Fala:
"Great."
"Yeah."
Liir and I stood staring at the impenetrable walls of Southstairs.
"When they say Oz's most impregnable prison…" Liir began.
"They mean it, you dolt! You thought what, they left the damn doors open?"
"Well…Mother and Dad sure act like they do!"
I sighed at my brother's logic. "Yes, but…it's Mother."
"Good point," Liir conceded. "So…how are we getting in?"
I grinned as a plan began to form out of the fragmented tendrils in my mind.
"Getting in will be the easy part. It's getting out I'm worried about."
"Wha-?" asked Liir. I grabbed his hand and focused all my strength inward and upward. Fly, I thought, fly!
I heard Liir gasp and opened my eyes. We were flying, really flying!
I threw off the hood of the cloak and smiled brilliantly at the gaping faces below us.
"You thought mere walls could hold me? Have they ever done so before?" I bellowed, channeling my mother's hauteur. "Insolent fools! I-" I clutched my stomach and, in a very convincing faint, plummeted to the ground, slowing our fall just slightly before we hit the ground, making sure the cloak obscured both of our faces.
The guards had no idea they'd captured not the Wicked Witch of the West and her paramour but a pair of gangly, freckled (green or not) fourteen-year-olds until we were already inside the processing room.
Stay in a faint, I thought hard to Liir. If they think we're unconscious they'll be far less careful.
Don't worry, I have no intention of moving, thought Liir. How the hell did you do that?
I don't know, but it's amazing.
"Sweet Oz, Mav, they're kids!"
One of them scraped his finger against my arm. I worked hard to remain limp.
"She's really green, too, ain't she!"
"D'you think they're her kids?"
"The Witch's? I've never heard tell of another flyin' green girl. 'ave you?"
"Does this mean she's still in custody?"
"No…they've escaped. She did some sort of spell and they ran off, but the new Minister o' Interrogation said they haven't left the building yet."
I felt my heart leap. They're here! And free!
"Speakin o' which, we're needed to protect the exits. We ken leave 'em here, don't you reckon? Two passed out kids won't get far down here, 'specially not when one of 'em's got skin that color."
"Aye, leave 'em."
We heard the door slam shut and the lock click, but that didn't bother me. I sat up triumphantly, a phoenix rising from the ashes.
"Yes!"
Elphaba:
"Yes!" I crowed triumphantly as soon as we emerged out of a backdoor, the lock of which I finally managed to pick using the same magic I could sometimes here Fiyero's or the twins' thoughts with. I kissed Fiyero, long and hard and deep, jolting us both from the ends of each individual hair to the soles of our feet, rooting us to the ground.
"Can you believe it? We escaped again!" I said, words bubbling rapidly from my lips to push away the threat of silence. "We really do make a habit of it-"
"Fae," said Fiyero quietly.
"What?" I asked, cringing inwardly at the irritating, falsely chipper tone of my own voice.
"Stop it," he sounded pained.
"What?"
"Stop acting like everything's fine, because it's not fine. You are not fine. You promised. You promised to let me see you-"
"Can we do this somewhere else, Fiyero?"
"No, Elphaba, we can't. You peel back your layers, but you keep building on more. You've never let me see you with all your defenses down, and that's not how you act in a marriage-"
"What do you know about how to act in a marriage?" I spat, regretting each word as it came out of my mouth. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"
"No…you're right." He sighed and hit the wall with the flat of his hand. "I don't know how. We're not very good at this, after fourteen years, are we?"
I laughed.
"No. I'm not. But Fiyero, I can be happy, can't I? I'm not broken, Fiyero, not anymore. Not now, never again. I don't have to be, all right? I survived, I got over it. You saved me, but I am all right now."
"Then why are you still waking up shaking at night, Fae? Why do you flinch when I- when anyone- touches you from behind? Why do I see you sitting by the window at night with your eyes empty?"
"I have nightmares, so what? I'm jumpy. I have a right to be, I've been chased by soldiers and angry mobs, and besides, I've never been good with being touched. I think a lot!"
"That's not it."
"Don't assume everything is a defense mechanism, Fiyero, it's not!"
He studied me for a moment, then embraced me.
"Let's go get our children before my father scars them for life," I said.
"Speaking of Frex and child-rearing, are you ever going to tell him he's not your father?"
"Oh, Fiyero, I don't know," I said. "Any day from age twelve to age twenty-two, I'd have leapt at the chance to wound him, to make the atonement he forced me to suffer to absolve himself meaningless. But then- when we went back there, both times years ago and now- he acted like a father. He is kind to our children. He is my father, you know- he misguidedly shaped me, but shaped me nonetheless. And before Nessa and Mama and Quadling Country, when I was very small- he loved me then, and he knew how far better than he did later, after Turtle Heart died and Nessa was born more broken than I, and then later, after he fell into his obsessions and Mama died-"
I turned to Fiyero, terror in my eyes. "Oh, sweet Oz, I'm just like them, aren't I? If you had died that night, what do you think I'd have done? Do you think I could have cared for Fala and Liir? I was already consumed by obsession, just like Frex! I'm like them both, Frex and the Wizard. They're both consumed. Melena, too, by her pinlobble leaves…oh, sweet Lurline, I'm just like them!"
"No, Elphie, Fae, no, you're not! You've broken free. Calm down, my heart, breathe. You're free of your obsession- you control it, it doesn't control you. I didn't die. I'm here, right here. You aren't your parents, any of them. You're you, Elphaba-Fabala-Elphie-Fae, and no one else, ever, and we are going to go to Munchkinland and retrieve our beloved twins and go back to Kiamo Ko and repeat that exercise of making love in every single room in that castle, without being seen by Fala and Liir-"
I blushed and laughed and hushed him when I heard the heralds blow to denote an announcement.
"Citizens of Oz," came Devyn's voice. I was rather surprised that the Bastard had managed to walk to the podium, given where I'd directed a good lot of that energy I'd released.
"We have reapprehended the green Wicked Witch of the West and her companion, an unidentified Vinkusian male of her same age."
"What?" Fiyero gasped beside me. I squeezed his hand. This must be a trick, a piece of propaganda to satisfy the city.
But…why not give Fiyero's status as king, at least? Further strengthen public opinion against the Vinkusian rebels, such as we were?
Why add that bit about the age?
An unidentified Vinkusian male of her same age.
The green Wicked Witch of the West…
"Oh, my God," I whispered. "Oh, sweet Lurline…"
"What?" Fiyero whispered in a terror-stricken voice.
"They have Fala and Liir."