(AN: Another day, another chapter.)

(Oh, and every time you don't review a chapter of this story, Gollum eats a cute little kitty alive. PLEASE, for the love of donuts, save the poor little kitties!)

Stopped at Settica

At the St. Glinda Tenniken Hospital, the green girl known as 'Fae' of the People of Oz had been brought in after the events of the show last night. The rest of the band had been allowed to visit her at her bed-side, while Ramon was forced to stand on the window-sill outside her room and gaze inside, though a storm had fallen upon Tenniken.

Inside, Fiyero and Galinda were the only two who were nearest to Elphaba. Milla sat on the bed beside her and Avaric, looking rather bored with the current arrangement of things, was looking away, his arms crossed. His emotions were easiest to read.

The others, not so much. Milla was somewhere between detached, void and empty to trying to force herself to feel sorry for the green woman. What did it mean, that she felt no sympathy for this person, that she was not even shedding tears, that her sullen expression was nothing more than a facade? Did that make her evil, hard and unfeeling?

Galinda feared for her friend's safety. But she was also annoyed that Fiyero was, once again, spending too much time on Elphaba rather than on her, Galinda. Well, she mused, what can you expect? She's stolen my Fifi's heart, that witch! Under the excuse of a head-ache, she excused herself.

She ran into the ladies room, shut herself inside one of the stalls, and broke down in tears. It was all too unfair! Why could she not have her way? She was supposed to have a fairy tale ending, where she married the handsome prince and they lived happily ever after. But no, her handsome prince was being stolen away from her by the green attention-w...

No, she thought. I still have Nicolas. He's handsome, nice...and rich too! But where was he? She hadn't seen him at Tenniken since they left the train, and though he had paid for the hospital bill, he had not appeared in person.

Only two people's thoughts were not on themselves. Only Fiyero and Ramon cared...

The month of May was now spent. June saw the People of Oz leaving Traum, the site of their third show since Dixxi-Sand, and on their way to Settica. Now they would be playing in western Gilikin.

They were all in a third-class passenger car on the Gilikin Railway, about a few miles from the Dixxi-House Train Station. There they would cross the river and head west towards Settica. The seven that had left Shiz were now down to six. Boq, it seemed, was too frightened by the events of the Tenniken show and left back for Munchkinland.

Elphaba, who was by now quite healed from her head injury, had managed to get Ramon onto the train by smuggling him into her suitcase. Once they were on the train, she opened it up and allowed him to slide down.

"I'm afraid," he said. "I've shed on some of your clothes, Miss Elphaba. I do hope no permanent damage is done."

"It's okay." Elphaba returned.

Silence, save for the rumbling of the train. Galinda and Avaric were both bored out of their wits, while Fiyero kept staring at Elphaba and Milla was reading the Gilikin Gazette.

"Look at this," she stated. "'Last week, the riots in Tenniken finally ended after the Gale Force arrived and put down the Animals who had been rioting for almost two weeks straight, after a raucous concert by the relatively unknown musical group known as the People of Oz.'"

"Good," Elphaba stated.

"'Good?'" Milla mirrored. "It says people were hurt in the riots. 'Two Gilikin citizens, a mother and her child, were brutally murdered by a savage Gorilla during the riot. The Gale Force have notified the public and are reminding everyone to keep watch on for the Gorilla. If any...'"

"It's a lie!" Elphaba said.

"How do you know?" Milla asked. "You weren't there for the riots."

"Whoever owns these newspapers are being paid off by these anti-Animal special interest groups," Elphaba stated. "At least we're in there. That means we're rattling their cages. Soon enough there'll be so much that they won't be able to stop us!"

Just then, the sound of the brakes grinding against the train wheels screeched as the train slowed down to a halt.

"You were saying, Thropp?" Avaric returned. Elphaba gave him a sour expression.

"I wonder what's happening?" Fiyero asked. He looked at the window and saw a group of Gilikin police walking along the edges of the train.

"I think they're coming after us." Fiyero whispered.

"Well, we can't let that happen." Elphaba said. "The Settica show is tonight!"

"Oh, great." Avaric smarted. "The green freak has a plan."

"Quick! Get your stuff, we're leaving!"

Before anyone could say anything else, Elphaba grabbed her suitcase and ran toward the back of the train.

