A/N: Wow… this chapter is freaking intense. Angst to the max. I can't believe I even wrote this. It's like a completely different person just took over my brain for a little while or something. .: glares suspiciously at Elphiemuse :.

I know the last four or five paragraphs are completely all over the place and seem like they're jumping from topic to topic with no discernable connection between them. But I wanted to show how totally scattered and disjointed Elphaba's mind is at this point. So yeah.

Yes, I did include several lines that are quoted directly from "No Good Deed." But I just absolutely ADORE the song, and it's full of all the emotions I wanted to express in the chapter, so I figured you all would forgive me for it. Hopefully I figured right… .: shifty eyes :.

Disclaimer: Don't wish, don't start… wishing only wounds the heart.

My world has been shaken to its very core. My mind is in utter chaos. My sister Nessa is dead. I have no idea where Fiyero is, but he's badly hurt at the very least, and like as not he has already joined Nessa. And all I can say is… oh, Oz, it's all my fault!

As I put away my diary after my last entry, Fiyero got up and came over to sit next to me again. He put his arm around my shoulders, and I leaned my head against him. We sat like that for what seemed a long time, staring into the dying fire, both lost in our own separate thoughts.

Finally I sighed deeply. "I just wish..." I began, then stopped, a little embarrassed.

"What?" prompted Fiyero.

I hesitated, unsure if I wanted to share what was on my mind. But this was Fiyero I was talking to. I knew I could tell him anything. "I wish I could be beautiful... for you."

"Elphaba..." Fiyero reached out and softly tucked a wayward lock of hair behind my ear.

I shook my head. "No, don't tell me that I am," I insisted gently. "You don't have to lie to me."

"It's not lying!" he protested. Then he smiled. "It's... looking at things another way." He paused long enough to take my hand before continuing, "Someday, you and Glinda will make up and we'll all..."

Suddenly a strange noise caught my attention. I put a finger to my lips. "Shh! Listen... do you hear that?" As if on cue, an awful shriek floated to our ears, seeming to come from a long way off. "It sounds like somebody's in pain…"

"It's just the wind," Fiyero contradicted, but he sounded uncertain.

Then we heard another scream, and I had a terrifying premonition. "My sister's in danger!" I told him anxiously.

He frowned. "What? How do you know?"

"I don't know, I just do..." I looked up at the sky, as though I could somehow find an explanation for my sudden feeling of dread written among the stars. And that's when I saw it… a sight so shocking that I couldn't hold in a gasp of surprise. "Look!"

"Elphaba, what's wrong? What is it?" demanded Fiyero.

"There!" I pointed frantically upwards. "Don't you see it?"

"What do you mean? What do you see?"

"It doesn't make any sense! It's a house, but it's... it's flying through the sky!" I quickly got up and slung my satchel over my shoulder before jamming my hat onto my head and grabbing up my broom. "I have to go to Nessa!"

"I'll come with you!" he offered as he stood.

I shook my head in refusal. "No, you mustn't, it's too dangerous!" I protested.

Fiyero took me by the shoulders and turned me to face him. "Elphaba, listen to me. My family has a castle in Kiamo Ko. No one is ever there except for the sentries who watch over it. We've never lived there."

"Where do you live?" I wondered, puzzled.

"The other castle."

"Oh. Of course."

"Kiamo Ko is the perfect hiding place," he continued. "Tunnels, secret passageways. You'll be safe there."

I suddenly couldn't shake the awful, sneaking suspicion that if we split up, we would be parted forever. And that was a thought that I just couldn't bear. I wrapped my arms around his neck as I asked, "We will see each other again, won't we?"

In response, Fiyero smiled and reached out to rest his hand briefly on my cheek. "Elphaba, we're going to be together always. You can see houses flying through the sky, can't you see that?"

We held each other for a moment or two, and shared one final kiss. Then, after Fiyero had told me how to get to Kiamo Ko and promised to meet me there, I threw a leg over my broom and rocketed off into the night.

I flew like the wind, faster than I think I've ever flown before. My eyes have adapted to the dark with all the night flying I've done over the past five years, and I scanned the ground below for any sign of the farmhouse I had seen hurtling through the air. Somehow, I sensed that Nessa would be wherever it was. Finally, just as dawn broke over the horizon, I spotted it lying on the edge of a cornfield near the Yellow Brick Road.

