pretty much."

"No signs of Distortion?"

"Sir, as far as I can tell, she's a perfectly ordinary human; if she'd been Distorted, door security would have picked it up."

"Then get her inside now! We're almost ready to go, and I just got word from the border that there's a raiding party inbound."

The guard blanched, and without a second glance in Glinda's direction, he stood back from the entrance to allow her inside. "You'd better get on board," he advised her.

"But-"

"Please, this really isn't the time to argue; I've seen what these bastards do to their enemies in battle - bloody hell, I've seen what they do to themselves for fun- and believe me, you don't want to find out what they do their prisoners. Just get on board."

Glinda took a deep breath; this conversation wasn't turning out the way she'd hoped. She'd been here well past the two minute time limit, and Elphaba was probably already on her way with all the fire and brimstone she could muster- against armed guards, no less; and worse still, there was a raiding party about to attack them, another unpleasant detail Elphaba didn't know about. Glinda didn't know what was going on or where it was happening, but bailing out wasn't an option. She had to stall for time. "I've got a friend waiting back there in the field," she explained. "She's not too-"

But the rest of her explanation was lost in a deafening explosion that shook the ground and almost knocked Vesh out of the train. A quick glance around the corner in the direction of the noise revealed that less than fifty feet away, the solid-looking brick hut at the opposite end of the track had exploded, and now lay in a blazing heap of rubble and debris- the parts of it that weren't descending on the train in a hailstorm of shrapnel.

"Shit," Vesh whispered, eyes wide and face pale with terror. "Look, if this friend of yours is taken prisoner, the border patrol might be able to save her, but- Oh sweet Empress, they're here!"

Glinda obligingly peered back around the corner: there, not far from the spot where she'd regained consciousness, a small army of unpleasant-looking figures were charging out of the forest, shouting incomprehensible warcries and waving their weapons in the air. It was too far away to recognize exactly what they were or how many of them there were, but Glinda could tell that they were heading directly for the train- and Elphaba was standing in their way.

And then, without so much as "by your leave," Vesh grabbed her by the arm and hauled her into the train, slamming the door shut behind him. As Glinda struggled to free herself from the grip on her wrist, there was a loud rumble from the engines and a cheer from the distant passengers and crew alike, the train was in motion.

"There," the security guard panted. "At least we're safe for the- oooooof!"

As Vesh sagged to the floor, hands clasped over his crotch, Glinda made a beeline for the nearest exit; she didn't care what might be waiting outside- all that mattered at this point was reaching Elphaba and getting her to safety. No luck: the door had locked as soon as it had been shut.

"How do I open this thing?" she shouted.

"Don't – oww – bother," Vesh groaned. "It only unlocks from the primary control panel."

"Then take me there, right now-"

There was a polite cough from somewhere nearby. Glinda looked up from the bewildering array of locks and bolts keeping the door shut, and realized that she was being stared at by no less than seven anxious-looking crew-members- all of them hiding a number of badly-concealed firearms under their crisp blue uniforms. The engineer, an older man with a peaked hat and a gold pin affixed to his necktie, stood up from his station at the frontmost control panel; "Wherever your friend is right now," he said solemnly, "We can't help her. If that raiding party's got explosives, or – Empress save us all – artillery, they'll blast us off the rails before we can even get close to 'em. There are almost four hundred people on this train; do you really want to get them all killed?"

"Well, you don't have to turn back," said Glinda desperately. "Just drop me off right here-"

The engineer shook his head. "Even if you could reach them in time, Miss, there wouldn't be a damn thing you could do to help her. I don't know how many of those savages are back there, but last I looked, there were at least twenty of them: you'd be outnumbered and outgunned- and I'm not prepared to let a passenger on this train throw their life away for nothing."

"I'm not throwing my life away for nothing! She's-" Glinda's mind raced. She had to think of something that could get these people to change their minds - anything, even if it was an outright lie: she hadn't been willing to leave Elphaba to die back at Kiamo Ko, and she wasn't going to do it now. After a few seconds of biting her lower lip, she eventually decided on the truth. "She's one of the most gifted witches in all of Oz!" she said, emphatically. "Don't you think that's worth stopping for? I mean, aren't trained magicians valuable to the government here-"

"They are," one of the other crewmembers interrupted. "Trouble is, they're also valuable to the enemy, and if they've gone this far into the border-regions in search of loot, I don't want to find out what they'll do to people who try and retrieve it- and neither do you."

