disclaimer: I own nothing but the characters I made up, blah, blah, blah.

Chapter 10: Surprise Surprise

Fayba tried to stay awake as much as she could but exhaustion had caught up with her and she fell asleep. She woke up with the sun in her eyes, realizing that it was probably just after sunrise. She looked around, almost forgetting where she was and why she was there but it all came quickly flooding back to her. Getting off the train, walking through Robber's Forest, talking to Lance, fighting with Lance, casting a spell on Lance, and seeing a green hand. She smacked her hand on the cold hard floor. She was so angry with herself for being so close in talking to Elphaba and ended locked up in a disgusting tower room.

Never had she been in a room so gloomy. Her mother would have probably broken down and cried if she even saw a room like this. It was an ugly colour of grey stone all around. There was one dark brown door that probably had many locks on the other side so that there was no chance that the prisoner could escape. There was a bed, well sort of. It was wooden table that looked like it could collapse at any moment with a thin blanket with holes on top. Fayba didn't want to touch it, wondering about the last person that was here. Her mother would tell her to stay in a corner and not to touch anything because there might be carrying diseases. So that is what she did. She curled up into a ball, holding her knees, in a corner. She wasn't sure what to do. She tried to think of a plan to escape but she didn't have her wand and she could only do little spells without it.

She wished that she thought to hide her wand in her clothing instead of leaving it with Lance. Her mind then went to Lance. What happened to him? She wondered if they found him and carried him to a holding cell too. Or maybe he woke up and was now thinking of a plan to rescue her or maybe he woke up and left her, deciding to go back to Shiz. She prayed that Lance wasn't that selfish. Lance could be selfish at times but he did have his moments of kindness. She hoped that he was kind enough to try to rescue her.

Fayba stood up and went to the window, trying to find the bush where she left Lance but the tower window was on the wrong side of the castle to see the bush. She sat back down on the floor, blinking back the tears. She was rarely scared. She always had the comfort of knowing that everyone in Oz would risk their own life to protect her's but she wasn't in Oz anymore. She could die out here and no one would find her in time.

She tried to calm herself down so that she wouldn't cry. She couldn't. She had to keep her mind focus on the task at hand. She couldn't and wouldn't take this as a defeat. She figured that Elphaba would soon want to see the person who trespassed onto her property and then she would tell her who she was and why she was here. Fayba looked at the door, hearing footsteps, coming towards her. They stopped in front of the door and she heard the locks beginning to open. She stared at the door, praying that it was Elphaba standing on the other side.

---

This isn't good. Elphaba thought to herself. She had stayed up half the night wondering what to do. She was worried that they finally found her. No matter how careful she was, staying in hiding, only having a few people know she was alive. Someone slipped up. Someone accidentally said something and now they found her. She wanted to pack up and leave as fast as she could to another hiding place. Sure, she and Fiyero knew where they were going to live the first time they ran but this could be an adventure.

She thought of how close they had come to kill her. She thanked her lucky stars that her loyal guards found the intruder before she attacked her. They had told her it was only one person and they took her to the tower prison. That was when she wanted to leave. Surely that person did not travel alone, who knew how many more were coming. She wanted to leave to protect her family. It wasn't just herself anymore. She had Fiyero and her children. She couldn't risk having anything happening to them.

There was always a possibility that this day would come and now it has. She started packing her things when Fiyero came into their bedroom. He had heard about the intruder and wanted to see if she was alright. He then demanded to know what she was doing and she said that they had to use plan b. He didn't want to leave though. He said this was their home and that no one had a right to make them flee. She then did point out to him that they fled Oz, their first home to go into hiding. He dismissed that and thought that they should stay, let the intruder be nervous the whole night then talk to them. Make the intruder tell them how she found out about this place and how many more are coming. They would then decide from there and Elphaba agreed. She didn't think this was the best plan but she trusted Fiyero and would stand by him with any decision that he picked (unless it was the wrong one).

