A/N: Still one of my favorite chapters of the story; still my favorite song of the show. I didn't make a huge amount of changes to this one, other than to add some dialogue that my copy of the script left out for some reason and flesh the beginning and the end out a bit. I hope it does justice to the song, and to the incomparable Idina Menzel, who (at least, in my humble opinion) will always sing it better than anyone else.

Disclaimer: With all the money I'm making working countless hours at my new job, maybe I'll be able to buy the rights from Greg, Winnie, and Steve. .: sarcastic snort :. Yeah, and maybe someday Pigs will sprout wings and fly.

Sweet Oz, how could everything have gone so horribly wrong? Rereading the end of my last entry, I realize that what I wrote is absolutely true…but not at all in the way I would have expected or ever wanted. I want, almost need, to go back over it in my mind – maybe reliving the day will help me figure out what happened, where it all went south.

Glinda and I had arrived a day early, as I had originally planned to do, so we spent the rest of the day exploring the Emerald City. She insisted on bringing me with her into shop after shop after shop, and in return I made her come with me to visit libraries and museums and admire the amazing architecture. She even dragged me along to this show, Wiz-O-Mania. It was silly and overpriced and not even that great, but I was too excited to care. I was just amazed that here was a place where everything was green – and nobody seemed to mind! In the Emerald City, I wasn't the oddity, the freak. Nobody was pointing or staring at me. It was the first time I've ever felt that way… like I truly belonged.

This morning it was time to go to the palace for our meeting with the Wizard. We were both so nervous – Glinda must've asked me a hundred times in about two minutes if her dress and her hair looked all right. We waited for what felt like forever, but finally the guards let us into the throne room. When we were ushered in, there didn't seem to be anyone around. All we could see was a huge mechanical head mounted on some sort of platform. Suddenly it came to life and began to speak in a voice as loud as thunder, and far more frightening.

"I am Oz, the Great and Terrible! Who are you, and why do you seek me?"

Glinda yelped in fright and scooted behind me. "Say something!" she whispered to me.

"Uh... uh… I… I'm Elphaba Thropp, your terribleness!" I managed to stammer, trying to keep Glinda from throttling me with the hold she had around my neck.

"Oh, is that you, Elphaba?" a different voice, a much softer and kinder one, asked, sounding surprised. This time it wasn't coming from the head itself, but rather from behind it. "I didn't realize!" There was a flurry of noise behind the head, and then a small, elderly man in a trenchcoat, goggles, and rubber gloves made his way out into the throne room with us. "I hope I didn't startle you. It's so hard to make out peoples' faces from back there. So, let's see... which is which?" The Wizard studied both of us for several clock-ticks before finally coming forward and grabbing both of my hands delightedly. "Elphaba!" Then he turned to Glinda. "And you must be…"

"Glinda. The 'Ga' is silent," Glinda informed him importantly.

I slowly walked over and, after hesitating a moment, ran my hand over the contours of the giant face.

"I know. It isn't much, is it?" the Wizard asked apologetically, seeing me. "But people expect this sort of thing, and you have to give the people what they want. The thing is, I hardly ever let anyone meet the real me." He paused, and a smile spread across his face. "But, this being a special occasion…"

"I'm so happy to meet you." My smile matched his.

"Well, that's good," he laughed. " 'Cause that's what I love best: making people happy!"

"Yes, I know, Your Ozness," I assured him. Then, seeing a perfect opportunity to lead into telling him about Doctor Dillamond and what was happening to the Animals, I added, "That's why we've come. You see, we're not just here for ourselves."

"We're not?" asked Galinda, sounding as though this was news to her.

"No, we're not," I confirmed, taking her by the hand and pulling her forward to stand next to me. Then I turned back to the Wizard. "We're here to alert you that something bad is happening."

"Please. I'm the Wizard of Oz," the old man scoffed with a smile. "I already know why you've come."

"Oooooh!" Glinda and I looked at each other, impressed.

"And I fully intend to grant your request. Of course, you must prove yourself first..."

Glinda shoved me forward. "Prove yourself, prove yourself!" she hissed in my ear.