As I descended, I was startled and disgusted to make out a pair of legs sticking out from beneath the fallen building. But when I landed and got closer, I got an even bigger shock. I was horrified to recognize the black-and-white-striped stockings as the ones I had given Nessa as a gift for her birthday one year. She wore them all the time. And, although she had on the stockings, her feet were shoeless. Where were her beautiful shoes? The shoes Father gave her, the shoes I had enchanted so she could walk? She would never have given them up!

Then I heard familiar tones coming from the other side of the crashed house. I snuck around the corner and crept along that side of the building until I could peek around the next corner and see the front of the house. Sure enough, there was Glinda, waving goodbye to a figure some little way down the Yellow Brick Road. I could barely make out that it was a young girl, dressed in a blue and white checked pinafore. Her dark hair was pulled back into two tidy braids, and… was that a little dog that trotted next to her? And just before she disappeared into the forest that surrounded the road in that direction, I caught a sparkle of red on her feet.

The little brat had stolen my sister's shoes!!!

I could barely contain my outrage. I had been glad to see Glinda, even though I was sure she was still furious at me over the whole Fiyero incident. But now, as I stood watching her, my old hatred of her resurfaced, and I felt a sudden revulsion for the empty, mindless creature she had become – or had always been.

"That's right, you just take that one road the whole time," Glinda called cheerfully after the girl with one last wave of her hand. When they were out of sight, a slight frown creased her forehead. "Oh, I hope they don't get lost," she murmured to herself, shielding her eyes with one hand as she watched the girl and the dog fade out of sight. "I am so bad at giving directions." Then she looked back at the wrecked house, and for the first time seemed to realize that there really was a woman squashed flat as a pancake underneath it. "Oh, Nessa…" she sighed sadly. Spotting a little clump of wildflowers that had escaped the house's impact, she went over and picked them. She came back and knelt in front of the house, strewing the blossoms in front of Nessa's dead, shoeless feet.

This was too much! How could Glinda let that girl steal Nessa's shoes, and then pretend to mourn her? I rounded the corner of the house and glared down at her. "What a touching display of grief," I observed, my voice dripping with such obvious sarcasm that even Glinda couldn't fail to catch it.

She jumped at the sound of my voice, and stared up at me for a clock-tick or two. Then her eyes narrowed. "I don't think we have anything further to say to one another," she informed me haughtily.

But I would not be silenced so easily. I was furious, and I refused to be stopped until I had had my say. "I wanted something to remember her by. And all that was left of her were those shoes. And now that wretched little farm girl has walked off with them!" I broke off for a moment or two to get my temper under control, and then finished bitterly, "So I would appreciate some time alone to say goodbye to my sister."

Glinda apparently decided that this was a liberty she could allow me to take, for she got to her feet and backed away, giving me enough space to create some semblance of privacy. I went hesitantly towards the house and laid my hand against the worn wooden boards of the walls, sinking to my knees in the very spot Glinda had just vacated.

Suddenly my anger was overwhelmed by a grief too deep for words. It was my sister lying dead under that house, my sweet little Nessa who I had taken care of since the day she was born. I had been almost her servant at times, fetching her everything she asked for. I had resented the love and attention Father lavished on her while ignoring me. But in spite of it all, even when she was being an absolute brat like she could sometimes, I loved her. I thought of the shoes I had enchanted to give her the one thing she'd always wanted – a life without a wheelchair. That attempt to do good had gone terribly wrong, and in some inexplicable way I felt that her death was somehow my fault too. "Nessa… oh, Nessa… please… please, please forgive me..." I whispered brokenly, fighting to hold back my sobs.

Suddenly I felt a comforting hand on my shoulder, and I looked up to see Glinda kneeling there, her eyes welling with tears. "Elphie, you mustn't blame yourself," she admonished quietly. "It's dreadful, it is, to have a house fall on you, but… accidents will happen…"

My anger roared back to life with a vengeance, and I shook off her hand and turned to face her, eyes blazing. "You call this an accident?"

Surprised, she backed off slightly. "Yes!" she insisted. Then, at the withering look I shot her, she glanced back at the house and quickly amended, "Well, maybe not an accident..."

"Well, then, what would you call it?"

"Well... a regime change." She stood up and moved a few steps away from me before adding, "Caused by a bizarre and unexpected twister of fate."

"Oh, so you think cyclones just appear, out of the blue?" I demanded sarcastically, following her.

