disclaimer: I'm sure most of you will skip over this because I have repeated the same thing over and over again but just in case, I own nothing except the characters that I made up.

Chapter 11: For the Greater Good

Fayba opened the door and everyone quickly walked into Glinda's bedroom, trying to make as little noise as possible. Fayba went to her mother's bed and knelt down as she did only days earlier. She couldn't help but cry. She had been so worried for so long and now it was almost over. She would soon have her mother back. She wondered how her mother felt when she was gone. Pete would have told her that she left. She wondered if her mother felt abandoned. She hoped that she didn't, but she most likely did. She wondered if her mother was angry or sympathetic towards her. Fayba felt someone kneel down beside her and looked over, seeing Elphaba staring at her mother.

Elphaba was so scared. She waited for this moment for so long. She wished every day that she would see her friend again. However, she didn't think of the possibility that she would sneak into her friend's room while she was sleeping to save her life. Elphaba wanted desperately to nudge Glinda awake so she could tell her everything. She heard the bedroom door open and looked over, hoping that it was only Pete. She released the breath that she had been holding when she saw her monkey friend. Pete handed Elphaba the spell book that she thought she would never see again. She opened the book, searching for the spell and a moment later, she found it.

"Fayba, you need to step back for the spell to work," Elphaba whispered. Fayba stood up and walked to Lance, suddenly becoming very nervous. If the spell didn't work, this was the end for her mother.

Elphaba began to chant the spell, using her free hand to move in circles in the air above Glinda's body. The spell was the longest spell that Fayba had ever heard; even the flying spell wasn't as long. Once Elphaba finished, she closed the book and handed it back to Pete. She had no intention in taking the book with her; it belonged to Glinda now.

"That's it?" Fayba asked. "How do we know that the spell worked?" She continued to question.

Elphaba smiled. "She will be fine when she wakes up tomorrow. It takes a while for the spell to sink in. We should go and get you two back to school."

Fayba shook her head. "I think I want to stay here and wait till she wakes up."

"You can't do that; remember you are suppose to be at Shiz. I will call you first thing in the morning, okay?" Pete said, wanting to get everyone out of the castle as fast as he could. He couldn't handle so much pressure. Fayba nodded and started walking to the door. Everyone followed until they heard a very quiet whisper.

"Elphie? Elphie is that you?" Glinda asked. She had her eyes slightly opened, as if she was in a dream sequence. Elphaba took a step towards the bed, grabbing the hand that Glinda held out for her.

"Yes it's me," Elphaba choked out so quietly that if the room wasn't silent, no one would have heard her.

"Oh Elphie, I miss you so much," Glinda said, breathing heavily, showing that the spell was working.

"I miss you too," Elphaba replied, squeezing Glinda's hand.

"Elphie I'm so, so sorry," Glinda said.

"Sorry about what?" Elphaba questioned.

"I should have come with you that day at Emerald city but I was too much of a coward to fight the system. I should have helped you instead of trying to sweep the problem under the rug. I should have been there when you melted, instead of hiding in the next room. I'm so sorry that I wasn't a strong enough person to help you. Can you forgive me?" Glinda begged.

"There's nothing to forgive," Elphaba said slowly. "You did what you thought was right and you did try to help me so don't you feel guilty for even one second. Everything turned out for the best. Now get some sleep so you can feel better in the morning, alright," Elphaba said, giving her friend's hand one last gentle squeeze before she let go. Glinda nodded and closed her eyes. Elphaba turned towards the door and Fayba quietly opened it and walked into the hallway.

They reached her room without being spotted. They said goodbye to Pete and walked back into the secret passageway and towards the carriage. The carriage then started flying towards Shiz to bring Lance and Fayba back. Everyone was quiet, not really knowing what to say to the display that happened in Glinda's room. Finally, Fayba asked a question that she had been dying to ask Elphaba for a while.

"Did you really mean it when you said that everything turned out for the best?" Fayba asked.

Elphaba smiled. "Of course I meant it. If not everything happened then who knows, you, Lance, and my other children might not have been born. That's would be something that I would never want to take back and I'm sure your mother feels the same."

"Don't you miss it?" Fayba asked.

"Miss what?"

"Everything. The people, festivals, Emerald city…"

Elphaba shook her head. "The only thing that I miss is seeing my best friend." Fayba nodded. She felt like she needed to do something for Elphaba. She looked across from her, seeing Lance and Fiyero sleeping. She felt so sorry for them. They had to go back into hiding, always looking over their shoulders, wondering if today is the day they would be discovered.

"I want to help you," Fayba said to Elphaba.

"Help me with what?" Elphaba asked, confused at what Fayba was talking about.

"No one should be in hiding, especially someone who is as good as you. I want to help. I want to tell the story, clear your name and when everyone listens to me and accepts that you are good and not evil, then you can come out of hiding. Will you let me do this to help you?" Fayba said. She already started working on a plan in her head.

"Fayba it's too dangerous. Everyone might turn against you. I can't let you do it, that would be too selfish of me."

