Disclaimer, meh

It wasn't long before mother nature had explained at least one more thing to Dorothy, and that was that it was entirely possible for hers and Madeline's connection to be forced both ways. Jon and Aislynn did most of the highly detailed explanations of everything else. So that left Dorothy, Annabella, Alex, Elena, Zeb, and Ozma mostly on the side. Elena had gone to look out into the sanctuary with Madame Marsinta and Melody. Zeb, when questioned by his cousin, said that while he knew the tribunal were decent magic users, he still felt more secure traveling with her. Alex, Ozma, and Annabella saw no reason to argue with this though it did seem a little flawed. Eventually the explanations from Aislynn and Jon were finished and it left Oscar Diggs with one question, that Ozma quickly answered before he had a chance to ask it.

"we would all be honored if you would return with us to The Emerald City." Ozma said smiling, "you may not be able to return to your life in Kansas, I think the citizens of Oz would be pleased to have their old wizard back."

"although, I'm afraid that we can't offer you your job as ruler back, the people of Oz love Ozma and wont willingly part with her." Alex added on, "Though is it still accurate to call him a wizard?" he added curiously.

"well, a humbug wizard is the safest kind of wizard to have." Ozma said with a giggle, "though I'm sure he could learn a few things from Glinda, Alison, or the Hatter if you have the stamina and the patience."

Alex held his hand out for the scepter which flew to him. He looked into the orb for a moment.

"I wouldn't trust Maddie teaching anyone." He said.

"And neither would I." Came the voice of the Beast from the reflection in the orb.

"I'm sure this is going be entirely unhelpful." Fayth said, looking at him, "and not to stoke any fires but technically you are within your rights to blame the Wizard for what's happened to you."

"Well, I wouldn't say unhelpful." Came the voice of the beast, "he is the one who 'exiled' you guys, and thus left your work unfinished, but what is blaming him for it going to accomplish?" he asked curiously.

"Nothing?" Jon suggested.

"exactly." Both Alex and the beast said in unison

"So, could someone please explain to me how this works?" Dorothy asked looking over at Benton.

"Not in any words any of you would understand." He said shaking his head, "I can barely explain it myself."

Dorothy sighed and walked over to Alex, she looked into the orb herself. It pinged and flashed a few times

"so that is, or was…" Oz asked trailing off a bit.

"The witch's broomstick, now turned scepter." Dorothy said, "the only object of power that responds to two owners."

"it's bizarre but useful." Alex said chuckling, "even warns us when there's some kind of danger."

"Well, it's more useful than the gun in your coat pocket." Zinnia said smiling.

"Well, it's not loaded." Alex said letting the scepter float in its place,

"where did father even get a gun?" Annabella asked curiously.

"I imagine it belonged to his father." Alex said taking it from his inner pocket and looking it over.

It was a simple looking revolver, but on the bottom of the handle were carved initials, A.R.E.N.T.

"that's an odd mix of initials." Annabella said.

"Archibald." Jon said rather definitively, "Archie to his friends." He added.

"Full name?" Alex asked curiously.

"Archibald, Reginald, Erasmus, Nathaniel, Teak" Jon said smiling, "I don't think your father hated your grandfather as much as he lets on."

"no, or he wouldn't have named both his kids after him." Alex said shaking his head,

"Your father doesn't seem the type to carry a gun though." Zeb said.

"I know, I made that rather apparent." Alex said placing it back in his pocket again, "I wonder if mom even knew he had it."

"I would assume so." Aislynn said, "She didn't seem to worried by the fact that he was pointing it at someone, even if it did only contain a single bullet, it's still a gun at the end of the day."

"Add on the fact that he was pointing it at the imp, who was standing in rather close proximity to US." Ozma said with a nod, "I think he knew what he was doing."

It wasn't long before Elena returned with Madame Marsinta, Melody having returned to her usual duties.

"this place is as interesting as my sister said it was." Elena said smiling,

"I'm hoping the next time we come here it will be for a proper social call." Dorothy said sighing,

"Here's hoping, kitten" Alex said kissing her cheek and taking the scepter in hand again.

Dorothy smiled and placed a hand on the scepter as well. Zeb, Annabella, Ozma, Aislynn, the Wizard, Jon and Elena gathered around close to them.

All of this had come to pass several hours ago, and now everyone was in the Banquet hall they frequented, Brianna, with help, had prepared quite a banquet in a small amount of time.

For Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man, this was also a reunion of old friends, for the Wizard needed no introduction to them. Toto didn't need one either, and immediately took to the man who had once tried to help them. This however, led to another discovery, this one by Aislynn, and that was that she could still understand Toto.

"It means you can still understand all of us." Eve said from her corner.

"odd, when the imp had her magic taken, that should have been taken from you." Glinda said, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, wait a moment, Mother Nature and Death said that Imp-Etuous would also have to live with the fact that she couldn't change her sisters' shapes back to their natural ones." Aislynn said giggling, "I guess they either didn't know, or didn't care that I had been bestowed with a rather bizarre gift."

