This is it guys! The (hopefully) epic end to the (hopefully) thrilling saga. I want to express my sincereliest gratitution to all of you who read, reviewed, and most importantly, enjoyed this story. I had a lot of fun writing it and seeing all the responses. Just, thank you so, so, SO much for everything!
NOTE: The warnings contain spoilers.
Warnings: violence, death, implications of abuse, grief, murder
So... Here we go...
"Alright. Everyone listen up!" Ameya ordered as she marched into Nessa's room, Elphaba on her tail.
"What's wrong?" Kistosen asked, rising from his chair. He and Nessa had been deep in conversation only moments prior.
"We are about to have visitors. Looking for you," Ameya stated, raising her eyebrows at Kistosen. "But luckily, I have thoroughly thought this through. Elphaba, go get your belongings and move in here. Kistosen, I need you to lay under Nessarose's bed."
"What? Why under my bed?" Nessa asked, her face full of confusion and worry.
"Out there is the entire Munchkinland Militia, plus most of the guards of Southstairs prison. Kistosen Redill, most wanted man in Munchkinland, perhaps in all of Oz, has been tracked to my house. If that is not your father leading them here, than I'm a Quadling.
"Your father was hailed as a Munchkinland hero for catching Kistosen, and we would jump at any opportunity to do it again. And he would be ecstatic if he could once and for all connect me to the attempted-kidnapping from so long ago."
"He thinks you and Kistosen were going to take us... together?" Nessa asked, confused.
"Yes. And he would be correct to think so. We worked together to form a way to get you away from Frexspar. You could consider it your mother's dying wish. For you two to be happy and safe. Your mother wished to leave, but did not feel able to do so as she did not feel she could care for you two adequately if she did. We wanted to take you somewhere safe. When Kistosen got caught, however, I followed through with our back up plan: to create a story about a falling out. And I have kept up the charade ever since."
"You must be a very good liar then," Elphaba concluded as she pulled her blanket straight over her new bed.
"I can think on my feet quite well," Ameya shrugged slightly. "All I can truly say is that your father is not a forgiving man. He kept me away from you two for 17 years because he did not trust me."
Nessa, Elphaba, and Kistosen looked at each other.
"What do we do, sister?" Kistosen asked, his jaw firm.
"You do what you are told. You lay under Nessarose's bed. Elphaba and Nessarose, do your best to fall asleep, or at least pretend to. I'll try to keep him out of the house as long as I possibly can. But if he has a warrant, which I assume he does, he will try and come in. Be prepared to lie like you have never lied before."
"But, that doesn't answer my question," Nessa interrupted. "Why under my bed?"
"Who is the one person in the entirety of Munchkinland, no, the entirety of Oz who Frexspar Lodder Thropp would never, ever wake up?"
Nessa nodded. Elphaba snorted a bit and climbed into the bed.
Kistosen lay on his back and shuffled under Nessa's bed.
"What would happen if he found Kisosten?" Elphaba asked as Ameya made her way to the door.
"Well," Ameya said without looking at her neice. "I do not believe it would end up well for either of us."
"You think father would send you to Southstairs?" Nessa asked. Her eyes were as wide as saucers. Ameya stopped at the door, and spoke over her shoulder.
"I... I would hope to be so lucky."
Ameya waited in the parlor for the impending knock of Frex's forces. She had been preparing tea anyways, so all she had to do was quickly change into her nightdress and pour a cup for herself.
It did not take very long. Tousling her hair to give it a more "sleepy" look, she slowly opened the door.
"Hello, Ameya," Frex said, his lip curling.
"Fr-Frexspar?" Ameya stammered, confused. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
"What happened to your arm, Ameya?"
"I slipped on mud and failed to catch myself adequately, but that is not important , so please answer my question."
"We have it on good authority that you are harboring known escaped convict Kistosen Redill here," Frex stated. Ameya's eyes grew wide.
"Kis-Kistosen Redill was tracked here? B-but last I heard he had headed north? Oh,oh my Oz."
"Do not play that with me, Ameya."
