Disclaimer, meh.
After finishing her tea, dorothy returned to the room she had slept in and attempted to take her mind off alex by sketching, however she found herself doing a sketch of him from memory. Eventually she took up the collar and put it on, turning herself into a cat once more. Jumping up onto the bed, curling up into a ball, and dozing. She didn't want to think about alex, but it was all her mind could do. Talking with Elphaba and Nessarose didn't help much, which was what brought her back to the room in the first place. After a couple of hours, however, she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat.
"I don't suppose you plan on joining us for lunch in that form?" Elphaba asked from the doorway.
Dorothy sighed, got up, and jumped from the bed.
"you're going to have to remove the collar from me then." Dorothy said.
Elphaba smiled, knelt down, and removed the collar. Rapidly dorothy returned to her normal self. Taking the collar from Elphaba she set it down on the desk, resolving to use it again later. Elphaba however chuckled and walked over.
"do you mind if I take a look?" she asked referring to the sketch book.
"be my guest." Dorothy said sighing.
Elphaba smiled and flipped through it, admiring a lot of the art work. This specific sketchbook had a few more dress designs, and a few versions of the landscape she could see out side her window at emerald city. However, she got to the incomplete sketch of alex, and chuckled.
"is this him?" She asked curiously.
Dorothy nodded.
"as I haven't met him, yet, I can only assume this is a rather good likeness, but why'd you stop?" Elphaba asked curiously.
"because I'm trying to take my mind off him, it hurts to think about him, out there, I want to go after him, but they aren't going to let me leave this vault." Dorothy said sniffing.
"the hunt will find him, I promise you dear, no matter how long it takes, the wolves may be good at evading capture, but he ran, one of the few people to actually do so." Elphaba said continuing to flip through the book.
"I know, but, he didn't even say goodbye." Dorothy said sighing.
"and that's what hurts the most I'm sure?" Elphaba asked.
"not exactly, but it, well it's part of the reason." Dorothy said turning and sitting down on the bed.
"dorothy, I think I need to explain to you the full nature of that curse, if you're willing to hear me out." Elphaba said setting down the notebook and pulling around the chair from the desk.
"if you think it will help me understand it better, then by all means, I'll listen." Dorothy replied.
"the witch, she wanted something aggressive, something strong, we already had access to the flying monkeys which were great for causing some mayhem, but they were already known for that," She started, clearing her throat before continuing, "the kalidah is vicious and bloodthirsty, but if it attacked it didn't normally leave survivors, dragons, well capture and use of them is forbidden in most parts of oz, bees were an idea but they die too easily, she wanted something that people would fear, but could still survive an attack from, and so developed the wolves, a sort of hybrid with the giant creatures of Winkie country and the most aggressive wolves available." She said.
"but what does the curse from the cursed ones, as they call them, do, exactly?" dorothy asked worriedly.
"well, as I'm sure you're aware, it awakens all the bad qualities in people, and they enter a sort of dream state, fighting that bad side of themselves for full control, I only know of one guy to ever actually succeed in fighting it, the witch lured him to a cave where the first cursed ones were sleeping, he shared his story and then, as far as I'm aware, has remained silent ever since." Elphaba said
"and you mentioned that that side was now, permanently awake." Dorothy reminded her.
"yes, it will still be a fight for control once he changes back, if I weren't stuck in this vault and assuming all the notes the witch took still exist I probably could have developed something to stop the process entirely, but that last point is a big assumption." Elphaba said sighing.
"not very comforting though." Dorothy said wiping a tear from her eyes.
"I wasn't trying to be, and I'm not trying to justify the old Me's actions." Elphaba said placing a hand on Dorothy's shoulder.
This however, set something off in Dorothy's head. She grew angry, and for a moment, went off on her.
"NO!" Dorothy shouted.
"No?" Elphaba asked curiously.
"I'm sorry for snapping like this, but I don't want to hear either of you refer to the witches as 'the old you', this is the old you, the witches were their own people." Dorothy snapped angrily.
"but they were still us, we may not have been completely aware of it at the time, an unknown but powerful force in control, but it was still us deep down." Elphaba said trying to calm dorothy, only to achieve the opposite.
"No, they were a power, with your intelligence, using your body, the force contained inside the hourglass, a curse of its own, and I've heard its whispers, I've seen the past, you shouldn't apologize for what the witch of the west did, because that wasn't you, Elphaba wouldn't do the things the witch did." Dorothy said.
"she's angry again I see." Nessarose said coming into the room.
"Nessa, how much of that did you hear?" Elphaba asked.
"just that last part, why?" Nessarose asked curiously.