"Well, I guess it works out as you and Dorothy now share the same gift, or curse." Madeline said pouring herself a cup of tea, "Which ever you prefer."

"which reminds me." The Wizard said, turning his attentions to Dorothy, "I'm glad Ace has been so well taken care of by you and your friends, its proven to me that I was not mistaken in my choice of guardian for her."

"It wasn't easy." Dorothy said looking at Alex who was sat next to her, "But we all managed in the end." She added kissing him on the cheek.

"Aislynn now fits right in at home." Jon said, "Still a reader, and quite the genius."

"Oh right, Grandfather, scarecrow and I need to show you something later, the rainbow mover." Aislynn said smiling.

"Yes, that was mentioned at the trial." The Wizard said smiling.

"I invented it" scarecrow said, "Ace has helped me improve it from the original design" he added.

"And Wiser helps move the materials for it." Aislynn said referring to the large owl.

"Your granddaughter, also brought one of your designs to life with the help of the Former Nome King Roquat and the rest of my colleagues who are here." Alyssa said.

"Oh really?" The Wizard said, sounding both interested and quite excited, "Which one?"

"The Airship." Terrance said, "given to us as a wedding gift."

"Christened, The Gale, after Dorothy." Ozma said giggling, "The one who brought them together."

I should like to take a look at it at some point" The Wizard said, "but what of my old balloon?" he asked curiously

"in storage, here in the city." Alex said, "Dorothy transported it here should we need it for some reason, or you know, want to take it out for a spin." He added.

"ace wanted to show us how it works once." Trot said, "Dorothy kinda talked her out of it."

"I told her we should wait for a better day to do it." Dorothy said sighing.

"you're worried that something could've happened." Betsy said, "That something could have gone wrong."

"well, my old circus balloon wasn't or considering the fact that its still here, isn't completely foolproof, it was affective for what it was meant to do, but it is also the reason I ended up in Oz in the first place." The wizard said with a bit of a chuckle.

"Actually, that's something worth asking about." Ozma said giggling, "When you landed in Oz, Mr. Wizard, people thought you were a great wizard because the balloon bared the letters O and Z, can you explain that?"

"Oh, those are my first two initials, stands for Oscar Zoroaster." The Wizard said chuckling, "I cut my name short, and put it on the balloon."

"If that's cutting it short?" Ozma asked curiously, "then surely there is more to your name?"

"indeed, and one of the hardest lessons I ever learned was to memorize my own name." The Wizard said leaning back in his chair, "my father gave me the full name of Oscar, Zoroaster, Phadrig, Isaac, Norman, Henkle, Emmanuel, Ambroise, Diggs, Diggs finally coming last as my father could not think of anything else to put in there." He continued, "Because the rest of the initials spelt out P.I.N.H.E.A.D when put together I simply called myself Oz so the rest of the initials did not reflect on my intelligence."

"and ace's father?" Alex asked curiously.

"Geoffrey, Geoffrey Diggs." The Wizard said, "No middle name or names."

Aislynn looked rather scornful at talk of her father, and quickly changed the subject.

"Life for the most part has never been dull; we've had a few cases of boredom but nothing majorly dull." She said.

"What's the most interesting thing that goes on around here these days?" The Wizard asked, curiously about the sudden subject change.

"Well, Madeline scaring the living daylights out of everyone by just spontaneously appearing runs a very close first." Ozma said with a giggle, "But if you can ever catch those two dancing together, well it's always a bit of a treat." She said gesturing to Dorothy and Alex.

"That's only because it's almost completely impossible to look away from them whilst they are dancing." Alyssa said smiling, "Did a beautiful job at our wedding."

"Magic literally forms between them while they dance," Ellie added on

"It's not a new concept, but these two are the only people I've ever seen it actually happen to." Glinda said

"I mean, we do seem to be a bit of an outlier when it comes down to it." Alex said looking over at the scepter,

"I think it would be easy or at least relatively easy to assume that it was mixing the Slippers and the Scepter together in close proximity that causes it." Alison said, "But that would be wrong for a couple of reasons."

"One, the scepter would immediately start acting up when they start dancing." Elphaba said looking at it, "Which as far as I've been made aware it usually doesn't."

"Another thing being, the first time we danced together, the slippers hadn't been given back to me yet." Dorothy added

"I feel that Cassandra is probably a better authority to consult on the matter." Madeline said tilting back in her own chair, "But she wasn't sent back here, like Emma and Polly were." She added gesturing to the two girls.

They had been silent and listening patiently at the conversation. Just in the same way most of the rest of the party had been. There were very few people in the room who had actual experience with the Wizard of Oz, so most everyone at the table had mostly stayed silent and listened to the conversation going on.

"well, we know Polly is supposed to be here." Aislynn said smiling, "and we know at least where she originates from."

