"Well, well, well. If it isn't the famous Scarecrow of Oz!"

The Scarecrow looked around. He found himself trapped in the courtyard of the castle of the late Wicked Witch of the West. But it wasn't the Witch's voice he heard. That voice belonged to the Jester, who was doing cartwheels while circling around him.

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue? Don't you have something to say to me, straw man… or should I call you Strawmeo?" he asked in a taunting way.

The Scarecrow said nothing to him. He only glared daggers at him. Ever since he witnessed Dorothy's death, he felt nothing but anger and he directed it at the Jester. The Jester swung one arm around over his shoulders and the other hand squeezing at his cloth cheeks.

"So Strawmeo, why did you build that rainbow mover thingy anyway? You can't deny the fact that there's something between you and Dorothy after all. Didn't she said that she's going to miss you most of all?"

The Scarecrow glared at him with fire in his eyes. "That is none of your business, joker." He said in a bitter tone.

"Ha! Denial is a sign of your feelings! You're in love, Strawmeo!" The Jester cackled loudly.

Several other voices chortled with him. The Scarecrow looked around in alarm. An army of flying monkeys, baboons, and even those nasty crows from the cornfield he came from perched themselves on the castle walls, all ridiculing him. The Scarecrow tried to ignore it, but he could feel it sink into his brain.

"If you miss her so much, why don't we send you to join her? Right sis?"

Another personage entered the courtyard. The Scarecrow gasped when he recognized her. It was the Wicked Witch of the West.

"Quite right, brother," the Witch replied cruelly. "It must be so devastating to lose everything precious to you, straw head. First, you lose Emerald City, then you lost your friends, and now you've lost the girl you love. Allow me to heal your pain."

The straws on her broomstick caught fire. The Scarecrow became frightened and he turned to run, but his feet had sunk through the stone floor like quicksand. The Wicked Witch moved closer to him, pointing her burning broomstick in his direction.

"No! Oh, please! No, no!" The Scarecrow yelled.

The Witch and the Jester cackled in union. "It's too late. You're all burned up scarecrow… scarecrow…"

-0o0o0-

"…Scarecrow! Scarecrow, wake up! It's me!"

The Scarecrow shot upward panting heavily. His head bumped into someone else's head. Regaining himself, the Scarecrow glanced up to see the Tin Man rubbing his tin forehead. Standing beside him was the Lion, who looked down at him with concern.

"Tin Man! Lion! You're alive!" cried the Scarecrow, overcome with joy and relief to find his two best friends standing before him.

"Yeah, we're alive," the Lion said, shrugging his shoulders. "We've been locked in our dungeon since we got here – Oomph!"

The Scarecrow immediately threw both arms around the necks of his two pals, pulling them into a hug. The Lion and the Tin Man were caught off-guard for a moment, but they returned the embrace.

"I can't tell you how glad I am to see you guys!" The Scarecrow exclaimed, releasing them. "I could kiss you!"

"Then don't do it," said the Tin Man, waving his hands in his face so he wouldn't be kissed.

"What about us? We're over here." There came a female voice.

The Scarecrow looked over his friends' shoulders and gasped with delight. There stood the China Princess, who was being held by her fiancé, Marshal Mallow, and then there was Wiser, who casually adjusted his spectacles.

"Oh, thank goodness everyone is here." The Scarecrow sighed with relief. Then he looked at his surroundings. They were in a round domed cavern that was grandly furnished. In the center of the room was a throne carved out of solid boulder of rock glittering with gemstones of different color on every part of its surface. "Where are we?" he asked.

"This is the Nome King's throne room," answered Wiser. "It's hidden within the mountain we are in."

"The Nome King?" The Scarecrow looked confused. "Who is he?"

"The Nome King is the Ruler of the Underground World," explained Wiser. "There are many nomes that follow his orders and they create many fabulous gems. But they have no regard for earth dwellers like us, however, I have heard rumor that he was once involved with the Wicked Witches long ago."

"So what do we do now?" asked the Lion, impatiently.

"We wait for Dorothy to come to our rescue," Mallow replied. "She's our only hope."

"Well… she was coming to save us," the Scarecrow said, disappointingly.

"Was?" Mallow looked at the Scarecrow confused.

"Well, it's a long story…" The Scarecrow hesitated before he told his friends what he had seen. "A mysterious woman, or a ghost to what she looked like, gave me a magic mirror so I could watch over Dorothy. I get so worried about her when she's out there in Oz, alone and unprotected, that I just wish I was there to protect her from Mombi and Langwidere."

"Don't worry, she'll be fine as long as Tiktok is with her," said the Tin Man, reassuringly.

"Yeah. Don't forget my buddy, the Hungry Tiger," added the Lion.

"Well, she did find them," explained the Scarecrow, "but she also made new friends like a pumpkinheaded man, a wooden carousel horse, and some sort of flying machine with a gump's head. Oh! And she brought a pet chicken named Billina with her. I watched them keep her safe from Mombi and the wheelers."

"So you don't have anything to worry about," said Wiser. "Dorothy is a strong girl and when she makes new friends, I'm sure they will keep her safe."

"You shouldn't worry too much," said the China Princess. "Dorothy is a brave girl. I'm sure she can take care of herself."

