Disclaimer, you know

The rest of that morning was spent with dorothy and alex alone in their new room. Idly chatting on the bed. He went into the closet and found that it had been expanded tenfold. The large cloth bag that he had put Dorothy's gifts in were sitting on what was once his chair that he preferred to keep next to Dorothy's bed. As dorothy walked in behind him, she looked up and noticed it was now tiered going upwards. She smiled, sat down, and opened his gifts for her and found that he had gotten her another plush kitten, which she would later put on her bedside table. As well as an ornamental porcelain one that she would keep with the jewelry cabinet in the closet that while she didn't wear anything from, still had a rather handy mirror. There were a few bags of peppermint candies that she did find rather pleasant. Something, however, that she found really touching, was a drawing. Something she wasn't aware alex was capable of. It was an incredibly detailed image of a grey wolf standing vigil, a kitten seated next to it. behind them, a full moon.

"I-I didn't know you were an artist." Dorothy said looking at him.

Alex smiled and sat down next to her.

"I didn't want you to, I told you, there are some things you don't know about me, I had Mads teach me how to draw, in our free time, whenever we were separated, I worked to make this." He said chuckling, "takes a whole new meaning after what recently transpired, doesn't it." he asks reaching into his pocket and pulling out the collar.

Dorothy giggled, setting the picture down. She leaned over and hugged him tightly. However, the voice of a woman they both recognized, but couldn't place echoed through the room.

"when you and your beast come to an agreement, the crystal will be able to shatter." The voice said sweetly

The room fell silent, for several moments they sat there, unsure what to say or do. The voice sounded familiar to them, but they couldn't place it.

"do you think anyone else heard that?" dorothy asked curiously.

"you think they would?" Alex asked in response

"fair enough." She said leaning forward and kissing him.

"I'll get it framed first chance I get." He said taking it from her and placing it gently on the chair.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll see to it." Madeline said appearing in the room giving them another fright in her usual way.

"For goodness…Mads is there a reason you always do this?" Alex asked curiously.

"Do I need to really have a reason at this point." She asked taking out her watch, opening it.

"You timing how long its going to take for one of us to give you a lecture?" Dorothy asked getting to her feet.

"Nope, I have it on good authority that things are about to get interesting, quite soon actually." Madeline said smiling.

"how soon?" The two of them replied.

Madeline, however, didn't respond, she looked as though she were counting down in her head. Alex took his own watch from his pocket and looked at it. it was about to strike 11. As far as he was aware his own watch and Madeline's were more than likely perfectly in sync considering how she preferred to do things.

"3, 2, 1." Madeline said smiling.

Just as she got down to one, and the hour ticked over. The floor began to shake quite violently. Then suddenly a big bang reverberated through the entire palace. It should everything, but nothing was knocked over or of kilter. Instead of wondering what had just caused it, alex jumped to the conclusion he knew best suited what they all knew likely happened. It didn't take long for dorothy to reach this conclusion either.

"Scarecrow and ace, they are, or rather, were working on the rainbow mover again, weren't they?" alex asked curiously.

"I think so, I came here from the chambers and they were heading into his workshop." Madeline said chuckling before putting her watch away and turning to dorothy, "I also have it on good authority that everything is fine, at least no one is hurt, but you two are going to be needed in the chambers." She added before vanishing.

Dorothy and alex shared a glance before making a quick exit from the closet. Alex grabbed the scepter as they left. It pinged excitedly, which in his mind usually meant even if what ever had just happened was a good thing then something they really didn't understand was about to follow. As they ran into the chambers they were met with both Aislynn and scarecrow covered in rainbow colored soot. Ozma trying to hold back giggling, and a young woman who seemed to be around their age that they didn't recognize.

She had for the most part, long raven black hair, with a streak of white going along the center with bright blue fibers around the sides for a few centimeters. Her eyes were an awkward mix of hazel and bright blue. She was incredibly pale, but had completely clear skin, no freckles, and only one noticeable blemish being a large gash along her right cheek that looked like it was still healing. She was wearing an outfit that she didn't seem too comfortable wearing. She was dressed similarly to how dorothy was at the moment. The exception being that on her feet she was wearing work boots similar to Alex's, except instead of them being black, they were more of a dark mahogany. However, once her eyes caught them she smiled.

