Disclaimer, *Generic Fluff here*

.,That day it didn't take long for the plan to become what it usually did during an emergency, which was move everything to Diggs, manor. Jessica and Jenny were surprised when they had heard what happened, but did their best to keep their composure. Bird or not, Aislynn was still for all intents and purposes in charge of them. It was a large house, plenty of room to move around, and less that could easily knocked over than there was in the gale farmhouse. Annabella had positioned herself on a couch cushion, she wanted really hard to be brave, to be strong, but she was finding it hard because as a wolf pup, she was small and felt smaller than she looked. She couldn't jump high like Dorothy, she couldn't fly like ace, the Uplands, or the Griffiths, Jon was using this experience as a bit of academic experience, so the only thing that came as any of a comfort to her was that she and Betsy were in the same boat. And even that wasn't much of one.

By the afternoon, Eliza had been called in, she was Home schooled, so she wasn't missing much in that respect. Mr. Alistair had Brought Ellie, Zeb, and Trot to the manor and stuck around to try and console his niece, but to no avail. When Alex and the beast contacted them, and delivered the news about Roquat they were particularly disturbed, both by the fact that he was no longer going to be of any help, but also by the fact that the situation was being treated as though this had not come as much of a surprise.

When night fell over the manor, Dorothy found herself, Mr. and Mrs. teak, and trot on the back patio with Annabella, she had asked if she could go outside. With Dorothy had asked her what for, she didn't answer. But Dorothy and trot quickly found out.

"AROOOOOOOOOO!" Annabella howled into the night, the howling was long, and sad.

"it breaks my heart that she has to be like this." Dorothy said Hiccupping

Within moments she was sitting next to Trot in the body of a cat again.

"arf arf AROOOOOOOOOO!" she howled again.

"how is she?" Eliza asked coming up behind them.

Annabella let out another howl, which made Eliza look at her sadly.

"I think she's just trying to run it through her system, otherwise, well you can hear her." Mr. teak said sighing.

"And you two?" Eliza asked turning to her aunt and uncle.

"how do you think?" Mrs. teak snapped out.

This made all of them jump back. They were used to Mr. teak or Alex giving an outburst. But none of them were expecting one from Mrs. teak. She was usually the level-headed one between the two of them. Although given the circumstances neither Dorothy, trot, or Eliza could blame her for being miffed. Annabella let out another long, sad howl. Without another word, Eliza let out a long sigh and sat down next to them. After a few more minutes of howling, Annabella began sitting quietly. After a few minutes, Dorothy then found herself back in her normal shape. Walking over to Annabella, she scooped her up into her arms.

"How are you feeling now?" Dorothy asked curiously.

"better, thank you." Annabella said nuzzling her.

Dorothy smiled warmly, bringing her back over to her parents. Placing her in the care of her mother.

back in Oz.

Alex had been spending most of the evening in Ozma's room keeping her company. He and the beast had tried everything they could think of to attempt to destroy the barrier. But no matter what they threw at it, nothing worked.

"well, I can't say I'm too shocked." Ozma said sighing tapping the barrier, "Mother Nature blessed them with a lot of power, but they are also known to have stolen magic." She went on

She had sat down on the floor and placed her feet against the barrier. Looking at the beast who was messing about with Alex's sword.

"It seems like we could throw an army at this thing, and it would literally bounce off." The beast said tapping it with Alex's sword.

"generally the purpose of a barrier, keep and things out while keeping something or someone in." Ozma said bringing her knees up against her chest.

Eventually Elphaba came in with the small crystal ball that sat on Glinda's shelf in her chambers. And in it they watched the goings on in Kansas. Eventually they found themselves watching Annabella. Ozma thought it was sad, but at the same time she found it impossible to look away. Both Alex and the beast however, began to feel sad and furious.

"its just maddening, seeing her like that." The beast said with a growl, waving his hand over the ball causing it to go dark.

Alex picked it up and carefully brought it over to one of the dressers, setting it on top of it.

"Dorothy and Elphaba both asked us not to do or try anything rash, but it's really hard to resist the urge to try and find those imps." Alex said sounding rather irritated

"but getting angry about or actually acting on those impulses isn't going to help anyone or anything." Ozma said sweetly, trying to calm the both of them down.

