Glinda could hear Madame Morrible's drawling voice as she entered the Wizard's throne room slowly, fingering Elphaba's bottle by her side.
"Well, I don't know why you're so despondiary," She was saying. Glinda could see them now; Madame Morrible leaning against the Oz head with the Wizard sitting at its base, staring at the floor glumly. She had used Elphaba to get to the top and wasn't afraid to kill her to keep that power. Still, she wasn't the issue now. It was the Wizard. Glinda stared at him coldly, holding Elphaba's bottle in front of his downcast face.
"This was Elphaba's." She said flatly. The Wizard blinked, his expression turning from morose to bewildered.
"What's that you say?" He took the bottle from Glinda, studying it disbelievingly.
"It was a keepsake." Glinda said, preparing herself to voice the incredible news. "It was her mother's. She told me so herself." The Wizard's eyes widened as he fumbled with an inner pocket in his lab coat.
"I've only seen a little, green bottle like this one other time. It was right here, in this very room. You offered me a drink from it." The Wizard retrieved an identical bottle from his coat, comparing it to the first.
"But…" The Wizard stammered, remembering the one person he had ever shared the green elixir with. Melena…Melena Thropp… he realized now. Instantly he knew why Elphaba had seemed so familiar. Her dark hair, tall stance, but she had just enough of his blood that he hadn't known the difference.
And now she was dead. He had ordered her death.
"Oh my Lord…" The Wizard breathed. Madame Morrible and Glinda briefly wondered who this 'Lord' was.
"I am a sentimental man, who always longed to be…" Oh, how Elphaba had hated him. He had been despicable, evil; he should have been melted long ago! She had grown up with her own father, and she wouldn't want anything to do with him. He was a terrible person. "A father…" Madame Morrible looked from him to Glinda. Glinda, their little puppet, had found this out? It was staring them in the face.
"So that was it," She said, remembering the day the Wizard confided in her that he wasn't Ozian, but instead from a strange place called Kansas. The life-giver and killer were from the same place, she thought. But that was the whole point. Oz and 'Kansas' never mixed, except for in Elphaba… "That's why she had such powers! She was a child of both worlds!" Glinda watched the Wizard emotionlessly, mildly surprised at the amount grief he was showing. But then again, maybe he was a sentimental man. She let him cry for a little while, wondering if this was really the same man that had tried to use Elphaba before.
"I want you to leave Oz," Glinda said at last. "I'll make the pronouncement myself: that the strains of wizardship have been too much and you are taking…an indefinite leave of absence." The Wizard didn't even look up, still sobbing. Glinda grabbed an arm and dragged him to a half-standing position. "Did you hear what I said?" The Wizard nodded slightly, tears still streaming down his face.
"Yes…your goodness," He said sadly, admitting defeat.
"You'd better go get your balloon ready," She said ruefully. The Wizard fully stood and left out the main doors for once, much to the surprise of the pair standing guard. A man they hadn't let into the throne room was coming out? But of course. The Wizard hadn't shown his scheming face to the public in many years. Glinda turned on Madame Morrible. It was her turn now.
"Guards!" Glinda called, snapping her fingers. A tiny, unnoticed spark fell from her fingertips. Madame Morrible tried to smile, shaken by how easily Glinda had reduced the Wizard to giving up.
"Glinda, dear, I know we've had our…miniscule differentiations…in the past…" Madame Morrible tried to protest, scolding herself for ever letting Glinda rise so high in public opinion. The Ozians had demanded her continued promotion until she was higher than Madame Morrible; high enough that those guards would do whatever she wanted to almost anyone. Glinda stared at her coldly.
"Madame, have you ever considered how you'd fare in captivity?" Madame Morrible looked confused.
"What?" She asked dully. Captivity was for Animals, dirty stinking Animals. Not esteemed figures like her. Then again, in Glinda's eyes she probably was a dirty stinking Animal.