"Play what? He is a dangerous man, and if he were here... The, the girls..."
"We will search this house for him," Frex said, stepping in the door, but Ameya flung out a hand.
"No. Th-the girls are asleep. Couldn't... couldn't you check the grounds first?" Ameya offered.
"We have already done so. And I'm sure the girls would not mind," Frex added.
"No. I-I can't let you," Ameya stated. "It will give Nessarose another panic attack, and I cannot allow that. Wait until the morning. Let them go off to school. Please. For Nessarose's sake."
The cogs in Frex's head turned. On one hand, he felt that she was lying, but on the other, she was right in worrying about Nessarose.
"Goodnight, Frexspar," Ameya said, pushing the door shut. She caught her breath for a few seconds before walking back towards the parlor.
BOOM.
The door flew apart in pieces as soon as the battering ramekin. Ameya shielded her head from the debris. She could feel chunks of flying wood nick her exposed skin.
"We have a warrant, Ameya. We WILL be searching this house and there is nothing you can do to stop me," Frex roared.
"Fine," Ameya shouted back at him. "Then at least let me warn the girls."
"Fine. But I am coming with you. Come on," Frex demanded, grabbing Ameya's unbroken arm and dragging her to the hall.
"Unhand me," she commanded, wrenching her arm out of his hand. "And shut up. I will speak to the girls."
When she arrived at Nessa's door, she rapped lightly before opening it just a crack.
"Girls?"
Elphaba and Nessa said nothing.
"Girls?" Ameya whispered again. This time both of them moaned groggily. Elphaba sat up.
"What is it?" she mumbled.
"There is.." Ameya stepped into the room and lit the nearby lamp. Nessa raised a hand to shield her face from the light. Frex remained in the doorway.
"Huh?"
"Your father is here. He brought a couple of guards. They are looking for Kistosen Redill. You know... the convict I told you about? Well, people think he came down this way, so they want to search the house. I wanted you two to know so you wouldn't worry. It might get loud."
"He... he's coming this way?" Nessa asked. "I-I...the paper said he was heading north?"
"I don't think I can sleep while they search," Elphaba added, reaching for her glasses that lay on the table next to her.
"Me neither," Nessa agreed, switching on her own lamp.
"Alright. You can stay up until they leave. But then you have to go back to sleep. We have an early day tomorrow," Ameya said. Nessa and Elphaba exchanged glances before answering in unison.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good. Goodnight."
Ameya turned to the door. Frex had already stepped into the hallway, and could not see Ameya give the girls a small thumbs up before she shut the door.
"That was kind of fun," Elphaba admitted. "Making stuff up on the fly like that."
"I don't like it much," Nessa said.
Elphaba shrugged and picked up a book from her table and began reading. Nessa just sat there, staring at her quilt.
"Did you really mean 7 1/2 months?" Nessa whispered.
"What?" Elphaba looked up from over her book.
"Was I really born at 7 1/2 months?" Nessa repeated.
"You... you didn't know that?"
"PLEASE stop saying that, Elphaba. Obviously if I am asking you then, no, I do not 'know that'," Nessa bellowed. Elphaba froze.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know that... I'm very sorry, Nessa."
"I... I have told you many times that I don't like secrets, Elphaba. And... and I think the fact that..."
"The fact that what?" Elphaba asked, her eyes narrowing as she snapped her book closed.
"The fact that it was your fault that father made our mother chew milkflowers," Nessa finished.
Elphaba sat shocked.
"You-you really think it's my fault?" she whispered.
Nessa fidgeted with a corner of her quilt.
"You do, don't you?" Elphaba accused.
"I-I don't know. It's just that... All my life I wondered why, and now I learn it... It might be..." Nessa's voice faded off.
"Nessa, it is a yes or no matter. You either believe that it is my fault or you don't," Elphaba said, her voice low and mirth-filled.