They packed the night before and had their children pack also just in case they had to make a quick escape. Once Elphaba woke up in the morning, she was convinced that there was an army that was coming to kill her. She tried to reassure herself that the trees would have told her, for they promised almost twenty years ago to protect her and they had. They made sure no intruders got close to the castle but this might have been too much for them. She sighed and sat on the end of her recently made bed.

She started thinking about Glinda. She wished that she could switch places with her, just this once. Glinda was always beloved and would never have to worry about an army with pitchforks knocking on her door, wanting to kill her. She thought about her everyday. She wondered what she was doing, if she was married and had children. Elphaba assumed that she probably did. Every man wanted Glinda to be his wife. She just wondered who the lucky guy was.

"Elphaba," Fiyero said, braking her train of thoughts. "Do you want to see the intruder now?" he asked.

Elphaba nodded and walked to Fiyero. He grabbed her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze and they began to walk to the ballroom of their castle. They walked towards their thrones and Elphaba smiled at that fact. She never thought she would sit on her throne, waiting for one of the guards to bring an intruder into the room. She sat down, only releasing Fiyero's hand for a split second so he could also sit. Her youngest daughter was sitting beside her and her oldest one was sitting beside Fiyero. Her youngest son was sitting beside her oldest daughter. Her heart began to race as she saw Fiyero nod his head, signalling to bring in the intruder.

The guard walked in first, pulling the intruder's arm. Elphaba couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the intruder. She expected the intruder to be a middle age woman with a death look in her eyes, not a young, frightened girl. The girl looked down at the ground when she walked in but looked at Elphaba straight in the eyes when she stopped. Elphaba was shocked and at a total loss of words. For a second she thought Glinda was standing in front of her, looking scared and worried. She turned to Fiyero, seeing that he too was stunned.

"Your graces, we found this intruder outside your bedroom, my advice would be to kill her so she will not be able to tell anyone what she has seen here," the head guard said.

Elphaba couldn't even remember the guard's name because she was so focused on the girl that was in front of her. She stood up, letting go of Fiyero's hand for she felt she didn't need it right now. She walked down the steps slowly, not taking her eyes off the girl. She stopped right in front of her. No one said anything because they were all wondering what Elphaba was doing.

"What is your name child?" she asked.

The girl looked at her, she looked frightened and stressed but her eyes seemed to be relieved. "My name is Fayba," she said softly. She stopped talking, even though she looked like she wanted to say more. The guard told her on the way down to only answer what she is asked, nothing more. Fayba was already scared as it was and she didn't want to make matters worse. She couldn't believe though that Elphaba was standing right in front of her. After all her searching, she was glad that she finally found her even though they may want to kill her.

"How old are you?" Elphaba asked. She still couldn't believe how much this girl resembled Glinda.

"Sixteen," Fayba said, not sure why Elphaba was asking this.

"Why are you here Fayba instead of in school?" Elphaba asked. What she really wanted to ask was 'who is your mother' but she couldn't seem to form those words.

"I need your help," she said before she was interrupted.

"You need her help? Why in god's name would you need her help?" Fiyero demanded, becoming angry because he assumed that this girl was lying to buy herself time before the army came.

Elphaba turned to Fiyero. "Just let her speak," she said calmly to him, turning her head back. Fiyero did as she asked because he had never seen his wife act this way before. "Go ahead," she then said to Fayba.

"My mother is Glinda, the Good Witch of the North and she has the curse." Everyone around Fayba gasped, because they all knew about Glinda and the story. Every servant and guard she had, followed her when she and Fiyero left Oz. She had told her children at a young age because she had to explain why they were hiding from the rest of the world. Elphaba looked at Fayba, then at the guard who was holding onto her arm.

"Release her," Elphaba said to the guard.

"But how do we know that she is telling the truth and not just trying to escape?" Fiyero called to Elphaba.

