Hello, readers! :D

So, as you can see, I've decided to continue my little fic here. I'm pretty excited about it. Thanks to all for the reviews, faves, and alerts!

I've been trying to figure out something to write in this A/N for about 15 minutes now and failing, and then realizing that nobody even reads these things (except me) and if I have nothing important to say, I should just post the chapter.

So basically, here's the chapter. Enjoy!


"I'm going with her."

Those words replayed in my head - taunting me, consistently showing me just how much Fiyero actually cared about me. I stared out my window, watching the dark, gloomy clouds cover the eastern horizon. They represented my mood, then. Depressed, heartbroken…

I sighed, feeling my eyelids droop slightly. I had been staring out of that window since last night and for what? Hoping he would come back?

No, I knew he wouldn't, they were probably having some romantic moment somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Him and her. My fiancé and my best friend. Since when did this happen to me?

A series of quick knocks on my door interrupted my gloomy reverie. Briskly, I wiped the tears from my eyes and hurried to the door. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I opened the door to find Madame Morrible standing there, a smile on her face.

"What is it, Madame?" I asked her, hoping my voice didn't sound as shaky as it seemed to.

She laughed quietly for reasons unknown to me before replying, "There have been some reports of a falling house landing on the governor of Munchkinland."

I blinked, not comprehending. "A… a what?"

"A house, Glinda."

"On… Nessarose?" That didn't make sense. Houses don't just randomly fall out of the sky.

She nodded. "Yes, dear. A falling house, carried by a cyclone."

I shook my head slowly, trying to grasp some sense of reality. As much as I loathed that wicked witch right now, I had never hoped for this to happen. "I have to go there," I said quickly, brushing past her and starting a fast walk down the hallway.

"I would clean myself up before you do!" Madame Morrible said. I stopped, glancing down at my wrinkled dress. Somehow, I had managed to forget that Nessa was - or had been, if those silly falling house rumors proved to be true - the Wicked Witch of the East, and there would be celebrations throughout Munchkinland if she did prove to be dead.

I quickly turned around and walked back to my room, throwing a quick smile - or was it a glare? - at Madame Morrible, and shut my door behind me.

Sighing, I sat down in front of a mirror, staring blankly at the glum-looking blonde who looked back at me. Time to clean her up, and turn her into the beauty that all of Oz knew as Glinda the Good.

x x x

"That's right!" I yelled, just in case the little alien in the blue and white dress was still within hearing distance. "Just take that one road, the whole time!" I turned away from the road of yellow brick with a sigh. "I hope they don't get lost… I'm so bad at giving directions…"

Shaking my head, I turned to look at the mangled house that had conveniently landed on top of Nessarose. I slowly reached down and picked a bunch of flowers from the ground, never taking my eyes off the house. Approaching the house slowly, like in a movie, I sighed as I clutched the flowers tightly in both of my hands. Poor Nessa…

I knelt down in front of the killer house, laying the flowers near where I had removed the ruby slippers from Nessa's feet. "Oh, Nessa…" I whispered.

"Oh," a harsh voice said sarcastically, making me jump slightly, "what a touching display of grief."

Swiftly, I grabbed the flowers and stood up, trying to ignore the boiling hatred I felt bubble up inside of me at the sound of you-know-who's voice. "I don't believe we have anything further to say to one another," I told her coldly.

"I wanted something to remember her by," my cheating, fiancé-stealing ex-best friendlie hissed, ignoring my statement, "and all that was left of her were those shoes, and now that wretched little farm girl has walked off with them!" she screamed angrily. "So I'd appreciate some time alone, to say goodbye to my sister!"

Glaring at her, I motioned for her to go ahead, only feeling slightly guilty that I had given Dorothy - what a strange name - those shoes. Now Elphaba knew what it was like to lose something important to her.

I started to walk away, but I couldn't make myself walk any further when her words reminded me that she'd lost more than just a pair of shoes today.

"Nessa, please, please, please forgive me…"

"Elphie, you mustn't blame yourself," I told her, rushing to her side. She cringed away from me signaling how little she wanted my comfort, but I continued anyway. "It's dreadful, it is, to have a house fall on you, but accidents will happen!"

"You call this an accident?" she growled darkly, losing any trace of vulnerability in her face and switching quickly to a vicious glare.

"Yes!" I replied quickly. What else would it be?

"Use her sister."

"What? What did she say?"

"Use her sister, make her think her sister's in danger…"

Oh, Oz. "Well, maybe not an accident…" I amended reluctantly. I'd nearly forgotten about that statement - but I hadn't meant for this to happen! I was just venting!

"Well, what do you call it?" she replied angrily, clearly annoyed as she stood up. She shouldn't be allowed to be like that to me - she had just stolen my fiancé. If anyone was going to be annoyed or mad, it was going to be me at her.

"A regime change!" I replied, scowling at her. "Caused by a sudden and unexpected… er, twister of fate!"

"So you think cyclones just appear, out of the blue?"

"I don't know," I replied, "I never really-"

"Of course you never!" she spat at me, interrupting my statement. "You're too busy telling everyone how good everything is!"

"I'm a public figure now," I explained, trying to keep myself from flipping out at her - she just lost her sister, I needed to keep my cool. "People expect me to-"

"Lie?"

"Be encouraging!" I slammed my wand down on the ground, finally snapping. "And what exactly have you been doing, besides riding around on that filthy old thing?" I asked her, indicating her broom.

"Well, we can't all come and go by bubble."

Oh, no she didn't.

However, she apparently did, considering she continued, "Whose invention was that? The Wizard's? Of course, even if it wasn't I'm sure he'd still take credit for it."

"Well, a lot of us are taking things that aren't ours, aren't we?" I replied, my voice's softer tone finally betraying some of the heartbreak I felt.

With an icy look at me, she replied, "Now you wait just a clock tick. I know it may 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! He never belonged to you, he doesn't love you, and he never did! He loves me!"

I stared at her, completely stunned. She'd just spoken a nightmare of mine - and told me that it had come true. That it was my reality.

And the worst part was that I knew it was the truth.

How could she say such true, true words to me? Just to taunt me? She thought she could mock me, just because her chose her? Because he loved her?

There was nothing else to do, so I slapped her. For a split second when her hand flew to her cheek, I felt the satisfaction of knowing I'd caused her some sort of pain, no matter how little it was compared to mine. Then she let out one of those cackles that all of Oz feared, and I knew she'd just found it as a childish gesture.

Which, of course, made me feel even worse.

"Feel better?" she asked sarcastically.

"Yes, I do," I replied with a short nod.

She smirked at me. "Good!"

And then she slapped me back. "So do I!"

Oh, it was so on!


Feel free to review. :) Constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated, too!

~Jen