(AN: lol, the name of this chapter is the name of the musical. Well, of course, since it is what happens in that scene. A bit embellished for dramatic affect, but it's all good [and not influenced by LeiaEmberblaze's "The Good Witch of the South." I thought I might have to borrow from her depiction, but I'm doing just fine on my own].)

(Hope you enjoy it!)

Wicked

As her chief servant, Boq was allowed to read the mail of the governor of Munchkinland. The streets were empty, curfew must be in order. He nailed the new proclamation to a post outside the mansion, and then walked on down to the post office. The Colwen Herald said that it was May the 15th. Several other letters from various people around Oz, including Center Munch's new mayor, nothing from his family. He sighed.

He was glad to be away from her, if only for a little. That witch! What will it take to get it into her head that I don't love her? He was even gladder that he was the one to reach the post-box first. If she sent one of her maids to get it, she would sift through the mail and most likely burn any letter addressed to him. He caught her doing it once, even though she denied it all-together.

An announcement from the Emerald City! This caught Boq's attention. He took the flyer out and read the notice.

Rejoice, people of Oz! On the 17th of this month the lovely sorceress Glinda the Good shall be engaged to the dashing Prince Fiyero Tiggular, also Captain of the Gale Force at a ball of grandiose proportions to be held here at the Emerald City.

A heavy weight dropped in Boq's stomach. He realized that he had wasted enough time here at Colwen Grounds when he should have been courting Galinda…no, he knew the news. A few months after the appearance of the Wicked Witch, another such announcement had been made stating that a young sorceress from Gilikin by the name of Glinda had risen up to support the people and serve as an ambassador of goodness and goodwill. He knew her from the face on the post, it was Galinda. By whatever name she called herself now, it was still the same person.

The same person he loved.

He couldn't be much older than she was, but he had spent three years stuck here at Munchkinland. Three of the best years of his life, three years that could have been spent with her. Three years he would never get back.

"I have to do something," he determined. Unfortunately, I only have about two days to think of a plan.

May 17th, in the twenty-fifth year of Our Glorious Wizard…

The fateful day dawned like any other. The servants bathed and dressed the Governor on routine. Once she was fully clothed, clean and clad, she had her maids dress her hair – always tied back tightly in a bun. Once done, she rang the silver bell and called for Boq to make her tea and push her into her study.

She quietly finished her tea, placing the cup upon its saucer then both into Boq's hands. He was standing by, as obedient as ever.

As resentful as ever.

"Will there be anything else, madam?" he asked dryly.

"I've asked you to call me Nessarose, remember?" she added with a hopeful smile.

"Yes, madam." He turned and left the study before she could reprimand him. He was already on his way out the door.

"Boq!" she called out after him. He did not answer.

Alone she was again. Solitude was death. She reached for her mirror and looked at it, her sorrowful reflection staring back at her from what looked like tears. Was this what the rest of her life was doomed to be? Living with a resentful servant who should have loved her, with her only true companion being her reflection?

"Well," a soft voice sneered. "It seems the beautiful get more beautiful…"

She turned around and cried out in shock. The two-way mirrors of her wardrobe shone a harsh, venomous visage glaring back at her from within its depths.

"While the green," the voice stated. "Just get…greener."

The door opened from within, and Nessarose saw not the Wicked Witch of the West. She had seen plenty of the sketches of her from the news reports from the Emerald City. She was painted in the absolute worst light: red eyes that jumped out at you and sucked your soul out, nay, but one eye of such, the other a piercing telescope that could see all things. Her green skin augmented with warts and leprous growth. Her figure thin and pinched, hunched over like some monster ready to attack.

She looked harsh, but mostly because of her clothes. The heavy dress she wore, rather for protection or warmth, was heavily frayed and torn, with patches of various different shades of black or very dark reds, blues and violets keeping the breaches at bay. A thick black shawl was wrapped around the shoulders. A tall-peaked hat there was, just as had been reported. And a broom as well, which she rested against the wardrobe as she exited its depths. Hunched she was, maybe, but still quite tall for a woman of twenty-five: and thin, well, starvation was to be expected of a fugitive. The face was not the face of a monster; no, it was the face of something much worse.

It was the face of Elphaba.

"I'm sorry, did I scare you?" was she mocking her. "I seem to have that affect on people." She was speaking to someone other than her: maybe to herself? Perhaps the rumors that she had gone mad were true.

Then she turned back to her, brown eyes almost swimming with tears of joy.

"It's so good to see you, Nessa." She said.

Nessarose did not look at the eyes: much easier to hate her if she did not have to look at her damn eyes.