She looked taken aback, as though she hadn't given the topic much thought before. "I don't know, I never really – "

"No, of course you never!" I interrupted her, infuriated by her naiveté. "You're too busy telling everyone how wonderful everything is!"

"I'm a public figure now! People expect me – "

"To lie?"

"To be encouraging!" she countered, sounding as though she was now beginning to grow angry herself. Then she looked me up and down and smiled, not nicely. "And what exactly have you been doing, besides riding around on that filthy old thing?" she asked mockingly with a gesture towards my broom.

I raised an eyebrow and returned her smile with one just as snide. "Well, we can't all come and go by bubble," I retorted evenly, referring to the contraption she uses to make an entrance at her public appearances, and felt a glow of pleasure at the offended expression that crossed her face. "Whose invention was that, the Wizard's? Of course, even if it wasn't, I'm sure he'd still take credit for it."

"Yes, well, a lot of us are taking things that don't belong to us, aren't we?" she said pointedly, glowering at me. Her tone of voice made it clear that it was not really a question.

It was impossible to miss the thinly-veiled implication behind her words. So she wanted to get into an argument over Fiyero, did she? Well, that was fine by me! I took a step towards her, using my extra height to its full advantage. "Now wait just a clock-tick!" I spat. "I know it must be difficult for that blissful blonde brain of yours to comprehend that someone like him could actually choose someone like me! But it's happened. It's real. And you can wave that ridiculous wand all you want, you can't change it!" I couldn't disguise the triumph in my voice as I finished, "He never belonged to you. He doesn't love you, and he never did. He loves me"

Glinda's eyes grew huge, and her jaw dropped. Almost before either of us realized what she was doing, her hand flashed out and caught me a stinging blow across the face. My hand flew to my injured cheek, and for a clock-tick or two I was completely still.

I could see on Glinda's face that she already regretted what she had done. She was desperately trying to read what my reaction would be. But what I did surprised even me. Suddenly the whole situation seemed so ludicrous that I was helpless to do anything except throw back my head and laugh. I hadn't laughed like that in Oz only knows how long, and it was rather disconcerting how difficult it was to keep it from sliding into full-blown hysteria.

Finally I managed to get control of myself long enough to ask, "Feel better?"

For a moment, Glinda looked like she thought I might have gone insane. "Yes, I do," she replied coldly, apparently not seeing what I found so funny about the situation.

"Good," I grinned. And faster than lightning, I returned her slap in kind. "So do I!"

She gave a cry of outrage and shot me a look of hatred such as I haven't gotten from her since our earliest days as roommates at Shiz. Brandishing the long, staff-like wand she now uses (not for a single clock-tick do I believe that she can actually do anything with it), she twirled it skillfully in front of her like some sort of martial arts master, trying to show off and intimidate me. But I was unimpressed. I armed myself with my broom, wielding it with the handle pointed at her like a spear. We circled each other a time or two, weapons at the ready. Then she dropped her wand, and I threw down my broom, and we charged at each other.

We were on each other in an instant like a couple of cats fighting. We slapped and kicked, shoved and tore, scratched and pulled, all the while screaming unintelligible insults at each other. I was beginning to gain the upper hand, until Glinda reached out, snatched the pointy black hat off my head, and began whacking me mercilessly with it. I, meanwhile, was otherwise occupied by my attempts to yank her ridiculous tiara out of her disgustingly perfect blonde curls. We were so engrossed in our battle that we didn't realize there were other people about until…

"Halt, in the name of the Wizard!" an unfamiliar male voice bellowed. Startled, Glinda let her hand, still holding my hat, drop to her side, and I froze with my fingers curled around her tiara. The guards took advantage of our surprise to pry us apart. To my dismay, once they had separated us, they didn't seem terribly inclined to release their uncomfortably tight hold on my arms.

"Stop! Let me go!" I screeched indignantly.

"Let me go, I almost had her!" howled Glinda, struggling against the guard who held a restraining hand on her shoulder.

"Ha!" I scoffed.

The man who seemed to be the guards' leader nodded to the guard holding Glinda, and he removed his hand. "Sorry it took us so long to get here, Miss," he apologized to her.

