(AN: As per the demands of my starving readers, I'm bringing out a new chapter in this story. I had planned on doing a cut-away to the Wizard and Madam Morrible, but in the end, it felt really pointless and didn't move much along plot-wise.)

(Sorry for the wait, it has been hell. But no more excuses, here's the chapter)

The Next Victim

It was dark when they left the mouth of the cave. It was barely mid-day when they entered, and they did not stay long enough in the darkness of the tunnel for night to fall. The wind, also, was blowing about quite a gale around Glinda and Elphaba as they emerged.

"What in Oz's name just happened?" Glinda queried.

Elphaba said nothing. Her eyes were now on the emerald haze north-west of their current position. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, she knew that a certain sorceress in service to the Wizard was conjuring that storm, just as sure as she knew that self-same sorceress had caused the last storm that Glinda told her about.

"Quick!" Elphaba shouted. "Get on!" She flipped out the broom.

"What? Are you crazy? We can't go out in this storm!"

"I need to get to the Emerald City," Elphaba said. "Right now!"

"But why? That's enemy territory!"

"I don't know why, I just feel like that's the place to be right now." She turned about. "Are you coming or not?"

Glinda hesitated for a moment, in fear of the weather, but suddenly she took hold of Elphaba's shoulders and away they went into the dark, stormy sky.

The wind blew against them so harshly that Elphaba could barely keep her eyes open, and it almost hurt to stand up against the rushing gales.

Whoosh! A tiny white thing flew past Elphaba's head on the left.

"Watch out!" she called back.

Another one whizzed over their heads. Then another on the left, then two on the right. A blast of fire and an acrid smell of sulfur filled their nostrils, then came a wave of tiny pieces of ice in various stages of melting. Though it was nigh impossible to make out anything over the rush of the wind, Glinda was almost certain she heard Elphaba hiss as the ice pieces hit her face.

Suddenly, as quickly as the hail had come, it was now starting to subside. A huge funnel of black dust and wind coalesced upon the ground before them. Elphaba felt strong winds tug at her hair and her cloak, and Glinda's hands dug a little deeper into her shoulders. It was painful, but Elphaba relished this pain: it would be much worse if the pain was gone, for then Glinda wouldn't be on the broom anymore, and they were now so high up that falling meant death.

"Oh sweet Oz!" Glinda breathed to herself.

A second, a third...no wait, three more cyclones appeared. Now six heavy funnels of powerful winds were closing in on Elphaba's broom from all sides. Suddenly, something green flew out of Elphaba's bag. With a jolt, she turned the broom down and made a nose-dive towards the emerald earth to catch the tiny green thing that was falling. Behind her, Glinda was now screaming for dear life, fearing that Elphaba had finally lost it.

The wind was now so strong that Glinda's hands were trembling as they held onto Elphaba's shoulders. The six cyclones had now come together in one great super-twister that was swiftly closing in upon them.

"Elphie!" Glinda cried out as loud as she could. One of her hands slipped off Elphaba's shoulder.

A brief moment, her other hand waved. Then a green hand appeared and held onto Glinda's outstretched, flailing hand. Behind them the wind began to die down. The two made a remarkable landing on the grass in a clearing just outside a field of poppies on the outskirts of the Emerald City.

When Glinda awoke, she found herself on top of Elphaba. For one brief moment, she wondered if she were now dead. Then she saw that they were both clothed, and noticed her hair was wind-swept and well falling out of its curled state. Elphaba was lying face-down in the grass.

"Elphie, wakey wakey!"

The green woman stirred beneath her, turned over, and gave her a playful smirk.

"What have you been doing now, Glinda?" Elphaba asked.

"Oh, Elphie!" Glinda gasped, reaching up to touch the green cheek, now stained with a tiny sliver of crimson. "You're bleeding."

"Am I?"

"Does it sting?"

"Not when you don't touch it, it doesn't," Elphaba said in her usual dry wit. "Now will you please get off me?"

Glinda complied, although she was rather disappointed. "One of these days, Elphie."

"I don't have time to think about myself right now," she said. "I've done too much damage, I need to repair that first."

"What damage have you done?"

Elphaba paused.

"Elphie?"

"I don't know," she said at last. "There are long blank moments in my memory. I...I see images of them, only briefly, every time I look at something that jogs my memory, a familiar face, a thing, something that I've been in contact with. But I don't know what or why unless I see it."

"What did you see when you saw that Sheep?" Glinda asked.

"The Grimmerie," she said. "It's in the Emerald City, somewhere."

Suddenly there was a squawk in the air, and Elphaba flinched, as if it was the sound of a dragon.

"It's nothing, Elphie," Glinda said. "Just a swan flying about."

Elphaba knew Glinda wouldn't believe her if she told her about that night...the night before she met back up with Glinda and Fiyero, before they came to Kiamo Ko. She could only remember pieces of it, but she knew that it involved swans and, how they retold it to her, they must have knocked her off her broom while in flight.

