Later in the early evening, Alex and the beast found themselves in the parlor at Diggs manor, not accompanied by Elphaba as originally planned, but by Ozma. They had talked it over and had all agreed that Ozma deserved a leisure trip as she had spent a little more than a week cooped up in the enclosed space, she was now wearing a mint green blouse and a matching skirt and shoes, she still wore a single poppy in her hair but otherwise she looked as though she belonged there . Alex had Annabella sat upon his lap looking up at him with a pleased expression on her face. Dorothy was sat next to him, she had recently transformed back into kitten form. Imp-Etuous had given them the rundown of what was going on, and they were rather confused.
"so, you want to break this cycle?" Ozma asked curiously
"but the rules of the game are that you cant just outright call upon your mother and she cant intervene without you doing something that basically brings down her wrath?" the beast added.
"that's about it, either her or her sister need to be scorned or spurned before they intervene, and going through what little stolen magic I personally have." She replied with a sigh, "we are rather low on options."
"you cant break the enchantments on any of our friends either." Aislynn said coming into the room, "which is rather discouraging."
"well, I should be able to stabilize the kitten long enough for her to be transported to Oz, or for her other half to come here, but I cant really do much else in terms of helping." The imp replied.
"well unless you guys have a better plan." Aislynn said addressing Alex, the beast, and Ozma, "it's really the best we can hope for."
"well, technically, she could put on the ruby slippers, or that ring on the table there and it would prevent the transformation, but it would also put them into debilitating agony if they began to transform, someone would have to get them off of her." The imp replied.
"well that only someone is Alex." Aislynn said, "and none of us want to put Dorothy through any suffering if we can prevent it."
"the issue is, that Dorothy is the only one who, save for the beast and myself that is capable of communicating with everyone no matter what form she happens to be in." Alex said,
"ah, well now that is where you are currently wrong." The Imp said jerking a thumb at Aislynn, "whilst I am in her power, that is an ability she shall keep."
"oh, well that's rather helpful then." Dorothy said as she quickly found herself back in her normal shape, "but I cant just leave everyone else here."
"None of us are sure on how to lift the transformations." Ozma said, though something in her head was telling her she did have a solution, she just wasn't sure what.
"so for the moment, it doesn't particularly matter who's where, we're still stuck in the situation" the beast added.
"Well you two got off lucky all things considered." The Imp said, "and as soon as you two can fully start getting along, you'll merge again if we cant find my sisters."
"cant you just use magic to go to them?" Aislynn asked curiously.
"no Ace, because I'm not part of their side of the game now, I'm part of your end, I have absolutely no idea where they are and they sure as heck aren't going to want to be found at this point." She replied.
"well that's just perfect." The beast said with strong sarcasm.
"Look, its how the game works, don't blame me, I didn't make the rules." The young imp said putting her hands up in defense.
"well, how do you go about getting mother nature's attention anyways?" Aislynn asked curiously.
"Err…well the simplest way would be to do something that would really get her miffed." She replied looking around, "the issue, as I've stated, I have no clue how to do it this time, but I'll let you know when I come up with a solution." She added quickly going through Aislynn's thoughts she didn't find anything useful that she could use as a plan, so she gave up on that venture.
"So…" Dorothy said looking the imp in the eyes, "What attracted you to us anyways?" she asked curiously
"well, you and your friend here technically did, between you, you just reek of magical energy, they couldn't resist." The Imp replied, "you dance so beautifully, and it forms magic as you do so, your friends wish for things to be a little more interesting did help, but you two were the main reason."
"so it is my fault?" Aislynn asked.
"No ace, it just gave me a bit of room to work with." She said with a grin, "you're all just victims of circumstance."
"Actually, since the Imp is under ace's control, they would be more useful here than you are at the moment Dorothy." Alex said turning to her.
"and your immediate family is safe, as we dared not touch them." Imp-Etuous replied.
"yes…I've been meaning to ask about that, why?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"they've…" both Ozma and the Imp started to say in unison.
"you first your majesty." The imp said gesturing to her, "I insist." She added.
Ozma nodded, "they're marked with protection, by Mother nature, the imps could not touch them without invoking her wrath so soon into the game."
"what about me?" Trot asked curiously as she came into the room followed by Betsy.
"I let my sisters decide that one, you are marked by sea fairies, and therefore also under some protections, it wasn't worth them trying their luck."
"is there anything you can do for my parents?" trot asked hopefully, "or Betsy?" she asked referring to the dog at her feet.
"unfortunately only my sisters or my mother can break those transformations." The Imp replied sighing, "as I was just explaining, for the moment the most I can do is stabilize your friend here long enough to get her to Oz or her other half here.
"well, it makes no real difference at the end of the day does it?" Annabella asked curiously, "we're no safer there than we are here."
"Annabella has a point there, doesn't matter who goes where, it doesn't effect the fact that a lot of us are still under transformations." The beast said sighing.
"and the two of us are in literally two minds and two bodies." Alex added
"well, would you all like my professional opinion on the matter?" The imp asked curiously
They all shared a glance for a moment, there didn't seem to be any harm in this, she was under ace's control even if she couldn't do much more than give advice.
"alright, we'll bite." The beast said.
"it would probably be best to have you all in one place, not in a sort of all the eggs in one basket kind of way, but in a at least you aren't in two separate worlds kind of way." The imp said.
"so, either transport everyone who's here to Oz, or transport everyone else in Oz, here?" Alex asked curiously.
"precisely." She said nodding.
"I don't think that's particularly a good idea." Aislynn said, "all the eggs in one basket aside, they would expect us to do that and find some way to take advantage of it."
"you know, ace has a point there." Ozma said addressing the Imp, "if we move everyone it just makes us a bigger target to play with at a time."
"besides would it help anything if I went to Oz at this moment?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"actually in this case yes." The imp replied happily, "keeping you and the hatter in close proximity to each other would actually be quite useful."
"but surely we could just bring her here then?" the beast said poking at the rather large hole in the plan.
"Well, yes, but there's a lot more magic that can be utilized in Oz than here, Ace can serve Dorothy's purpose here." The imp replied
"well, we'll have to discuss it with everyone else first, before we make any decisions like that." Dorothy said hiccupping
The scepter pinged in agreement at this.