"And it would be too selfish of me to not help you. You deserve to be able to see your best friend without worrying about someone trying to kill you. I'm doing this with or without your blessing. I'm just giving you the heads up for when I come knocking on your door, telling you that you can come back into society," Fayba said stubbornly. Elphaba knew that she must have gotten that from her mother.

"Alright, just be careful and make sure Lance helps you, he's a lot smarter than he looks." Fayba nodded. She knew that she could trust Lance to help her.

---

Jasmine woke up in the morning staring at the ceiling. She wondered where Fayba was, if she was alright or if she needed help. She worried that Fayba was trapped somewhere, hoping that someone would rescue her. Miss Libree tried to reassure her that Fayba was fine but Jasmine could tell that Miss Libree thought the same thing and was worried too.

She sighed and sat up, looking over at Fayba's bed, shocked at what she was seeing. Fayba was silently sleeping and she was smiling as if she was happy about something. Jasmine was so stunned that she didn't realize that she screamed until Fayba woke up suddenly and mentioned it.

"Jasmine, do you think you could keep it down, I haven't had a good night sleep in days," Fayba said sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Jasmine jumped out of her bed, ran, and hugged Fayba but the impact was so strong that they both ended up falling to the floor. They started laughing hysterically even though it wasn't extremely funny.

"What are you doing here? Is everything alright? What about your mother, have you seen her? Wait, where did you go?" Jasmine started asking one question after another, without allowing Fayba to answer them. Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Fayba called.

"Miss Libree," the voice replied. Fayba ran to the door and opened it.

"Thank you," Fayba said hugging Miss Libree.

"Your welcome," Miss Libree said, not a hundred percent sure why Fayba was thanking her. "You have a call, Madame Torrible told me to bring you to the office, it's your mother," Miss Libree continued. She thanked her lucky stars that Fayba was back because she knew that she wouldn't be able to keep Fayba missing a secret much longer.

Fayba released Miss Libree and ran to the office, not carrying that she was still in her pyjamas. She weaved through all the other girls that were heading to the washrooms or back to their dorm rooms. She ran as fast as she could. She knew that the spell must have worked because how else could her mother call? She had to be fine. Everything had to be alright.

She burst through the office door, startling Madame Torrible. She tried to catch her breath that she clearly lost from running so fast. She looked at the desk, seeing the bowl there. Without letting Madame Torrible speak, she went to the bowl.

"Mom," Fayba said looking into the bowl. She burst into tears of joy when she saw her mother fully dressed in one of her favourite gowns with jewellery on her neck, wrist and even in her hair that was perfectly curled. She knew her mother's image was everything to her and even though she thought her mother could be shallow at times, she was so happy to see her standing there in all her shallow glory.

"Hi sweetie, how are you," she said, beaming into the bowl.

"How am I? How are you? Are you feeling better?"

Glinda nodded. "It turns out it wasn't the curse after all but just a bug. I'm sorry that I worried you."

"I want to come home to see you," Fayba said.

"Now you had an excuse to come home when I was sick but there is no reason to come home when I'm well. Besides I don't think it is good to travel in your nightgown," she said. Fayba looked down and this was the first time that she realized that she was still in her pyjamas. "So you stay at school, I assume that you have a lot of catching up since you have been hiding in your room for a couple of days. So go to your classes and catch up before the celebration of the Wicked Witch of the West so you can come to Emerald city with the rest of your classmates. You will really be amazed when you see Emerald city for the celebration," Glinda said. Fayba laughed because she was so happy that her mother was back to her usual self.

"I will mom," she said, still laughing at how her mother seemed to forget that she was on her deathbed only a few hours ago.

"Alright then, I have to go to help with things in Emerald city, see you later darling." And with that, Glinda's image disappeared and the water in the bowl became clear again.

"Fayba you should get ready, you don't want to be late for my class. Oh and don't worry about catching up in my class, we were just doing the presentations. It's a good thing that you went first or you would have had to go today. Anyways we finished the last presentation yesterday so we are doing something completely new today," Madame Torrible said. Fayba nodded and ran out the office, waving to Miss Libree as she passed her. She ran back into her dorm room and couldn't help but smile.

"What's with you?" Jasmine asked, brushing her hair.

"My mom is cured. She's fine," Fayba said, looking in the closet, deciding what to wear.

Jasmine stopped brushing her hair and looked at her. "What? She's okay?"

"Uh-huh," Fayba said. They hugged each other, tears in both girls' eyes. Once they pulled apart, Fayba looked at Jasmine, completely serious. "Remember when I said I would tell you the reason for my crazy actions?" Jasmine nodded. "I'll tell you why after classes. Meet me in the library, okay?" Jasmine continued to nod. "Alright well I have to get ready so I'm not late for class." Jasmine turned back to her mirror while Fayba pulled out what she was going to wear.

Fayba and Jasmine walked into Madame Torrible's classroom a couple minutes before class started. Fayba was looking around the room for Lance. She usually did this every time she was in this class so she could avoid him before class started but today she actually wanted to talk to him. She mentioned that to Jasmine and Jasmine left her side to go and talk to someone else. Lance was once again surrounded by people but they all left when Fayba politely asked them to. Once she was sure that they were all out of ear shot, Fayba whispered what she wanted to say to him. She wasn't able to talk to him yesterday when they got to Shiz because they had to get to their dorm rooms quickly so they wouldn't get caught.