"I know it is not, okay? It's just that I have learned so much about our family and about myself in the past 8 weeks that I don't know what I believe right now. I know it isn't your fault Elphaba. It is father's, and I know that he only blames you because he does not want to blame himself. But it... I've always wondered if this is how my life was supposed to turn out, and up until recently, no matter how much I hated to admit so, I realized it was. And I was trying to come to terms with that. But this? It, it just makes me wonder even more. And, and..." Nessa broke off, then swallowed hard. "Now I have to start over, and I'm unsure if I'll ever be able to completely believe that this is the way things were supposed to go."
She and Elphaba sat in silence, looking anywhere but each other, listening to the soldiers search the house.
After half an hour or so, Elphaba got down from her bed. Nessa watched as she fixed the covers, before getting down on her knees to look under Nessa's bed.
"Kistosen? How much of that did you- Kistosten? Kistosen?" Elphaba repeated. She thrust an emerald arm, under the bed, before leaping to her feet.
"He's not there?"
Elphaba shook her head, but as soon as she opened her mouth to speak, there was a great shout from the hall.
"We found someone, sir!" a squat man with bushy eyebrows called.
He and a weedy looking man were dragging Kistosen into the parlor by the sleeves of a red velvet smoking jacket he certainly wasn't wearing before.
Frex's face grew hungry. He looked at Ameya for her to explain, but she was frozen, her eyes glued to her brother's approaching figure.
"Ha! How do you explain this, Ameya?"
"I daresay," Kistosen announced in his careful Quox accent. "Unhand me, you fools."
"Silence," Frex barked. His eyes were full of greed, "State your name."
"Professor Cato Makoll from the University of Quox. I am here as a visitor of Dr. Thropp, of whom I am angry with. She did not extend me the courtesy of a warning to your arrival."
"Uh-huh. Well then tell me, Professor Makoll, where did you get that scar? The one just above your left eyebrow?" Frex inquired.
"Oh, well," Kistosen began. "It occurred in the winter of '76, you see. I was with my brother and we were sledding down a hill-"
"Very well," Frex interrupted. He turned to Ameya.
CRASH.
Everyone in the room turned as Elphaba came tumbling out of the door to Nessa's bedroom.
"Elphaba?" Ameya asked, her head turned slightly in confusion.
Elphaba stood, brushing herself off.
"Uh. I'm sorry. I, uh, I lost the key," Elphaba muttered.
"That is not the room you were sleeping in," Frex stated plainly.
"Uh, it's not?" Elphaba asked with a slight laugh. "Oh. Well, uh, I should be going back. Don't know how I got here."
Elphaba smiled slightly as she began backing down the hall. Once she was far enough, she turned and sprinted off around the corner.
"Wha-what was that?" Frex asked dumbly.
"She just does that sometimes. She likes to wander and I let her. Let me make sure she's okay."
But as Ameya took a step down the hall, Frex flung out a hand.
"I'm sure she is capable of taking care of herself. You on the other hand, might not be."
"What did you hear?" Nessa whispered as soon as Elphaba had reappeared.
"He's pretending to be some teacher from Quox. I...I need to figure out something to show them that he's telling the truth."
"But he's not."
"No, he's not. But I don't want them to find that out. Here," Elphaba handed Nessa a scrap of paper. "Make something up. Write about one of your favorite books or something. Make it look like it's just jotted notes."
"Elphaba, I don't want to take part in this. I don't like lying," Nessa said.
"Just do it. Please?" Elphaba offered the paper again.
Nessa sighed and took the paper from Elphaba's hand. But this was getting out of control in her opinion.
What she really wanted was to go home. Ameya's house did not feel like her home. She knew that all she had to do was tell her father that she wanted to come home, but she knew Elphaba would not want to come with her, and she could not live without Elphaba. Everything was so confusing and mixed up. Everything was connected: home, family, school. And Nessa knew that with one word, she could end this all. Elphaba could too, but she wouldn't. And Nessa wasn't sure she could either, but if she did, she automatically had more credibility than Elphaba did, which made her the most powerful person in the house.
This was infuriating for her, because of everything she did and did not know, she new one thing: she hated being in a position of power.
"You know what. I can't continue this. I'm going to sleep. You do whatever you want. But leave me out of this."