"But how?" I asked timidly.

"Oh, it's a simple little thing," the Wizard assured me. "Nothing, really. Mostly just for show. Just so I can get an idea of your skills." He thought for a moment, and then proclaimed, "Aha! I have it!" Clapping his hands, he shouted, "Madame, the book!" To Glinda's and my astonishment, who should walk in but our very own Madame Morrible! Grinning at our surprise, the Wizard continued, "I believe you're well acquainted with my new Press Secretary."

"Press Secretary?" I repeated. There was something not quite right about this. There had to be more than they were telling us. But I couldn't put my finger on just what they were hiding.

"Oh, yes, dearies, I've risen up in the world," Madame grinned. "You'll find that the Wizard is a very generous man. If you do something for him, he'll do much for you."

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask what exactly it was that she had done for the Wizard to earn such a sudden promotion (though I wasn't sure I really wanted to know). But instead I squared my shoulders and inquired, "What do you want me to do?"

"Well, this is my monkey servant Chistery," explained the Wizard, gesturing to a monkey who had just appeared. "He looks so longingly at the birds every morning..."

Madame finished, "So the Wizard was thinking, perhaps… a levitation spell."

Then Glinda noticed the book Madam was holding. "Is that the Grimmerie?" she asked in awe.

"Yes, the ancient book of spells and enchantments," Madame confirmed.

"It's kind of a recipe book for change," interjected the Wizard.

"Can I touch it?" whispered Glinda reverently.

Madame leaned closer and whispered back, "No." Then she came forward and held the book out to me.

I took the Grimmerie and carefully opened it, kneeling down so I could spread it open fully on the floor in front of me. "What funny writing..." I mused softly, running my fingers over the lines of text.

"Well, it's a lost language. The lost language of spells," Madam reminded me. "Don't be discouraged if you can't decipherate it, dearie. I myself can only read a spell or two, and that took me years."

I nodded and looked down at the page and the strange characters before me. I knew it was no alphabet I had ever seen before, and I had no expectation of being able to read it. But then something very strange happened. Nothing about the book or the spell changed. The unfamiliar letters still looked the same. But I suddenly found that, though I couldn't read it, I could…understand it somehow.

"Aven… Tatey… Aven Tatey, Aven Tatey…" I began chanting quietly, tentatively. I dimly heard conversation going on around me, but casting the spell had put me into a sort of trance. "Ah May Ah Tay Ah Tum Ditum…" I continued, more confident now. My voice grew in force and volume as I pronounced, "Ah May Ah Tah Tay May Tu Se Say Ta!" Suddenly a scream broke through the daze the spell had put me into. Startled, I turned to see Chistery jerking violently, howling in pain. "What happened? Is something wrong?" I demanded, worried that I had mispronounced a word or made some other such error.

"No, just a transition, dearie," Madam assured me. Why did I suddenly seem to notice that behind her smile there was now a gleam of malicious anticipation?

Chistery's shrieks continued. "No, stop, it's hurting him!" I pleaded. I was getting more certain every moment that I had made an awful mistake.

"She's actually done it!" cried the Wizard in glee. And then – I'll never forget the sight as long as I live – a pair of wings exploded from the poor monkey's shoulders! He began cavorting around the room, testing them out.

"No!" I gasped, horrified at what I had done. "Quick, how do I reverse it?"

"You can't!" Madam told me, apparently thrilled with the direction things were going.

"What?!"

"You can't reverse a spell! Spells are unreversible!" She turned delightedly to the Wizard, who was also grinning from ear to ear. "I knew she had the power! I told you!"

I didn't want to believe it, but my teacher, the woman who taught me everything about sorcery that I know, and the Wizard of Oz himself, the man I had looked up to since I was a little girl, had betrayed me. "You… you planned all this?"

"Well, you benefit too, dearie! You benefit, too," she pointed out.

"And this is only the beginning!" crowed the Wizard. "Look!" Before our eyes, the rest of Chistery's monkey companions also sprouted wings and began to flap around above our heads. "If this is what you can do your first time out, the sky's the limit!"

