Disclaimer, the usual.

Madeline did just as she said she would, in the presence of everyone in the chambers. The imp agreed that it was simplistic enough to work, but wondered if it held any water.

"I mean, a kiss from a powerful fairy such as Ozma, doesn't that feel a little too simple?" The young imp asked curiously.

"Does it matter?" Alex and the Beast asked in unison, "it's the best we have, worst case, it doesn't work." They added.

"besides, I think these two are willing to try anything at this point, who knows how long Dorothy will sleep for if we get the condition fixed." Ellie said looking at Dorothy.

"Besides, its just a kiss, at least that's…theoretically painless." Alex said pausing a bit,

"You mean harmless?" Aislynn asked curiously.

"No I mean painless, it's a given that it shouldn't cause any harm, its just a kiss." Alex said, nodding at the beast in agreement.

"Consider the fact that Glinda's trademark, is basically a protective kiss?" Elphaba asked.

"Not much of an argument." The beast said shaking his head.

Suddenly Madeline began hiccupping, and found herself in the body of a kitten again. And now Dorothy found herself back in her normal shape.

"If it will settle the argument." She said, sounding rather annoyed, "Ellie is right, we will basically try anything at this point."

"but if this works, I must warn you, I have no idea what my sisters might do." The imp interjected.

"it's a calculated risk." Madeline purred, "Its that or ill summon mother nature myself, I fancy I could win another bet against her."

"I don't see what the big deal is." Polly said leaning against the throne, "its just a kiss isn't it?"

"I'm with Polly on this one." Annabella yipped out

"Thank you for the vote of confidence, Annabella." Madeline said sighing

"well?" Ozma asked looking around, "it's a calculated risk, I do this, if it works, we risk a retaliation, but we also don't know if it will work at all." She added.

"But Mads has a decent track record." Alex said smiling.

"true…" Ozma said, "Well, all for taking the risk?" she asked.

Everyone who could, raised a hand. Others raised a paw or wing.

"Unanimous then." Ozma said nodding.

"it can get them to get some proper sleep if it works." Alex said looking at the scepter, it pinged in agreement

"Dorothy?" Ozma asked curiously.

Dorothy said nothing, she simply nodded. Ozma nodded back and walked over to her best friend. The kiss was nothing more than a quick peck, but the results were instantaneous. Immediately the kitten that was Madeline began to glow as did Dorothy. Within moments energy seemed to be rushing about the two of them. Quicker than any of them could blink, Madeline was sitting on the floor, a rather smug but triumphant grin on her face. Rapidly, Alex reached into his pocket, and pulled out their rings. Sliding Dorothy's onto her ring finger. Something strange they noticed was that Dorothy was still glowing, but the light was being attracted to Madeline who was holding a hand out towards her, a pained expression on her face.

"Safeguard, she'll be belching out energy if I don't do this." Madeline said wincing.

"But its hurting you!" The imp said concerned now.

"I feel everything she does, I'm just shouldering the burden this time." Madeline said gritting her teeth.

"Maddie, Stop!" Dorothy shouted.

"Cant, not until I've absorbed enough," she said straining to keep her concentration, " then you can sleep."

Dorothy looked at her double and glared for a moment, Madeline had a point, if she started expelling energy then she would wind up with nightmares. But this way of doing it was absurd. They could have simply called on the jester and he would have fixed it post haste, and painlessly to boot. But no, Madeline was dead set on using their connection to take all the energy she could into her own body. She opened her mouth to say something, but found she couldn't. she found that she was getting very drowsy now, and rather dizzy. Was this Madeline's work? She wasn't sure but she hoped so.

No one else apart from Ozma and Alex had much time to react, immediately Dorothy collapsed, had the two of them not been standing there she would have hit the floor.

"I threw in a bit of dreamless sleep." Madeline said, gasping, struggling to her feet and dusting herself off.

"Hatter, that was a very dangerous thing you did." Elphaba said sternly.

