A/N: Just a heads up - a LOT of Les Mis and PotO references heading your way! Must be because I'm in London and just watched Les Mis yesterday afternoon...without falling asleep this time :]

Disclaimer: I must want to own Wicked, PotO or Les Mis so much that I keep forgetting to put this thing. But I don't own any of 'em - end of disclaiming.


Activity of the Witch had become more frequent ever since that day in Munchkinland. It was the same daily fear of her, except this time, Glinda joined in on that fear. She'd never really feared Elphie before, knowing the truth behind her deeds (painfully so - it was agony keeping her mouth shut about it to uphold her reputation), but now, it wasn't the usual 'fallacies and lies' as the Ozians called her speeches, but something more. Something wicked.

"She's burnt another quarter of the Corn Basket, My Lady! The wildfires are spreading faster that one can blink!"

"Lady Glinda! The Witch sent her flying monkeys to attack the Arjiki tribe in the Vinkus! They are clawing up everything in their path!"

"The Witch set fire to Crage Hall in Shiz, Madame! It's nothing but charred bricks now."

"My Lady! The Witch has activated Mount Runcible! Frottica and Wittica are buried in ashes. Few survived."

"The Witch killed a harmless villager last night, an innkeeper. Witnesses claim the old man had refused to let her have a room at the inn."

Every misdeed set a cold shiver down her spine...but murdering? That wasn't Elphaba at all. Elphie wouldn't even lay a finger on a mouse!

"What happened to you, Elphie?" she muttered to herself, absentmindedly twirling a strand of her blonde hair.

She began to notice something about The Witch's attacks...they all had something to do with Elphaba's past. Munchkinland being the place of her sister's death, Crage Hall being her college, and Frottica being Glinda's home. But what confounded Glinda was that the Witch had killed out of spite, and attacked the Arjiki, Fiyero's tribe. If Elphaba loved Fiyero (Glinda never failed to inwardly cringe at the very thought of their affair), she wouldn't do any harm to him, would she?

"Madame..." started the informant, breaking her out of her trance, "she's heading here to the Emerald City. She's never dared come so close before."

Glinda's head whipped up. Elphaba had a huge grudge against the Emerald City, especially the memories it evoked. If she had buried Glinda's home and was willing to destroy another unrelated country, the Good Witch could just imagine what she might do to the Emerald City.

"Ready the horses!" she cried. "No, on second thought, I'll go by bubble! No time to lose!" She got herself dressed (yes, she'd give up the luxury of travel but never her appearance; Her vanity and prioritization only stretched so far), and conjured a bubble, floating herself out the window on a mission to save the Emerald City from near destruction.


Indeed, the Witch had been heading to the Emerald City, but not on the account of spite. The grudge was Elphaba's, but now, Nessa had no time for her problems with the big city. She wanted the shoes.

She could hear Elphaba protesting, as she'd done so many times before, but it was her soul that was trapped within Nessa's spirit.

My spirit and your power, Fabala, she said, in one combined. Oh, the Wicked Witch is here inside your mind! She threw her head back and let out a loud cackle, thundering across the skies.

She'd been tracking the girl for a while now, and occasionally sidetracked to punish her past. Crage Hall, where Elphaba had abandoned her. Frottica, Glinda's damned home.

She easily caught up with Dorothy, who'd picked up some companions along the way, the Scarecrow, and then the Tin Man. Of course, a talking tinman...it could only be Boq.

Yes, she'd tried to speak to him before he landed in the over-merry fellowship, and that proved unsuccessful.

She found him cutting trees near an abandoned woodshed, muttering curses about the Wicked Witch under his breath.

"Oh Boq," she said as she approached him. "Always bearing grudges."

The Tin man turned to find the speaker, and his eyes seemed to pop out of that tin can of his head.

"You!" he roared. "How dare you show your face to me!" He advanced threateningly, raised his axe. Yet, before he could do anything with it, the Witch snapped her fingers, rusting his hinges and immobilizing him.

She sashayed over to him, stroking his chin and mobilizing his jaw. "But Boq, I wasn't the one who turned you into this tin monstrosity," she said smoothly.

"Unhand me Witch!" cried Boq. "If you didn't, then who did?"

"Oh, it hasn't changed," she said, laughing coyly. "It's still Elphaba who did it."

She noticed Boq's eyes roll up and down as he surveyed her with utter confusion. "But...but you're Elphaba!"

The Witch cackled. "No, Master Boq, Elphaba no longer holds this body...I'm Nessarose, with whom your heart truly lies."

