Disclaimer, *insert guff here*

Dorothy awoke giggling, something was pushing against her feet and it tickled. Opening her eyes, she found herself back in the room she had been occupying in the vault. Pushing herself into a sitting position she smiled as she found Pockets at the foot of the bed. The small cat climbed onto her lap and purred.

"you've been asleep for almost two whole days you know that?" pockets asked curiously.

"I figured, that leaves roughly two and a half days before I can go after alex." Dorothy said.

"two separate search parties have already gone searching for him." Pockets said.

"I assume one being the hunt, the other consisting of Glinda's army?" dorothy asked curiously as her stomach growled.

"mom wouldn't let toto or I come here for the whole of yesterday, toto doesn't seem to like that woman, the taller one." Pockets said.

"Elphaba? No, I imagine he wouldn't." Dorothy said stretching, she didn't know why, considering the last couple of days, but she was in a good mood.

"any reasons why?" Pockets asked as she jumped from the bed.

"well she was formerly the witch of the west, I imagine he's guarding the scepter?" dorothy asked curiously.

"like a watch dog, basket is on the coffee table, I'll go get him." Pockets said quickly running out.

Getting to her feet and stretching, dorothy smiled. She still wasn't sure what had her in such a good mood. Her thoughts moved to alex again, but she found herself in an odd state of euphoria. As she reached the sitting room she found the door still standing open. Elphaba's figure standing in it.

"Impressive what you've done with that old broom stick you know." Elphaba said smiling.

"it wasn't my idea initially, Glinda made the orb, but that thing has been through a lot." Dorothy said grabbing a sandwich from the basket on the table.

"does it zap anyone who tries to touch it?" Elphaba asked curiously.

"only if I don't physically hand it to them, the only other person able to do it otherwise is alex, the scepter obeys him as well without any problem." Dorothy said wolfing down a sandwich.

"woah there, take it easy, you're liable to get a stomach ache eating like that!" Elphaba said chuckling.

"I know there's more than one party looking for him." Dorothy said finishing the sandwich and starting another.

"you should probably take a rest, you've been asleep since yesterday, that much magic flowing through you, I'm surprised you're actually able to walk properly let alone stand." Elphaba said walking over to her.

It was then that something clicked in Dorothy's mind, something she wanted to check after that. She looked around, finding a hand mirror also on the coffee table, she smiled. Picking it up, her hair was now leaning towards a bright brown closer to blonde. She smiled a big, toothy grin.

"Golly, that's great." She said setting it down carefully.

"she's on a natural high right now, she's incredibly happy, it's all that energy, messed with her a bit, its why I left the mirror in here." Madeline said appearing in the room with a cup of tea causing Elphaba to jump.

"Sweet Lurline, do you do that often?" Elphaba asked trying to catch her breath.

"yes, and probably best to keep her away from both the scepter and the slippers." Madeline said sighing and taking a loud sip from her cup.

Dorothy's head was swimming in happiness now. Still she sat down and enjoyed another sandwich as toto and pockets both ran into the room. Toto jumped onto Dorothy's lap.

"toto, there you are, who's a good boy?" Dorothy asked picking him up and holding him, so they were making eye contact.

"what's gotten into her?" toto asked turning to Madeline.

"natural high toto, kinda like what you feel when someone starts teasing you with a ball." Madeline replied.

"you can understand him as well?" Elphaba asked curiously.

"yea…bit of an accident on Dorothy's part, but yea." Madeline said sighing as she walked over to dorothy.

Taking toto from her, she immediately placed a finger on Dorothy's forehead.

"wow, you are a mess right now, completely muddled." Madeline said.

"I'm just happy to be alive right now." Dorothy said in a singsong tone.

"Elphie! Are you down here?" came Glinda's voice.

"Yes Glin!" she called back.

Immediately footsteps were heard and in a moment Glinda was standing next to Elphaba, looking at dorothy.

"well, I can't say I didn't know this would happen." She mumbled, "keep her away from the scepter and slippers, at least for the rest of the day or until she passes out again." She added.

"already gave that warning." Madeline said sighing.

"did you at least make her a cup of tea?" Glinda asked.

"why do I need tea?" Dorothy asked.

"to calm you down, over exert yourself in this state and you're liable to pass out dear." Glinda said walking over to her,

She took Dorothy's chin in her hand and looked her over quizzically.

"Few hours, she'll be fine, haven't heard any word from Alyssa." Glinda said.

"Ooo, is she back?" Dorothy asked with genuine awe

"she's leading the other search party for alex, her, Terrance, Mr. teak, Morris, Wendell and Jack." Glinda said

"couldn't let ellie go then huh?" dorothy asked curiously.

"look, I won't say anymore till you've had some tea and stop being bubbly, you're liable to hurt yourself in this state." Glinda said as Madeline conjured a hot cup of tea.

"it'll be her own fault if she does and she knows it." Madeline said.

"no problem having a laugh at her expense though." Pockets said

Dorothy giggled taking the tea from Madeline, before thought popped into her head.

"doesn't sending a search party yourself violate my end of the bargain?" dorothy asked.

"no, unfortunately none of us had foresight to insert a clause for that." Zinnia said appearing behind her.

Dorothy turned and looked up at her.

"still around I see, watching me wasn't you?" dorothy asked giggling again.

"okay, grammar for a start, secondly of course, someone has to be here to tell you whether you succeeded or failed." Zinnia said.

"also, the fact that nessa and I weren't immediately pulled back in here would be a giveaway." Elphaba said.