She stiffened and, after hesitating just a clock-tick too long, replied, "I don't know what you're talking about…"

But it was too late. In a sickening moment of abrupt realization, I saw what this was all about. The Wizard had somehow found out about Nessa's death. He knew I would inevitably come, and he also knew that Glinda was the only person who I would not immediately be suspicious of when I found her there. So he used her to distract me until his guards could get there and take me into custody. The only question was, was Glinda a willing co-conspirator, or was she merely a pawn, a tool? Either way, the betrayal cut me deeply. I turned to my former friend, more hurt than I could possibly describe. "I can't believe you would sink this low! To use my sister's death as a trap to capture me?!"

To my surprise, she looked as astonished and upset as I was. "I never meant for this to happen! Elphie!" she pleaded, her eyes wide.

Suddenly a familiar figure pushed his way through the crowd to stand between me and Glinda. "Let the green girl go!" Fiyero commanded the guards holding me.

"Fiyero, how in Oz…?" I asked incredulously. I was delighted to see him, of course, and it was terribly brave and noble and prince-like of him to come to my rescue, but I had to suppress a groan at the utter stupidity of what he was doing. Did he never think before he acted? If he wasn't careful, he was going to get us both killed!

"Let her go!" Fiyero repeated. Then in one swift, sudden movement, he produced a very real, very dangerous-looking rifle and aimed it directly at Glinda. "Or explain to all of Oz how the Wizard's guards watched while Glinda the Good was slain."

Too surprised to do anything else, Glinda went very still, her eyes never leaving the gun. "Fiyero, no..." she managed, her voice trembling.

"I said, let her go," he ordered again, more quietly this time.

The two men holding my arms looked at each other helplessly. What could they do? Fiyero was giving them no choice. They very reluctantly relinquished their grip on my arms, and I lost no time in stepping away from them.

Fiyero's blue eyes locked onto mine. Somehow managing to keep his rifle trained on Glinda, he picked up my broom from where I had abandoned it earlier and tossed it to me. "Elphaba, go. Now."

Had he truly lost his mind?! He had just threatened to murder the most beloved person in all of Oz – didn't he realize what the guards were going to do to him the instant he lowered that gun? "No. Not without you." I shook my head stubbornly.

"Fiyero, please…" Glinda began.

"Hush!" Then he turned to me, his gaze agonizingly intense. "Now go!"

But still I hesitated, torn between the desire to escape and the need to make sure that Fiyero came to no harm. Then Glinda added her voice to his. "Do it!" she directed forcefully, desperately. I barely had time to react as she tossed me back my hat.

I couldn't withstand both of them begging at once. Even though everything in me was screaming at me not to, I turned and stumbled away into the cornfield, hoping against hope that I hadn't made yet another huge mistake.

I fully intended to obey Fiyero and make my escape while I could. As soon as I was far enough away from the guards, I was going to get on my broom and head for Kiamo Ko like I had originally planned. But then I heard Glinda scream. And before I knew it, I was running as fast as I could back towards the wrecked house. Keeping hidden among the cornstalks, I crept closer to see what was going on.

"Wait, what?! What are you doing?" Glinda was shouting. "Stop it! In the name of goodness, stop! Don't you see? He was never going to harm me, he just..." Then she stopped, and seemed to shrink a little as she resigned herself to the truth. "…he loves her."

Then I caught sight of Fiyero. The same two guards who had so recently been holding me had now transferred their viselike grips to his arms. Just as I had feared, his plan to save me had backfired, and the guards had nabbed him for threatening Glinda. Or maybe he had known all along that this was what would happen. I'll never know. In any case, he cast a remorseful look at her. "Glinda, I'm so sorry…"

Then the head of the guards ordered, "Take him up to that field there! Put him on one of those poles until he tells us where the Witch went!" With a growing sense of dread, I watched as they began to drag him away.

"No, don't hurt him!" Glinda screamed after them. "Please, don't hurt him! Fiyero!!!!"

I followed them secretly as they marched him through the corn to a small clearing, where there was a large stake driven into the ground with a shorter stake attached perpendicularly near the top. My skin began to crawl as I pictured what they were going to do to my poor Fiyero. But I wasn't prepared for what happened first.

They herded him almost to the very base of the stake, then formed a loose circle around him. Then suddenly, one of the guards' fists shot out and struck Fiyero in the stomach. He doubled over with a cry of pain and went reeling across the circle – right into the arms of another guard, who cuffed him hard and sent him staggering again. Round and round the circle he stumbled, being beaten by the Wizard's guards. I had to clamp a hand firmly over my mouth to stifle my screams. It was all I could do not to rush out and magick every one of the guards into oblivion. For some time, I'm ashamed to admit, my horror held me paralyzed. I could do nothing but watch helplessly, silent tears streaming down my face, as Fiyero grew weaker and bloodier, being tortured because he refused to betray me.

