Disclaimer, the usual.
The callers, much to the surprise of Alex and the Beast, were Hawkeye and Beatrice. Still in the forms that they held in the village. They had come to enquire on the same point Ruggedo had come there for a few days previous. He had, at some point during the night he abdicated, he had apparently gone to the village and changed the enchantment, leaving only a note to explain that effect. They were rather disconcerted to hear what Alex and the beast had to report, but couldn't stay long, with Imps about they knew they couldn't take any chances. This did not, however, prevent a reunion with a lost friend, Wendell.
"you know, everyone is still a bit miffed about the fact that you never came back." Hawkeye said rather depressingly.
"From Bunnybury, to the village, to the western branch of the community, to high life in the palace, you've had quite the life, not to mention you are in the service of the Queen, the Hatter, and Princess Dorothy." Beatrice said sighing
"well, now the enchantment is changed, you all could come visit, as often as you would like." Alex offered,
"we'd still have to get clearance from the mayor" Hawkeye said starting to grin, "but we'll keep that point in mind."
They left shortly after the conversation concluded. This was over a week ago, and everyone was on high alert. Alex found himself now seated on the throne in the throne room. He had the beast at his right, and the scepter at his left. He had just gotten some good news, and some rather annoying news from Zinnia. The good news was that she and the others had finally worked out, that it would be safe to transport almost everyone to Oz. however it was the exception to this point that annoyed him. Because of Dorothy's condition, there was no surefire way to safely get her to Oz. if she transformed or began to transform mid travel, she could wind up stopping where ever she happened to be and would be stuck there until someone could find her. As he sat alone in the throne room, there having not been any callers that day, he began to think. He knew on one hand that it would be safe for himself and the beast to transport themselves to Kansas, but they couldn't just leave the others behind. He still hadn't gotten over the fact that the Imps had transformed his younger sister, and it filled both himself and the beast with a sort of anger that really only comes from seeing one's loved ones done harm. He and the beast had been trying to formulate a plan to get everyone, including Dorothy, safely to Oz.
"What about the rainbow mover?" The beast suggested.
"it's still out of commission, scarecrow and ace are the only ones who can fix it, and since scarecrow is now a straw stuffed bear and Ace is a small dove, that throws a spanner in the works for that Idea." Alex said sighing.
"Wendell's elevator?" The beast offered,
"still too risky, not as many risks mind you but risky enough, it's simply a transport spell attached to an object." Wendell said coming in with a tea tray.
"an overly complicated one at that." The beast said, sitting himself on what was usually Dorothy's throne.
The two of them though in silence for a while, always coming to the same conclusions, that without a lot of unavailable assistance, they couldn't pull it off or that it was too dangerous. They shared thoughts, so they were essentially a two man think tank, so it annoyed them to no end that they couldn't come up with a solution.
"Well, you can't solve everything." Madeline said slinking into the room in the form of a cat.
"I know, but we'd settle for 75%" Alex said sighing as a rather obscure thought popped into his and the beast's minds.
"Didn't Glinda, once mention a sort of magic door spell or something?" the beast asked curiously.
"that would be a bit of a gamble wouldn't it?" Alex asked in response.
"it would." Madeline replied as she suddenly found herself back in her normal body, "while Wendell's elevator runs on a similar concept, a proper magic door has never been tested between worlds, we were lucky to get such a seamless shift with Betsy." She added.
"and we were lucky the idea even worked." Wendell added finally cutting in on something he had some expertise in.
Alex and the beast nodded before letting out a long sigh. Thinking on it, the three of them knew the calculations alone would take a while.
"Mads, do you think it would be safe for YOU specifically to travel to Kansas?" Alex asked curiously.
"you seem to be able to do a lot of things that others can't for no readily apparent reason so it's not a bad question." The beast added.
Madeline let out an involuntary chuckle, then grinned.
"If you want me to be quite honest, I have absolutely no idea, I suppose we could chance it." Madeline said with a shrug.
"Not worth the risk then." Alex and the beast said shaking their heads, "if you don't know, it's not worth chancing it, because what if we're wrong?"
"it was a nice thought though." Madeline said sighing, "right now there are just too many variables to consider, too many things that can create a disaster."
Alex and the beast sighed again, it didn't feel right to just leave the idea alone, but it didn't feel right to pursue it either. What they needed was some bizarre kind of a compromise, they couldn't get far from each other without experiencing great discomfort and pain, nor did Alex trust the beast alone so it took one idea of having one of them stay in Oz while the other went to Kansas off the list of possibilities. They couldn't really leave Oz because someone was needed to be in charge. Usually outside of them that role would fall upon either Glinda or the scarecrow, but as neither were in any fit state, that limited their options even more. Though their thoughts quickly turned back to Ozma, sure she couldn't use her wand while stuck in the confines of the barrier, but surely she had other magic at her disposal that could help her escape.
