(AN: It's all come down to this)

The Last Debate

The swan-lady walked toward the two women, completely oblivious of the little old man: he was impotent, meaningless to her. These two, on the other hand.

"Hello, ladies," she smiled at them. "Miss me already?"

"You know us?" Glinda asked.

"Why, of course I do," she laughed haughtily. "Did you think I didn't see you that day at Shiz?"

"Who are you?" the blond asked again.

"Oh, I have many names," the swan-woman said. "Sometimes, I think I have as many names as I have years I've lived. You see," she laughed. "I'm the one they call Kumbricia, the Kumbric Witch."

Elphaba laughed. "That's just a story, a fable!"

"You really need to get over yourself," the swan-woman, Kumbricia, said. "And your narrow-mindedness. There's no place for closed minds where I'm taking you."

"And where exactly is that?"

"Beyond your wildest dreams," she smiled. "You see, I know what's inside of you, Elphaba Thropp."

"Oh really? When did you learn that? Before or after you knocked me out of the sky?"

Kumbricia laughed. "Good! You're remembering more and more by the minute! I'm very proud of you. What a sorceress you will make."

None of them said anything, though Elphaba was keeping her eyes fixed on the dark-clad swan-woman.

"But, come come, we don't have all day," she lazily said. "Come with me, and I will give you all the power you want and more." She held out her hand in a gesture of friendship and beckoning towards the two witches.

"I don't want power," Elphaba said.

"No need to lie to me, Elphaba. I've seen inside your heart. You've always wanted it: to be loved, adored, honored, 'held in such high esteem'. I can make that happen for you. You can try to convince yourself that you're earnest about these...Animals, and whatnot, but that's not what you're really about.

"We could rule Oz, you and I. Away with all these Wizards and Adepts and weather sorceresses. We'll see the rights be wronged, we'll make a new Oz, one that will be the envy of all the worlds. It's all within my power, and I'm willing to give it to you."

"At what price?" Elphaba asked.

"Take my hand," Kumbricia said. "Choose me, and all will be well." She smiled. "I promise."

For a moment, it seemed as though Elphaba would accept. Her long-fingered, green hand reached out to grasp Kumbricia's clever, pale one. It hesitated in mid-air, though Glinda was certain that she would accept. She would accept, and then she, Glinda, would be forsaken. What was left for her if Elphaba forsook her like that?

Green met pale, and their hands entwined.

Kumbricia smiled. "Very good, Elphaba. You've made a very wise choice."

What happened next was so fast and so sudden that it took them all by surprise. A brilliant blast of fire, and Elphaba's hand shot back out of Kumbricia's, which in turn recoiled as if burned.

"You wretched little toad!" the Kumbric Witch howled. The fire on her hand subsided, then she turned towards Elphaba, glowering with rage and fuming with her profound anger.

Then, suddenly, she halted. All the anger and hate melted away from her face, and she threw her hands up over her mouth, as if in awe. Suddenly, Elphaba had leaped aside, a squawk echoed from the hallway, and there Elphaba crouched, like a Tiger ready to strike.

In her hands was the Grimmerie.

"Elphie, no!" Glinda called out.

That got Kumbricia's attention, as she quickly realized the pure white swan was only an illusion. Her enemy crouched, hands gripping the spell-book.

"Give me the book!" she demanded.

"How did you find it?" Elphaba queried, her voice shrill and harsh like razor blades.

"The thing that dwells inside it," Kumbricia said, pointing to the book. "It will devour you. It devoured that pathetic little soldier, it almost devoured Morrible, and it will devour you. Give it to me now!"

"I think she's right, Elphie." Glinda muttered.

"Shut up, Glinda!" Elphaba roared, her voice now beyond recognition. "So what, you picked it off his corpse in some back-alley of the Emerald City?"

Kumbricia held out her left hand like a claw, and suddenly the green monster's body became rigid. Slowly and determinedly, she walked towards where the witch had frozen.

"Or did I forget to mention?" Kumbricia asked coily. "I can control Yackle, and with it, everything that it's presence has stained." She waved her hand, and now the green thing fell face-first onto the emerald floor.

"Even you!"

Like a doll in the hand of a rough child, the green thing was tossed about the Throne Room, striking every wall with a heavy hit. Glinda was too mortified to do much. Then again, what could she do, against the most powerful sorceress known to Oz? One so powerful that many revered her as if she were a goddess like Lurline.

"Hey!" the Wizard interjected. "Now listen here, missy! You let the green girl g..."

The green thing came flying back, knocking the Wizard off his feet and onto the ground.

"Elphie!" Glinda cried out. "You've got to let go of the book!" She cried out in fright as she saw her green friend thrown haphazardly against the wall, then come to a slumping rest.