Elphaba looked at Fiyero. "Look at her, she is the spinning image of Glinda," she said, pointing her finger at Fayba. Fiyero still didn't look convinced.

"I have proof," Fayba said. She grabbed her father's necklace with her free hand and opened the locket. She handed it to Elphaba. She looked closely at it. Fiyero ran up to her to look at it too. "That's my family portrait when I was six." Fayba said. Fiyero looked up at the guard.

"Release her," he said and the guard let go of her arm and Fayba immediately rubbed it.

"Will you help me, please? We can go when it's dark and get you in and out of my castle without being caught," Fayba said once Elphaba handed back the necklace to her.

"We will leave once it gets dark," Elphaba confirmed. Fayba was overwhelmed with happiness and tightly hugged Elphaba.

"Thank you, so much. You have no idea what I went through to find you. Lack of sleep and food, and my feet are not my friends right now," she rambled once she released Elphaba, which made her laughed.

"Well Fayba I would like you to meet my husband, Fiyero, and my children, Glindy, a nickname for Glinda, who is fifteen, Calista is twelve and Eland is ten," Elphaba said as Fayba shook everyone's hand a bit shocked that none of the children were green or made out of straw. She saw a servant whisper something in Fiyero's ear and he smiled and nodded.

"Fayba, you get a special treat, our oldest son who is your age just woke up, and here he is," Fiyero said pointing behind her. Fayba turned around and couldn't believe it. In came Lance, carrying her bag. "This is our son, Lance," Fiyero said putting an arm around Lance's shoulders, "who still hasn't told us why he was outside and unconscious, with a girly bag," Fiyero continued. Fayba and Lance just stared at each other.

"It's because it's mine, I left it outside before I came into the castle," Fayba said, grabbing her bag out of Lance's hand. She felt so betrayed. She told him what she knew about Elphaba and he made her believe that he was Fiyero's brother who he has never met. Did he really not know the way to the castle or was he just trying get her lost so that she would never find Elphaba to save her mother? Did he plan to enter that castle and come back out, saying that Elphaba wasn't there? It made so much sense why he wanted to come with her so badly.

"Well who wants breakfast?" Fiyero asked, oblivious to the death look that Fayba was giving Lance.

Elphaba noticed though. "Uh, let's go to the breakfast room and give Lance and Fayba a moment," she said grabbing her children and Fiyero.

"But I want to stay and see Lance get yelled at," Eland whined.

"Don't worry, there will be plenty of other times to see that," Elphaba reassured as they left the room. The servants and guards left too and soon only Fayba and Lance were the only ones in the room.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, still trying to wrap her head around this.

"Would you have believed me?" Lance asked back.

"Are you kidding me? About three days ago I found out that the Wicked Witch of the West that I always feared my whole life was not really evil and isn't really dead. I would have believed you telling me that your parents are really squirrels!" Fayba said. "Why did you tell everyone that you were Fiyero's brother?"

"I wanted to go to Shiz so my parents and grandparents came up with an idea to make me Fiyero's brother."

"Then why were we 'lost'? Did you just not want me to find Elphaba and save my mother?" she shouted, feeling every emotion that she had felt for days rising to the surface as she took a step towards him.

"No! When I travel back and forth from Oz, I usually ride a carriage! I never travelled by foot so ya I was really lost!" Lance screamed back at her, taking a step towards her. They were basically recreating the scene in the cafeteria.

"Then why didn't you tell me!" she yelled in his face, which was hard for her to do since he was a head taller than her.

"It would have made no difference! Besides it was none of your damn business!" Lance screamed and Fayba stepped back, blinking back the tears. She wasn't going to cry, not in front of Lance and not over something so stupid as a boy. She didn't understand why she cared so much. So what if he didn't tell her? He had to protect his family. She never had so much frustrated feelings towards one person before, especially a boy.