"What are you doing here?" she bit back venomously.

"Well," the green woman said, crossing her arms and reverting to her usual, dry wit. "There's no place like home."

Nessarose did not like this.

The green woman sighed. "I…damn! I never thought I'd hear myself say this," She turned back to her sister. "But I need father's help. I need him to stand beside me."

"So?" Nessarose returned haughtily. "Three years of running and now you want asylum? Well, I'm sorry, but that's impossible."

"No, it isn't!" She was on her knees, at the side of Nessa's chair. Was big, strong Elphaba really begging at her little, weak, crippled sister's feet? "Not if you ask him. He'll do it for you, Nessa. You know he will!"

"Father is dead!" she said at last. It still hurt to say those words.

Apparently, the green monster didn't know this. She took a step back, a look of surprise on her face.

"What?"

"I said he's dead!" Nessa shouted, wheeling the chair around so that she would not have to look the green freak in the eyes. "I'm the governor now."

In the quiet that followed, Nessarose thought her ears were betraying her. She heard sniffling, but knew that it was not coming from her. She had cried enough tears over the last three years, and the time for tears was past.

Was she really crying? She turned her chair back around to look at her prodigal sister, but the shadows of her hat obscured the face.

"Well," she angrily asked. "What did you expect? After he learned what you've done…how you disgraced us, he died of shame! Embarrassed to death!" She looked away.

The next words that came out of Elphaba's mouth, even she never expected. Not even from her.

"Good, I'm glad. It's better that way."

She turned her chair around, practically seething with anger at her sister's…callousness.

"That's a wicked thing to say!"

"No, it's just the truth." She said, throwing herself back at her sister's knees. "Because now…now, it's just us. You can help me! You can give me asylum and then together, we can…"

"Shut up, Elphaba!" Nessarose shouted. This green monster had gone on far enough. How dare she say what she just said, and then expect her to give her asylum?

"Why should I help you?" she sneered. "You fly around Oz, trying to rescue Animals you've never even met," She held up her hand. "I know what you've been doing, and not once, in three years, did you ever think to use your powers to rescue me!" She wheeled her chair forward, angry at her sister.

All of my life, I've depended on you
How do you think that feels?
All of my life, depended on you
And this hideous chair with wheels!

Scrounging for scraps of pity to pick up
And longing to kick up…my heels.

"W-What are you saying?" Elphaba asked, as her sister turned the back of her chair on her sister. "Nessa, please, listen to me! Not even I know everything about this book!" She held up a spell-book from the satchel at her side. "There isn't a spell for everything, you know!"

"Excuses!" she shouted.

"Please, you know what it was like with my own power!" she continued. "It-It's mysterious; sometimes it's not even there!"

"Then what good are you?"

"It's harder than you think!" she was getting practically frantic. "I mean, maybe I could find something, but it will take time, lots of time! It's not like conjuring up a pair of…" She looked down at the dazzling shoes, mocking her for the love her father showed to Nessarose and not to her.

She knew, better than they knew, the doctor's reports. Her legs were healthy, but had no life in them, no strength of their own.

But perhaps…

She knelt down, throwing the violet-paged book open and looking for anything of tangible, readable silver letters that materialized on the pages before her.

At last, something…

Ambulahn Dare Pahto Pahpoot Ambulahn Dasca Caldapess
Lahfenahto Lahfenahtum Pede Pede Caldapess

"What is that?" Nessarose asked suspiciously. "What does that mean?" But the green abnormality kept chanting, her hands dancing in the air over the violet-colored pages.

Suddenly, a bright flash of red exploded from her shoes, sudden heat was rushing up Nessarose's legs. Every nerve in her once dead legs was now tingling with life. It was all too much sensation for her, it hurt something fierce.

"Ow!" she cried out. "My shoes! Ahh! It's…it's like they're on fire! What have you done with my shoes?"

Suddenly she was lifted up off her chair, was she moving? But her legs were weak, inexperienced, like a child's legs the first time it learns to walk. She hit the floor hard. Her legs, which never used to feel anything, hurt when she fell. A green hand reached up at her from out of the darkness of the study.

"No!" she swatted it away. "Don't help me!"

She looked down at her feet. Whatever fiery spell the green thing had cast had turned them a bright and shining shade of crimson: the color of rubies. Nessa grabbed one of her legs and moved it aside, both of them lying in front of her while she sat on the floor on her rear. She picked one leg up, wincing as the new feeling of life and old memories of pain were rushing through the veins in her leg. It held firm, she was now kneeling on one leg. She put her weight on that leg, hoping it wouldn't collapse, then tried to move the other one.

