Once the Wizard was done gloating, he raised up his arms, preparing to harness all the powers of life and death. He readied himself to become the strongest being in existence, a true God, the true Master of Death, and of all of Oz and reality itself. He would wield life, death and all the powers and secrets of the universe and reality itself. And all with just a flick of the wrist! But right as he readied himself to take that glorious throne, his spell went awry. He overloaded on power and it exploded back out of him in an out of control spiral.
The sky had gone dark at first, ominous and cold as he started to chant, but then as the winds picked up and began to roar across the land, even the Wizard started losing control. His voice was lost under the howling gale and he began to shake as his spell slipped out of his control. He could no longer undo that which he had done. He was now only an innocent bystander, helpless as the Ozmists, and the Hallows took over once more, their combined power creating something that no Ozian alone could ever hope to contain. But maybe someone outside of their realm could...
As the winds got louder, harder and faster and as the sky got darker and darker, everyone in Oz trembled.
"Twister!" Glinda shrieked, pointing towards the southern side of the forest. Sure enough, looming on the horizon was a giant gray funnel cloud. The Wizard screeched in terror, throwing himself inside the nearby unmarked grave where the Resurrection Stone had been found. As the twister drew closer and closer, the Wizard drew the Invisibility Cloak protectively around himself. Meanwhile, Glinda and Elphaba and all the other Ozmists could only stare in awestruck horror and wonder as the giant swirling storm suddenly spat something out of its funnel-shaped belly. It was a child. The child. The Dorothy girl. Just like the first time, she came falling right out of the sky and towards their country.
"Oh. My. Oz."
The girl was spat out of the tornado at an alarming speed, but as she began to fall back down to the earth, her descent slowed down until she landed as delicately as though she'd merely stepped out off a flight of stairs. In the background, as Dorothy's fall began to slow, the tornado began to dissipate and the moment Dorothy's dainty little foot made contact with the ground, the tornado vanished and the sun returned to the sky. In that one split second, the winds stopped in a dead halt, the tornado completely vanished and the sky switched back to a bright endless blue, faster than the blink of an eye. All the other Ozians who'd been watching the phenomenon and fearing the worst, an apocalypse maybe, could only scratch their heads as the day went completely back to normal for seemingly no reason at all.
"Is it over yet?!" the Wizard whimpered, peeking an eye out from his Invisibility Cloak. The moment he made eye contact with Dorothy, however, he hopped right up out of his grave and cried out in surprise.
"Dorothy?!" he shouted in disbelief.
"Mr. Wizard!" Dorothy exclaimed, just as surprised and confused. She took a happy step closer to him, but when she drew too close, she saw all the lines and wrinkles of madness etched into his face. Her smile fell and her steps faltered.
"Mr. Wizard?" she repeated, but this time, she didn't sound so confident.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded of her. Nope. He was definitely not the same sweet old grandpa she had met a few years back.
"I could ask you the same thing," she replied warily, taking a guard step backward.
What ensued was an argument over what was going on and, by the argument's climax, the Wizard made the daring move of threatening to take Dorothy's life if she didn't either get out of his way, or explain how and why she had come back at all.
"There's only room enough for one grandmaster sorcerer in this country, little girl!" he shrilled manically, brandishing the Elder Wand like a sword as he took a threatening step towards Dorothy. But Dorothy refused to surrender. Frightened and hurt as she was by the Wizard's betrayal, she refused to be cowed by such a bully. Instead, she only crossed her arms and stomped her foot, demanding that he play nice and stop being so nasty.
"I didn't ask for this!" she spat. "This is all your fault, so quit trying to pin it on me! How about you just try and help me home instead of insisting that I'm encroaching upon your territory or whatever. You're the one who called me here in the first place!" she accused, pouting.
For a tiny little girl with no unique features or discernible powers of her own, she was quite brave. Or maybe she was just really spoiled and stupid. Either way, no one else in all of Oz had ever taken such a direct and daring stand against the Wizard, bravely calling him out on his evil.
"Sweet Oz!" Glinda murmured as she watched the child continue to chew the Wizard out. Even Elphaba was looking at her with a newfound respect as she boldly strove to call the Wizard out on all of his sins and secrets. The other Ozmists were just as studied by Dorothy's raw gumption. The Wizard, however, was not at all amused by her admonishment. Instead, it only outraged the Wizard to the point of murder. He showed no hesitation or mercy when he raised his Elder Wand to kill Dorothy, but even though he cast the spell correctly, it rebounded off of Dorothy and hit him instead. He was dead before he even hit the ground.