"You're absolutely right, it was none of my business," she said in a normal voice. She cleared her throat. "We should be going to the breakfast room, it's rude to keep people waiting," she whispered to him.

She bent down to pick up her bag that she dropped when they were fighting and left the room. Lance stood there for a second, wondering why he felt so guilty. True he saw tears in Fayba's eyes and he was never very good with tears but he never felt guilty, especially over a girl. He decided to just push those feelings aside and follow Fayba into the breakfast room. He saw that Fayba sat down in between his two sisters, forcing him to sit across from her. She talked to Elphaba and the rest of his family but ignored him, much like the time after the food fight.

"So Fayba, that's an unusual name, how did you get it?" Calista asked. The whole table could sense the tension between Fayba and Lance but ignored it.

"My mother made it up actually. She wanted to name me after you," Fayba said looking at Elphaba, "but she had to disguise the name so she took out the 'El,' changed the 'ph' into an 'F' and added a 'y'." Elphaba smiled, clearly touched that Glinda named a daughter after her.

"So do you have any other siblings?" Elphaba asked, suddenly wanting to know everything about Fayba. This girl could share memories about Glinda. Elphaba wanted to know everything that happened to Glinda after she left Oz.

"No, I don't." Fayba said, shaking her head.

"Who's your father?" Elphaba asked. Fayba dropped her gaze to the floor, not sure what to say.

"He died." Fayba heard Lance whisper. She smiled a bit; she thought it was sweet that he still looked out for her even though she was mad at him. The whole table went silent; no one knew what to say next.

"So uh, Fayba," Fiyero said, clearing his throat, trying to add some noise to the deafening silence that filled the room. Fayba looked at him, waiting for him to continue. "How did you find us? I mean who told you the truth and everything?"

"Um well it first started out with a project that I had to do. I had to find what your motives were," Fayba said, looking at Elphaba. She wanted to choose her words carefully so she wouldn't offend her. "I started to question the story because many things didn't make sense. I think though that I wouldn't have had so many questions and wanted to know more if Miss Libree didn't keep hinting me along."

"Miss Libree?" Elphaba interrupted. "She's still the librarian there?" Fayba nodded.

"So how did you find the answers? Did Miss Libree tell you?" Eland asked, very eager for Fayba to continue the story.

"No, Miss Libree didn't tell me. The day that I did the presentation, Pete came and told me that my mother has the curse," she paused looking around the room. Everyone was pulled into the story even Lance because he didn't know all of it. "So I went home and my mother told me the truth."

"Does she know that I'm alive?" Elphaba asked. She knew that the answer was probably no because Glinda would have come looking for her but Elphaba secretly hoped that she knew. For many years, she had written dozens of letters to Glinda, telling her the truth but she never sent any of them. She knew that if one of the letters got into the wrong hands, she would be in trouble.

"No, she still thinks that you died by a bucket of water." This made everyone at the table laugh. Not because they thought it was so dumb of Glinda to believe that but because it began as a ridicules rumour that no one took the time to think about how she could have died by water thrown on her. Even Fayba laughed but for a different reason. She thought about how everyone in Oz was tricked, even herself for many years, believing a story that was really so ridicules.

"So then who told you that my mother was still alive?" Glindy asked.

"Pete did," Fayba replied once she stopped laughing.

Elphaba chuckled. "He was never good at keeping secrets in a crisis. I'm actually surprised that he was able to keep this secret for this long. How did you find me though? I didn't tell him where I was going."

"I researched the possible places where you could be and ruled them out if there was even a small chance that you would be found."

"All by yourself?" Calista asked.

"No, Miss Libree helped me. Once I discovered that there was a castle in Robber's forest, I thought it was the best hiding spot because no one would risk coming all the way here. So I took a train to the village in the Great Gillikin Forest and travelled the rest on foot."

"Why did you go with her?" Eland asked Lance. Everyone turned to Lance because he hadn't said anything for a while.