"I want to help your mother," she whispered to him. She chose her words carefully, just in case someone was listening. Lance's face expression didn't change. He didn't say anything, waiting for Fayba to continue. "She deserves better and she helped my mom so I want to return the favour. Meet me after school in the library and bring Conlan along, we may need his help," she continued. Lance nodded as the bell rang, signalling for everyone to take their seats. Madame Torrible walked in and went to the front of the class.

"It is that time of year again," Madame Torrible began. "The celebration of the best thing that ever happened in Oz. This is the 20th year that the Wicked Witch of the West has been dead. As everyone knows, there is a huge celebration at Emerald city with food and games and it is the best party of the year. Now some of you may have been able to attend this party before but some of you haven't and this is a special treat for all of you. The students of Shiz are always invited to go to Emerald city for the celebration. Now I am not sure for the ones who have been there noticed that the people who work the booths are always students from Shiz, first years in fact and all of you are first years. It is part of your grade to do a booth that is fun. You can make food, host a game anything you want. It is four students to a booth so I would chose your group wisely. You can pick anyone to be in your group that is in first year, so you don't have to pick from just this class. This is the sheet that will help you get started," Madame Torrible said, handing out the paper.

Fayba looked at Lance then at Jasmine. They both agreed to be in a group with Fayba and she asked Lance to see if Conlan wanted to be in the group. Lance snorted though, saying that Conlan will jump at the chance to be in a group with Jasmine.

---

The rest of Fayba's teachers didn't give her much homework to catch up. In fact, by the end of classes for the day, Fayba finished the homework and was all caught up. She walked straight to the library with Lance, Jasmine, and Conlan following behind her. Fayba knew that she would be able to speak to all of them privately in the library. The beauty of the library was that no one came in there unless they had a project that needed to be researched and no one came right after school because they would want to talk to their friends for a while first. Frankly, the only person who came practically everyday was Fayba because she loved to read. Apparently, no one else did. So, as Fayba walked in she waved to Miss Libree and led everyone to the back of the library. She had talked to Miss Libree at lunch and she had promised Fayba that she would make sure no one would be able to come close to them to hear their conversation. Fayba sat down on the ground and everyone followed as she looked around to make sure no one was listening.

"I asked everyone here because I believe that all of you can help," Fayba started. She had told Lance in class that she intended to tell Conlan and Jasmine the truth and he agreed, eventually. "To make a long story short, Elphaba isn't really evil and she isn't really dead," Fayba continued. She didn't really want to beat around the bush. "The Wiz and Madame Morrible made it seem like she was evil but they were the ones that were evil. Elphaba fled Oz, in hopes that she could start over. She made everyone believe that she was dead so that she wouldn't be hunted down and killed. I found her though, and she cured my mother. My mother is fine now and Elphaba is back in hiding. I don't think it is right, to let Elphaba be punished for the wicked things that the Wiz and Madame Morrible did. I want to help her but I can't do it by myself. I need all of you to help too," Fayba said quickly. Jasmine looked at Fayba, startled at what she said.

"Are you sure she isn't evil, I mean what if she is just trying to trick you so she could come back to Oz and do more destruction," Jasmine said, not ready to trust the Wicked Witch of the West.

"I'm her son, trust me she's not evil," Lance reassured Jasmine.

"No way!" Conlan said, getting excited but still keeping a normal voice. "I always knew there was something weird about you," he said to Lance as they did the guy handshake. Fayba couldn't believe it. Conlan just accepted it, just like that but Jasmine was still having some doubts.

"Are you sure, like a hundred percent sure?" Jasmine asked and Fayba nodded. Jasmine thought it over and figured that she trusted her friend to do what's right. "Alright so what do you need help in?" she asked and Fayba smiled.

"We should tell the truth, to the public. If we show all the things that doesn't make sense in the story and explain why, they might come to terms that Elphaba isn't really evil, we just won't tell them that Elphaba is alive, not until we know it's safe for her," Fayba explained as everyone nodded.

"Just like your presentation," Jasmine said.

"Ya, but with more answers then just questions," Fayba replied.

"How do we tell the public? It's not like we can just stand on a box and shout it out," Conlan commented.

"He has a point," Lance said.

Fayba looked at her hands for a second, trying to think where they could tell everyone the truth. She then noticed a piece of paper sticking out of Jasmine's bag. Fayba lunged for it and pulled it out of her friend's bag.

"Hey!" Jasmine said but Fayba ignored it. She had the perfect plan. She turned the piece of paper so everyone could see it.

"This is where we'll tell everyone, at Emerald city. We have the booth; we can use it to expose the story. It's a perfect plan," Fayba said.

"Gee, where have I heard that before?" Conlan asked, looking at Lance but Fayba was too excited to notice.

"What do you say? Can we spread the truth?" she asked everyone. Lance nodded and so did Conlan. Fayba looked at Jasmine who still looked a bit reluctant to do it. "Come on Jas, let's do it for the greater good."

Jasmine sighed and nodded. "Where do we start?" she asked.

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