"Honestly, I can't help but feel that if Ozma weren't trapped behind that barrier, we would at least have something of a solution." The beast said, "but I also cant help but feel that she could easily escape on her own, but has opted not to." He added.
"Which would be wisest on her part if so." Madeline said thinking this over for a moment.
"how so?" the two asked curiously.
"The Imps see this as a game, their game." Madeline said, "who knows how they would react if Ozma simply walked out of the barrier, she could potentially undo everything given the time to work it out."
The two halves shared a glance, it was a good point, the imps were Literally doing this for the sake of a good long laugh at everyone else's expense. They didn't try to transform Ozma because she was the daughter of the fairy queen Lurline, they simply rendered her unable to do anything to assist in the situation. If she had simply used some magic known only to fairies to escape immediately, there was no knowing how the imps would've reacted. If Ozma did have her own way out, it was wiser to not provoke the imps by spoiling their fun immediately. As this was a game that they weren't even sure how to play. They considered asking Ruggedo if there was anything, he would be able to do, but as they knew he was still getting used to his new position, filed the idea under work in progress. Then their thoughts turned their original track again, back to Dorothy.
"although…" Madeline said teasingly, "you do have a reason to go and at least visit her."
"Mads now isn't the time for a joke, Oz needs someone in charge." Alex said, the beast nodding in agreement
"ah, but I'm not joking, I'm just using your words.," Madeline said her tone not changing, "a good ruler should do everything he or she says they would."
The two halves shared a glance, they were rather confused at this point.
"Get to the point please Mads." Alex said trying to figure it out.
"you two." Wendell started cutting off his boss, "agreed to take the scepter in turns for a weekly basis."
"and?" Alex and the beast asked curiously
"it's been well over a week." Madeline and Wendell said in unison.
"as much as I hate to say it Alex, the hatter has a point." Ellie said sticking her head into the chambers.
"Ellie how long have you been listening in on this conversation?" Alex asked arching an eyebrow
"Since your conversation pertaining to Ozma, I personally don't know if she has her own way out and is just opting not to use it then as Maddie said, it would certainly be in her best interest. But right now, she, Polly and Nessarose are spit-balling ideas and theories." Ellie said sighing and coming into the chambers,
"I'm assuming to no real affect?" The beast asked curiously.
"we would be having a much different conversation otherwise." Ellie said smiling at him.
"So, did Glinda and Elphaba find anything useful?" Madeline cut in curiously.
"Not yet no." Ellie said with a sigh,
"so, between here and Kansas enough of us have become some kind of animal to the point where we could easily open a Zoo." The beast said sighing, "there's nothing we can do about it, and it's very…annoying to say the least."
"again, you two at least have reason to go to Kansas, if only for an hour or two, and that's to give her the scepter." Madeline said, "either Ellie or Elphaba would have to go with you to bring you back here but at least it would put you two in each other's arms again." She added.
"but duty to Oz as Prince Regent comes first Mads, I can't just run off." Alex said sternly.
"I get that, and I didn't say we had to do it immediately, think on it more as a suggestion." Madeline said, taking a cup from the tray Wendell was carrying.
Alex and the beast thought on this, then Alex's thoughts turned to something the beast had just said. something that felt rather fitting for the situation popped into their heads and they let out a chuckle. Then came to a decision.
"what's so funny?" Ellie asked worriedly.
"Bit of a personal joke, but I think the beast and I will make a quick trip to Gale hall this evening." Alex said with a grin.
"remind me again why you two settled on that name for the house Alyssa had built for you two?" Wendell asked curiously, "still a bit fuzzy on the details."
"the logic ran on the same principle as to why the Airship has been christened 'the Gale.' Well that and I wouldn't allow her to call it Teak manor." Alex said still chuckling.
"well, you can go if you want" Wendell said, "it's your house so it's not like we have any power to stop you."