"But if you just let me explain, she-"

The engineer held up a hand. "I'm afraid there's nothing you can say or do that can possibly convince any of us to turn back or allow you to leave this train, and that's my final word on the subject."

Glinda briefly fought the urge to scream; she couldn't have been in this country for more than twenty minutes, and she'd already lost her grip on the situation. "So I'm supposed to just sit here and let Elphaba die?" she said, distantly aware of the hysterical note to her voice. "Is that it?"

Vesh moaned, and awkwardly staggered to his feet. "It's not over just yet," he wheezed. "There's the border guards for one thing, and the Vigilant Eyes; if your friend's still alive, it'll be the Eyes that save her."

There was a chorus of agreeing mumbles from around the room.

"In the meantime," the engineer continued smoothly. "You're free to stay with us until we stop in Exemplar; we might be a bit short on space, but I'm sure you'll fit right in with the passengers. If you've got any questions, don't hesitate to ask an attendant. Or Vesh, once he's gotten himself an icepack for amidships. Now, if you'll excuse us..."

And with that, Glinda was unceremoniously led out of the cabin and into the plush, red-carpeted first car. Here I go again, she thought despairingly, wagging my tail and doing as I'm told, keeping myself safe and sound while Elphaba faces down an army. Glinda, you stupid, selfish bitch...

Elphaba was already halfway across the field when the building exploded; with fifteen seconds left on the clock, she should have kept still for a little while longer, but she honestly couldn't bear another moment of waiting. She couldn't stop her imagination from conjuring up scenarios in which the train's passengers decided to attack Glinda for one reason or another, and by the final seconds of the countdown, she'd almost reached the point in which they'd cornered her in the final car and were now menacingly advancing on her, ready to kill her or worse...

So, she'd started running, with Chistery in hot pursuit. Admittedly, she didn't know exactly what kind of defences the train possessed, or if the passengers and crew were armed; as such, the only thing running through her head for the next few seconds was a long list of anything she could do to stop Glinda's assailants- in short, everything she'd ever used in her long struggle against the Wizard.

Then, of course, the hut exploded, and the world went completely mad.

As if on hinges, Elphaba turned to see the distant forest suddenly alive with shouting figures, all of them clearly armed to the teeth; they were still too far away for her to tell who they were, or even what they were, but Elphaba could clearly see one of them pushing something that looked uncomfortably like a cannon - and aiming it at the train.

Mind almost blank with horror, she swivelled back towards the motionless locomotive, wondering frantically if Glinda was still on board; she had to be, otherwise she would have started running by now- unless something truly horrific had taken place. Then, to her mingled relief and dismay, the train at long last thundered to life, at first only trundling placidly down the rail, but gaining speed with every second. The cannon opened fire again, but the gunner clearly wasn't up to hitting a moving target, for though the ground near the fleeing train erupted into flying dirt, nothing hit the train itself. Eventually, it was out of range, and moments later, out of sight too.

For a moment or two, Elphaba stood there, despairing at having been separated from Glinda again and hoping against hope that the train's passengers and crew weren't going to hurt her. Then, with another jolt of alarm, she remembered the army that had been charging towards her, and took to her heels, with Chistery once again flying after her.

Thankfully, most of said army had been preoccupied with taking pot-shots at the train, so Elphaba still had something of a headstart. But she knew that it wouldn't last forever: with the broomstick in pieces, she could only run so far before she tired or the horde caught up with her. So, muttering a few choice incantations to give her an extra burst of speed and fuel what little stamina she had left, she put her head down and charged towards the forest.