"Cap-tiv-i-ty." Glinda enunciated each syllable. Madame Morrible shook her head slowly, not comprehending. "Prison!" Madame Morrible froze. Her, in prison? Glinda continued mercilessly. "Personally, I don't think you'll hold up very well." Glinda did a perfect imitation of Madame Morrible's fake smile the night the Hunters went against Elphaba in one final strike. "My professional opinion is that you do not have what it takes." Glinda quoted for impact. Madame Morrible glanced at the pair of guards nervously. "I hope you prove me wrong. I doubt you will." Glinda motioned to the guards. "Take her away!"
"No!" Madame Morrible screamed, trying to struggle, but unable to do so. The Gale Force was strong. Glinda watched her go pitifully. She would be held until she could be legally charged with the murder of Nessarose. Glinda was sure there was some article about illegal magic practice, and the Wizard probably hadn't thought to give Madame Morrible public permission. Glinda looked out to the grand square clock. People had just about filled the streets, beginning to celebrate in earnest. Glinda watched them sadly, not sure if she could face them and speak of Elphaba's death joyfully. Still, she had to. She summoned up her bubble and climbed in, praying to Elphaba's spirit. Give me the strength to face them. Strength like you had.
Glinda could hear the joyous shouts from far away as she floated gracefully over the Emerald City.
"Good news!" They were shouting. "She's dead!" Glinda tried not to cry when they said that. It added an element of reality to the fact that she would never see Elphie ever again. "The Witch of the West is dead!" Glinda hung back in the air, trying to find the will to address them. They wanted her to, and it would be far too suspicious if she didn't, but she wasn't sure if she was ready. Even stranger would be if she lost her composure in speaking of the death of the Witch. After all, this was a happy occasion…
"The wickedest Witch there ever was, the enemy of all of us here in Oz, is dead! Good news! Good news!" Finally, Glinda found the will to speak to the people. She willed her bubble closer, making herself known to the celebrators.
"Look! It's Glinda!" Glinda assumed her bright smile, the smile they wanted to see.
"It's good to see me, isn't it?" Glinda said. The people began a cheer, but Glinda silenced them quickly. Nobody should be cheering today. "No need to respond; that was rhetorical!" The Ozians laughed a little, thankful for a joke to prove that happiness had survived the rule of the Witch. Glinda watched their faces. They wanted her to talk about Elphaba's death. No, She resolved. I won't speak to Elphaba's death; to the Wizard's departure.
"Fellow Ozians," She began. "Let us be glad, let us be grateful, let us rejoicify that goodness could subdue…" Crap. She couldn't say goodness subdued the Wizard; to them, goodness was the Wizard. "…the wicked workings of you-know-who!" She said. She couldn't call her a witch anymore. "Isn't it nice to know that good will conquer evil?" She drifted over the entire population of the town, all turned out to celebrate Elphaba's death. "The truth we all believe will by and by outlive a lie," The lie outlived the truth, Glinda realized. When Elphaba died, so did the truth. "For you and-"
"Glinda!" Someone screamed for her attention. A man was staring at her coldly, a drastic departure from the loving gazes. He was dressed in at least four layers of clothing, undercoats blocking holes from overcoats. The tatters of a shawl hung around his neck. If she didn't know better, he was almost mournful. Almost. More angry… "Exactly how dead is she?" He demanded. Glinda could feel the accusation in his eyes. You let her die. All Glinda could do was smile and address the crowd as a whole and ignore his knowledgeable stare.
"Well, there had been much rumor and speculation," Glinda admitted. She didn't know exactly how Elphaba had died; all she knew is she had melted when the water hit her. It was rather farfetched, but she wouldn't be dead if it wasn't true. "Innuendo, outuendo…but let me set the record straight." Glinda took a deep breath, clutching her metal wand to keep from shaking and bursting the bubble. "According to the Time Dragon Clock, the melting occurred at the 13th hour;" Glinda knew the time exactly. She had been there. "The direct result of a bucket of water thrown by a female child." It almost broke her to say it, but the Ozians wanted- and needed- a direct answer. "Yes, the Wicked Witch of the West is dead!" The Ozians began another cheer, but the tattered man stopped them, crying out;
"No one mourns the wicked!" The man shouted, silencing the crowd with this new idea. A ragged-looking woman next to him agreed, adding in a hoarse voice;
"No one cries 'they won't return'!" Glinda suddenly realized who they were; Elphs. Ex-Elphs, sent away by Elphaba barely a week before her death. The man was the leader, Salamaris, as Glinda recognized features from his wanted poster. Scar across his cheek. Dark eyes. Wild manner.