"what you do there, is your business." Madeline said hiccupping, becoming a cat again, and curling up into a ball
Meanwhile in Ozma's room, herself, Nessarose, and Polly, were now sat in quiet thought. None of their ideas had met with anything in the way of success. This was rather annoying to all of them as it didn't seem like the barrier was any new form of magic that they hadn't seen before, but it wasn't acting in any way that any of them had seen before either. Spells and objects just seemed to bounce off it without making a dent or even a perforation. Ozma was searching her mind for any magic she knew that she could possibly be overlooking. She kept this point in the realm of possibilities because there was quite a bit of fairy magic and the regular arts that she had picked up over the past couple of years, and something was bound to get lost in the mix somewhere, eventually. However, as it stood, she couldn't think of anything that she hadn't already tried, or hadn't already suggested to the others. She hadn't given up on the idea of trying to escape from the barrier, but as it was really the only thing she ever really thought about recently, it had become both dull and tedious. What quickly occurred to her was something that they hadn't brought up and she was bothered by the fact that it hadn't occurred to her up to now
"honestly it bothers me that I didn't think of this sooner, but it would help if we actually knew what kind of magic this was." Ozma said knocking on the barrier
"the very obviously disagreeable kind?" Polly suggested.
"apart from that." Ozma said with a giggle.
"even just researching the subject could take a long while." Nessarose said sighing, "I suppose we could ask Ruggedo." She suggested
"he's still probably busy rearranging the Nome Kingdom to suit himself." Ozma said, "but I won't say no to it."
"well we're rather low on options at this point, as we don't know what kind of magic was used to make this barrier, we can't even use the old-fashioned way to break it either." Nessarose said tapping on the barrier herself.
Polly, had for the most part, been keeping to herself outside of the odd suggestion. She never got close enough to the barrier to touch it because something in her mind told that if she did, she wouldn't like the results. But something else in her mind began to tell her, that she should touch it. She wanted to be of more help, and felt that she could be of more help, but she wasn't sure how.
"something up Polly?" Ozma asked curiously once she noticed this
Polly didn't respond she simply got to her feet with aid from the walking stick Alex had made for her. And moved closer to the barrier. The voice in her head telling her to explore her curiosity becoming quite loud in her ears. She was scared, but she had to try something. She reached out to touch the barrier and it rippled.
"what the?" Ozma said reaching out to touch the barrier where Polly's hand was.
It felt like it was shifting, rather like gelatin, but not as workable.
"well, that's…interesting." Came Dorothy's voice from the standing mirror.
"Oh, Dorothy!" Ozma said with a jump.
"looking for Alex?" Polly asked curiously.
"nope, I know exactly where he is." Dorothy said with a grin as Annabella ran in front of her.
"hello Annabella." Ozma said smiling, her mood now raised by Dorothy's voice.
Annabella let out a yip. Dorothy giggled, as did Nessarose who's eyes had flashed sapphire.
"she says hello and wants to know what's happening." Nessarose said, "well, to be honest you two, we haven't a clue."
"I think I'm being helpful." Polly said with a rather amused yet slightly distracted look, "I don't know what I'm doing, but I think I'm being helpful."
"I think so too Polly." Ozma said, "you can disrupt it, even a little, that's one step closer to getting me out, and us closer to out of this mess, although I have no shame in admitting I'm still unsure how to accomplish that, as like Glinda my knowledge of transformation is light." She added
"Why don't we have Alex and the beast check the library at the western castle?" Dorothy suggested
"good thinking kitten." Alex said walking into the room with the beast
"huge library, extensive volumes, something there probably has information on barriers." The beast said.
"oh, most definitely, we amassed quite a bit of knowledge, and Elphaba was always the bibliophile." Nessarose said
"however, as its only myself in charge…" Alex said before Ozma and Dorothy cut him off
"Oz can survive a few hours without someone occupying the throne room." They both said
"well then, we'll set off on it first thing in the morning." The beast said taking a step back.
"we've made quite a bit of progress it would seem?" Elphaba asked.
"unintentional but yes, Elphaba would there be any books on magical barriers in the library of the old castle?" Nessa asked curiously.
Elphaba thought about this for a moment.
"the witch was decent at breaking through barriers, so I should think there would be some somewhere in that library." Elphaba said smiling
"and even if there isn't something, at least we know Polly can interact with the barrier." Nessarose said smiling
"which means, if you can work out what's going on with it, Polly might just be able to get Ozma out on her own." Dorothy said smiling while Annabella yipped.
"well, first thing in the morning the beast and I will take Tugg over to the western castle and search through its libraries." Alex said smiling, "so now at least, we have a better plan that just searching through Glinda's boxes of artifacts."
"in fairness, the reason that's mostly come up dry is because I don't have access to all the rooms in her castle, and neither does Ellie, and Glinda has quite the number of artifacts, let me tell you." Elphaba said sighing,
"okay I can understand you not having free reign of the place, but why not Ellie?" Alex asked curiously.
"because there are still things even, I am not ready for quite yet." Ellie said coming into the room and turning to Dorothy and Annabella, "I see you found the potion bottles again?"
"you seem to put them everywhere I might look, how you do it without noticing is far beyond me." Dorothy said smiling.