"Because she just said, she heard the whispers of the hourglass, it tried to target her." Elphaba said worriedly
Nessarose's face immediately went from curious to concerned. But she sighed with relief.
"at least she didn't touch it." Nessarose said sighing.
"you followed me, rather unwillingly, but you followed me Nessa, the memory of the whispers remains, but for the life of me I can't remember what compelled me to take the hourglass." Elphaba said squeezing her eyes shut.
"Time's theory on why it tried to call to me was because I was one of the few people escape its power, prophecy or not it would have killed me, and his theory is whatever the force contained inside is, it wants to see what someone with my kind of luck and abilities could do with its power." Dorothy said gulping, "and that idea frightens me." She continued.
"that's good, that's how you should feel about that, there's an adage, absolute power corrupts absolutely, or something like that, and that's what the hourglass seems to offer." Elphaba said opening her eyes.
"Well, let's not dwell on this subject, especially when it comes to who tried to kill whom between you two." Nessarose said attempting to change the subject.
"on one condition." Dorothy said quickly.
"hmm?" The sisters replied.
"don't refer to the actions of the witches as the old versions of yourselves, the way you are now, this is what you are, what you're meant to be, the witches, as Glinda described them, were corrupt, almost no one remembers you two, save for a few, Glinda, Locasta, I assume the professor, Cassandra, and Tim, as well as the staff at the winter house." Dorothy said.
"that place is still standing? Huh, good to know our parent's protections held, however on that subject, dorothy I don't know if my brother has told you about older customs, but I would like to offer you that old castle I had inhabited for a time." Elphaba said before dorothy cut her off.
"already in my possession not that I plan on properly using it, I'm surprised he didn't tell you." Dorothy said pushing herself into a more comfortable position.
"I think he tried too, but we wouldn't listen, I'm glad people have rebuilt their lives, but it hurts too much to think about." Elphaba said.
Dorothy nodded, she knew what it was like to have memories cause pain. She wouldn't admit it, but this led to another question.
"how come he didn't try to bring your parents back?" dorothy asked.
"no point, they've been dead too long for a start, but both his circumstances and ours were unique cases, as you've argued, the witches were separate entities from us, using our bodies as vessels. He never even made it to the afterlife, got stuck in, I believe the word death uses to describe it, is limbo, anyways, we were offered a second chance at life, the argument being when you summoned us at castle grey being one of the main points." Elphaba said.
"secondly, as you have also argued, no one really remembers us as we were." Nessarose said leaning against the door frame.
"well, to me, you've earned the redemption, and, maybe I'll look into getting you three a pardon." Dorothy said.
"that would require royal authorization and a mountain of paperwork, or, if you were really special and somehow they took a proper liking to you, the tribunal to overturn the sentencing, vote on it themselves." Nessarose said.
"well royal authorization isn't hard as Ozma is my friend, but I don't think either of us would want to do the paperwork, but wouldn't the tribunal have to go back to the council for that?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"no, while they have no interest in pursuing politics in oz anymore, they do technically still have the power, if they vote on it, and set us free it means they and whoever caused the vote in the first place, take responsibility for anything that may or may not go wrong as a result." Elphaba said pointing her sister to the sketch book.
"that's a risk I'm willing to take, you've been stuck in here too long, I'll see if I can…" Was as far as dorothy got before Elphaba leaned forward and placed a finger to her lips.
"Don't bother dear, if you ask me, this is where the two of us belong, you may not associate us with the witches, but there are still, at least a dozen people who know the truth, what happened, do you really think everyone is as willing to forgive us as you are?" Elphaba asked curiously.
Dorothy sighed and pushed Elphaba's hand away.
"your brother got a second chance, and now you guys have one, and I don't think that being stuck in a vault is exactly a good way of proving you two can be better than the witches." Dorothy said sighing.
"These are some really beautiful drawings." Nessarose said quickly trying to change the subject.
Dorothy shook her head and sighed, she knew there was no point in trying to argue this with them any longer, they wouldn't hear it. first chance she got, she'd attempt to bargain with the tribunal, or have Madeline do it on her behalf as it didn't seem likely they'd let her out of the vault before Alex's was hunted down. However, this caused a new thought to race through her mind for a moment, what if alex caused harm to them, and they didn't let him go? That left her ill at ease, but she didn't want to think about it.
"thanks," she said turning her attention to Nessa, "so, lunch, sandwiches I assume?" she asked.
"Glinda gave my brother one of those lunchboxes she sends with all her soldiers we have sandwiches for lunch every day and tea with it and use the cooking pot for breakfast and dinner." Nessarose said continuing to flip through the sketchbook, until she came to something that made her smile, on the last page.