"No one lays a lily on their grave!" The crowd agreed with the idea, however far from mourning the wicked. A balding man in a large overcoat approached Salamaris angrily. Glinda bit her lip at the resemblance to Frex, a man she only knew by Elphaba's description. But he wasn't her father…
"The good man scorns the wicked!" The man said to Salamaris directly. Salamaris clenched his fists as bystanders moved away. Another woman pulled the bald man away from Salamaris, she and her friends saying, "Through their lives, our children learn…"
"What we miss, when we misbehave!" The rest of the Ozians joined in, remembering warnings from their parents as to what happens to the people who are horrible. Glinda cut in, trying to work in a good word for Elphaba. That doesn't mean her name would be cleared.
"And goodness knows the wicked's lives are lonely…" Glinda's voice rang out over the crowd, silencing them. "Goodness knows the wicked die alone. It just shows when you're wicked; you're left only on your own…" Elphaba truly had been on her own, despite the Elphs. She couldn't depend on them for anything. Glinda let the bubble descend and land among the people, making little promises of how she was going to change things. No longer would the government have secret plans over the people's heads. They deserved to know, deserved to choose what to do about it. People helped her out of the bubble, Salamaris and the other Elph momentarily forgotten.
"Yes, goodness knows the wicked's lives are lonely." They admitted as Glinda moved about the crowd, paying respects to all she met. "Goodness knows the wicked cry alone..." Someone pulled a chair out from a house for Glinda to rest in as people surrounded her, ready with questions and wanting true answers. A small child worked her way into Glinda's lap, a beautiful little girl with dirty blond curls and shining blue eyes. Glinda stared at her for a second, when she noticed the girl's proud parents a little ways away. This girl could be me, Glinda thought. Years from now, she may go off to college and meet another girl, and together they'll make good throughout Oz. The little girl looked up at Glinda hopefully.
"Glinda, why does wickedness happen?" She asked innocently. Glinda could see the people turn to her, expecting a good answer. No, she's not me. Glinda thought. She's a thinker. An Elphaba. Oz knows we need more of them.
"That's a good question." Glinda said, before addressing all of them. "One that many people find confusifying. Are people born wicked? Or, do they have wickedness thrust upon them?" The people watched her. They didn't want to know why wickedness happened; they wanted to know why the Witch was wicked. Glinda read that and responded accordingly. "After all," Glinda started. "She had a father, who just happened to be the governor of Munchkinland." A few older Munchkins remembered the rule of Frexspar, the hard but fair justice before the Witch of the East. Glinda could just piece together what happened in her mind from the hastily recovered dates and records. There had been an assembly for the providences of Munchkinland, about half a day's ride from the Governor's mansion, nine months before Elphaba's birthday. The affair had to have happened then.
"She had a mother, as so many do…" She said. She had found a portrait of 'the New Esteemed Governor of Munchkinland, and His Wife' in her rushed research. Elphaba's mother had been a beautiful woman with dark eyes and black hair. She had received the Wizard's eyes. Glinda watched the sea of faces. They wouldn't understand if she just told them. She had to show them. She waved her wand once, conjuring up a medium-sized bubble. It floated just above head height, rainbows reflecting in its surface as if hovered. Focusing, Glinda tried to turn the rainbows into pictures. A middle-aged man in a long coat could be seen now packing a file case in an elegant study. The colors off in the slightly pink bubble, but unmistakably Frex, late governor of Munchkinland.
"I'm off to the assembly, dear," said a younger Frex. Even though the Wizard had been her father, Frex was her parent. He had cared. A beautiful woman came in through the door, dusting off a cap. She placed it on his head, staring up at him lovingly. Elphaba's mother, Melena. Frex held her hands, speaking apologetically;
"How I hate to go and leave you lonely…" Melena smiled kindly, clearly forgiving him.
"That's all right; it's only just one night…" She started to usher him out toward the door, despite the fact Frex obviously wanted to stay. He held her hands to his chest.