"It's controlling you!" a haggard voice said from the green thing. It was Elphaba's voice, though it came from the monster's lips. "I can feel it right here. You're under her power!"

"Am I?" Kumbricia roared. She waved her hand up, and the green monster was thrown against the wall so hard that Glinda feared she had broken something.

"Elphie!" she cried out, running to the green thing's side.

"How touching," Kumbricia mocked. "The princess loves the monster."

"Elphie's not a monster!" Glinda shouted, turning angry eyes in Kumbricia's direction.

"You think love will save her?" she asked. "Silly girl. That stupid boy gave his life to purge the evil out of her, you'll have to do no less if you want her back."

"She's worth it." Glinda heard herself say.

In one instant, two hands reached out and touched the green monster.

Three minds flowed through Glinda's subconsciousness.

"Hate. Kill. Destroy. Burn...Everything!"

"Just a little bit more. I can read her mind, I know how to..."

"Am I dead? Is this Heaven or Hell?"

"Destroy everything!"

Glinda found that she could not speak, but her thoughts came to life as she thought them.

"Elphaba, drop it now."

"I've got her now, and I won't let go until I've eaten her, just like her sister!"

"Over my dead body!"

"Gladly!"

"You got that right."

"Shut up!"

"Elphaba, I love you."

But at the same moment, one of the other voices said that as well.

"She's coming!"

When Glinda opened her eyes, the Throne Room was in shambles. Her hand was resting on something heavy and cold: the worn leather cover of a book. In fear she pulled it back, afraid to bring back the decrepit claw of some old hag who's blond hair and beautiful Gilikinese features had rotted away into the hideocious face of a monster.

She saw directly upon her, lying with her face quite buried in her bosom, was Elphaba. Nobody else was stirring - not the Wizard, not Kumbricia - and she was tempted to just let sleeping dogs lie and enjoy what she thought she'd never get to enjoy for...well, ever.

Her eyes exploded as she saw, floating in the middle of the Throne Room, where the Giant Head should be, a huge transparent bubble. Captured within that bubble, a look of shock plastered across her face, was the Kumbric Witch.

"Elphie!" she roused, nudging the green thing's shoulder.

Drowsily, she pulled herself up. The face was right, Glinda's heart leaped. She was safe.

"Elphie, look!" she indicated, pointing to the giant bubble. "It's splendiforous!"

"What?" the green woman asked. "I didn't cast that."

"What you, you didn't?" Glinda asked. "Well, then, who did?"

They shared a moment of silence, as they both pondered who could have done this. Suddenly, someone made a loud whooping sound.

"That'll put some hair on your back!" the Wizard exclaimed with a smile on his face.

Now they stood, or rather sat, on three chairs that the Wizard had brought in. Glinda sat, but Elphaba did not. She was too busy pacing before the Wizard.

"Well?" he asked her again.

"Alright, I've got it," she began. "First, I want you to remove the Animals bans: all of them. Second, I want you to clear Glinda's name. Anything connecting her to me, I want it erased. I want any Animals you might have here in the palace released from their cages and given their old jobs back. I want Madam Morrible put in the Southstairs indefinitely, with no hope of parole."

"Anything for yourself?" he asked.

"Yeah," she returned, turning to him. "I want you to leave Oz and never come back."

"Well, that could work," he said, a little absentmindedly. "I've been repairing my balloon in secret ever since I..." Just then he realized something, and stood to his feet.

"What?" Elphaba snapped.

"I'll never see you again."

"I'm tearing up already," Elphaba sarcastically replied.

He sighed.

"Look," he began. "I know you think the worst of me, probably deserve it all. But, I want you to know that I never intended you any harm. Really, I know what it's like to be lonely and have people make fun of you. Heh, my full name is so long, people just call me 'Pinhead' back where I'm from. And you should see the reaction I got from some of the folks back home: they hear a ventriloquist and think he's possessed by the devil!" He let out a pathetic chuckle that vanished before Elphaba's steely glare.

"All I wanna say is that I'm sorry...and I wish that we could make up the time."

She shook her head and pointed out the door. With head hung down, he complied.

"Elphie,"

"What?"

"Don't you remember?" Glinda pipped up. "When we were together, I knew what was in his mind. He really does love you, like a father."

"It doesn't matter," Elphaba replied. "I hate my father, whoever he may be."

(AN: Rather grim, but we're not done. Not yet, at least.)

([SPOILERS FOLLOW!] If you were surprised at what happened with Kumbricia that one time, it's my way of reasoning out that ridiculous, anti-climactic way of 'killing her off' in Glinda of Oz, where she is turned into a swan who's so vain she can't remember how to use magic and is just obsessed with how beautiful she is. In my mind, she has a thing for swans, like a major thing. That's why I always depict her with a cloak of swan feathers. [they could be Swans, which would fuel Elphaba's disdain for her].)