"I actually followed her until she tripped over a tree root. I then helped her get to the castle. My plan was to keep her outside and talk to you two about the problem but she cast a sleeping spell on me," Lance explained quickly, looking back at his food as Elphaba turned to Fayba.

"A sleeping spell? Those are really hard spells, I guess you inherited your mother's strong powers," she said. Fayba nodded and slightly smiled. For the first time in days, she felt like everything was going to be all right.

---

The sun was about to go down and everyone was outside. Fayba watched as some servants got the carriage ready. She tried looking for the trail in the trees that was wide enough for a carriage to pass through but couldn't find one. She was a bit confused but she trusted that Elphaba had a plan. She talked to Lance after breakfast. She had forgiven him for not being completely honest with her. He was right, it was none of her business and he was just trying to protect his family.

"Are you ready to go?" Lance asked behind her. Fayba jumped and fell down the castle stairs; luckily, there were only three outside. Lance quickly chased after her, helping her up.

"Jeeze don't do that. I feel like I'm back at the library with Miss Libree popping out of nowhere."

"Uh it's called walking. You should pay more attention around you," he said, letting go of her.

"I pay enough attention to my surroundings," Fayba said, glaring at Lance.

"And it took me to step on a twig for you to realize that I was behind you after two hours," Lance said, glaring back at her.

"Ya well I was trying to read a map."

"Oh sorry, I forgot that you need to focus really hard to read a map. You really suck at reading maps."

"Oh ya and you're so great at it?"

"Hey! No bickering, we have to go," Elphaba said, coming down the stairs with Fiyero behind her.

"We weren't bickering!" both Lance and Fayba said quickly.

"Uh-huh," Fiyero said, not really believing it.

"It doesn't matter, we have to go," Elphaba said, giving Eland, Glindy, and Calista a hug, then Fiyero hugged them.

"Wait, who's going?" Fayba asked. She assumed it was only going to be her and Elphaba.

"Me, Fiyero, Lance and you," Elphaba said.

"Wait why Lance? Doesn't he have to get back to Shiz?" Fayba asked, hoping that Elphaba was a caring mother that deeply valued education for her children.

"We will go and cure your mother then take you two back to Shiz, now let's go and not waste anymore time," Elphaba said getting into the carriage, followed by Fiyero and Lance. Apparently, Elphaba wasn't one of those mothers.

Fayba stepped into the carriage and it immediately started moving. Fayba looked out the window and noticed that the carriage wasn't on the ground anymore but rising higher into the sky. Fayba leaned back quickly. "The carriage is flying," she said.

"Why thank you captain obvious. Quick now tell us what colour the carriage is," Lance said sarcastically.

"Lance do me a favour and shut-up. I didn't know that we were going to be flying to the castle," Fayba said.

"Oh well flying is the fastest way to get somewhere and we can't waste too much time," Elphaba cleared up.

"How did you get it to fly?" Fayba asked her.

"I memorized the spell that got my broom to fly years ago and used the spell on the carriage. You can get anything to fly," Elphaba said.

"No you can get anything to fly. You're the only witch in Oz history that could fly. Not even my mother can fly, she still uses the bubble that the Wiz made for her and she has the flying spell. I've seen her try once, when I was younger but she couldn't do it. How can you do it? Is there any special trick?" Fayba said, so intrigued that Elphaba was so powerful.

"I don't know. I cast the spell on the broom when I desperately needed it so I guess my powers grow stronger under pressure. I'm not a hundred percent sure," Elphaba replied. Fayba nodded and looked out the window. She couldn't believe that she was flying. "Would you like the spell? Maybe someday you could master it too. You are a very strong witch. I can tell because not only do you use magic, but you use your brains too. Most witches only use their magic," Elphaba said.

Fayba nodded and pulled out her notebook and a pencil that she had in her bag. She ripped out a piece of paper from her notebook and handed it to Elphaba. Elphaba wrote it down and Fayba put it in her bag. She didn't expect that she could ever make anything as big as a carriage fly but she always loved a challenge with spells.