"I know." She replied, Belching, and exhaling a large amount of foul smelling gold mist, she chuckled.

"Most experienced Practitioners wouldn't even do that." The imp said firmly.

"I'm not most practitioners now, am I?" Madeline said smiling, "it worked didn't it?" she added

"Mads, she wanted you to stop." The Beast said, rather annoyed.

"and like she said, " the imp replied, "she couldn't, she didn't just mean because something would go wrong, once she started, she was committed until Dorothy passed out."

"why would you cause yourself unnecessary harm, for her?" Polly asked worriedly.

"I would have to go through something similar either way, may as well take the brunt of it and call it a day." Madeline replied, belching and exhaling some more mist.

"Always has an odd, garlicy scent to it." The beast said, smelling the air

"Come on then, we should get her to a bed, or a couch or something." Ozma said handing Dorothy over to Alex.

"My room is the closest." Madeline said belching again.

Alex nodded, and taking Dorothy into his arms, he carried her to Madeline's room. He and the Beast got her tucked into bed. Both of them pulling up a chair and sitting next to her. Keeping their vigil in their usual way.

"How long will she be out?" Alex asked, turning to look at Madeline.

"few hours, 7 or 8 at most." Madeline said, slumping down into an armchair, "Quite frankly, I'm just glad it all worked to plan." She added.

"so are we." Alex and the beast replied.

"You two don't need to stick around though." The young imp said, coming into the room with Aislynn, "She's under my protection now, they cant touch her, ring or not."

"Keeping her safe is a near the top of the priority list, but Alex and the Beast can do that on their own." Madeline said sighing.

"Oh I know, but they aren't going to be much of a match against whatever my sisters are going to throw at us next, the transformation being broken on you two took you out of their power." The imp said with a long sigh, "put you into mine, the same way ace technically is."

"Only technically?" Aislynn asked curiously

"Yes, you said my name, which is part of the terms of the game, I am under your control, I do what you wish." The Imp said, "But you're still my piece on the board, your friends, the ones that have been transformed are still pieces that belong to my sisters."

At that moment, Annabella scurried into the room, jumping onto Alex's lap. Having heard the conversation from a distance. Alex sighed and scratched her behind the ears.

"So, we find remedies for the transformations, the more pieces we have against your sisters for when they do eventually retaliate?" He asked curiously

"If that's even possible for everyone else, yes." The Imp said.

"Theoretically, the China princess should be a rather easy transformation then." Madeline said smiling, "As they simply changed her shape, not what she was made of, same principle for scarecrow and tin man."

"oh I know, and those were some of the calculations I was working out, but not knowing what they looked like before the transformations, it's a lot harder running blind." The imp said

"Perhaps." Madeline said, belching out some mist, "Cassandra would be useful to call."

"Unless, she already knows and is already on her way." Alex said, "but what about Marshall mallow?"

"That was a full conversion, not hard to fix, but not easy either." The Imp replied, looking around, "I'm more worried by the fact that they haven't done anything yet."

"Perhaps they anticipated this move, I mean, they did have me surrounded by a barrier." Ozma said coming over to them

"okay, in all seriousness, who would have thought something as simple as a kiss would be so effective?" Polly asked as she came into the room.

"Sometimes even the largest doors open to the smallest of keys." Madeline said, belching again exhaling some more mist.

"Beg pardon?" The imp asked curiously.

"it's a saying." Alex said speaking on Madeline's behalf, "it basically means that sometimes even the most complicated of problems can have the simplest solutions."

"I see…" The Imp said trailing off, "Anyways, I wont force you two to leave her side, but if my sisters do turn up to retaliate you wont be able to fight them, let alone harm them, remember what happened when the game started?"

"none of us could attack." Alex said, " they immobilized us, for lack of any better terms."

"Safe guard." The imp said, "Keeps us out of danger, case in point, if you drew your sword and tried to strike me, you would immediately find yourself unable to move."

"Let me guess." The beast said rolling his eyes, "another gift from your mother?" He asked.