"Hey, Elphaba!" Fiyero got up, running after her. Thinking twice, he grabbed his suitcase and tried to follow along after.

Avaric, Galinda, Milla and Ramon exchanged perplexed glances before shrugging and following after. They each grabbed a suitcase of their things, but Galinda was left without anyone to help her.

"Hey, waity up for me!" she called back. "Hey! Don't leave me here all alo..."

But they were still running. Whining, she reached out for the nearest suitcase that said G. Upland upon it and clip-clopped after them as fast as her heels could carry her - which is to say, not very fast at all.

At the back of the train, each member of the People of Oz skidded to a halt. Elphaba was now looking for their instruments. She found them all stacked by the mid-section of the cargo caboose.

"One...two...three..." she counted the number of cases they would have to be carrying. "Four...five...six...seven...eight...nine, ten, eleven... ...twelve...thirteen...fourteen...fifteen...sixteen...seventeen...eighteen...ninet..."

She came to a halt once more.

"What's wrong?" Fiyero asked.

"There's only six of us," she said. "And twenty pieces of instruments to carry, plus our suitcases."

"We can't carry four bags each!" Milla breathed. She was not out of shape, but not accustom to much running. "Even if we were all giants!"

"Fae, I don't think we can make this!" Fiyero added.

"I can't believe you made me do that!" Galinda cried, tears flowing down her face and ruining her mascara.

"Do what?" Elphaba returned.

"I only have one suitcase, Elphie! ONE!" She emphasized her words with a loud shriek, almost pushing the suitcase into Elphaba's face.

"It's your fault for bringing so many!" Elphaba shouted back. She was on edge, what with the urgency of their situation and Galinda's whining complaints, and the fact that they could not escape carrying their instruments with them.

"They're coming!" Avaric shouted. "They're on the train! They must have seen us running and suspected us of something!"

"We can't just stay here!" Ramon stated.

"Well, hello Captain obvious!" Avaric rudely commented.

"But there's no way out!" Fiyero added.

"Halt!" a voice barked out. Looking straight, they saw the car in front of them was filling up with Gilikin police. "Stay where you are! You're under arrest!"

Unaware that their comrades had already got them at musket-point, the contingent of police from outside had barged into the caboose and one of the men grabbed Elphaba from behind.

What happened next was nothing short of a miracle.

Elphaba screamed as strong hands grabbed her from behind. There was a flash of green light. The guard lost his grip and found himself thrust back as if by a great wind. The whole train lurched forward, throwing everyone to their feet, including those in the forward car. Outside, green sparks were flying off the wheels of the caboose.

The train was moving again.

"Close the door!" Elphaba shouted, as she pushed herself up onto her feet. Fiyero leapt up and sealed the caboose door, cutting it off from the rest of the train. Looking back, he saw that Elphaba was kneeling down, both of her eyes open. It was then that he gave a cry. Whereas her eyes had been a dark shade of brown usually, they were now both red, and her hands were twitching at her sides.

He had only seen her eyes turn red one other time in his whole life...that day with the Lion-cub, when the students exploded into crazy dancing.

Outside, the country-side was moving fast around them. Then it was giving way to suburban houses and now large buildings, some with violet domed ceilings. They were now in Dixxi House.

The train car shook, and suddenly there was another flash of green light. Now the caboose was flying off of its own down the train tracks, free of the rest of the train. It went one way, but the 'possessed' caboose went another way.

They passed over the river before any of them knew what was going on. They were all fighting to keep their footing, while Elphaba seemed calm and determined. Of those here, only Fiyero and Galinda were not as disturbed as the rest of them. They had witnessed first-hand Elphaba's innate talent for magic before.

An hour later, the caboose came to a halt outside the town of Settica. Everyone on board had long since passed out from exhaustion. No more green sparks flashed up from the wheels.

(AN: Kind of short, but I needed to have something happen.)

(If you've been following along on the Wicked map, you'll notice that we're almost done with Gilikin. Soon that means we'll be in the Emerald City. As there are about twenty songs in the musical Wicked, I'm aiming for something of twenty chapters for this story. Unfortunately, I might have to alter that, since we're now at chapter eleven and Act I has still got two, maybe even three, chapters left.)

(Please, for the love of cute, little kitties, review! And with insight on the characters, please)