"What? I don't understand!" Dorothy exclaimed, falling to her knees and touching the Wizard's lifeless body.
"You must be the truth Master of Death," Glinda replied, subdued. She'd watched the entire ensuing argument in horror, terrified at the thought of the Wizard willingly murdering a little girl. Perhaps Glinda was still angry at Dorothy for killing Elphaba, but listening to Dorothy speak reminded Glinda that she had only been a pawn to the Wizard and had not meant to harm Elphaba out of a personal grudge. Because of that, when the Wizard had threatened to kill Dorothy, Glinda had protested the loudest. Rival or not, she was still only a child! But in the end, Glinda's protestations had not been needed. For one, they were entirely useless. For another, the Wizard's killing curse had rebounded, striking him instead of Dorothy.
"But how?" Dorothy repeated, still searching nervously for a pulse. She wasn't sure which idea would have made her happier: finding out that the Wizard was still alive, or finding out that he not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead. At the same time, there was a tiny bit of exasperation in her face. Seriously! What was it with her and accidently killing magical Ozians? Was it karma? Or bad mojo? Or what?
"It was because you refused to bow," Elphaba finally spoke up as she figured it out first.
"What?" Dorothy echoed in confusion. Although it was clear she was still a bit wary of the green witch, she had been able to put it together that Elphaba was not the enemy, it was the Wizard. And Elphaba herself, though annoyed at having been killed by such a loser of a child, knew that there were bigger things going on at the moment than settling a petty little grudge. For that, she chose to temporarily ignore the fact that this little girl was her killer and, instead, focus on unraveling the mystery of the Deathly Hallows.
"It was because you refused to bow," Elphaba repeated. "Because you refused to surrender, even when the Wizard tried to kill you, you proved that you did not fear death. This act of bravery, strength and acceptance must've persuaded the Deathly Hallows to not harm you. After all, it's a rare day when someone can willingly look Death in the eye and only smile back," she paused to give a dry smile at this. Meanwhile, Glinda had since slapped a hand over her mouth in realization. It was just like the story had said!
"This makes perfect sense!" she cried and everyone else in the area, Ozmist and human alike, turned to her for her explanation.
"You see," she began, "In the legend, the three Hallows were each given to one of three brothers, but only one of them managed to live a full, long, happy life. It was the brother who received the Invisibility Cloak. This was because the first two brothers, with the Wand and Stone, abused their powers and tried to manipulate death, one way or the other. But the last brother merely used his gift to extend his own life, and when he felt ready to go, he had no qualms about it. He did not try to manipulate Death and, instead, willingly let things happen naturally. That's what made him the true Master of Death instead of another mere victim. Even though he never possessed the other two Hallows, his willingness to accept Death and not fear it was his most defining trait, and the most important one of a True Master!"
The little Ozmist turned to look Dorothy in the eyes.
"That is a trait Dorothy herself displayed while standing up to the Wizard!" she cried. "No matter how afraid you might've felt, Dorothy, you stood your ground. It had been the Wizard to cower at the first sign of danger, but you didn't even flinch. You, Dorothy, are the only one in all of Oz and its history to come in contact with all three Hallows, be unafraid, and survive. That display of strength was so great that even though you didn't technically beat the Wizard for control of the Hallows, they gave themselves up to you anyway!" she finished.
"Just like me and the Wand!" Elphaba breathed, thinking back years and years ago when the Clock had willingly surrendered the Wand to her, no fighting or murder required. Just a simple shift in power and ownership and a simple reacknowledgement of who was the worthiest. That was how the Hallows were truly passed around: a reassessment of worthiness. It was not about who was the physically strongest, but who was the spiritually strongest. And that was the true mark of a true Master of Death. It was not the one who could control Death the best, but who could understand and trust it the best. Who could transcend normal human thoughts about Death and start looking at it another way.
"That also explains why the Dragon never gave you a prophecy where you saved the day!" Glinda cried suddenly, turning to Elphaba.
"You're right!" the other Ozmist cried. Even though the Clock had given her the Wand, it never explicitly showed her becoming the True Master of Death. And why? Because Elphaba was never meant to be that person. All along, it had been Dorothy. But because her time had not come quite yet, the Clock had not shown the prophecy to Elphaba. Besides, since it had always been about Dorothy, it had not been any of Elphaba's business.
"This meant I was never meant to be the Master either," Glinda mused. "It was always going to be Dorothy... And the Clock knew it all along..."
"Impossible," Dorothy tried to deny, but deep in her heart, she knew it was true. All the other Ozmists began to nod their pearly heads, each of them coming to the same conclusion and understanding that Elphaba and Glinda were already at. They began to revere Dorothy as the new and true, official Master of Death.