"But know that you're here in my heart, while you're out of my sight!" With one final kiss, Frex left the house. Melena waved goodbye to him, before wiping the kiss off disgustedly. Glinda started breathing heavily. This was hard, keeping that bubble like that.
"And, like every family," she managed as the Melena in the bubble moved through the house to the back door in the kitchen. "They had their secrets…" Melena flung the door wide open, revealing another man with his hat tipped low to conceal his face. He drew a little green bottle from inside his coat pocket, playing a romantic game of keep-away as he and Melena practically danced in the kitchen.
"Have another drink, my dark-eyed beauty, I've got one more night left here in town," Everything was strange about the man; his accent, the way he walked, even the way he kept Melena chasing him. "So have another drink, green elixir, and we'll have ourselves a little mix-er…" Several people in the crowd drew back. Melena was going to cheat on Frex. This was almost more exciting than Emerald City tabloids. "Have another little swallow, little lady, and follow me down…" He finally let Melena have the bottle, allowing her to take a long gulp. The alcohol took effect almost immediately, putting her in a deeply drunk state. Glinda let the bubble pop, taking a quick break before summoning up another to tell the final part of Elphaba's beginning.
"And of course, from the moment she was born, she was…well," Glinda manipulated the rainbows again, showing a different scene. It was a bedroom, only with Melena. She looked fatter, more pregnant. Everyone knew that it was the lover's child, not Frex's. "Different!" Glinda let the scene go, visualizing the action as it took place in the bubble.
Melena let out a terrible scream, falling backwards onto the bed. Instantly the midwife and supposed father were by her side.
"It's coming!"
"Now!?" Frex seemed alarmed. He tried to soothe his wife, but there was nothing to be done for it; the baby was going to be born.
"The baby's coming!" The midwife confirmed. Frex noticed Melena relaxing a bit, and moved to check on the birthing with the midwife.
"And how!" He said. The midwife was waiting anxiously. This was a quick birth.
"I see a nose!" She said happily, waiting with clean linen.
"I see a curl!" Frex added, overjoyed for this new arrival. His first born child…
"It's a healthy, perfect, lovely little…" The statement was cut short by the midwife screaming.
"Sweet Oz!" Frex exclaimed, shying away slightly from his wife and the baby.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Melena cried, not able to see the child. The midwife turned to Frex, speaking more privately.
"How can it be?" She asked, but Frex was equally as confused.
"What does it mean?" Frex said, hoping against hope the midwife had seen something like this before.
"It's atrocious!" The midwife declared, fumbling with the linens to retrieve the baby. A baby was a baby. Frex stayed back a little bit, nervous about his new first born.
"It's obscene!" He added; amazed that something like this could have even happened.
"Like a froggy, ferny cabbage, the baby is unnaturally…" The midwife finally brought the baby to the air for the first time in its life. "Green!"
The spectators drew back in shock. It was the Witch.
There was a stunned moment inside the bubble. The midwife drew the baby back in slowly, not sure what to do. She held it out to Frex, who stared at it amazedly. He took the baby in his arms, spent another moment staring at it, then sank to the floor, crying.
"So you can see why it's amazing that she became wicked!" Glinda shouted, letting this second bubble pop. "She was loved!" The crowd was mournful, the nature of the celebration turning into a piteous recognition. How sad that the Witch's life had turned out the way it did! She might have been great, but instead had been lost from the path of goodness.
"No one mourns the wicked!" They cried, sorrowful that no one would mourn the Witch because of her actions. "Now at last, she's dead and gone! Now at last, there's joy throughout the land!" Glinda climbed back into her transport bubble, sure that if she stayed she would break Elphaba's promise and try to clear her name.
"And goodness knows we know what goodness is!" Glinda couldn't help but feel sorry for the misguided people. The Wizard's deception had taken root in their hearts, the truth twisted after years of lies. Glinda tried to ignore Salamaris' eyes. She could tell even as she rose steadily over the people that he didn't feel satisfied.
"Goodness knows the wicked die alone!" Glinda blinked back tears, using altitude to hide her pain.