"But I get so scared when I watch her face many dangers without me to be there for her," added the Scarecrow, sadly.

"You sound like you're a little overprotective of her," said the China Princess.

"I know, but I hate it when I stand by and watch all the trouble Dorothy gets herself into," said the Scarecrow. "She took me off that pole in the cornfield long ago and she's been the first friend I ever had. She especially saved my life when the Wicked Witch tried to burn me."

"Don't forget the time she came to our rescue from the Jester," stated the Tin Man.

"Anyway, I did watch Dorothy come back to Oz with Billina," the Scarecrow continued on, "but you should know that Dorothy has returned to Oz, as a grown young woman."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Time out! Dorothy's grown up!?" The Lion interrupted in both surprise and disbelief.

"Yep! She's about eighteen years old now." He sighed dreamily as he remembered her beauty. "Oh, you should have seen how she looked. Her hair's gotten long, nearly as tall as us, and so beau-uh, better."

"You were going to say beautiful." The China Princess eyed him with a teasingly smile.

"No, I wasn't," the Scarecrow shook his head in denial.

"By your description of Dorothy grown up, it sounds like you developed a crush on her."

"No, I do not!" The Scarecrow yelled, feeling his burlap sack face turn as red as the rubies on the Nome King's throne.

"Denial is a sign of you admitting that you like her," the China Princess said, giggling.

The Scarecrow sighed in defeat when all eyes were on him. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Well, your face is turning red like the rubies on the throne," said Wiser. "So it is obvious that you're viewing Dorothy as more than a friend."

"Thanks for noticing that," the Scarecrow replied dryly. Then he decided to explain himself. "While I was watching her through the magic mirror, I thought she looked beautiful as a grown up. Then I felt angry and jealous when one of Langwidere's wheelers tried to flirt with Dorothy and I called him names like…"

"So it was you shouting ignorant disgusting blob," said the Tin Man. "That's very unlike you to say such a thing. And I thought Lion here had gotten himself into a fight with the nomes because that crown of his gets to his head."

"Knock it off, metal mouth!" snapped the Lion.

"AS I WAS SAYING…" The Scarecrow raised his voice loudly to get their attention and to keep them from fighting again, then he calmed down and continued on. "When I heard her singing when she was captured by Langwidere, her voice sounded like an angel from heaven. I think that's when I realized I've fallen in love with her. But when I had this dream about meeting Dorothy at the palace ballroom, I was so glad to see her, we even danced together, and I thought about telling her how I feel. However, Dorothy told me that we were different and it could never work, and I was heartbroken. Then she turned around and said how I had been her first friend and how much I cared for her, and all those other nice things she said to me. And when she said something about never judge someone by how they look on the outside because it's what's inside that counts, and that's what's makes someone beautiful."

The Tin Man put a hand to his chest where his heart is and began to sob. The Lion sniffed a little and Wiser wiped a tear from his eye.

"That sounds beautiful," sighed the China Princess.

"And did you tell her?" asked Mallow.

"I never did," said the Scarecrow, dejected. "All I did was made her promise me that she won't confront the Nome King by herself or place herself in more danger. She didn't give me her answer because she vanished. And when I woke up, the Nome King caught me with the mirror, but he forced me to watch Dorothy…"

The King of Oz stopped as he knew what he was going to say next. The news would hurt his friends as much as it hurt him.

"Spit it out! I want to know what happened. What did the Nome King force you to watch Dorothy do what?" exclaimed the China Princess impatiently.

"HE FORCED ME TO WATCH DOROTHY DIE! IS THAT WHAT YOU WANTED TO KNOW!?" The Scarecrow screamed at her with pain and agony.

His comrades stared at him, incredulous to what their ears had heard.

"Y-You must be j-joking, right?" the China Princess asked, trying not to believe it.

"This is no joke!" shouted the Scarecrow, still in his painful tone. "Mombi created a storm to keep them from reaching the Nome King's mountain! She shot Dorothy and everyone else with a huge lightning bolt! I couldn't do anything to stop this because all I did was watch it happen while I was held prisoner! And now, Dorothy is dead for real this time!"

The Scarecrow collapsed to the floor on his knees, falling into, once again, despair. China Princess felt remorseful for asking about what happened, so she buried her head in her fiancé's jacket, sobbing. Mallow held her close to him as he felt his own sadness affect him. The Tin Man and his ever-emotional heart could simply not bear the news. The Lion and Wiser cried on each other's shoulders, and could not endure the anguish either.

"Such sad, sad faces." The Nome King chuckled, watching his prisoners in mourning from the shadows. "But they won't be sad for long."

"Why did you bring them out here, Your Majesty?" asked his rock minion.

"Because we will be expecting company soon," said the Nome King. "And I want them to be here when she arrives."

"But, I thought Mombi killed her," said the rock minion, baffled.

"That's what I thought too. First, she survived the Jester's waterfall trick, and now this. Perhaps she is more powerful than we thought." The Nome King glanced up at the solid rock ceiling, and then turned to his minion. "Get up there and make sure she has arrived at the entrance."

The rock minion nodded and his face soon vanished as he made his way up to the surface.