"But what should I do now?" she asked, still looking up to Glinda for help.
"Maybe you could use the Hallows to go home?" Glinda suggested.
"You think it'll work?" Dorothy asked.
"I don't know," Glinda replied ruefully. "But what else can you do except try?" and Dorothy had to agree to that.
Dorothy turned her back on the Ozmists then and wrapped the Cloak around her own shoulders before holding up the Wand and the Stone, just like the Wizard had earlier. The only difference was that Dorothy was far gentler and more certain. The Wizard had been mad, and a little afraid and insecure. His power had spiraled quickly out of his control. But Dorothy had far more stability than that and while she raised the Hallows up, they continued to stay within her control. They would not try to break free of her. She had a much better grip on herself and would be able to take the combined power of the Hallows, unlike the Wizard. So Dorothy was careful to raise the Hallows up gently and certainly.
"Wait!" Elphaba reached out a misty hand before Dorothy could try anything. The girl obediently lowered the Hallows again.
"Yes?" she asked her ex-enemy politely.
"Promise us that once you get home, you'll destroy those things immediately!" the green witch and a small smile spread across Dorothy's face.
"I promise," she replied. "And I'm sorry that I melted you. I didn't realize-" she added, sincerely apologetic.
"It's all water under the bridge now," Elphaba replied casually, dark eyes flickering appreciatively over to the Wizard's corpse.
"Is that really the most appropriate metaphor you could've used at a time like this?" Glinda asked softly, playfully elbowing the witch.
"Oh hush," Elpahab replied, but she was laughing too. Dorothy watched with a smile etched upon her own face, sincerely glad to have obtained forgiveness fro the woman she had not meant to kill. It also made her feel good to see the witch looking so happy and human, not at all the haunted and broken specter she'd met in the castle those few years back.
But with all the final farewells and promises in order, Dorothy turned back around one last time and raised the Hallows high.
"There's no place like home!" she tried, and it worked. In a flash of brilliant rainbow light, Dorothy was gone.
"I can't believe that actually worked," Elphaba grunted once the blinding light died back down to normal.
"I can't believe she actually remembered that old phrase and used it," Glinda replied with a snort.
"So what do we do now?" one of the other Ozmists finally piped up.
"Well, we wait," Glinda replied, and then she and the other Ozmists continued to look skyward to where Dorothy had vanished, somewhere over the rainbow. During that time, Glinda felt Elphaba intertwine their fingers. Glinda smiled and squeezed Elphaba's hand right back.
Dorothy made good on her vow and as soon as she got home, landing right next to the family farm's pig sty, she destroyed the Hallows at once. She tossed all three of them into one of the larger pieces of farm machinery and watched as they were ground up to dust. Maybe they were unbreakable in the Ozian world, but in her world, they were nothing more than a stick, a rock, and a shoddy old piece of cloth. It took less than five seconds to totally erase them from the universe forever, and their remains quickly mixed with all the other raw material trapped inside that machine.
Back in Oz, then, Elphaba, Glinda and the other Ozmists suddenly started to feel themselves fading out of existence.
"Oh my Oz! She did it! She really did it!" Glinda gasped as she felt herself grow lighter and lighter. Beside her, Elphaba looked just as excited. Even though the two of them and all the other Ozmists were literally fading right out of reality itself, none of them were anything other than excited and ready. After all, to a well-prepared mind such as theirs, Death was nothing but the next great adventure.
"Are you ready?" Elphaba whispered as she felt herself starting to rise upward into the ether.
"Of course!" Glinda replied, reaching out to grab the green girl's misty hand one last time. Then all of them vanished together until the Ozmist Forest's silvery glow had gone, reducing it to nothing more than a common woodland area.
But even though the magic was gone, the legacies of the Ozmists remained. Soon, the Wizard's corpse was all at that was left that was out of place in the forest, but it would spend the rest of eternity lying face down in the mud, left to rot alone while someone else would step up to take his throne and start turning Oz into the country it should've been long before he ever arrived. Then, as the next morning sun rose over the Ozmist Forest, now an empty and normal piece of land, the very last wisp of ghostly fog vanished forever, just like a morning dew, and all was right with the world once again.
AN: So what did you all think of the twist with Dorothy becoming the True Master? Do you approve or still think it should've been one of our two leading ladies? Also, again, forgive any lore that I am butchering in this fic. I needed some excuse to get Dorothy in power and this is how I did it. But either way, hope you all enjoyed the story!