With that, Nessa dropped the paper to the floor and rolled over. Elphaba wanted to argue with her, but it was no use.
Instead, she finished jotting down notes, and snuck out into the hallway.
"Here," she presented her father with a stack of papers.
Frex stopped mid-sentence, and looked up. After a moment of careful consideration, he took and glanced through them, before he looked up at his elder daughter. Then he spoke in a much calmer tone than any he had ever taken with her before.
"Where did you find these?"
"Professor Cato gave them to me. We were discussing the history of the Emerald City. And how wonderful our Wizard is. Right, sir?" Elphaba lied, looking Kistosen in the eye. He scowled slightly, but nodded.
"Yes. We were discussing how wonderful the wizard is," Kistosen agreed.
For quite a long time, Frex looked at Kistosen and then Ameya and then back to Elphaba. Then he stood.
"Wait outside for orders," he called to the guardsmen. They looked at each other, and then gave Frex a salute before heading out the door.
Frex continued to stand and look between them long after the guards exited.
"How long has he been here?" he said at last.
"Two weeks," Ameya whispered. Her arms were crossed, and she stared at the floor.
Without warning, he swung his hand back towards her. His fist caught her in the stomach. Then with a sweeping kick, he knocked both Elphaba and Kistosen to the ground. For his final trick, he rolled over, putting Kistosen in a head lock. But he dropped him at once.
Instead, he grabbed Elphaba by the arm and attempted to drag her back to the room. But she was prepared for this.
With a strong green hand, she pushed him off. She must have been stronger than she thought, because he hit the wall behind him and crumpled slightly.
"ENOUGH," Elphaba screamed. "Father, he is innocent. You must call off the guards."
"No," Frex mumbled, lifting himself weakly. "He tried to kidnap you. As, as an infant."
"Like you cared about me at all," Elphaba spat. "You cared about Nessa. Well she believes him to be innocent too. So let's make an agreement. Kistosen and Ameya get off free and clear. In return, we will return to live with you, and never speak of this again."
Frex tried to argue, but he couldn't form the words. In the end, he nodded.
"Fine," Ameya whispered, her eyes wide, but her breathing fairly even. "You send off the guards. You and the girls will stay the night, and then it will be over."
Frex narrowed his eyes, but nodded nonetheless.
The next morning, Ameya rose early to see the girls off. She nor Kistosen said anything. Both were still frozen from the events of the previous night. But just as Elphaba was about to climb into the carriage, Ameya stopped her.
"Here," Ameya whispered, pulling a book from under her robes. "You're sisters casts will need to be removed in a few days. No doubt your father will call a doctor, but in case, this is for you."
Elphaba took it. It was green, a deeper green than her skin, and it was emblazoned with gold lettering. The cover read The Complete Ozian Medical Handbook.
"Don't you need this?" Elphaba whispered back, her eyes wide. Ameya shrugged and smiled slightly.
"I have it all memorized. But I... I won't be practicing for quite a while. You might find you need it more than I."
And with that, Ameya gave Elphaba a wink and spun on her heel to go into the house. Kistosen nodded before doing the same.
Later that night, once Elphaba was back in her bed at the Governor's Mansion, back in the room next to Nessa's, I might add, she opened it to read. Six hours later and 524 pages later, she came across the letters. One for Nessa and one for Elphaba, both written in Ameya's slanting script, though hers seemed quite a bit shakier than Nessa's.
Curious, she picked up the one that included her name, and read it by the candle next to her bed.
To whom it may concern;
Elphaba might strike you as surprising, but my sincerest wish is that it be for the right reasons.
She is a bright and caring young woman. Her concern for her sister's well-being is incredible. In her life, Elphaba has sacrificed much for her family, and has reaped very little from it other than pain. But despite it all, she continues to take on the world with her boldness. She has a quick wit, and occasionally a sharp tongue, but she is always actively fighting for what is right.
I am sure she has read this, as I enclosed it in a book I knew she would be interested in reading. It is a medical handbook, received 15 years ago from the Shiz University Medical School. That is why I am writing this letter. Elphaba Thropp would be an excellent candidate for admittance to your university, and any program that might follow. Her intelligence and eagerness for learning has no bounds, and she will dedicate herself to anything she chooses.