Even once she was past the first few trees, she didn't stop until she was certain that the forest was thick enough to restrict the enemy's movement. Then, pausing only to shoo Chistery away to the safety of the treetops, she turned to face her pursuers: here, with so many trees in the way, they wouldn't be able to surround her so easily; here, she'd have time to cast her spells before any of them reached her. With the gap in the canopy directly above her, she might also have enough light to read a spell from the Grimmerie. Of course, the trees also gave the enemy a lot of cover, but then again, if she was fast and violent enough, she might be able to bring down a tree or two on top of them. If nothing else, she'd be able to do some damage and slow them down before she carried on running.

At long last, the enemy was in reach, and by now she could see that there were almost forty of them; thanks to the darkness of the canopy, it was hard to discern their features, but from here it looked as though they were wearing elaborate suits of armour beneath their tattered black cloaks. She could see gauntlets made to resemble vulture's talons, tiger's claws, crab's pincers, even tentacles; breastplates coated with rank fur or carved with scales; helms shaped into bestial snarls and nightmarish faces. And there were other things adorning those grotesque armouries, things that Elphaba could scarcely even guess at: trophies of human ears and flayed hide, by the looks of things, and hearts that were somehow still beating.

Who the hell are these people?

She gave herself a little shake: she couldn't get distracted by all this- she had to concentrate on spells, she had to think of strategy, she had to...

...to...

Suddenly, all the fight seemed to leave her.

What exactly was she planning on doing? Fighting off all three dozen of them? Trying to outrun them in territory they knew a lot better than she did? And even if she could do either of those things, what the hell was she supposed to do next in a country she knew nothing about? Was there anything worth doing? Her fight was still lost, Fiyero and Nessa were still dead, and now Glinda was gone: there was no foreseeable way of learning where that train was headed, and even if Elphaba could follow it, even if Glinda was still alive, would she really be able to find her in whatever metropolis the train disembarked at? And what about Chistery? Without her broom, Elphaba was a liability, a great big weight that would drag him down wherever they went. Now without his brothers and sisters to help him, he was vulnerable, and as long as Elphaba was forcing him to stay close to the ground, he wouldn't stand a chance of surviving in this unknown land.

Maybe it would be better if she finally put that suicidal idea of hers into motion: maybe she should just let these people kill her. It'd be better for everyone involved. With any luck, it'd be quick and painless... and if she had a soul – and if there was something waiting for that soul after death – perhaps she'd see Fiyero again...

She'd been staring at the ground for the last minute or two, she realized; so, taking a deep breath, she looked up, intent on meeting her killer's gaze.

And sure enough, there was a figure stepping out of the crowd now milling around her, presumably their leader. One gauntleted hand was raised in a placating gesture; the other held a rifle. Two more figures edged towards her from her left and right, probably to hold her arms while the first man shot her.

"Right then, miss," the first man announced. "You've led us on a merry chase, so credit where credit's due. But you can't run forever, and you can't fight us off. So, just give yourself up, and we'll work out a ransom."

Elphaba didn't answer. Instead, she did the most threatening thing she could do without actually launching a fireball at the man: she channelled all the magic she could into her arms and let it flare outwards in a vivid emerald glow, tiny sparks of energy crackling off her fingertips. As the crowd surged backwards in alarm, the men flanking her lunged, grabbing her by the arms as their leader advanced on her.

"Not a good idea, ma'am," he growled. "Even if you are a witch, it's not a smart thing to do, not when your life's on the-"

He paused, and then peered curiously at her. Then he gently reached out, and removed Elphaba's hat.

Up until now, Elphaba's face had been left in shadow by the brim of her hat and the light from the canopy overhead. But now she was bareheaded, the crowd had an unhindered view of her face, and already she could hear the gasps of shock and disbelief- just as it had been whenever she'd had to show her face in public.

But something was different this time: the gasps weren't followed by disgusted mutterings or angry shouts; the people around her didn't seem afraid or even disturbed. If anything, they seemed amused.

Their leader, meanwhile, was still surveying his newest captive. Slowly, he reached out and touched Elphaba's face, gently rubbing the skin as if to check that she wasn't wearing makeup. Then, after almost fifteen seconds of inspection, he smiled.

"Damn it, girl," he laughed, "Why didn't you say you were one of us?"