Then an idea struck. I might not have been able to do anything to the guards – casting a spell on that many people requires one to be in the midst of the group one is enchanting, and even with my powers, if I had risked revealing myself, I would never have stood a chance against all those guards. But maybe there was something I could do to help Fiyero. I whipped the Grimmerie out of my satchel and flipped through it, looking for something, anything, I could use. Maybe that was a mistake, too – after all, my track record with spells from the Grimmerie has been downright dismal – but I was far beyond desperation at this point. I was ready to try anything.

Finally I came across a spell that shot a glimmer of hope through the black despair that was quickly closing in around me. I hesitated only a moment before beginning to recite the words on the page in front of me. "Eleka Nahmen Nahmen Atum Atum Eleka Nahmen…" I continued casting the spell, grateful that the rustling of the cornstalks kept the guards from hearing me, and in between chanting I added my own frantic prayers. Let his flesh not be torn, let his blood leave no stain… Though they beat him, let him feel no pain… Let his bones never break, and however they try to destroy him, let him never die… let him never die…

At length, Fiyero seemed to stop reacting to their blows, although I couldn't tell if it was because of my spell or because he had simply gone unconscious. The guards quickly lost interest in their sport now that their victim was no longer acting the part. With a disgusted snort, the leader told them to pull the stake out of the ground and lay it down. They secured Fiyero to the crosspiece with ropes, then hoisted the pole back into its original position. He hung there, dangling by his arms, limp and unresponsive. After taking a moment to survey their handiwork, the guards formed up and trooped away back towards the farmhouse.

Once they were gone, I slipped out from my hiding place and went to stand at the base of the stake. As I looked up at Fiyero's lifeless form, I was hit with a sense of helplessness so complete, so final, that it forced me to my knees. It was my fault he was hanging there on that pole in the first place. I had tried to save him, but it hadn't worked. I couldn't even take down his body. I couldn't reach all the way up to the crossbar to undo the ropes, and even if I could, his weight would've been too much for me to manage on my own.

So I had no choice but to leave him. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to simply lay down right there, curl myself into a tiny little ball, and never move again. But wallowing in my misery was a luxury that I could not afford. I mounted my broom and rose slowly until I was hovering on a level with Fiyero. I reached out and gently touched his face one last time, letting my hand linger a moment. Then I sped off towards Kiamo Ko, following the careful directions Fiyero had given me just the night before.

I arrived at Kiamo Ko late the next afternoon, blown in on the leading edge of what promised to be a terrible storm. The Winkie sentries were reluctant at first to allow me access. However, Fiyero had hastily written me a letter before we parted saying that I was there with his knowledge and permission, and I was not to be given any trouble, or they'd answer to him for it. That last bit was rather pointless now, but I decided that they didn't need to know that. Once I showed them the letter, they let me in, and I set about exploring the place.

I soon came across a chamber that I decided would serve well enough for my room. It was in an out-of-the-way corner of the castle, large and square, filled with beautiful antique furniture. As I looked around, I spotted a small door in the far corner, which seemed odd – why would you need a door several stories up on the outside wall of a building? Opening it, I discovered that it provided access to one of the castle's corner towers. The set of curving stairs before me seemed to beckon me upwards, and I began to climb.

At the top of the steps, I discovered a small, circular room sitting right under the tower's conical roof. It struck me suddenly that it resembled nothing so much as the inside of my pointy old black hat. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was perfect for me. The old, creaky wooden floorboards; the slanted walls made of crumbling stone; the faint, unexplainable chill that seemed to hang in the air – it was a witch's chamber straight from a storybook. The thought made me grin. I was the Wicked Witch of the West, and I would do it up properly, thank you very much!

The little room only had one small window, which let in barely enough light to see by. But there was another door across from the one that led back into the tower. I found that it led outdoors – the outside wall of the castle is so thick, there is a path of sorts along the top of it, protected by more stone walls along both sides. This would make a perfect place to take off and land my broom, I reflected.

This last realization decided me. These would be my rooms from now on. I stood on the castle wall for a few minutes, admiring the view. You can see for miles from up there. But then the wind picked up, and it quickly got chilly. The storm was coming on fast. I went back inside, descended the stairs, and arrived back in the larger room below, ready to start making it home.