It moved! She was now kneeling down, both legs stable on the hardwood floor. Slowly, with trembling hands, she gave herself a push. The floor shot down from her eyes, she looked down and saw her legs, both of them erect and stable, down beneath her. She was crying openly. It felt so good, at last, to be moving. The pain in her legs subsided, replaced with the normal feeling that she had with the rest of her body.

"Oh, Nessa!" a voice gasped from the darkness. "At last!"

I've done what, long ago, I should
And finally, from these powers, something good
Finally! Something good...

The figure in black appeared out of the darkness, green hands extended in what might be a kind of hug. But Nessarose did not want to be hugged, didn't want to be coddled anymore. She had her legs. Surely now...

"Boq!" she placed one foot in front of the other carefully, and found that she could walk. She stumbled the rest of the way to her desk, grasping onto the silver bell. She rang it once. "Boq, come here! Come here at once!" She pushed herself off from the desk and waddled back over to her chair.

"No!" the green figure said. "Please! Nobody can know I'm here!"

But it was too late.

Once he had been dismissed, Boq went to his room to formulate a plan. He had to leave, he just had to. There would be no more excuses, nothing to stop him now. Let her live in solitude, trapped in that chair. She can be somebody else's problem.

So deep he was that he did not hear the noises coming from her room.

Until the bell rang.

The slave bell. He felt like nothing but a slave as he walked back towards the study, ready to answer the governor's every beck-and-call.

"Yes, what is it, Madam Governor?" he sighed in annoyance as he pushed open the door into the study.

There she was! Standing there in broad daylight (at least, outside it was broad daylight). She looked just as menacing as the papers had said she had been, just as unnatural as he had known her.

"You!" he shouted. She moved towards him. He jumped at the desk, and picked up a letter opener, brandishing it as a knife. "No! Stay back!"

"Boq," the freak said. "It's just me! It's Elphaba! I'm not going to hurt you!"

"You're lying!" he shouted. Something was rising up in him, the same something that caused that outburst at the Train Station three years ago. "That's all you ever do, you and your sister!" He kept the letter opener pointed at the green one. "She promised that I'd be free to go back to Shiz once I took her home that day at the Train Station. But she didn't! She doesn't keep her promises, she's as wicked as you are!"

"Boq, what are you talking about?" the other one asked. She was sitting in her chair. What in Oz's name was on her feet? They were silver the last time he looked.

But Boq noticed that he had just defied her latest decree. It didn't matter now, might as well say the truth. He would be leaving Colwen Grounds one way or another after today: whether on his own to find Glinda, or in a body-bag.

"I'm talking about my life!" he whined. "What little's left of it." He turned to the green witch. "I'm not free to leave Munchkinland. None of us are!" He pointed the letter opener at the invald. "Ever since she took power, she's been stripping the Munchkins of our rights!" His voice quivered. "And we didn't have that many to begin with!" The letter opener went back to the green one.

"And do you know why?"

"To keep you here with me, Boq!" the invalid said. She didn't sound angry, didn't sound harsh. In fact, all things considered, she sounded practically jubiliant. "But none of that matters anymore! Look at this!"

Practice makes perfect, even for those who have never walked before. It was much easier to stand now after she had practiced before. All she needed to do was push herself up out of her chair, stand straight, and her legs did the rest. She was now standing up, swaying just a little from the unfamiliarity of walking, but she was stable.

The silence of the room was broken by the clatter of the letter opener falling to the floor.

"Y-You mean she can walk?" he asked, turning to the green woman: her sister. Her sister. "You did this for her?"

"Not just for me," Nessarose beamed. "For both of us!"

Her heart leaped as she turned to Boq. He was smiling, practically shaking with giddy anticipation. She also felt warm inside: she had finally gotten everything she wanted. They would at last be happy.

"Oh, Nessa." he exclaimed, laughing slightly. "This changes everything!"

"I know!" She smiled. He walked up to her, a look of earnesty in his eyes. He placed her small hands in his own, and she felt warm, safe and secure. At last, she had everything she wanted.

"Nessa?" he asked.

"Yes?"

"Oh Nessa!"

Surely now I'll matter less
To you, and you won't mind
My leaving here tonight?

"Leaving?" She couldn't believe her ears. She could walk, she was perfect now, they could finally be together...and he wanted to leave?

"Yes!" he continued.

That ball that's being staged
Announcing Glinda is engaged
To Fiyero

"G-Glinda?" she sobbed, pushing her way out of his grasp. It was all coming down about her ears. For four years, ever since they danced at the OzDust Ballroom, she had convinced herself that he was the perfect one. Everything he had said to the contrary she had excused as being nothing more than just an idle infatuation, one that she could conquer.