"I have no heart," snapped Boq. "And I demand you stop this prank immediately, Elphaba."

"Feisty, aren't you?" sneered the Witch."But this is no prank. I am not Elphaba. We deserve each other, don't you see, this is our chance?" A cruel smile crept upon her face as the words she'd said to Boq those years ago began to shake his willpower. His eyes widened in shock, jaw hanging open. "No...no, stop it!" he begged.

The Witch was far from finished. "We deserve each other, don't we Boq? And then you would take me up but the chair handles and whirl me around the dance floor of the Ozdust, and then - "

"Stop!" he cried. "Fine! I believe you are Nessa now!" An overwhelming satisfaction crept into her heart; evil had it's own way of finding dark happiness. Yet, it did not last long. "But now I remember," he said in a dangerously low voice, "it was you who shrunk my heart, wasn't it? You were the vile wretch who pushed every burden upon her sister! And now you are no less vile by possessing her! Get away from me, you old hag!"

Every word he said was a dagger in her. All dark satisfaction and black happiness she'd felt disappeared. No...he was not doing this to her...

"I gave you my love when Glinda wouldn't," she seethed. "And now, how you've repaid me, denied me and betrayed me?"

Glowering, she snapped her fingers, securing his jaw and ridding him of speech. Levitating herself upon the roof of the woodshed, she stared up at the sky, letting out a ear-piercing screech of despair. No, this wasn't happening!

In her life, there had been no one like him anywhere. That night at the Ozdust, he had burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun. Her life had seemed to stop as if something was over, and something had scarcely begun. In her life, he'd been the one who touched her life, and now that he'd withdrawn from her, there was no one else.

Got you all despaired now? But Lurline knows what you see in him, mocked Elphaba Aren't you all depressed now -

No! Boq was a trivial matter, like Fiyero.

That seemed to silence her sister.

The shoes...they were what mattered.

As if on cue, the Witch heard the girl and the Scarecrow and their ridiculous singing as she approached. The Witch lay upon the roof, surveying as they freed Boq, as he lied to them about his situation, as they offered him a place in their traveling group.

"Come on, Mister Tin man!" pleaded the girl. "He will grant you that heart of yours! He must, now that we've come such a long way already!"

The Witch scoffed, perhaps a bit too loudly that caused the fellowship to start and turn towards her hiding place. Oh well, might as well make her presence known.

"You call that far?" she sneered, standing up. "Oh, but your journey has hardly begun." As she spoke, she took in the frightened looks on their faces. Well, in actuality only Dorothy looked scared out of her wits. Boq was staring at her with eyes as hard as stone, and the Scarecrow...well she couldn't really find words for his expression, she only knew he was mouthing something like 'Fae'.

"What's the matter, Scarecrow?" she jeered. "Want to play ball?" She summoned a fireball, launching it at the group. The Scarecrow let out a scream, and fell backwards upon his rear end, as far away from the fire as possible. Boq whipped off his funnel cap, patting out the fire in a haste.

The Witch felt a smirk tug at her lips. "Bravo Mister," she slurre. She didn't resist throwing another fireball.

"More tricks, you witch?" yelled Boq, stamping out the flames while the Scarecrow cowered behind a tree, disbelief written upon his face.

"Let's see, gentlemen," snapped the Witch. "How far you dare go!" Another jet of flame.

Boq advanced, despite Dorothy's pleas. "More deception? More violence?" he growled.

"Tin man, no..."

The Witch launched her fireballs so that it landed a mere inch from him. "That's right, that's right, Mister, come this way!"

Boq, undeterred even as flames zipped past his face, continued advancing, his steps slow but resolute. His eyes flashed with malevolent rage and hunger to exterminate the woman of his ruination.

Dorothy rushed forward. "Tin man, don't..."

But Boq whipped around, his eyes beholding a warning glare that would tolerate no argument. "Stay back!"

The Witch smirked down at the tin can blocking her from her shoes. "I'm here, I'm here, Mister," she coaxed. "Come and meet your angel of death!" Yes, she wanted to make him pay, make him rue the day he denied her love.

Boq raised the axe, prepared to throw, when Dorothy grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him away. "Tin man, come back!" The girl grabbed the Scarecrow from his hiding place, dragging the two along as she fled down the Yellow Brick Road and out of sight.

Upon the roof, the Witch narrowed her eyes. First Glinda, now Boq. One more betrayer to add to her overwhelming list.

"So be it," she growled. "Let it be war...upon you both!"

She let out yet another scream of anguish, as the flames rose all around her, devouring the woodshed in a flurry of angry burning red.