"Oh, good, right on cue." She said with a grin.

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe we've met." Dorothy said, "but you sound like you expected us to be here." She added becoming a tad curious.

"She did." Came Glinda's voice as she came in behind them, "And you shouldn't be here, this isn't right." She added.

"Who is she?" Alex asked curiously.

"someone from your, or to be honest, our future." Glinda said sounding a bit miffed, "The last time we met you said this wouldn't be the last time I would see you." She said to the woman.

"yes, the order has to be maintained though, as it was explained to me before I jumped back, the timeline is in flux, someone intentionally is making it that way and I am supposed to ensure that everything happens as its supposed to and as it was explained to me to keep the timeline from imploding." The girl responded, "I wouldn't be here if I didn't need to be, this is how it happened." She added.

"so, time showed you the past, and sent you back here?" Aislynn asked dusting herself off.

"In a way, yes." She replied, "but Glinda is right, on any other occasion I shouldn't be here, but the timeline, as I said, is in flux, and I'm trying to figure out why, while keeping it intact." She added.

"how do we know we can trust you though?" Madeline asked appearing in the chambers now, "you appeared and said things were about to get interesting, I don't usually question things, so I went to get them, but how do I know that literally any of us trust you?" she asked again.

"yes, they did warn me about that." The woman said going through her dresses pockets before turning to dorothy, "You said you remembered this for the most part and there were two things I did, you couldn't remember the second one at the time, ah yes." She said pulling something out of her pockets.

On a silver chain that looked as if it were new, as opposed to what was on it, which wasn't. was what appeared to be a round, black metal object. It didn't take long for any of them to realize what it was.

"That's my watch." Alex said pulling his from his pocket again, "I wouldn't give that to anyone." He added.

"save for her." The woman replied smiling, "if it's any consolation I didn't forcibly take it away from you." She added.

"not really, but it proves nothing, I could have left it out on a table or something and you all figured it would be best to use that, as I'm quite protective of my things." He responded.

"I hate to say this, but alex does have a point, but let's hear your story for a start, who are you?" Madeline asked.

"I'm a friend, Glinda knows some things about me." She replied, "after saving her from her own mistake." She added.

Glinda opened her mouth to say something, however, alex quickly cut her off.

"actually, wait a tick, how do I know that's actually my watch?" Alex asked curiously, "anyone could make an imitation if they really had the innate desire to do so." He added.

"Yes, I know, like I said, considering the circumstances my own memory is actually quite a bit foggy." She replied," can't remember how I saw everything happen to the letter, but I do remember this." She added letting the watch hang from its chain in her hands.

Alex looked at his own watch, then to the copy, an idea popped into his head, but he didn't know where from. He took the body of the watch between his thumb and forefinger, slowly approaching the woman. He brought the watch closer to the one hanging from her fingers. Just as they were about to touch, a blue spark zapped between them. Pain shot through Alex's hand as he dropped his watch to the floor. The scepter letting out several pings as if it were laughing.

"temporal feedback, same watch, different points in time." Madeline said giggling

"well, good to know we all have a future." Ozma said breaking the silence she had kept till now, "but still you three don't really trust her do you?" she asked curiously.

"bout as far as I could probably throw her." Alex said shaking his hand to relieve the pain before looking the woman dead in the eyes

There was a kind of triumphant look to them. At the same time however, it looked mischievous. She giggled before pocketing her own version of the watch.

"another thing I do remember is that you had to get the watch fixed, if my memory serves and its not just there in our future then theres a watchmaker here in the business district, not far from the glasses shop." She said once she had finished giggling.

"but what was the point of that?" alex asked picking up his watch and holding it to his ear, it had indeed stopped.

"to prove that it was the same watch, I have no idea what compelled you to bring the watches together, and I don't assume I'll ever know." She said turning to dorothy and Glinda, "But still the mature one of us here doesn't trust me, I know that for a fact." She added looking Glinda in the eyes.

"look, I know where you come from, further up our timeline, but you are breaking the laws of time himself just being here." Glinda said still sounding annoyed.

"Time put me here, the timeline for now, for the most part is fixed, but every time it goes into flux there is a chance of the entire timeline collapsing in on itself because someone did something stupidly dangerous enough to cause ripples in history." The woman replied, "you'll work out who I am long before any of them do." She added, turning to alex, "and causing the watch to need repairs was the big thing I had to do, I still fail to understand why, as all I really understood was that moments before the rainbow mover malfunctioned and exploded, I had to be here." She went on.