"Yes, Nessa, that's right." he said.

And I've got to go appeal to her
Express the way I feel to her

What he so uncaring that he didn't care what she felt? She was sobbing, her hands shaking as she gripped the edge of her desk. She didn't even care that the green thing was touching her again, trying to comfort her. This was all too much. He didn't love her? All the memories came back. She should have seen it from the start, he never loved her. She was only fooling herself by believing that he had loved her.

But she had loved him. That was for real. The feelings he may have given out in falsehood were an actuality with her. She loved him, she still loved him. That night at the OzDust, when he saw Galinda on the other side of the room, but chose her - Nessarose - instead, that meant something to her.

"Oh, Nessa," he said, trying to sound sympathetic. "You know I lost my heart to Glinda from the moment I first saw her. I told you that!"

Apparently it meant nothing to him.

"Lost your heart?" she mocked icily. If he could be callous, she would repay him in kind.

Well, we'll see about that

"Nessa, please!" the green thing at her side begged as she turned to face Boq. "Let him go!"

Did you think I'd let you leave me here flat?

The sympathy in the young Boq's eyes was replaced by fear. He reached down and picked up the letter opener again, pointing it at her now.

"Stay back, you! Don't come any closer!"

You're going to lose your heart to me! I tell you!
If I have to...I have to...

But what could she do? How could she force Boq to love her? She had already taken away his freedom, taken away his right to speak out against her, but he had violated those so easily. There had to be something else, some other way...

She saw the violet-paged book gleaming up innocuously from the floor, quite neglected by them or the green witch.

How hard could it be, Nessa wondered.

She threw herself onto the floor, ignoring the screaming pain in her knees. She looked at the violet page, her eyes mesmerized briefly by the dazzling bright lights and swirling silver letters. One appeared, and she spoke it aloud...Ah Tum. Then another...Core.

"No, Nessa, stop!" Elphaba shouted, throwing herself down at Nessa's side and trying to pry her away from the treasured spell-book. "That's dangerous!"

"W-What is she doing?" Boq queried suspiciously, taking a step over to see what they were doing.

Nessa, meanwhile, saw the words scramble before her very eyes. Nothing was coming in clear anymore. Out of fear, she said the first two words again, but in a different order. Tum Ah.

"Nessa, you're saying it all wrong!" Elphaba shouted. She tried to push Nessa out of the way, but the little brunette swatted her older sister away quite easily.

"Don't try to stop me, you!" Boq said, pointing the letter opener at her. "Or I'll..."

Tum Tah Tayk- But the spell was suddenly cut off by a loud cry of shock, and of agony.

"Nessa, no!" the green woman shouted, successfully pulling her sister away from the book. She looked up at the poor Munchkin, who was now on his knees, clutching at his chest.

"Boq, what is it?" she asked fearfully.

"My...heart!" he cried, gasping, straining against something that seemed to be tearing him up from the inside out. "It...argh! Feels like it's...ow! Shrinking!"

Almost immediately, she closed the book up and threw it into the green woman's arms.

"Elphaba, do something!" she shouted in one breath.

"I can't!" the green woman said, running over to Boq's side and, despite his weak attempts to swat her away, brought him into her old chair. "You can't reverse a spell once it's been cast!"

"Then what good are you?" she shouted again, now swaying on her feet as the dark figure pushed the chair back behind the wardrobe. Nessarose was nigh hysterical.

"This is all your fault! If you hadn't shown me that horrendible book..."

She emerged again, a look of profound frustration on her face.

"Shut up!" she shouted. Nessa balked as if hit, her sister's words as sharp as daggers. She took a step back, but the green thing took a step forward. "Just please, give me some time. I've got to find another spell. It's the only thing that might work." She turned around vanished into the darkness of the behind the wardrobe, chanting so softly that she could not hear what was being said.

Nessa was once again alone. If ever she supported Elphaba in her entire life, it was now. She had to succeed, she just had to! Boq had risked his life to save her from the Khalidahs in the Pine Barrens, and now she had put him in risk of dying. The green thing had to save her, she just had to.

Save him, please, just save him
My poor Boq, my sweet, my brave him
Don't leave me till my sorry life has ceased

Alone and loveless here
With just the girl in the mirror
Just her and me...the Wicked Witch of the East!

We deserve each other.

That was all she had said for the past four years. That was all the excuse she needed, for all the things she had done...even to the establishment of her tyranny, the taking away of Boq's heart, and the risking of his own life.