"But I thought the Grimmerie was destroyed, remember?" Glinda asked.

"So did I," Elphaba replied. "But it appears we were wrong."

The Emerald City. The Capital of Greater Oz, the seat of power of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was the last place anyone would expect to see the Wicked Witch of the West. She hid, a hood thrown over her head and a scarf over her face. Glinda, though she protested that she'd look better in a green dress with heavy green-shaded spectacles, did likewise.

They came to a point where there was a fork in the Shiz Road: the way leading to the left meandered towards the Emerald City Train Station, while the Palace loomed directly to the right. They took the road that led towards the Palace, but did not go up to the gates but meandered along a lane that would lead them around to the opposite end.

"I thought we were going into the Palace," Glinda whispered. Probably the best idea, since the Wizard would most likely have eyes and ears all throughout the Emerald City.

"No, to the morgue by the Ozma Fountain," Elphaba said.

Glinda made a sound. Death wasn't something Ozians particularly appreciated, and the dreadful irony that a morgue would be placed next to the fountain of Ozma was nigh distasteful.

They passed through into the doors of the mortuary. The receptionist, clad in dark green - even in the Emerald City, they would wear green at a mortuary - asked them their business. Elphaba, face obscured and her hands gloved, presented her copy of the Emerald Herald and pointed to the obituaries.

"Bon Cavalish, eh?" the receptionist asked. "Right this way, ma'am."

Glinda gave Elphaba a quizzical look, but she shushed her quietly.

"Just follow my lead."

Into the long hall, filled with emerald-shaded caskets, they entered. Out of respect for, as far as she could guess, the loved ones of the deceased, the receptionist directed them to number 230.

"You have fifteen minutes," she stated, then promptly left the room.

Once she was gone, Elphaba looked about the wall, looking for number 230.

"Elphie, what's going on?" she asked in hushed tones. "Who do we know who's died?"

"Remember the newspaper?"

"The one you saw back at Kiamo Ko?" she replied.

"Yes," Elphaba said, scanning the caskets. "If my guess is correct, and it usually is, we'll be able to see what happened if he look at the body."

"But I thought it was missing," Glinda stated.

"Read it again," Elphaba said, holding out the paper while she continued searching.

It is with great sorrow and devastration that three people were reported missing from their homes on the eve of May 18th, in the Twenty-Fifth Year of Our Glorious Wizard.

"When was the 18th?" Glinda asked.

"The night you dressed me up in that pink nightmare," Elphaba replied, her attention still on the searching.

The Gale Force has been sent on a thorough search of the areas from which they disappeared, the Northtown District of the Emerald City. And while their bodies, living or dead, have not been recovered, the body of a fourth victim, now identified as Trism bon Cavalish, a new recruit to the Gale Force, was discovered in the basement of his apartment in the same area. His...

"I found it!" Elphaba whispered excitedly.

"Elphie, I don't think that's a good idea." Glinda shook her head.

But Elphaba was starting to pull the casket out of the wall. Despite its size, and how much the recently dead body must weigh, Elphaba's own strength was pulling through.

Thunk! A heavy something fell from out of the morgue wall. Glinda gave a squeal, and before anyone could say anything, the lid was now thrown open. Poor Glinda had to throw her hands over her eyes to keep from screaming or retching in disgust.

Lying in the casket was a body so deformed, so twisted, it looked like it had aged three hundred years in a short while. Not only that, but what little flesh remained on the body was covered with sores and leprous growths. It was also dried and cracked, so that even a slight caress of wind would blow away the flesh as if it were nothing but ash.

Elphaba held her hand out over the body, close enough to feel whatever it was that was coming off it without actually touching the thing.

To Glinda's surprise, Elphaba sprang back with a cry. A sudden madness came over Glinda, or maybe a sudden arrest of her senses over her shock, and she dragged the heavy coffin lid over the decrepit body, that no one may ever see it again. She walked over to Elphaba's side, placing her arms around Elphaba's thin, bony shoulders.

"Elphie, what's wrong?"

But the green woman was staring at the floor, not even responding to Glinda's comfort.

"Oh, Shiz!" Glinda exclaimed. "That storm! I get it! It was Madam Morrible! She was trying to bring you down! Oh, Elphie, we should go now. She might know you're in the city. And think of Nessarose! If she remembers that you have a sister, she might try to hurt her!"

At last, Elphaba spoke. But the voice was not the same. It sounded like it belonged to someone else, someone devoid of hope, of optimism. The voice sounded like the voice of one who had lost everything, the last hope, the last resort, and had nothing left to look forward to but death.

"Nessa can't come to harm," she said, her voice hollow. "She's dead."

Glinda gasped.

"How do you know?"

"Because..." Elphaba sobbed. The two, so rapt in Elphaba's traumatic state, saw not the receptionist take note of them and quietly sneak off to inform the authorities.

Even if they had, what came out of Elphaba's lips next shocked Glinda like a direct hit from a bolt of lightning.

"I killed her."

(AN:/)