A/N: Ok, another chapter. This one deviates from the story at the end, but up till then, most of the dialogue is still taken from or paraphrased from the play.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Oh, brother, you stupid computer, shut up about your stupid firewall or I'll turn you into scrap.
"Fiyero," I try, pleading.
"I said, silence!" he hisses. I draw back, half in fear, half in pain. "Your Ozness, are you all right?" he asks.
If I hear that title once more, I swear I'll be sick.
"Of course," booms the great head, as if he had power, as if it were preposterous that I could ever do anything to him. I could. I should. Another guard enters the room.
"Sir, there's a goat on the lam," he tells Fiyero seriously. I'd laugh if this all weren't so horrible. I could cackle, scare them a bit. I can do a very creepy laugh.
"Forget that," Fiyero tells the guard. I can see him thinking, planning something. I don't want to know what. I want to die, rather than hear the hatred and fear in the voice of another friend or see the revulsion of me in their eyes.
"Get me some water," says Fiyero.
Water? Like, a glass of water, to drink? I think. The guard, apparently, is also confused.
"Water, sir?" he asks.
"Yes, buckets of it, as many as all of you can carry. Now, go!" What is he going to do with it? Drown me like a kitten?
The guards are gone. Fiyero, the Wizard, and I are the only ones left in this ice-cold room. I weigh my options. I could run…but I know they would catch me. But…
Fiyero points his silver rifle at the great Oz-head.
"No, no!" screams the Wizard, running out. Fiyero doesn't blink at this, Glinda must have told him the truth.
"Be quiet, your Ozness, unless you want everyone in that ballroom to know exactly what you are. Elphaba, go, I'll find Dr. Dillamond later." My knees nearly buckle, and I realize I've been holding my breath. I let air fill my lungs.
"Fiyero, you frightened me! I thought that you had…that you were…that you had changed."
"But, Elphaba, I have changed. Just not the way you thought."
"You acted like you hated me!" I cry. It is a meager expression of what I felt.
"I could never hate you!" he tells me forcefully, grabbing my hand. The air itself is still. For a moment, I think he is going to kiss me. But then Glinda runs in, breaking the spell, and Fiyero lets go of my hand.
"What is going on in here? Elphie? You're alive, oh, thank Oz!"
"Actually, he tried to end that whole me-being-alive thing," I can't resist throwing in.
"But you should go, Elphie, you shouldn't be here. They'll discoverate you," Glinda goes on, undaunted.
"Glinda," says Fiyero in an odd voice, "you should go." Glinda notices just who Fiyero's rifle is pointed at.
"What are you-"
"Just go back to the ball!" Glinda looks panicky. She begins to babble at the Wizard.
"Your Ozness, he means no disrespectation. Please, understand, we all went to school together…"
"Elphaba! Go!" Fiyero hisses at me, grabbing my hand again. Glinda sees.
"Fiyero! Have you misplaced your mind?" I can't move, my feet aren't obeying my brain. Fiyero nudges me, begins to pull me forward a bit.
"What are you doing?" Glinda cries.
"I'm going with her," Fiyero declares.
"What? You mean…all this time? The two of you…behind my back?" No, that's not right, she can't think that.
"No, Glinda, it wasn't like that!" I plead. I can't lose her, not again. But her face is carved from stone.
"Actually, it was," says Fiyero. We both glare at him. "But then, it wasn't," he amends. "Elphaba, come on, we've got to get out of here, before my guards come back!"
"I really don't think so," says the Wizard. He throws something on the floor. Almost immediately, both my mind and my limbs grow heavy and fogged.
"Wha-" I manage. Glinda and the Wizard seem unaffected.
"What is that stuff?" asks Glinda.
"Extract of poppies, and some other things," says the Wizard. "Madame Morrible gave it to me."
I try so hard to use my power. Of course it doesn't come.
"Fiyero," I try to say.
"I- I got you," he tells me. I am falling, falling, falling. Funny thing, I just realized it and I'm halfway to the floor. Fiyero catches me, for a moment, but the potion hits him, too, and he falls, and we tumble to the floor and it all goes dark.