"Such wingspan!" Madame exulted. "Won't they make perfect spies?"

"Spies?!" I fairly shrieked.

"You're right, that's a harsh word," agreed the Wizard hastily. "How about… scouts? That's what they'll be, really. They'll fly around Oz. Report any subversive Animal activity."

At his last words, I felt as though I'd been kicked in the stomach. "So… so it's you? You're behind it all?" So Doctor Dillamond had been right – something bad was happening in Oz. Only it was worse than he ever imagined.

"Well, I am Oz, the Great and Terrible," he reminded me with an apologetic shrug. The words didn't sound nearly so imposing when he wasn't saying them from behind his giant head. "Who else would it be?" Then, seeing that he was quickly losing my trust, he explained, "Elphaba, when I first got here, there was such discord and discontent. And where I'm from, everyone knows the best way to bring people together is to give them a really good enemy."

"You can't read this book at all, can you?" I realized sickly, clutching the Grimmerie tightly to my chest. "That's why you need an enemy… and spies… and cages. You have no real power!"

The Wizard nodded. "Exactly. That's why I need you. Don't you see? The world is your oyster now! You have so many... opportunities ahead of you!" He turned to include Glinda, who had been unwontedly quiet this whole time. "You both do!"

I knew his flattery and cajoling would be too much for Glinda's adoration-craving ego to resist. "Thank you, your Ozness," my roommate said gravely.

But I would not be persuaded. I would never work for someone who had deceived me so cruelly and with so little guilt. "NO!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. And before any of them could stop me, I stuffed the Grimmerie into my satchel and ran from the room.

I heard shouting behind me, and then the booming voice of the oversized head, more likely than not ordering the guards to come after me. I pounded down the long corridor until I found a stairway. Just before the door of the stairs closed, I heard the sound of running feet behind me. I started to climb as fast as I could.

But soon I got tired, and I was obliged to slow down. The footsteps I had heard were gaining on me, now just a flight or two of stairs back. I glanced over the railing to see what kind of force I'd be dealing with…and was surprised to see that it was only Glinda. I stopped and allowed her to catch up to me before going on.

"Elphie, wait! Where are you going?" she panted, following me as I continued my ascent.

The flights of steps suddenly dead-ended. "Oh no! There are no more stairs!" I moaned. Then I caught sight of a door to my right. "This must be the attic..." It was our only hope. I reached out and tested the knob, and surprisingly, it was unlocked. Glinda followed me inside, and we stood side by side, blinking in the dim half-light of the empty, dusty room.

"Elphaba, listen to me..." she began hesitantly.

"The guards are coming up – I have to barricade the door!" I scanned the attic, desperate for something we could drag over and use to block the entrance. The only thing I saw was an old broom, so I grabbed it. "I'll use this." Closing the door, I laid the broom across two metal arms that were apparently meant for the very purpose of holding a piece of wood or something else that would prevent the door from being opened from the outside.

As I worked to lock us in, Glinda rounded on me. "Elphaba, why couldn't you have stayed calm for once, instead of flying off the handle? I hope you're happy how you just ruined everything you've worked for your entire life. I hope you think you're clever, because at the moment, I sure don't!"

I spun to face her, glaring. "Me? What about you? 'Thank you, your Ozness!'" I mimicked her earlier words, her only response to everything that had gone on in the throne room. "I hope you're proud of how you sold yourself out back there. Is there anything you wouldn't do to get attention?"

Our fight came to a quick end as we heard voices coming from outside. We crept over to a large window and peered out cautiously, and we saw that people were gathering in the courtyard far below. Then Madame Morrible stepped out onto a balcony directly beneath us and began to address the assembled crowd. Her words made my blood run cold. "Citizens of Oz, there is an enemy that must be found and captured. Believe nothing she says – she's evil! Responsible for the mutilation of these poor, innocent monkeys! Her green skin is but an outward manifestation of her twisted nature! This distortion... this repulsion... this... Wicked Witch!"

