Rifiuto: Non Miriena

A/N: Written: 2010. Rewritten: 2015. Found: 2018.- Licia

Emerald City Proper

The doors shut behind her with a soft click.

"Madame."

She waved briefly to the guards, her jacket billowing slightly out behind her. The palace was bustling, as usual, but was also unusually quiet. Servants nodded to the young woman as they hurried past, going about their duties. "I'm back!"

Silence met her, and after several moments, she made a beeline towards the Wizard's personal study. Once before the simple Quoxwood door, she knocked softly, mindful of the work he was often wrapped up in. After several minutes, she turned, nodding to the guard posted outside. He nodded, stepping away as the young Grand Vizier opened the study door and slipped inside, shutting it softly behind her.

He wasn't a very tall man, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz; in actuality, he was fairly short in stature, with a head of greying hair and small, circular glasses that always perched precariously on the end of his nose. His mustache, as greying as his hair, was trimmed neatly, giving him a 'distinguished professor' look. At the moment, as she shut the door softly behind her, she noticed how he slouched within the wing-backed leather chair, looking as though the weight of a thousand universes rested upon his shoulders.

With a soft sigh, she leaned back against the door, crossing her hands in front of her, the black clutch she held dangling between her fingers. At the moment, she was no longer Emerald City royalty, but a girl at the tender age of twenty, observing the man who had changed her entire life in a single year. "How long have you been sitting like this?"

A moment passed, before the Wizard slowly lifted his head. "When did you get back?"

"Few minutes ago."

"How did everything go with Shiz?"

She pushed herself away from the door, wandering towards his desk. "As well as expected. You know, despite the fact that I ran into my former roommate and the boy I've had a crush on since freshman year." She shrugged. "The school understands. They're happy for me. At least I think they are." She took a seat in the chair on the other side of his desk, automatically crossing her ankles before removing her jacket and draping it over the back.

He nodded. "Good." His dark eyes moved up, meeting her gaze. "Your former roommate? The Upland girl?"

"The one and only." She replied, pursing her lips briefly. A sigh escaped her throat. "And... Fiyero Tigelaar, Crown Prince of the Vinkus." She screwed up her mouth with a shake of her head. "I was hoping to get in and out without being noticed by anyone, and instead, I get noticed by the two people I want to see the least at the moment."

"The least?" He raised an eyebrow, and, she shrugged.

"It's been a year. And I just... vanished into the crowds of the City that day, leaving Glinda to return to Shiz alone, without a reason, without an explanation, without an apology. And then I show up at Shiz a year later to withdraw, and run into both of them. When they asked why, all I said it was for personal reasons that I chose to stay. That... that you offered me something personal in return for my staying." She nodded to the object he held, that he'd been intently studying before she walked in. "I didn't tell them that it was a piece of my past that was given back to me, or a new family." A tiny smile tugged at the Wizard's lips, and after a moment, he held out the object. Without a word, she reached out, taking the small, green glass bottle. "Mine?"

He shook his head. "Mine."

She nodded. "Thinking of her again?"

"I always think of her, Elphaba. Every time I look at you, I see her." He gently slid something towards her, and she set the bottle down, reaching out to pick it up.

A woman stared back at her, a woman who looked near identical to her. She was laughing, a grin tugging at her features, the corners of her eyes crinkling in delight. She radiated joy and happiness, and it was a moment, before Elphaba realized that the woman was holding a toddler in her arms. Her own dark eyes darted up to the Wizard, and he nodded once. "This... it's... my mother." She squinted, studying the photograph closer. "And... is that... me?"

He nodded again, and she felt her heart begin to skip a beat. Slowly, she turned the photograph over, reading the slanted scrawl on the back that was his.

Melinda and Eleanora

Kansas City, Kansas, 1939

"Nineteen-thirty-eight? I don't understand. Why does it say 'Kansas'; that's your world. My mother was Ozian-"

He sat up, reaching out and taking the photograph to study it. "Your mother is Ozian. I met her twenty-two years ago, when I first arrived in Oz. She was a young college student, willing to help a stranger find his way around town for a night. We got to talking, got to be good friends, and it developed into something more. At one point, she asked to come back to my world with me, and she did." Elphaba's gaze darted to the photograph. "She lived with me in my world for a year, before we got pregnant with you. A child of two worlds you are, but you were born in my world. A year after this photograph was taken, your mother began to fall ill; she couldn't stay in my world any longer, and we returned to Oz."

"So it... being in your world was... making her sick?" Dark eyebrows knit together in confusion. He nodded.

"Your mother is full Ozian. You are half."

"So if I were to go to your world-"

"You would be able to handle it, because you are a part of me." He replied, turning his gaze back to the photograph. Gently, he traced the two faces. "Time... time is a tricky thing in Oz." He sighed. "We returned to Oz, the three of us, but by the time we touched down in Munchkinland, you were gone."

"It erased me." She whispered in realization, and he shrugged.

"Time runs slower here. You were a toddler in my world, but here... your mother was pregnant with you. When we discovered what had happened-" He sighed, slumping back in the chair, and Elphaba took the photograph again. "That photograph was all I had left of you. Even though here, your mother was pregnant with you, you were still gone from our lives. Our return to Oz drove us apart, and she left. I know she became involved with that minister, and to pass off her pregnancy, claimed it was his child she carried. A hasty marriage took place, from what I could figure, and you were born nine months later."

"Green. I was born green." The hurt tone bit into him, and he winced.

"Here you were. But in my world, you were born with skin the color of fresh cream, and the thickest auburn hair I had ever seen."

"So my skin goes green and my hair goes black here."

"I don't know what caused it-"

"This, maybe?" She offered, pushing the bottle towards him. "Whatever was in here, you were giving my mother-"

"That was a tonic, created to alleviate depression. In my world, it did just that. I don't know why it did what it did here. Perhaps the components are different here in Oz. But either way, you were born as you were, and I never saw your mother again. I dreamt of finding her, of taking her back to my world, but by then it was too late. She was gone, and I had no idea how to find you, or even if you were still the little girl we had brought into the world back in thirty-eight. And then you showed up here a year ago with that bottle in hand, and I just knew, that fate- that Melinda- had sent you to me. Seeing you again reminded me that I had to do all I could to make this right. I had to get my daughter back, somehow."

Elphaba sat back, silent. Though something nagged at her, something she had never even considered- and not the entire mound of loose ends, just one piece of the yarn ball. After a moment, she raised her dark eyes to his, biting her lip. "If... if we went back... to your world... would my skin look like yours? Or would I cease to exist at all?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. Because you were born of my world, I would think you'd exist in my world, and that you'd return to your real skin color. But I'm not entirely sure. Just as I don't know if Melinda would return to us if we returned to my world, or if Death is a river, cutting across all worlds." He lapsed into silence again, and after a moment, she sighed, standing.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I could use something to eat. Lunch?"

She waited, and after several moments, he chuckled, getting up and moving around the desk to take her hand. He patted it gently, giving her a gentle smile. "Lunch sounds wonderful."