"She died alone!" She agreed, trying to make sure the celebration stopped.
"Woe to those who spurn what goodnesses they are show…" Glinda started. The pity was short-lived, growing back into the cursing of the wicked and the joyous feeling of knowing that terror was dead.
"No one mourns the wicked!" They finally declared, letting their mourning pass. She had still been wicked. She should still have been killed. Glinda could only pretend to go along with their beliefs. She shouldn't even have shown them Elphaba's birth at all.
"Good news!" She cried out over the crowd.
"No one mourns the wicked!" They said again, trying to shake off the guilt. She had still deserved it.
"Good news!" Glinda breathed deeply, trying to keep herself from breaking out in tears. If she cried, the last of her energy would be gone, and she would lose the bubble.
"No one mourns…the wicked!" The wicked deserved to die! The deaths of the wicked should be celebrated! "Wicked!" She was wicked, her death meant liberation! "WICKED!"
"Well, this has been strangely fun!" Glinda said. The crowd began to dissipate, going back to their bars and taverns to drink to the health of the Hunters and their lovely Glinda the Good. She couldn't stay among such people. "But as you can imagine, I have much to attend to!" Glinda tried to think of a good excuse. "What with the Wizard's unexpected departure, so if there are no further questions-"
"Glinda!" Glinda turned in her bubble. It was Salamaris again. He looked at her with utter hatred, blaming her for something. He blames me for her death… She realized as he asked the final question, the one that would be her undoing. "Is it true you were her friend?" Gasps and murmurs flooded through the crowd as people demanded to know if it was true. Glinda watched them grow angry again. The only way out of this is to clear her name, Glinda thought.
"Well…" Glinda straightened herself, preparing for the onslaught. "Yes. I was her friend. But know this!" Glinda raised her voice, shouting over the crowd. "I only become friends with good people! The Witch was a good person!"
"You lie!" Someone shouted. Salamaris moved beneath the bubble, drawing a short sword.
"Glinda the Good, lie?" He brandished the sword at the people. "She is telling the truth!"
Glinda conjured a bubble and sent it over the crowd.
"If you would quiet down, I can explain!" Glinda said, motioning to the bubble. It was about as large as hers now. Perfect. Glinda thought. "Our paths crossed, at school…"
The scene in the bubble changed into a wonderful recreation of the Shiz hall where it all started….
The corridors of Kiamo Ko held a ghostly silence, barely broken by the straw-muffled footsteps. The familiar halls held death in them now, the haunting thought that her unforgiving spirit would desire revenge.
Well, only if she had really died.
He found the melting hall easily and noticed her hat on the floor. Such an innocent marker. Hats don't melt, so it was left behind. Carefully, he picked up the hat, that old hat that Glinda gave her so long ago for a party. It had to be here. She was expecting him, after all. He banged on the trapdoor with all of his might, which wasn't very much anymore.
"It worked!" He said, backing up slightly for the trapdoor to open. He wasn't disappointed; Elphaba responded quickly, flinging up the cover enthusiastically.
"Fiyero?" She asked, then saw him. Oh, sweet Oz…She climbed out, sitting on the lip of the hole. It was him all along…I'm so, so sorry…Fiyero smiled, sure that Elphaba was thinking of how horrible she had been to the Scarecrow of Oz, all the while absolutely positive Fiyero of the Vinkus was dead.
You're forgiven…He thought as she raised a hand, not sure if he was really there or not. It could be a trick, the Scarecrow with his newfound brains here to trick her and kill her for real…Fiyero took her hand, letting it touch his face.
"Go ahead, touch," he said. "I don't mind." He shrugged slightly, remembering how little time Elphaba had to find a way to save him. "You did the best you could. You saved my life." Fiyero could think of how Boq needed to thank her, too, but the heartlessness had lingered even is his own immortality. He had forgotten how to feel. Elphaba held him close, pulling herself fully out of the hidden hole to hug him at long last.
"You're still beautiful," she whispered. Fiyero smiled.
"You honestly think that I'm beautiful?" He asked. She only pulled him tighter.