"well what else am I supposed to be? Other than miffed?" they both asked in unison, "do you expect me to be grateful about the fact that my little sister has been turned into a wolf pup?" they asked angrily

"be strong, like you asked Annabella to be?" Elphaba offered coming in followed by Polly.

The two of them looked at Elphaba for a moment. Taking a deep breath, they sighed. On one hand, Elphaba was right and they were acting extremely hypocritical. But on the other hand, this was incredibly personal.

"Why don't you two go for a walk?" Polly suggested leaning against the dresser.

The two shared a glance. Grabbing the scepter, Alex lead the way out. The stuffed bear that was the scarecrow waddled past followed by the tin owl that had been the tin woodsman.

"have you two seen Lion?" the beast asked curiously.

"I think he and wiser are in the throne room, but don't quote me on that." Scarecrow said as he and tin man went into Ozma's room

Back in Kansas.

Eventually everyone had retired to either a bedroom, or to the parlor, where Dorothy was now sitting on one of the couches with one of Aislynn's school books. Aislynn was perched up on the fireplace mantle with Mr. and Mrs. Upland. Annabella was curled up on the cushion to Dorothy's right while Toto and pockets were at her left. Betsy had retired to a bedroom with her parents and Mr. and Mrs. Griffith were in Cap'n bills room. Jon foreman was pacing back and forth across the floor of the parlor, pondering. Eventually Dorothy looked up from the book and looked at him.

"something on your mind Jon?" Dorothy asked curiously.

"Quite a few things given the recent developments my dear." He replied.

"such as?" Mrs. Upland inquired

"Polly, she was left safe, they did not touch her." Jon replied.

"They couldn't touch Alyssa or Terrance either, perhaps they simply got tired and decided the number of people in their power was enough?" Mr. Upland suggested

"I don't think that would be right either." He said turning to Dorothy, "You said that for her safety, Polly's room was place equidistant between yours and Glinda's rooms, so it would have been easy to get her while she was in there."

"Equidistant?" Dorothy asked curiously.

"it basically means, smack in the middle, it would take about as much time for her to get to your room as it would to Glinda's." Mr. upland said.

"oh." Was Dorothy's only response.

"The imps couldn't bring Ozma into their power the same way they brought everyone else because of her lineage." Jon said, "but where Polly was wasn't particularly hard to find. As you said, so why just leave her in a sort of shocked state?" he added curiously.

Dorothy couldn't deny that he had a point. It was strange that Polly had basically been left unscathed by the entire set of events save for being left in a state of shock, and even then, she had recovered from that rather quickly according to Alex and the beast.

"You do bring up a good point Jon." Dorothy said nodding, "I imagine the answer to that is also probably the answer to who she is, which to be perfectly frank about it, is something we are still unaware of." She added setting the book down and beginning to hiccup.

Soon Dorothy found herself back in a cat's body again. She wondered, considering the circumstance, if she'd even manage to get much in the way of sleep. She had managed to get a nap in, but the hiccupping always roused her from her slumber which she found equal parts annoying, and more exhausting. She resolved to turn off the lamp in the room the next time she changed back, at that moment however, she decided to curl up and try to sleep.

Unknown to any of them however, the youngest Imp had followed them, to ensure that there was no 'cheating' going on. It wasn't particularly possible to cheat at this game and she knew it, she was also aware that they could have all technically moved to Oz, with the exception of Dorothy, her unstable condition made transporting her dangerous, because if she transformed before she reached her destination, she could wind up anywhere in the Nonestic landmasses. The Imp was already formulating her plan to finally break the cycle, it just required a single Element to get the ball rolling, and that was for one of them to use her name. unlike her sisters, her name wasn't as nasty as Imp-Ertinent or Imp-Udent, it just wasn't in common usage. She never really like to step out of her place, like her sisters had. It was the point that had gotten them stuck in this cycle to begin with. Her problem was that she was rather careless when it came to the using of their magic. Which once the plan was in action, would become her sisters' undoing. It was only a question of how to do it, and break the cycle. Because the only way to do that would be to get the attention of their mother.