This made dorothy a tiny bit curious as she got up and smoothed down her dress.
"that's the last page, I'm no where near there in the book." Dorothy said walking over to her.
"and?" Nessarose asked teasingly.
"you're smiling, which means…" Dorothy said as the cogs in her head turned, suddenly it clicked.
Taking it from her, she looked, scrawled, rather messily but still readable, was a note, from alex.
"no matter what happens, what I change into, whatever I become, I will always love you, your big, protective wolf, Alexander, N teak?" she read, tears forming in her eyes and a question looming.
"he wrote it like an epitaph, what are you curious about?" Elphaba asked getting up and looking over her shoulder.
"his middle initial, of all the things I actually know about him, what he's willing to share anyways, there are two things I've never been too positive of because he seems reluctant to share them, his birthday, which I'll learn eventually, and his middle name, I didn't even know the initial for it." Dorothy said wiping her face again.
Elphaba thought this over for a minute before laughing, not at the remark, but at something else, and it soon clicked with Nessa as well.
"you want to know the amusing part?" Elphaba asked.
"I'll bite, sure, then we can break for lunch and I can sulk some more afterwards." Dorothy said.
"his initials are A, N, T." Elphaba said.
This struck dorothy for a loop, she wasn't sure how that was funny until she put some more thought into it. the letters, it didn't take her too long to see what was funny and when it hit her, she couldn't help but giggle.
"Now, that's a smile." Elphaba said.
"his initials spell ant, I wonder if that was intentional." Nessarose said.
"It's almost definitely why he wouldn't talk about it." Dorothy said still giggling.
Setting down the book, she smiled, in a slightly better mood, and the three of them went to the sitting room. After a few sandwiches dorothy found herself dozing only to be snapped back to her senses by once again the strong scent of peppermint and the smell of something good cooking.
"ah, good, your awake, brother dropped about two hours ago, he will be bringing your aunt and this Annabella person to join us, but he left this as well." Nessarose said picking up Dorothy's satchel from the coffee table and offering to her.
"I imagine they filled it with some things to help pass the time." Dorothy said taking it and going through it.
She was right, as there were a few books in there, it was one of the few times that the satchel had actually been used only for its intended purpose which was to haul books around. Her reading glasses her back in the front pocket which she took out and put on.
"Those look good on you, you should keep them." Nessarose said smiling.
"they're just for reading, I…" dorothy trailed off as her hand hit something cold and circular at the bottom of the satchel.
Feeling it for a moment, it was made of metal, she could tell that much. It wasn't perfect as it had a piece jutting out the top with grooves on it. and a chain attached. She knew instinctively what it was, pulling it out, Alex's watch, the one he had when he was struck by lightning, still ticking away the time. As she heard a small clock chime, she opened it.
"Seven?" Dorothy asked.
The clock chimed, and revealed it was indeed seven o'clock in the evening.
"you questioned that?" Elphaba asked, her voice coming from over by the fire place.
"with what this watch has been through I'm surprised its still able to keep time." Dorothy replied.
"well it looks like it's been through a fire." Nessarose said observing it.
"Hit by lightning, but close enough." Dorothy said, her voice breaking.
It took Nessarose a moment before she realized what was wrong.
"It was his? The watch I mean, it belongs to him?" Nessa asked curiously.
Dorothy said nothing, she merely nodded and closed it, clutching it against her chest, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. At that moment the barrier reformed, and the vault door opened. Immediately dorothy found herself both unready and rather unwilling to face Annabella. However, the small girl didn't seem to care. She quietly walked over, climbed up onto the sofa, and hugged her, tighter than she had ever done so before, pressing her face against Dorothy's chest. It was all either of them could do. Dorothy knew if she said anything she might not be able to hold it back. And Annabella felt the same way. Her aunt however turned to the jester and nodded.
"I'll come back in a few hours, give you guys some, alone time." He said backing out of the vault.
Dorothy found herself feeling as though she couldn't face her aunt either, she had caused harm, trying to run after alex the previous night. And as this realization once again hit her, she realized she should have apologized to Glinda earlier that morning. Cursing herself for neglecting to do so. She could feel the tears streaking down her face once again. She soon began crying again. Her aunt sat down next to her, wrapped her arms around her, and rubbed her back in a circular motion.
"it's alright, sweetheart, just let it all out." Em said, trying to be as comforting as possible.
She cried, embracing both her aunt and Annabella, she cried for a good couple of minutes before regaining her composure, sniffing, and wiping her face with her hands.
"she doesn't like crying that much, does she?" Elphaba asked curiously.
"she prefers to bottle her emotions." Annabella said still not looking over to them.