The slow, dull tap of boots upon the creaking floors turned her back towards the wardrobe. The green thing appeared, the book in her hands. Boq was not behind her.

"He's asleep." she whispered.

"And...and his heart?" Nessa asked.

"Don't worry," the green woman said, her voice grim and her face blank. "He won't need one anymore."

What did that mean, he wouldn't need one anymore? What had she done? Why couldn't she see Boq now and get her anxiety over with?

The green thing then brought the book up and stowed it away in her bag.

"Wait, where are you going?" she asked.

"To the Emerald City," her green sister answered. "There...there were these monkeys, the Wizard tricked me into magicking them, but it's still my fault for doing it. I have to set them free..."

"Elphaba," she said. Just listen to her dry, mirthless tone. She almost sounded like her sister. "You're not going back there to save some monkeys, you're going to find Fiyero." She looked away, in sorrow. "But it's too late."

She turned to leave. Suddenly Nessarose felt alone again. It can't be! She was losing everyone! First mother, then father, maybe even Boq...and now Elphaba? She appeared to hate her, but deep down inside, she actually loved this odd green thing.

"Elphaba, please!" she wept, running over and grabbing onto her cloak. "Don't leave me, please!"

She turned around, taking her sister in her arms. She noticed something in her elder sister's eyes, something she had tried to believe, as her father had told her for so many years, had never existed. Here was undeniable proof that it indeed did exist in her heart, in her eyes, in her soul...

Sorrow

"Nessa," Elphaba said, her voice quivering. "I've done everything I could to help you." She sighed, her head tilting down, obscuring her face beneath the wide-brim of her hat. "And it's not enough. It hasn't been enough." She pushed herself out of the embrace, turning away.

"Nothing ever will be."

"Elphaba, wait!" the younger sister called out. She reached out, but only grabbed the end of her shawl, tearing it off her shoulders as she was now running. "Elphaba!"

But she was gone.

The silence was broken by a soft groan. Her heart leaped. She knew that voice. With quivering feet, she walked over to her wardrobe. It was dark enough that she could see at least a bit of her own reflection. She wiped the tears out of her eyes and tried to make herself look as best as possible.

"Wh-Where am I?" Boq asked. "What happened?"

"Oh, nothing!" she was so relieved to hear his voice, her voice was breaking with joy. "You just...fell asleep."

Her ears rang with the grinding of metal against metal. It was jarring, and it sent the hairs on her back standing up on end. A heavy thud echoed on the wooden floor, then another. Something was coming out from behind the wardrobe. Nessarose sprang back, crying out in shock. A thing of silvery-gray metal appeared.

That thing was wearing the silver-gray uniform that Boq was last seen wearing.

"What is it?" the voice of Boq asked, but the lips of the metal thing moved. She was on the verge of tears. Did he know? "What's wrong?"

It was all so frightening. This metal thing could surely crush her to death with as little ease as she herself could crush a piece of paper. And it was Boq.

"It wasn't me!" she whined. It was partially true, right? "It was Elphaba, Boq!" He looked down at himself and cried out in shock. "I tried to stop her, but she..." He cried out again, stepping back in fear. "No, Boq, please! I still love you!" He was stumbling towards the door, the sound of metal against metal banging in her ears. "Boq, come back! Don't leave me all alone!" she wailed. But he was gone.

"BOQ!"

(AN: Well, what do you know? I think I'll go on and do the rest of the story.)

(I usually shy away from writing Wicked stories in song-verse, but this is just too good to pass up, since I love this scene. As with A Stumble in the Dark and A Musician's Fan-Fiction, I've explicitly left out the part about the Grimmerie being written in 'a long language of spells.' That is because it always annoyed me that, if it was in said 'lost language', and Madam Morrible could only read a little through practice and Elphaba, being half-human, could read even more of it [even though it was supposed to be from Earth and not from Oz, as it most likely is in the musical], how could Nessa, being fully Ozian, be able to read enough of it to make at least a botched-spell? If it's in a "lost language", then she should not have been able to read it.)

(The inspiration for this scene came from a lot of different Nessarose actresses. I've not found a single one I don't like, even Michelle Federer Butz has some great moments [in the videos and the recording]. However, when I saw Wicked on October 30th, I distinctly remembered Dee Dee Magno Hall cry out "Boq!" rather than "It was Elphaba!" as all the others have done. That was something that stuck out for me from that scene that I always remember, and therefore I included it in this story. If you prefer the other, you can view it in your mind as such.)

(The rest, from here, will be pretty much of my own imagining, but I have some loose ends to be tied up, which you shall soon see.)