Song and Authors Note in this chapter.

The next morning, bright and early, Dorothy found herself seated in the throne room with Alex, Ozma, The beast, Annabella, Eliza, and Polly. They were watching over the others in the crystal ball, Alex doing his best to hold Annabella in his arms, it didn't not help much that she kept squirming trying to get a good view of everything. And eventually, Elphaba turned up and conjured a stool for her to sit on.

"I had said a few days ago, between here and Kansas there's enough of us transformed into animals to open up a small zoo." Alex said before humming a small tune to himself.

The beast joined in on the humming for a moment as he had the tune running through his head as well.

"I think." The beast said, "well, actually I'm not sure what I think, do you think we could actually play it still?" he asked curiously.

"no idea, I should think so, it's a simple jaunty tune, after the introduction its literally the same tune, same beat, same rhythm and the refrain never changes, Mads has a piano, so we could always try it." Alex said going into his satchel and pulling out a small, rather battered and old looking book of sheet music.

" What song?" Dorothy asked curiously.

"the one we mentioned during the picnic, That's the Way to the Zoo, Seems rather fitting given the situation" Alex replied flipping through the pages and coming upon the song

Dorothy looked at the music for a moment, it was indeed a jaunty little tune, with rather interesting lyrics.

"Well, I don't suppose it would hurt to try, I'd like to hear it now." Dorothy said, "anyone else curious?"

"I know the song, there a copy of it at the house." Eliza said

"I guess we shouldn't be surprised by that." The beast said shrugging, "who's copy is it?"

"who's do you think?" Eliza asked rather condescendingly.

"oh." The beast said rolling his eyes, "silly me, should've known considering you brought it, well anyways, shall we try to perform it? I think everyone could do with something rather lighthearted at this point."

"I can get the others if you don't mind performing for an audience." Elphaba offered.

"I'm up for it." Alex said, turning to the beast, "you?"

"we've never had a problem with an audience." He replied.

"well, let's get everyone to Madeline's room in say, fifteen minutes? Get a mirror set up?" Alex said looking at his watch then remembering it was still stopped, deciding he would go later to get it fixed.

"sounds good to." Elphaba said helping Polly to her feet.

Dorothy hiccupped and quickly found herself transformed again. Alex chuckled and grabbed the scepter. Tucking he music under his arm. Ozma got up and took Annabella from the stool and set her gently onto the floor. She looked up at the beast.

"How come you two never offered to play before?" she asked curiously.

"well generally the lack of a piano." The beast replied as they walked along, "bit of a requirement for playing it, I mean it's not the only instrument we can play, but this music is the piano arrangement, I don't know if the song has any other arrangements but when we were your age we absolutely loved it."

"Setting the bar high, aren't we?" Dorothy asked sidling up to them.

"Well, you would know." The beast said, "kitten." He added.

If Dorothy had been able to, she would have smiled, but a cat's face is just not as capable at that as a human is. They walked into Madeline's room and found that she was dusting her piano off and using her wand to tune it.

"Maddie, what are you doing?" Dorothy asked curiously.

"Cleaning and seeing if it needs tuning, this should be fairly interesting." She replied.

"Does it?" Jack asked with a yawn.

"No jack it doesn't." Madeline said with a content sigh, placing her wand on the lid of the piano.

In a few moments Madeline found herself swapped with Dorothy in shape. She sidled over to the couch where jack was and jumped upon it. Dorothy sighed and walked over to the piano, picking up the wand, causing the scepter to ping rather annoyed and try to pull out of Alex's hand.

"Down girl, she's just moving it out of the way." Alex said sternly.

"Just put it on the coffee table." Madeline replied.

Dorothy nodded and did so.

"How come the wand doesn't zap her when she picks it up?" Ozma asked curiously.

"because its not like the scepter, none of us are entirely sure why the scepter zaps us, I mean it even zaps the jester now and he was one of the FIRST." Madeline said scratching herself behind the ear with her hind paw.

"honestly I'm not sure why the scepter doesn't trust you at least Maddie." Dorothy said,

"I can only assume its because of what and who I am." Madeline said letting out a purr.

Within a few moments, Alex had set the music up on the proper page, and had played a few notes on the piano just to be sure he could still read the music. A few moments after that, Alyssa and Terrance came into the room followed by the everyone else. Save for the china lambs that were Marshall Mallow and the china princess, who were carried by Ellie.

"I didn't know you could play, Alex." Ellie said rather impressed.

"really?" the beast asked curiously, "did you miss when he was explaining it at gale hall?"

"The beast does have a point Ellie." Ozma said, "he did bring it up."

"forgive me then, I just wasn't listening." She replied setting the could gingerly down on the coffee table before taking out her wand and pointing it at each mirror in the room in turn.

Immediately each one began to ripple. Soon they were each showing a different room in Diggs manor. Aislynn was the first one to notice and quickly drew attention of the imp who was seated in a chair writing some things on some paper.

"Oh, is it time for a concert." She asked curiously.

"I figured given the situation, we could do with a jaunty little tune, Dorothy care to join me on the refrain once I get started?" Alex asked curiously.

"if I'm still able to stand upright by that time, sure." She said coming over to look at the sheet music.

It was an odd, funny, jaunty little tune, she couldn't pretend that she understood its meaning, but it looked like a lot of fun. Something that she noticed was that this was one of those songs where the chorus tended to be repeated twice before you went on to the next verse, rather like some church music.

