(AN: Here we go, our two main characters appear again...and something 'strange' happens.)

(Don't worry, it's all good [or is it? -wicked laughter-])

Stranger

"What should we do with her?" Glinda asked.

She and Elphaba were back at Kiamo Ko. With them was a little girl who couldn't have been a year over ten. She had reddish-brown hair, tied up into two pig-tails that hung down on her shoulders, and she wore a checked dress of blue and white. In her arms was this tiny black thing that yapped in a very annoying voice.

The two women turned to look at the little girl, and they noticed that she was staring at the taller of the two.

"What are you looking at?" Elphaba asked.

The little girl didn't say anything, she just kept her eyes fixated on the tall, green-skinned woman.

"Oh, do I have something in my teeth?" Elphaba asked, her tone heavy with sarcasm. Glinda was hard-pressed to repress ancient memories of a time before the Grimmerie, of a time before she had realized just how alike they were.

She was also hard-pressed to stifle the smiles and giggles that came with that memory.

"Nothing, ma'am," the little girl shook her head. "It's just, well, you're green."

"Yeah, so what?" Elphaba almost growled. How did Elphie ever get that sassy, Glinda asked herself.

"Oh, why, pardon me," the girl returned. "But it's just that, well, nobody's green back where I come from."

Back where I'm from, Elphaba mused. You sound like the Wizard.

"And just where are you from?" Glinda asked.

"Look here," the little girl said. "I don't know what this is all about. The last thing that I remember, me 'n Toto were in our house and we got swept away in the twister!"

"Dodo? What's a Dodo?" Glinda asked.

"Toto," Dorothy returned, holding the little black thing up. It yapped at Glinda.

"Oh, sweet Oz!" she exclaimed, taking a step back.

"Then I wake up," the little girl continued. "And I hear these strange noises, like something's going wrong outside the house. I peek outside the window and there's nothing but black smoke everywhere. Then you two show up and pull me out of the house and say I should come with you. I shouldn't be here, Aunt Em told me not to talk to strangers."

"My name is Glinda," the blond said. "There, we're not strangers anymore."

The girl cracked half-a-smile. "I'm Dorothy Gale, from Kansas." she returned, holding out a little hand to shake Elphaba's. She looked at it curiously before giving it a slight quiver in her own hand.

"What's a Kansas?" Glinda asked.

"Why, that's where I'm from!" Dorothy said.

"But why are you here?"

It was Elphaba who had spoken. Dorothy and Glinda turned to the green woman.

"Oh, don't mind me," she said. "I just had a thought, that's all."

"What is it, Elph..." But before Glinda said anything, she turned back to Dorothy and mouthed Just give us a minute.

Okay, the little girl whispered back.

Glinda and Elphaba departed to a side room in the castle.

"Elphie, what's wrong?" Glinda asked.

"She shouldn't be here," Elphaba returned. "She hasn't got a clue. The moment the Wizard finds her, she'll be whisked away to the Southstairs."

"Then let's keep her!"

"We can't keep her!" Elphaba retorted. "Just look at her! She's a child!"

"So?"

"This is war! We can't be dragging a child after us!"

"But we can't just leave her here!" Glinda said. "Look at her! If she's as unstable to be blown here in her house by a twister, any old gale could just sweep her off her feet..."

Glinda suddenly came to a halt.

"And what?" Elphaba asked.

"I just remembered something," Glinda said. "The night before I found you...or you found us."

"What about it?"

"I was flying over Munchkinland in the Wizard's bubble machine..." Elphaba could barely suppress a snicker from escaping her lips. "What?"

"What in Oz's name is a bubble machine?"

"Something the Wizard, or Madam Morrible, made for me, before I...before Fiyero and I left to go find you," Glinda said. "It's supposed to take me around Oz and places, flying like."

"Sounds silly enough to be one of the Wizard's inventions," Elphaba said. "Even if it wasn't, I'm sure he'd take credit for it. And what kind of person comes and goes around Oz in a bubble?"

Glinda bit her lower lip.

"That's not important, Elphie," she continued. "While I was flying, I saw something crash near Munchkinland. At first I thought it was you, but I think it was her house."

Elphaba stepped back, a hand resting on her green temple, as she tried to probe her mind, try to come up with some thoughts, some idea of what was going on at that time.

"Elphie, what's going on?"

"I don't know," she replied. "I don't remember everything clearly, but...there was a green hall, and there were voices, two of them. They were arguing over how best to capture me. They'd tried and failed a lot of times, apparently. Then the one, Madam Morrible, I think, she remembered something about me."

"What did she remember?"

"Nessa," Elphaba said at last.

The broom came to a jerking halt just a few inches above the ground. Elphaba got off unceremoniously, followed by Glinda and Dorothy. They didn't feel safe leaving her at Kiamo Ko. The green woman was now walking over to the farm-house, looking around at the floor-boards, seeing if she could find it.

"What's she doing?"

"Quiet, Dorothy." Glinda said. "Elphaba needs to think."

Minutes later, Elphaba came back, a look of disappointment on her face. Only mild disappointment.

"She's not here," Elphaba said at last. "Not a trace. Not even those damn slippers."

"Elphie!" Glinda whispered. "Watch the language."

"Oh, that's nothing," Dorothy pipped up. "I've heard Uncle Henry say sh..."

"Shut up already!" Elphaba snapped.

Dorothy made a face, and then the little black thing started yapping.

"And your little dog too!" Elphaba returned.

"Hey!" Dorothy snatched the dog up in her arms. "Don't you hurt Toto!"

"She's not going to hurt Lotto, Doodoo."

"What did you call me?"

"Glinda has a thing about forgetting peoples' names." Elphaba stated.

"Elphie, what's wrong?" Glinda asked, turning around to the pacing green woman.

"It makes sense now!"

"What makes sense?"

"Yeah, what makes sense?" Dorothy asked.

"The twister!" Elphaba said, pointing at Dorothy. "The one you say swept your house away. And Glinda, you said there was a storm that swept a small black object into Munchkinland. Well, this is it!"

"Elphie, that could be a coinkidink!"

"A what?" both Elphaba and Dorothy asked.

"A bizarre and unexpected twister of fate!"

"No, no, there's a connection! Someone created that storm, someone wanted to bring me out of hiding. That's why the guards were there, who picked you up." Then she paused.

"We have to get back to the castle," she said. "It's not safe out in the open. If they tried this once, they might try it again."

(AN: Oh look! It's Dorothy! And double surprise, her house didn't kill Nessarose!)

(As I said before, this is AU. Nessa wasn't in Center Munch at the time Dorothy's house came down, so that's why Elphaba didn't find a body. Poor Nessa's fate will be decided later, though.)

(Next chapter is going to be good - maybe not story-wise, but I think you'll love it. So just wait)