"yes and no, she was only responsible for part of the spell." The imp replied.

"I feel that this conversation can wait till later." Madeline said, belching then yawning, "Right now we should probably get back, to planning." She added starting to doze

Immediately the mist she began exhaling turned from gold, to green. Her hands glowing, everyone was sure of exactly what she was doing. Soon she seemed to be sleeping peacefully, though the imp seemed to feel otherwise.

"Neither of them are dreaming, but their minds are completely active." The imp said, "I didn't think that the dreamscape still worked while under dreamless sleep…" she added trailing off as she suddenly went through ace's thoughts.

"You get used to it with Maddie." Aislynn said smiling.

"I'm sure I will, they aren't the most conventional people in this room at the moment." The Imp said sighing, "I mean at least Glinda and Ellie have the advantage of being separate people."

"Where as these two are literally one in the same." Alex and the beast said in unison.

"Well, mostly, Madeline does have a free will of her own, just Dorothy's thoughts crashing into her head often enough." Ozma said, pulling up a chair of her own to sit in.

"I actually do have to agree with one thing Madeline said, and that's the bit about contacting Cassandra" Aislynn said sighing,

"yea, if she doesn't decide to help us I'm sure she'd get a decent laugh out of the two of us." Alex said, gesturing to himself and the beast.

"what's with the tone?" The imp asked curiously.

"For whatever reason Cassandra seems to have a kind of disdain towards us, I'm not entirely sure why." The beast said sighing, "but she's always cold with us."

"however, there is something else I think we should consider, or rather someone." Alex said, "though id rather wait until Dorothy is awake before we bring in any one else."

"who you thinking of?" Ozma asked curiously.

"Emma yoop, Mrs. Yoop's daughter." Alex said firmly, "She's a Yookoohoo as is her mother."

"Doesn't seem like a bad idea to have a proper transformations expert on our side" Aislynn said nodding, "but I agree we should definitely wait until Dorothy and Madeline wake up."

"I agree, at least on taking it up with Dorothy." Ozma said turning to Alex. "no use in putting too many more people in the line of fire."

"I agree." Alex said trailing off a bit.

"but there's a but coming." Aislynn said smugly.

"Yes, but, I don't think the imps could actually touch her that much either." Alex said nodding to the beast.

"The jester once claimed that it was a pain transforming Mr. and Mrs. yoop, I don't think her sisters would fair any better." The beast said gesturing to the imp.

"Well, once she got here she would be under my protection, so its not like she'd be in any immediate danger, and she seems to get along with your little sister quite well." The imp said going through both Alex's and Annabella's thoughts.

"who are we talking about?" Ellie asked coming into the room followed by Elphaba and Glinda.

"Emma." Alex said.

Glinda let out a honk.

"I know, I fully intend on taking it up with Dorothy when she wakes." Alex said looking down at her.

"honestly, Glinda could most certainly talk like you if she wanted to, she's doing this deliberately to you." The imp said in a sort of teasing tone.

"oh really?" Ellie asked looking at her sister.

"Well, Ellie, there's honestly a funny story about this." Elphaba said with a nervous chuckle.

"oh, I'm sure, but now isn't really the time to discuss this, I'm used to my sister hiding things from me, average routine." Ellie said rolling her eyes.

"Ellie, its not like that." Elphaba said shaking her head,

"Look, its fine, I'm not upset" Ellie said raising her hands.

"no one claimed you were dear." Elphaba said putting a hand on her shoulder, "I didn't know she was doing it deliberately either."

"I assumed you were able to understand her." Alex said raising his hand.

"you can both communicate though, I was going with context." Ellie said going over to the table Morris was occupying and petting his ears.

"well you're good at it." The beast said, "you had the two of us unaware." He added earnestly,

"Yea, that is actually impressive Ellie." Aislynn said in agreement.

"I picked up the ability watching Alex pre…well everything over the past month, with Toto." Ellie said sighing, "Glinda knows a spell that allows her to communicate, when her eyes flash sapphire." She added.