Please consider her strongly for acceptance into your school.
Sincerely,
Dr. Ameya Thropp, M.D.
BS, University of Munchkinland, 1876
MD, Shiz University Medical School, 1881
EPILOGUE: FOUR MONTHS LATER
Elphaba waited patiently on the bench outside the admissions office for Shiz University.
Students gaped at her as they passed. Normally, it would have annoyed her, but today she was too nervous.
Twenty minutes later, Nessa exited the office.
"How was it?" Elphaba asked, jumping to her feet.
"Fine," Nessa said, though her face was pale.'
"Elphaba Thropp?" a man's voice called from inside the office.
"Good luck," Nessa whispered.
Elphaba swallowed and stepped inside.
As usual, the admissions officer gasped in shock at the sight of her. She ignored it, instead setting her folder of applications, resumes, grades, and letters on his desk.
"You're Elphaba Thropp?" he asked once his heart rate had returned to normal.
"Yes, sir," Elphaba replied.
He nodded and began shuffling through her papers. A couple of times, his eyebrows rose as he read.
"These grades are very impressive. And your test scores are very-" he looked up in amazement. "You scored perfectly on the Ozian University Placement Exam?"
Elphaba nodded, but the admissions officer just smiled.
"Everything looks very, very good, Miss Thropp. I'm not supposed to say this, but you are definitely accepted here. As is your sister, but don't tell her that. We'll send the letters in a few days," the man winked. Elphaba breathed a bit easier. "I only have one more question for you, Miss Thropp. To what college are you interested in applying?"
"Uh, college?"
"Yes. Which department are you interested in studying?"
"Uh... I don't really know," Elphaba admitted. "I was worried... I, uh, didn't know if I'd get in."
"Well, " he laughed. "You definitely don't need to worry about that. And you do not have to answer today, but I would begin to consider it."
"You, you said that I will be accepted?" Elphaba asked.
"Yes, my dear."
"Then I do have an answer. Medicine. I want... I want to be a doctor," Elphaba said, watching her long green fingers intertwine.
"Well, it will be difficult, Miss Thropp. But I think you might be a good candidate for that," he smiled, which made Elphaba smile too. "Especially given your letter of recommendation. Shame what happened to her.""
Elphaba nodded and looked down again.
"Were you close to her?" the man asked.
"I only met her last year."
"Well, I am very sorry. I knew her a very long time ago. Very lovely. Hard worker."
"Yeah. Shocking. To all of us," Elphaba mumbled.
"Well, if she speaks of you so highly, then you are surely a good candidate," the man said with a smile. Sensing she didn't want to discuss it further, he smiled again and dismissed her.
"Okay?" Nessa asked as they made their way to the waiting carriage.
"Yeah," Elphaba dropped her voice as she lifted Nessa into the carriage. "We both are accepted, by the way."
"Really?!" Nessa whispered in excitement. Elphaba nodded smiling, but it fell quickly.
"He mentioned Ameya."
"Wha- what did he say?" Nessa mumbled.
The carriage lurched, and they began to bounce away from Shiz University.
"Just good things."
"That's good... I, I miss her."
Elphaba nodded, watching the campus shrink from view in the mirror. Nessa sensed her sister's grief the same way the admissions officer did, and stopped talking.
A few weeks earlier, Ameya and Kistosen had both been found dead in Ameya's mansion. They had been poisoned. A few days later, a local farmer who had seen Kistosen through a window admitted to the crime, citing his loyalty to the Governor and the Wizard as reason.
It had hit Elphaba the hardest, as she had been keeping up a secret (from her father) correspondence with Ameya. For once, she had something to look forward to. But now, nothing.
"I miss her too," Elphaba admitted. "I was looking forward to writing her in college."
Nessa nodded solemnly.
"Well, you never know. There'll be new people at Shiz. Maybe we'll meet nice new people there."
"Yeah. Maybe."