"In more ways than one…"
And with a final, defiant scream, Madame Morrible was dragged away off to prison. Feeling ready to pass out, Glinda let the bubble pop. The people were silent, still absorbing what they had just seen. She hadn't been wicked at all…she hadn't meant to do those things to people…to the Monkeys…
"No one mourns the wicked…" They began again, sounding more like a funeral march than celebrators. "Now at last, she's dead and gone," They had killed her! They had demanded the death of an innocent woman! Who were they to celebrate murder? "Now at last there's joy throughout the land…" Glinda found the strength to speak to them.
"Fellow Ozians," She began, but corrected herself. These people had accepted Elphaba. "Friends," She said. A friend of Elphaba's was a friend of hers. "What has been done is done. All that is left to do is to make sure it never happens again." Don't punish the Hunters…they were lied to; it would be the Wizard and Madame Morrible that should be punished… "If you'll let me, I'd like to try to help. I'd like to finally be Glinda…" Glinda imagined who she had been moments before Elphaba's death; a public figurehead, with less brains, heart, and courage than the three Ozian Hunters thought they had. That's all going to change. "…the Good." The people started moving, tearing banners down and extinguishing bonfires. They would be monsters if they celebrated her death.
"Good news!" They shouted again. Yes, good news. The Wizard was gone, the Animals would be freed, and Oz would become the Oz it used to be.
The echo of the now sorrowful raptures reached Kiamo Ko as the news spread, unnoticed by the reunited pair.
"It's time to go," Fiyero said softly.
"We can never come back to Oz, can we?" she asked. Fiyero shook his head.
"No," they would have to find the lands beyond Oz, beyond the Impassible Desert, maybe. They could make it together.
"I only wish…" Elphaba said quietly, almost ashamed to ask if they could do it.
"What?"
"Glinda could know…that we're alive." Fiyero looked into her eyes, wanting to make sure she knew that this pained him as well.
"She can't know, not if we want to be safe." Fiyero saw tears well up in her eyes, sure that he would be crying by now, too. "No one can ever know." Elphaba looked away, out the window. But then something caught her attention. Or, the lack of something caught her attention.
"What is it?" Fiyero joined her at the window.
"The parties…" She said, scanning the horizon. "They had fireworks, and they've stopped suddenly." Elphaba looked away from the window, barely believing what must have happened.
"So?" Fiyero said, not yet understanding what was so amazing.
"Fiyero, I think Glinda managed to clear my name!" She said happily, the greatest thing in all of Oz having just happened. She ran out of the great doors, Fiyero only able to follow…
Glinda surveyed the people cleaning up, descending in her bubble to clear away everything in rejoice of Elphaba's death. Still, there was little for her to do, mostly leaving her standing in the middle of the square as the people did the only thing they could in tribute to Elphaba: stop the parties.
"Who can say…if I've been changed…for the better…" Glinda felt herself starting to cry again. She hadn't spoken up earlier. She could have saved Elphaba's life, maybe. "But…"
"Because I knew you…" Glinda could have sworn she heard an echo of Elphaba. She tried to shake it out of her head, closing her eyes against the battery of memory that she just couldn't handle. Not now, not here.
"Because I knew you…." Glinda tried to drown out the second voice, the voice of a ghost.
"I have been changed…" Glinda couldn't ignore it anymore. She was…closer. She opened her eyes. People had stopped cleaning, staring in amazement at the odd pair making their way into the village square. Elphie…? She smiled at Glinda.
"Water will melt her, my foot." She said. Glinda knew at that moment that her friend hadn't died. They ran to each other, silently thanking all the powers at work that Elphaba had lived, that Glinda had made it safe for her to continue to live.
"I don't believe it…" Glinda breathed, but the Scarecrow heard her.
"People are so empty-headed they'll believe anything." He said. Glinda broke her hug with Elphaba in amazement.
"Fiyero?!" She exclaimed. He smiled again.
"Thank Elphaba for that," And the three could barely contain their happiness as new parties were set up around them. The Witch of the West lives.
-pants- There! Sorry it still took so long. My computer ate it...twice. :K But no matter! It's done! I did it! Despite bans, lost discs, and file errors! I need a vacation...keep reading and writing! -LostOzian