"But who caused the damage? Can you at least tell us that?" scarecrow asked now that he had wiped the rainbow-colored soot from his eyes.

"no, though when it does happen the culprit will be incredibly obvious." She replied.

"still, and this is something that has just occurred to me, how do we know Glinda completely trusts you in the future?" Madeline asked curiously.

"good question, and one that is rather easily answered, we have about two more minutes before everyone else gets here, so I have to remember what it is I did, because when they get here I must be ready to leave, go back to my time and wait for the circumstances to line up that require me to jump back again for the next meeting." She replied looking around at all of them.

Dorothy and the woman's eyes met for a moment. There was something familiar about her. her mind told her she had never met this person before. But her heart told her otherwise. She trusted her, though like with Madeline, she wasn't entirely sure why. If this was someone they truly trusted, well at least while the time line was, what the woman described as, 'in flux'. Then at least she still had a future to look forward to. Something however, struck her as odd, but she wasn't sure what, and it bugged her. The woman noticed this and smiled before her attention was drawn to the scepter.

"oh, right, yes, you want to know how much you all trust me in the future, I still don't understand why the timeline doesn't just have me start with this." The woman said

Alex looked at the scepter, he had released it when he had dropped his watch. It was floating, now oddly silent. To him, none of this made sense, he still barely trusted the woman, though he preferred to see her as a girl in the similar vein of his cousin Eliza. There was something about her, something unusual. But instinct told him he wasn't getting the answers any time soon. They watched in silence as the woman raised her hand. The scepter pinged, the smoke swirling rapidly in the orb. It was confused as it had worked out what was going on and it knew that it shouldn't be possible. It flew right into her grasp. Glinda's jaw practically hit the floor at this point. As did just about everyone else's

"but…" Was all alex could say

Dorothy herself was at a loss for words. Whomever this person was, at least to her understanding of the fact. If she could wield the scepter, if the scepter could recognize her as a master, then this was someone they both trusted to keep them alive.

"yes, I can imagine this is quite shocking, to all of you, but you have to remember I've seen all this before, more as an observer though considering, in a way, where I come from and the circumstances that brought me here, technically you all are the ones who are the observers." She replied.

"and what are we observing? Exactly?" Aislynn asked, "If you can use the scepter it means that they either trust you, or it does." She added.

"you're observing what the future holds." She said turning to alex holding the scepter out to him, "I'm from your future, you have to remember I have for the most part, seen all this already, I'm just trying to make sure it all happens as its meant to." She added, "or rather, do so the best I can, in terms of precision, at least when there's magic involved, I'm essentially was a cement mixer would do for a fruit cake, In that I'm trying but it doesn't always work, I'm actually lucky I haven't been zapped out of existence, but I do ask that you guys not go seeking me out, I'll find you." She added letting go of the scepter going into her pockets and pulling out a small blue book.

"like we could even try?" Ozma said, "I may not know a lot about time itself, but if what you say is true, then we can't meet until time is in flux again." She added.

"quite." She replied flatly, taking a pencil from her pocket and scribbling something into the book.

Alex plucked the scepter from the air. Even with this demonstration, he still didn't trust her. which was a feat in its own right given the fact that apart from Madeline, there weren't too many people whom he didn't have trust in, save for himself now that the beast was on the playing field. However, at the moment ellie came in, the woman smiled at her, her job done, she vanished. Ellie stood there, wide-eyed for a moment.

"who was that?" ellie enquired, "and more importantly, what happened?" she asked walking over to her sister.

Glinda turned to her sister. She shook her head and sighed in defeat.

"it's a long story, and I don't know most of it, I trust Elphaba and nessa have stayed put?" Glinda asked curiously.

"still drinking tea with lady Cassandra." Ellie said nodding

"good, I have to talk to them about this." She said sighing.

"actually." Elena said coming into the room taking a moment to catch her breath, "I need you guys at the sick wing, something has come up." She said

Okay, I know this chapter was confusing, but I'll lead you with this question, because the answer to it isn't actually the obvious one. Who is the woman, and why is she able to take control of the scepter? Like I said, the answer is not the one you're expecting.