"you'll have to explain how that works at some point." Dorothy said taking another sandwich from the pack.

"How many is that now?" Madeline asked.

"her third." Elphaba said.

"Okay, I'm cutting you off dear, before you get sick." Glinda said giggling.

"I don't see how that's funny?" Zinnia said.

"its more adorable than it is funny if anything, but even thinking about wolfing a sandwich down like that makes me feel sick" Madeline said grasping her stomach.

"and you think you consistently dropping in the way you do doesn't nearly scare the living daylights out of people?" Dorothy asked,

"fair, but no correlation." Madeline said.

"So…Elphie?" Glinda asked turning to her friend.

"yes glin?" Elphaba asked curiously.

"don't you have an object of power to rebuild?" Glinda asked smiling teasingly.

"once my brother is done hurting himself while making a new jester staff I'll gladly occupy a chair in rose's work shop and begin restoring my original object." Elphaba said causing dorothy to choke on her tea.

"I thought that was the broomstick?" dorothy asked clearing her throat.

"no, actually, my original object was a large umbrella, I'm going to have to restore the fabric, it'll be a job in itself.

"why not just go to the seamstress with it?" Zinnia asked curiously.

"I can name a few reasons." Glinda said.

"well, glin, if you could maybe you could take the umbrella or a sample of cloth from it to the seamstress and get the color I need?" Elphaba asked, batting her eyebrows in a mocking way so sickening that it made both dorothy and Madeline shiver.

"Sure, where is it?" Glinda asked curiously.

"you know my brother has an entire secret room dedicated to our stuff?" Elphaba asked walking out.

Glinda smiled and ran after her, Madeline sighed and shook her head.

"friends till the end, good for them." Madeline said sighing and picking toto up off the floor and putting him into Dorothy's lap.

The feeling of euphoria had mostly faded as she sipped the tea that had been given to her. Her head was now swimming, and now she felt a bit sick. As well as a bit tired.

"Maddie, did you put poppy essence in this tea?" dorothy asked curiously.

"No, its chamomile, its supposed to help you relax, makes me sick but it does help." Madeline said.

"and you gave her some, because?" pockets asked jumping onto the table and sniffing it.

"because it works." Madeline said as Ellie came into the room.

"Feeling better?" she asked curiously.

"much, thank you ellie." Dorothy said sighing.

Ellie smiled and sat down next to her best friend. Embracing her.

"you burned up a lot of energy doing that." Ellie said smiling.

"well, if you guys are all set here, I'm going back to my outside observing." Zinnia said, "also as a caveat for not having a clause for another search party, since one of them is the boy's father, we couldn't count it even if we wanted to, as family he sort of overpowers that ruling." She added

Dorothy nodded and zinnia smiled before vanishing. Dorothy had almost finished her tea when an extra loud, extra pained sounding scream was heard.

"he's been having issues like since yesterday after he gave his sister back her wand. They've all been having a laugh at his expense." Ellie said looking over to the door to the vault.

"yea, without the full extent of his powers he's weaker, but I'm not sure they didn't take part of his brain power either." Madeline said causing a snort from ellie.

"But can't one rebuild their power over time?" ellie asked looking over at Madeline.

"yes, but that can take hundreds if not thousands of years." She replied sighing.

"Oh." Was all she could say.

Meanwhile, in the forest, both search parties seemed to somehow be going in circles and consistently meeting up with each other. The happy couple had cut their honeymoon a week short when they had heard what had happened. Mr. teak had organized the search party with the strongest people he felt safe around. His eyesight was getting poorer, which was what mostly convinced him to go after his son. However, both parties were still miles off from where they would be able to find him. Finley and his troupe consisting of a lot of his older comrades. And recently joined by Fangs the Hound as the jester sent him after alex the night he changed. Not that the jester would have ever admitted this to dorothy or anyone else for that matter.

"So, what exactly do we do when we find him?" Terrance asked curiously, "you still haven't explained that." He went on.

"Well right now its just a race to find him, you know the hunts still out here, and you know I fear the worst, since we are both on his trail, we have to find him first, I don't care what you guys do, but I'm going to try to appeal to the part of my son that is still in there." Mr. teak said.

"and you're expecting that to work?" Jack asked.

"honestly I don't know what to expect, but the worse that can happen is he harms me, but his better nature is what I'm hoping to appeal to, not his former, or rather, current and reawakened nature." Mr. teak said, "and I'm honestly shocked you still exist with him the way he is now."

"yea, our connection isn't like dorothy and Madeline's I literally just exist for the benefit of Maddie, not much more than that, if alex is seriously injure, I feel it, if he were to die, I'm not entirely sure what would become of me." Jack replied.

"so, strange name for someone who just exists, Franklin, Jackson, whatever your last name is." Mr. teak said.

"You should talk, you gave your son the initials A, N, T which spells ant" jack said.

"and my daughter, A, R, T, which is art." Mr. Teak said.

"was that intentional?" Alyssa asked curiously.

"very much so, just as my name is Horace Ignatius, Teak." Mr. teak said sighing.

"your wife?" Morris asked.

"originally Madison Annabelle, Alistair, she is now Madison Annabelle, teak." Mr. teak said, "not entirely intentional on my part, but hey it carries on the odd naming conventions our family has." He went on.

"what about your late father?" Wendell asked.

"and this is where we change the subject, I'm not going to listen to him rant on that, we got enough of that at the wedding." Alyssa said.

"well, at least the weather is nice." Jack said looking up at the sky.