So that was the Wizard's game. If I didn't come back with Glinda and agree to help him, he and Madame Morrible would turn all of Oz against me. I felt suddenly weak as I realized the magnitude of the choice I was being forced to make. I either had to go back and work for the people who had betrayed me, or run and live like a fugitive from now on. Neither option sounded very agreeable.

Glinda must have noticed my distress, because she took my hand and squeezed it tight. "Don't be afraid," she whispered, though she sounded like she was having a hard time taking her own advice.

"I'm not," I told her. (It wasn't completely untrue… only mostly.) Then my voice hardened as I glared down at the figure on the balcony below us. "It's the Wizard who should be afraid... of me!"

Glinda shook her head. "Elphie, listen to me. Just say you're sorry, before it's too late! If you go back now and apologize, I'm sure the Wizard will take you back. You can still have all you've ever wanted."

"I know. But I don't want it… no… I can't want it anymore." I took a deep breath, trying to think of a way to explain it to her. "Glinda, something about me is different now. Something's changed. Now that I know what the Wizard truly is…I can't go back. I won't settle anymore for living by someone else's rules. From now on, I'm running my own life."

"Think about what you're saying, Elphie! Please, you've got to reconsider…"

"No, Glinda. I can't afford to second-guess myself now. I have to trust what my heart is telling me. I'm getting out of here." I paused and then, for emphasis, added, "And you can't stop me."

"But Elphie, what if your heart is wrong?"

"Well…I'm just going to have to take that chance. I'm sick of limiting myself to what other people say I can or can't do. How do I know if I'm capable of something unless I try? I've spent my whole life longing for people's approval. But no more. If getting what I've always wanted comes at the cost of everything I believe… well, that's a price that I'm just not willing to pay."

Then someone started banging on the door. The guards had found us. "Open this door, in the name of his supreme Ozness!"

We were trapped!… or were we? In less than a clock-tick, I thought of the one thing I could try. I knelt down, pulled out the Grimmerie, and opened it to the page I had read from earlier. "Aven Tatey Ah May Ah Tay Ah Tum Ditum..." I'm not sure what I expected to happen – maybe I thought we'd sprout wings just like the monkeys had; it would've served me right for what I had done to them – but it was our only chance.

"What are you doing?!" Glinda howled incredulously as I continued chanting. "Stop it! That's what started all this in the first place – that hideous levitation spell! STOP!" At her cry, I broke off the spell. We stared at each other in silence for a minute, until it became apparent that neither of us were going to sprout new appendages from our backs. "Well, where are your wings?" she asked sarcastically, almost desperately. "Maybe you're not as powerful as you think you are..."

It was at that moment that the broomstick that had been barricading the door suddenly rose into the air, righted itself, and began to float across the room towards me, hovering a foot or so above the floor. No, the spell hadn't given us wings – it had done even better!

Glinda's tirade died mid-sentence, and her jaw dropped as the broom drifted past her and into my outstretched hand as though drawn by a magnet. "Sweet Oz!" she gasped, scrambling to get out of its way.

"I told you, Glinda!" I cried triumphantly. "Oh, didn't I tell you?" Then the pounding on the door increased. Without the broom there to hold it shut, we had very little time to make our escape. "Quick! Get on!" I ordered her, holding out the enchanted broom.

She stared at me like I had lost my mind (and, truth be told, I'm not entirely sure that I hadn't). "What?!"

"Glinda… come with me. Think of what we could do... together! There'd be no limit to the things we could accomplish. We'll be the greatest team Oz has ever known! We can make our dreams come true on our own terms."

"Do you really think so?" Glinda asked in a tone of wonderment. She came towards me slowly, drawn in by the possibilities of the future I was describing, until she was close enough to grasp the handle of the broom along with me. "Could we really do all that?"

"And more," I grinned. "There's not a person in Oz who'll be able to stop us if we work together." I hurried over to grab the Grimmerie from the floor where I had knelt as I cast the levitation spell on the broom and slid the ancient book back into my satchel. Then I looked back at Glinda. "Well, are you coming?"

For a moment or two, I actually thought she was going to say yes. But then I saw her answer in her eyes. I couldn't blame her for it. She stood to lose far more than I did. She had all the friends, all the possessions, all the popularity a girl could ever want, and every reason to expect a bright future, probably with Fiyero. How could I expect her to give all of that up for me?