"Yes, I'm glad we made progress as far as that's concerned." Polly said with a warm smile, "Your guy's rainbow mover was used to send me here and I was changed in order to learn a few lessons, but um, not to change the subject, but I don't recall anyone making a fuss about getting the Wizard a room arranged."

"well, his old rooms at the back of the throne room, next to my workshop are still untouched and have been since he left." Scarecrow said.

"does the key even still exist?" The wizard asked curiously.

"if it does it's on the set of keys I gave to Dorothy, unless that ribbon of keys is in your possession now your majesty." Scarecrow said looking at Ozma.

"as far as I am aware, they are still in Dorothy and Alex's possession." Ozma said looking over at Madeline.

"The ornate looking jewelry box in their closet." Madeline said looking over at Dorothy

"actually, couldn't you just use the scepter to unlock the door?" Mrs. Teak asked curiously, "I know that's something you both occasionally do with your bedroom here in the city."

"Depends of the lock." Glinda said, "There are a few doors in this palace that are resistant to that."

"Because they lock again the moment you close them." The wizard said smiling,

"Well, I have to finish getting dessert ready." Brianna said getting to her feet, "Dorothy why don't you and Alex go and grab the ribbon of keys from your room, you should have enough time."

The two of them shared a glance, Dorothy nodded and they got up. Dorothy grabbing the scepter as she went. Once they were gone, the conversations started again.

"you know, it honestly is a shame those two have to be separated during the week." Ozma said shaking her head.

"He still doesn't trust the beast, Ozma, you know that." Elphaba said sighing.

"I dunno, he could always go to the school and they can be in Mr. Alistair's office while Gym is going on." Henry said,

"Shouldn't she be there though?" The wizard asked curiously.

"She's exempted this year to avoid a lot of very complicated questions." Henry said shaking his head.

"well mainly to avoid the complicated question of, why she gives off the strong scent of molasses when she's running, and working up a sweat." Emily said looking over at the triplets.

They as usual seemed unmoved by the proceedings.

"Had Alex not mentioned it when we found him, I don't think it would have ever even been noticed until it was too late." Henry added.

Back with Dorothy and Alex, they had quickly made their way to their bedroom. And together started looking through the jewelry boxes as there were a few that fit the description of ornate.

"I do wish Maddie would have been more specific." She said looking around

They were both surprised when she didn't immediately pop in.

"must be too busy explaining herself." The beast said, his reflection in one of the mirrors.

"or she's laughing at the fact that we haven't immediately found it yet." Dorothy said climbing onto a step ladder and grabbing an ornate wooden box, "I think this is it." She added.

However, she managed to lose her footing and over balance and fell backwards. Had Alex not already been on his way over to see what she had found; she might have been hurt. He caught her.

"forgive me for the joke." Alex said chuckling, "but I thought cats were always supposed to land on their feet?" he asked with a grin as he helped her to her feet.

"Oh, shut up." She said giggling and kissing his cheek before going to sit on the step ladder.

As she sat down, she opened the box and found the ribbon of keys in it, a long side a few other pieces of jewelry that she didn't recognize. She set the box to the side and set herself to work undoing the knot in the ribbon. Despite the fact that it had been tied for many years now it only took a few minutes of picking at it to undo it.

"Well, the wizard will know the keys better than we do, we should go back to the banquet hall." Alex said offering a hand.

Dorothy smiled and took it, soon they were walking at a brisk pace back to the banquet hall with the scepter following rapidly behind.

"Just his birthday." They heard Annabella say giggling.

"She doesn't know his birthday?" they heard Em ask with a bit of a giggle.

"well I know it" Toto said coming up to them,

"really Toto?" Dorothy asked as they walked into the banquet hall,

"No one ever expects the animals to know." Alex said.

"that's not the part that bothers me." Dorothy said setting the keys and the ribbon down on the table, "it's the fact that everyone and my dog knows when your birthday is."

"I think we`re all bothered by the fact that you haven't guessed it." Aislynn said shaking her head.

"I mean, he does go out of his way to avoid the subject" Mr. teak chimed in, "it's one of the few subjects he goes to certain lengths to avoid"

"why is that?" the wizard asked curiously as he looked at the keys on the table.

"quite frankly so that he could start this little guessing game with Dorothy, she's got a little less than a year to figure it out." Madeline said smiling,

"does it really make a difference if she knows it or not though?" Polly asked curiously.

"I mean, they know just about everything else about each other." Brianna said coming out with two other servants and several trays of strawberry shortcake, "but yes, because as his father pointed out, he simply doesn't talk about it."

Dorothy sighed and shook her head. Taking her seat, she pushed the pile of keys along the table over to Aislynn and her grandfather. After sorting them for a quick moment, he picked up a rather older looking brass key and smiled.

"only key in the set that looks like this one." He said.

"If you're willing to wait a few minutes after we finish." Glinda offered, "I can make sure your old rooms get a good dusting."

"well, considering the rooms haven't been used in years, that would definitely be appreciated." He said with a nod, passing the keys back over to Dorothy and Alex.