A/N: I now see what Elphaba-WWW meant when she said Maddy can be really scary. So here's an update :)


The path to Kiamo Ko was not a joy ride at all. It wasn't only treacherous, but also dark. Very, very dark.

Tree branches hung down like wisps of shadows, grasping for them as if to pull the company into darkness. Brrr jumped at every owl hoot, every twig snapped, every bush rustled. But this didn't deter the Cowardly Lion from pushing on to save Dorothy.

Boq was less transparent when it came to fear of the dark. He marched on with his tin nose in the air, his axe raised defiantly. However he had no heart to feel the same soul-wrenching blackness, so Fiyero supposed he wouldn't feel as distraught as his companions did, with his head full of animosity for Nessarose.

Fiyero just trudged alongside Boq and Brrr, who were much more bent on reaching the castle than he was. He didn't know how much time Glinda needed to figure something out, but he hoped she'd done it soon.

If she was still alive and breathing, he prayed...not knowing, that he was praying for the wrong witch.


"Holy Shiz, come on Elphaba! Breathe, you need air! All living things need food water and air to survive - Oz am I that desperate to recite science? Come on! Damn you Elphaba! Oh no did I just say that? Lurline, live Elphaba!"

Glinda broke down into tears at last, sprawling over Elphaba's still form and burying her face in the green witch's drabs. "I'm so sorry, Elphie, I'm so sorry..."

She looked up, shivering in the darkness that embraced the room. She hadn't noticed how dimly lit the room was with her attention drawn on Nessa, but now she saw the only light in the room came from a flickering torch and the moonlight that streamed in from the window. All was tranquil and quiet. Well, not really quiet, but neither was it the sort of quietness like the slight rustle of a leaf, or a turning of a page. It was a tomblike tranquility, like the eerie moan of a wind and the mysterious hooting of a hidden owl. Glinda now realized that it was not darkness that surrounded her, but black emptiness, like a void of dismay and vaccum of anguish.

Yet Glinda would not fret over such self fears of the melancholy the night reaped. She knew Elphaba had plunged into even deeper waters far too great to overcome, and she wondered if Elphaba had foreseen her drowning.

"No!" Glinda scolded herself aloud. "Elphie hasn't drowned...she's still there...she still there...Ozdammit look at you, Glinda the Encouraging, being all pessimistic, look at you shaking! You should be embarrassed! You're not a little girl, don't be so...pathetic!"

She glanced down at Elphaba's lifeless body once more, racking her brains for ideas. Come on, what would people in this situation do?

They...they...


For how long she'd been fighting, Elphaba had no idea. She could only sense her wearied soul pushing against a force, the roar of a powerful source of black magic that seemed to strangle her spirit like silky, deadly tendrils of evil. She was gasping for light, and though her struggle seemed to ensue for an eternity, she could never fully be rid of that thirst for light. Voices surrounded her, yet they weren't voices, more like shadows of hisses that stabbed her soul, taunting and jeering.

Could she ever escape this black, onimous darkness? Was this the apocalypse of her inner being?

Her outer being belonged to Nessarose now. Elphaba had never looked into the ways of black magic - hell, she'd succumb to martyrdom before she studied that sinful magic - or spiritual physics, but she knew that it was impossible for a body to host two clashing souls. It was either they merged, and now that Elphaba knew of her sister's twisted ways, she refused to become one with Nessa. However, the other condition was that one soul must fall.

Elphaba was pretty convinced she was on the losing end.

The darkness around her closed in, a chill slicing through her as despair began to weigh down on her. Desperation had long fled her, for there seemed no rescuer to be desperate for.

Or was there?

In her world of blackness, in the hallows of her stark struggle, something stirred. Through her battles with her outer being, she felt a disturbance.

A good disturbance.

The hisses around her were fading, and she felt herself drawn to one voice, and it wasn't Nessarose's. Though faint, Elphaba could hear it was the voice of a saving angel, a beacon of hope.

Why, Glinda, why?

As her friend sang, images began to flash through her mind's eye, visions of the moment of their friendship, the memory of the bond they shared.

Unlimited...

The hissing around her strengthened, perhaps Nessarose's attempts to enforce her spiritual defenses. Yet, Elphaba wasn't blind anymore, not with that bright light up ahead shining there for her to see. Her previous struggle had been merely a fight to protect herself, but now she was fighting in offense, hope - not desperation - returning within her, fueling her with enough power needed to momentarily overcome Nessarose .

She sensed Nessarose's will flicker with the momentary triumph, and Elphaba's will solidified, once more springing to existence from where it had been taken.

With a spiritual roar, Nessarose fought back, now channeling her magic into the inner war, but her resolution was weakened, and Elphaba's refreshed. The clash of this inner tempest was now louder than ever, the voices blaring but desperate, her own strong and confident.

You'll never be rid of me, Fabala, no one can escape the past. Never the living past.

Then let me be the first.

With that resolute thought inculcated in her, she surged forward and burst into the light...

To find a pair of lips upon her own.


"Holy shit! Glinda, what the hell are you doing?!"

Glinda let out a scream as she was forced back as a pair of strong hands pushed her squarely in the chest. She sat there on the floor, too stunned to move, as her brain tried to process what had just happened. Elphaba dying...and then she'd tried to...

Oh Lurline help me.

Elphaba was now getting steadily to her feet, her gaze somewhat slightly disorientated, but they were blue.

Glinda would've tackled her in overwhelming happiness if the target hadn't been dead a few seconds ago. Her rump was stuck on the floor, her jaw dropping open once more.

The green witch brushed down the tattered gown, not taking her eyes off Glinda as she asked, "Your scream could've woken the dead, you know. And before I hug you and start thanking you for coming, I think I have a right to the explanation of why you were kissing me."

Glinda simply stared at her friend, too shocked to say anything.

"Glinda...quit the staring and speak!" Strange...where had she heard that before?

"My scream certainly woke the dead," Glinda finally murmured in awe. "Oh no, am I turning into a Necromancer?"

"What was that?"

"I tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to try and revive you..." stuttered Glinda, still dazed.

"Mouth-to-mouth?" repeated Elphaba incredulously. "Firstly, the first thing people would usually do to revive a person is cardiopulmonary resuscitation, not mouth-to-mouth. And secondly, I wasn't even dead to begin with."

"You weren't breathing for ten minutes."

"What?" Elphaba rounded on Glinda, eyes widening.

"I though you were dead, Elphie...I even started reciting science to see if that woke you up..." The very torment of the memory set off another round of sobbing.

But this round was different from the rest. This time, Glinda felt a pair of arms wrap around her, a voice quietly soothing her and telling her not to fret.

"It's alright, Glinda, I'm here now," whispered Elphaba, with a maternal note in her tone. "Nessa just forgot to keep my outer being functioning while she battled me inside, that's all."

"So you never left?" asked Glinda in between sniffles.

"Never," assured Elphaba.

"And what of Nessa?" asked Glinda timidly, as if the very mention of the name would set of an explosion.

"I don't know."

Glinda lifted her head. "What do you mean 'I don't know'?"

Elphaba blanched slightly, and in that split second, Glinda spotted a spark of grey amidst the blue eyes. She gasped as Elphaba nodded her head with grim seriousness.

"She's still there, Glinda. As long as I live, she lives."

Glinda felt something ugly stirring. "So...what are you going to do?"

Elphaba's eyes drifted to the bucket in the corner that stood collecting rainwater, and then to the door where past it, was Dorothy.

Glinda wasn't oblivious to her eye movement, and soon after realization hit, dread pierced her heart. "No..."

Elphaba met her gaze.

"Yes, Glinda," she said. "Suicide."