It was dark by the time they made it to Fayba's castle. The carriage landed in the trees that were beside the left wall of the castle. They started walking towards the castle when a piece of paper blew in Fiyero's face. He grabbed it and read it. Fayba was beside him and recognized the piece of paper immediately. It was a flyer, for the celebration of the 20th year of the Wicked Witch of the West's death. She didn't want Elphaba to see it but it was too late, she already read it.

"I'm sorry, I should have warned you about the flyers but I was hoping that we wouldn't come across one," Fayba said. Lance quickly grabbed it and crumbled it up, throwing it away.

"It's alright. I don't need protection. Let's just cure Glinda and get out of here," Elphaba said, walking towards the castle. They reached a door and Elphaba started chanting a spell to open it. Fayba quickly jumped and pulled Elphaba to the ground, causing Elphaba to lose concentration on her spell.

"Are you crazy?" Fayba cried hysterically.

"She's not but apparently you are," Lance said while helping his mother up.

"The guards detect magic. We can't use magic to get in," Fayba explained. She then grabbed a bobby pin from her bag and opened the door with such ease.

"How did you learn to do that so quickly?" Fiyero asked.

"Please, escaping the prison that I call home was one of my favourite hobbies as a child," Fayba said stepping in first. Lance, Elphaba, and Fiyero followed her. Fayba shut the door and they were faced with darkness. Fayba then cast a spell and lit a torch. It wasn't much light but it was enough to see everyone's faces.

"We're in the secret passageway. The stairs lead to my bedroom fireplace. No one knows of this passageway," Fayba said as she began to walk up the stairs. Everyone followed her and they were soon in Fayba's room. She blew out the torch and put it near the fireplace. "My mother's bedroom is a couple doors down, she's probably sleeping so most likely no one is in there," Fayba said.

"How are we going to know for sure?" Lance asked.

"Simple," Fayba said. She opened the door and grabbed Pete who was walking by, pulling him into the room and shutting the door. She covered his mouth so he couldn't scream. "Pete you are so predictable. Maybe you should get a different routine once in a while to you know mix it up a bit," Fayba said. She then released Pete, giving him a chance to look around the room. There was only moonlight that filled the room but it was enough to see everyone's faces.

"You found her," Pete said, astonished that she managed to do it.

"Hello Pete," Elphaba said.

"Hello Elphaba, Fiyero, Lance," Pete replied.

Fayba looked at Pete. "Wait you know Lance?" she asked.

"Of course I do. I was told to help Lance come into society as Fiyero's brother."

"And you didn't tell me, please tell me this is all the surprises," Fayba said to everyone as they all nodded. "I don't believe any of you but it doesn't matter right now. Pete is there anyone in my mother's room?" Pete shook his head. "No one? Not even Nancy or a doctor?"

Pete continued to shake his head. "No one, I just left the room. She went to sleep a couple minutes ago."

Fayba nodded. "Alright, this is it, time to do operation save mom," Fayba said, opening the door slightly. She looked around; making sure no one was in the hallway before she stepped out. Lance, Pete, and Fiyero started to follow her. Elphaba stayed where she was for a second.

"Wait," she said which made everyone turn to her. Fayba thought that Elphaba was about to chicken out. "I need the spell book that I gave Glinda," she said, making Fayba relax.

"I'll go get it, just get into the room," Pete said as he quickly walked down the stairs.

Everyone started walking again as Elphaba's nerves grew. She hadn't seen her best friend in almost twenty years and she was scared. Even though she knew that she wouldn't be able to talk to Glinda, she was still anxious. She wished that one day; she would be able to see Glinda without sneaking around and actually talking to her. They reached her door without anyone spotting them and Elphaba saw Fayba turn the handle. Elphaba took a deep breath in, thinking this is it. It's now or never.

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