"well, that's for me to know, and you to hopefully never find out." Ellie replied smiling back.
"so, we all agreed on the plan for tomorrow?" Ozma asked quickly getting the subject back on its track.
"I'll stay here and continue poking the barrier until something even more interesting happens." Polly said.
"the two of us will head to the western castle to see if we can find anything." The beast and Alex said.
"we'll continue to search from a temporary anti-enchantment for Glinda and the others." Ellie and Elphaba said.
"and I'll keep an eye on Polly." Nessarose said.
"well, as none of us here." Dorothy added in, "aren't doing anything, particularly helpful, Annabella and I can use the potion bottles to help give Ozma some better company." She finished
Ozma perked up more at this, she did enjoy chatting with Dorothy, though she would have preferred the companionship. And she enjoyed having Alex around as well, but it wasn't helpful that Alex couldn't be around.
"I think, if we can come up with something." Alex said smiling, "the two of us will visit, drop the scepter off, it's been over a week you know." He added.
Dorothy's face fell into an expression of curiosity at this point.
"would that even be safe?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"according to zinnia it would be safer than trying to transport you here." The beast said sighing, "due to the unstable and random nature of your transformation, if you started transforming mid transport, there is a decent chance you wouldn't complete the journey and wind up anywhere."
This dropped the mood quite a bit.
"Unfortunately, they have a point there." Ozma said sighing, "we can transport everyone else back and forth if we so desire, but you Dorothy have to stay where you are until we can work out how to best deal with it."
"we know." Dorothy said sighing, "Madeline told me through the dreamscape." She added.
"so that still works between the worlds?" Nessarose asked curiously
"our connection works between worlds so I didn't see why the dreamscape wouldn't." Madeline said with a long purr, "I figured it wouldn't hurt to test, and as we were both quite exhausted, it wasn't hard for either of us to simply slip into it."
"and it did work, we had quite the discussion about the everything that's been going on." Dorothy added.
"which explains why you seem wide awake now." Alex said smiling.
"exactly." Dorothy and Madeline said in unison.
"so, if need be, we can double up on the plan, if we have to, you two can use the dreamscape." The beast suggested, "as a tertiary contingency plan, Madeline is the least conventional person any of us are aware of so surely between the two of you, we might be able to work something out if all else fails."
"I'm up to it." Madeline said happily
"as am I, if its needed, because we'll need all the assistance we can get." Dorothy said smiling
Annabella let out a small, rather happy sounding yip. Alex grinned, as did the beast.
"Alright Annabella, we'll come see you guys tomorrow, I promise, no maybes." He said, the scepter pinging in agreement
"when do you wish to go?" Elphaba asked curiously
"probably late afternoon, early evening, we won't be able to stay long if I'm still needed here" Alex said sighing and sitting down to face his little sister
Annabella placed a paw on the mirror and let out another yip.
"honestly Annabella, I'm not too thrilled with the situation either, but you've acclimated nicely, and it makes me happy to see that you aren't sulking." Alex said
"your parents still aren't that thrilled." Dorothy said sitting down and taking Annabella onto her lap.
"well, what do you expect, for them to be happy that Annabella is a wolf pup?" the beast asked curiously.
"that's fair, I'm not thrilled at what the imps have done but its beyond our control." Dorothy said placing a hand on the mirror.
"I know kitten, but it doesn't really soften the blow." He replied placing his own on the mirror over hers.
"I think they chose this form for her because she looks up to you, and must have found the memories of what had happened." Dorothy said sighing and scratching Annabella behind the ears.
"it wouldn't surprise me." They beast and Alex said in unison.
"you know, for hating each other, you two get on rather well." Elphaba said smiling.
"it's more of a mutual agreement, we're in each other's heads and we can't get that far from each other, we get along because we have to, not because we want to." They said in unison again
"well try not to start any arguments when you two go to the castle tomorrow." Dorothy said sweetly, "for all our sakes."
"we'll do our best." They both said.
"Dorothy!? Annabella!?" came Mrs. teaks voice from a distance.
"Lunch?" Ellie asked curiously.
"I think so, look, we'll contact you guys again later, first chance I get, I'd rather not keep anyone waiting." Dorothy said taking Annabella from her lap,
"we'll contact you tonight kitten." Alex said smiling.
Annabella let out another yip.
"you too Annabella, run along now, don't keep mom and dad waiting." He replied.
Dorothy smiled, just as the mirror faded. Alex removed his hand from the mirror and leaning against the scepter for support, got to his feet
"well, at least we have a better structured plan now." Ozma said, "it's an improvement, though its still guess and check"
"still, something is better than nothing." Polly said smiling, poking at the barrier once more and watching as it rippled.