"yes, Nessa uses it all the time." Elphaba said, "it's a fairly advanced spell, requiring almost a month of meditation to even prepare for."

"explains why she hasn't let me learn it." Ellie said reassured.

"yes, anyways, I would like to talk about niceties." Alex said, "but there's a new question, dreamless sleep, is there any chance our talking could wake them prematurely?" he added curiously.

"minimal, but its possible, although considering what they are doing in the dreamscape now it seems, I wouldn't put it as likely." The imp said.

"then I would doubt any chances." Ellie said walking over to the bed looking at Dorothy, "if they're in the dreamscape, there's almost no chance to wake her until Madeline is ready."

"I'm just glad the plan worked, I don't know how much more general sleep deprivation these two could have taken." Alex said clearing some stray hairs from Dorothy's face.

"to be honest, I think Madeline was drawing as much as the damage to herself as she could, I was more worried about her possibly saying or doing something that she would regret later." Ozma said looking at her.

"Oh, you and me both." Alex and the beast said in unison, "you think we would have been able to prevent it?" He added curiously.

"Between the three of us?" Ozma asked making a gesture between the two of them and herself.

"yes." Alex and the beast said nodding.

"I'm not sure to be completely honest." Ozma said sighing, "even my powers have limits as far as emotional blocks are concerned, the more irritable the mood she got in, the harder it would be."

"well, I'm not sure we'd have been able to completely rely on my brawn." Alex and the beast said.

"afraid that you might hurt her?" Ozma asked curiously.

"Yes." They both replied.

"understandable." Ozma said nodding.

"it's partly the reason that even though were in some sort of an uneasy alliance." The beast said, "that we're still staying here."

"what's the other part?" Ozma asked curiously.

"you should read some of his thoughts." Alex said turning to look the beast in the eyes.

"still that bad?" Ozma asked curiously.

"again, he's everything I repress, so I cant say I'm too shocked." Alex said shrugging.

"and I doubt solving this problem would be as simple as a kiss." Ozma said, repressing a giggle.

"Dark magic, mixed with light, that's what Elphaba said a few weeks ago, we would be shocked if it were that simple" Alex said sighing, and looking up realizing something

They were now the only ones in the room, apart from Wendell, who was waiting for instructions, and jack and Morris.

"They all slipped out silently?" The beast asked looking around.

"I believe." Wendell said, "they went with ace and the imp, they didn't think it was a good idea to interrupt, so, going through her thoughts, the imp moved them all out of here."

"how discourteous" the beast said, "doing that without a word." The scepter flying into the room, pinging in agreement.

"where have you been?" Alex asked looking at it.

The scepter let out a few pings in varying tones.

"Why didn't you follow me out of the chambers?" he asked curiously.

It let out a few more.

"that's no excuse." The beast said getting up from his chair.

"Can you two actually understand what she's saying?" Ozma asked curiously.

"We put our own interpretation to it, it just usually seems to be right." Alex said taking Annabella from his lap and holding his hand out for the scepter.

"oh yes, you mentioned that once, I think." Ozma said getting to her feet, "surely the scepter can do its job now, protecting her." She added.

"I don't want to leave her here alone though, regardless of what Imp-Etuous says, I'm still worried." He said setting Annabella down on the bed with Dorothy.

"Brother dear, you're always worried." Annabella said with a whimper, "at least as far as Dorothy's concerned."

"I know Annabella, that's the point." He replied letting go of the scepter, allowing it to float in its vigil at Dorothy's bedside.

"I mean, the scepter does the job well enough most days." Ozma said looking at it.

"until someone represses it's power." The beast replied

"Wendell, can you keep an eye one them?" Alex asked turning to him

"As good as you can, sir." Wendell said assuredly.

"Can you ensure that some tea is ready for them when they wake up, the beast and I will be back in an hour or two." He said getting up, "come on Annabella, Ozma, fancy a trip to Gale hall?"