"that's not healthy." Nessa replied.
"preaching to the choir." Dorothy said before her aunt could say anything.
"beg pardon dear?" Elphaba asked.
"it's sort of a touchy subject with her, she can cry for a good half an hour, but she doesn't let the full extent of her feelings show, we've been telling her that she needs to let go, to let it all out, but she never does, a river ready to burst its banks." Em said sighing.
"I assume you're her aunt?" Nessa asked curiously.
"Emily gale, yes, you are Nessarose I assume?" Em asked extending a hand.
"correct, the woman over there using the cooking pot is Elphaba, but dorothy hasn't been all gloom today, a tad depressed but that's natural for someone in your position, we have had a good laugh today though." Nessa replied.
"what about?" Annabella asked curiously.
"and this is Annabella?" Nessa asked.
Annabella glanced over and nodded before hiding her face against Dorothy's chest again.
"well, about his name, Alex's, or rather the initials." Elphaba said coming over with the cooking pot and setting it on a wood plate on the table.
Looking in it, it was now filled with some kind of stew. It smelled good but dorothy wasn't entirely positive of the pot's contents.
"don't worry, the pot is also Glinda's." Nessa said now reassuring dorothy.
"what about the initials?" Em asked curiously.
"do you know his full name?" Dorothy asked.
"I do, but I know he never talked about it, A, N, T. what about it?" em asked curiously while Annabella snickered.
"You'll get it in a moment Emily." Elphaba said.
And she did, almost immediately she chuckled.
"Oh, I hadn't thought about that." Em said.
"his initials spell ant." Annabella said giggling as she turned to finally face them.
"what's your full name little one?" Elphaba asked curiously.
"Annabella, Regina, teak." Annabella said smiling now.
"A, R, T, that's art, clever, was that an intentional thing?" Nessa asked curiously.
"I assume so, but you'd have to ask them." Em said.
"well, Emily, you want to serve or shall we?" Elphaba asked referring to the pot.
"if you would like me to, and call me Em, please, unless its serious or professional." Em said.
"Em it is then, you can call Nessa, Nessa if you'd like, just about everyone else does." Elphaba said.
"but Glinda is the only one, allowed to call Elphaba, Elphie, Locasta being an exception if Glinda happens to be in the room" Nessa interjected.
"so, Nessa is a nickname, but Elphie, that's a pet name isn't it?" em asked serving the stew.
"I don't really like it, but it pleases her to do so, she was, and hopefully still will be, my best friend." Elphaba said sighing.
"despite how much you guys have fallen out, she seems to still like you, the way you two hugged earlier, Glinda seemed a bit broken when she returned to the city." Em said.
"really? She normally doesn't let that show unless she's alone." Elphaba said starting to eat.
"after she gave ellie orders from dorothy supposedly to stop trying to run off." Em started before taking a spoonful of stew, "I approached her about the condition my niece was in, and she said she wished she could have stayed longer, but ellie had been getting restless with Locasta." She went on.
"typical upland behavior, their father doesn't still wear those ridiculous outfits does he?" Nessa asked trying to stifle a chuckle.
"oh, he most certainly does, always the eccentric it seems." Em said
The five of them shared a laugh before eating in silence. This went on for about an hour. Annabella set here bowl down on the table and leaned against dorothy.
"I miss him." She said.
Dorothy looked down at the girl, she knew what Annabella was going through. Their eyes met for a moment and the two of them both knew they each harbored their own regrets. Annabella knew she didn't have any control over what happened to alex, but dorothy also harbored guilt, feeling that she could have done something to save him. She wanted to be strong for Annabella and it took all of her strength and willpower not to start crying again.
"I miss him too Annabella," she said starting to stroke her hair, "but they will find him, and they will bring him home, if they don't, I'll go out and find him myself." Dorothy said trying to sound encouraging.
"No, you won't." Annabella said sniffing, "they won't let you, they want you safe, sound, and out of harms way." She said.
"and that's stopped her before?" Em asked.
Annabella said nothing, she simply closed her eyes and hid her face. Dorothy wanted to say something, but found she couldn't, she had to focus on being strong. They wanted her here, behind a wall she couldn't penetrate, not without help. However, her thoughts were broken by the vault door opening. The jester walking in followed by Fayth and zinnia.
"Ms. Elphaba, Miss Nessarose, good to see you two are keeping your good behavior up." Fayth said smiling.
"why are you here?" Elphaba asked curiously.
"a small matter concerning Ms. Gale was brought to our attention that needs to be addressed before tomorrow morning when the hunt goes out to search for him." Zinnia said.
Okay, yes another two parter, and the title is a pun.