But then I realized that I was terribly hungry. Glancing at the ornate grandfather clock in the corner, I was surprised to see that it was already well into the evening. I suddenly remembered that I hadn't had anything to eat since the fish Fiyero and I had cooked in the forest almost two full days – or was it a lifetime? – ago. The persistent growling of my stomach persuaded me to head off in search of dinner. Before long, I had uncovered the kitchens, and after scrounging up some food, I took my supper and retreated back to my room to dine in solitude and silence.

As I ate, the storm finally broke. Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and rain lashed against the windows, adding to my depressed mood. I had managed to keep my mind occupied for a day and half, first by flying and then by exploring Kiamo Ko. But now that I was somewhat settled down, with nothing demanding my immediate attention, I found my thoughts wandering, trying to make some sort of sense out of everything that had happened in the past forty-eight hours. Fiyero… the one person I loved most in this world, gone, just like that. Because of me. Yet another disaster to add to my already generous supply. How much longer would this go on? How many more people had to suffer on my account before whatever dark power governs my life was satisfied?

Suddenly my poor, tormented mind couldn't hold itself together a moment longer. Without pausing even long enough to don my cape, I jumped up and rushed for the door to the tower, bound for the stairs that led up and outside. I tore up the winding spiral staircase like a woman gone mad and crashed through the little circular room at the top of the tower. Bursting through the door out onto the battlements, I struggled against the blinding rain and howling wind that threatened to send me tumbling over the side. Finally, exhausted, I threw myself against the stone wall, leaning out into the night.

"Fiyero!" I shrieked in anguish. The wind ripped the cry from my throat and flung it away unanswered. I collapsed to my knees, soaked to the bone and shivering. "Fiyero…" Then I fell facedown on the parapet, crumpled in a bedraggled heap, and began to sob like I haven't since the day my mother died. I wept for what seemed like hours, until my heart was wrung dry from grief, until I had no more tears left to cry. Then, tired and weak, but with a new and sudden sense of calm, I got stiffly to my feet and wandered back down to my chamber before I contracted pneumonia.

Downstairs I dried off and dressed in a clean, dry shift, then wrapped myself in my trusty old cape to ward off the damp chill that was creeping into my very bones. I sat before a roaring fire, warming my shaking hands on a mug of steaming hot cocoa as I contemplated my situation and tried to determine what my course of action should be from here. Fiyero was right; Kiamo Ko is the perfect hiding place. It'll soon be obvious to one and all that I'm here, of course, but like he said, there are plenty of hidden trap doors and secret passageways. If anyone comes looking for me, I can easily manage not to be found. This is as safe a place as any for the time being.

I don't know if I believe in any sort of afterlife, or in the concepts of heaven and hell. But if there is a hell, it can't possibly be any worse than what I'm going through right now. I feel like I'm trapped in some sanity-stealing nightmare, only it's not a nightmare. I can't wake up. I'm locked in some dark waltz with my unwanted but inescapable fate, and the music won't stop.

I can feel myself slowly but surely spiraling downward into madness, and there's nothing I can do to stop it, nothing I can grab onto to break the fall. It's been over a week since everything happened that I just wrote about, and only now have I been able to calm my nerves enough to discuss it without completely breaking down. As it was, I had all I could do to force my pen across the pages to record it all, and I was obliged to stop often to regain control of my emotions. I haven't slept more than a few minutes at a stretch since I arrived at the castle, because every time I close my eyes, I see Fiyero, his battered body slung up on that pole, bruised and bleeding. It's an image that I know will haunt me for the rest of my days.

I've learned one thing from what happened, and it is this: no good deed goes unpunished. I've tried so many times to do good, and it's always blown up in my face. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Sure, I meant well – well, look at what well-meant did! Talk about well-meant to those winged monkeys… to Nessa… to Boq… to Glinda… to Fiyero. Whenever I try to help someone, I seem to get foiled at every turn.

All right, then, so be it! I can't take it anymore! Let all of Oz be agreed – I'm wicked through and through. I promise you this, Fiyero: my effort to save you was the last time I will ever try to help anyone. I swear on your memory that I will never again attempt to do a single good deed as long as I live!

It may be a while before I update this again. Chapters 13 and 14 are the ones that need the most work. So please be patient. :D