Once Aislynn had gathered everyone who wasn't near a mirror to a mirror, and everyone else had started paying attention, Mr. and Mrs. teak and Mr. and Mrs. gale in particular as well as the triplets. Alex cracked his knuckles and began playing. It started out rather slow, then kicked into a bit faster of tempo at the chorus

That's the Way to the Zoo

Alex

I don't know what is

about my figure or my style

but every time I walk abroad,

the passersby do smile

I lost myself in Kensington About a week today

I asked a cabman the way home

And to me he did say

That's the way to the zoo

That's the way to the zoo

The monkey is house is nearly full but there's room enough for you

Take a bus to Regent's park

Make haste before it shuts

Next Monday I will come and bring you such a lot of nuts

That's the way to the zoo

That's the way to the zoo

The monkey is house is nearly full but there's room enough for you

Take a bus to Regent's park

Make haste before it shuts,

Next Monday I will come and bring you such a lot of nuts

"you can take the next verse." Alex said smiling at her.

Dorothy read through the music for a moment and smiled she was fairly certain she had gotten it,

Dorothy

Some younger boys took up the cry

And followed me about

Till everybody laughed quite loud

I could not make it out

I then turned down a narrow street

To get out of the throng

When one young hussy came to me

And said 'you're going wrong"

both

That's the way to the zoo

That's the way to the zoo

The monkey is house is nearly full but there's room enough for you

Take a bus to Regent's park

Make haste before it shuts

Next Monday I will come and bring you such a lot of nuts

That's the way to the zoo

That's the way to the zoo

The monkey is house is nearly full but there's room enough for you

Take a bus to Regent's park

Make haste before it shuts

Next Monday I will come and bring you such a lot of nuts

Alex, the beast, Dorothy

I went to a police man

And I asked him what I'd done

says he,

they only take you for old Rango's Youngest son

I said I'd take his number

But he only did a laugh

says I, 'where is the station house?'

He pointed with his staff

All three

That's the way to the zoo

That's the way to the zoo

The monkey is house is nearly full but there's room enough for you

Take a bus to Regent's park

Make haste before it shuts

Next Monday I will come and bring you such a lot of nuts

That's the way to the zoo

That's the way to the zoo

The monkey is house is nearly full but there's room enough for you

Take a bus to Regent's park

Make haste before it shuts

Next Monday I will come and bring you such a lot of nuts

Playing a small part of the refrain and adding two more closing notes. Alex stopped playing. They were met with a nice applause. This light hearted tune had lifted the mood a bit.

"So, after all this time, he can still play it." Mr. teak said coming closer to his mirror.

"you'd think after all this time I would be a little rusty." Alex replied playing the scale a few times.

Looking around, Dorothy noticed everyone who could have a smile on their face, had one. This included herself at the moment. The song was rather catchy, and enjoyable. Though she couldn't make heads nor tails of its meaning. She giggled and kissed Alex on the cheek.

"You two are absolutely brilliant." She said looking between him and his double.

"We can't take all the credit; you did your part." The beast replied.

"and you did it well." The Imp added

"Thank you." Dorothy said curtseying.

"what's the song actually about?" Came a small voice,

It took them a minute to realize it had come from one of the china lambs. The beast walked over and crouched down in front of them. They were perfectly identical in every way; they had no way of telling them apart.

"Well, I've never been thoroughly sure on that point." The beast said looking over at Alex.

"We just enjoy it, its catchy, light hearted, and amusing." Alex added.

"it is also." Mr. teak cut in again, "one of those pieces that you can get stuck in your head rather easily, and then get annoyed with because of that fact later."

"I mean, we know it isn't meaningless, there's no point in a song without some meaning, but as neither of us are the composers we can't exactly speak with too much authority on the matter." Alex said closing the music book then turning around to face everyone.

"I suppose we could do some research on it back at home, if we ever get the chance." The beast replied, straightening up and turning back to them.

"We just thought it was rather fitting given the situation, raise a hand, wing, paw, or claw if you disagree." Alex said looking around.

No one did, because given the situation it wasn't really out of place.

"I rather enjoyed it." Annabella yipped out.

"we did say you probably would." The beast replied walking over to her.

"no, you told her you absolutely enjoyed the song when you were her age, but that's no guarantee she would like it." Dorothy said giggling, "anyways, this was a nice little break, but we should probably go back to being on alert, we're all focused on one thing and that puts us in a rather prone position."

Song, 'That's the Way to the Zoo.' By J.F. Mitchell, minor changes made by me. Big one switching out the name in Verse 3. The lyrics use Pongo, I changed it to Rango. As a reference to…I believe the Magic of Oz by L. Frank. Baum.

A/N: now, for those who read a little too deeply, or try to discern any real meaning from the song, I am personally not sure there is one. The first verse and the chorus are as presented as they were from the Classic Doctor Who episode 'Ghost Light' where the song has a WAAAY different context. I actually got the following two verses from a podcast although there is Apparently one more that they didn't mention which I cannot find info on, so I'm sure the full meaning of the song gets shown there. But this chapter isn't foreshadowing anything, at least not that I can think of.

While I'm down here at the bottom of the chapter though, I may as well pose a question to an ongoing arc in this story. Who do you think the mystery girl from the future is? I have dropped a few hints, but I would like to see if anyone has guessed at one of my plans for the future