But she couldn't bring herself to come right out and tell me that she wasn't going with me. Instead, she observed weakly, "Elphie, you're trembling..." I was surprised to discover that she was right. Hurrying over to an old shelf that hung in a corner, she grabbed a heap of black cloth off of it and came back over. "Here, put this around you." She draped the material around me and tied it around my neck like a cape, and then put her hands on my shoulders and held me at arm's length. She studied my face, and I could see that she was struggling not to cry. "I hope you're happy with the path you've chosen."

I nodded, fighting back tears myself. "You too, Glinda. I hope you get everything your heart desires." We held each other tightly for a clock-tick or two. Then I whispered, "Goodbye, my friend."

The door began to splinter before the guards' determined blows. "Go, Elphie! They'll be here in a just a clock-tick! Get out of here!" Glinda hissed in my ear. She pushed me away, and I ducked into the shadows. I positioned myself beside the window, ready to leave the palace and the Emerald City behind, just as the guards burst into the room.

"There she is! Don't let her get away!" one of them shouted. For one terrifying instant I thought they had spotted me already. But then, to my surprise, they grabbed a hold of Glinda.

"What in Oz?! Let go of me!" Glinda screeched indignantly. "Do you hear me? Let go!"

I wasn't about to let them arrest Glinda on top of everything else. "It's not her," I said from the shadows. "She has nothing to do with it. I'm the one you want. It's me!" The guards looked around, trying to spot where my voice was coming from, and I gave a throaty laugh that even frightened me a little before stepping into the light streaming in through the window. "It's me! Over here! It's me!"

And then, before the guards could react, I threw one leg over the broom. It instantly sprang to life, the window flew open before me of its own accord, and I barely had time to hope that my lifelong fear of heights wouldn't be a problem before I glided smoothly through the window and away from my would-be captors.

I could hear the guards shouting behind me as I flew out the window, but I was too giddy and exhilarated and terrified and free to pay them any attention. I don't really remember the first few minutes of that flight – I was too busy screaming and hanging on for dear life. But once I got that out of my system, it was actually one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had. It was freezing up there, but I hardly felt it, as high on adrenaline as I was. It never occurred to me that I could fall off the broom at any moment. It didn't even really seem all that important that I had just abandoned everything and everyone I'd ever known. All that mattered was that I had proven to the Wizard and Morrible, and to myself, that I was no one's pawn. I had successfully defied the people who had wanted to use me as a means to their own selfish ends. And now I was defying gravity itself.

I managed to distract myself for the rest of the day by concentrating on flying. The broom seems to respond to my very thoughts, which means I can steer and adjust my speed and height as easily as I can think. And it's really a much more convenient form of travel than walking or taking the train. When you're up that high, everything down below you looks so tiny, you really feel very detached from it all. It wasn't until a little while ago, when I had to land to rest for the night, that the reality of my situation started to hit me. I realized I was shivering, and then I realized how truly alone I was. And now that I'm just sitting here with nothing else to occupy my hands or my mind, I can't force the questions away any longer.

What am I going to do now? I certainly can't go back to Shiz. What about Glinda, Nessa, Fiyero – will I ever see them again? What will they think of me when they hear? Will Nessa feel I've abandoned her? Will Glinda still go back and accept the Wizard's offer? Will she regret not coming with me? Will Fiyero even wonder or care where I've gone? Have I done the right thing? How will I survive on my own, with no one willing to give me the slightest bit of help? And how do I go on when everything I've worked so hard to achieve, everything I've ever dreamed of accomplishing, has been based on a lie?

I guess I didn't lie to Glinda after all when I told her that I wasn't afraid, because I'm not afraid now. I'm terrified out of my wits.

Oh, well. Even if I'm all on my own now, at least I'm not the Wizard's prisoner – either in his dungeon or in his service. If it's a Wicked Witch he wants, it's a Wicked Witch he'll get! I'll make his life such a living hell, he'll rue the day he ever crossed paths with Elphaba Thropp!