All I can say is; I'm sorry, and my muse is completely back. Damn school took everything out of me. Had no time and creativity. Oh hai summer.

"Alright, Glinda, I'm going to explain myself. If you interrupt me in any way while I am speaking, I will stop where I am and you will get no further information, alright?"

Glinda opened her mouth to speak, caught herself right before falling into Elphaba's trap, and nodded silently.

Elphaba sighed. Glinda had gained so much since Crage Hall; it would be difficult to manipulate her into letting Elphaba retain her secrets. Oh well. Glinda was her only friend, after all.

"Okay. When the 'Wizard' was speaking to us behind his shield of a skeleton in a rainstorm, I was silent, you might remember. I was thinking. Watching. Realizing what a fake he is. He instructed us to gossip – or his skeleton thingy did anyway – he insulted Doctor Dillamond and Animals as a whole. Then he chose a random word of mine – immoral – and then refused to hear anything else I had planned to say to him. And then he recited from the Oziad. What the fuck."

Elphaba paused, to collect her thoughts. She didn't look over at Glinda, who was watching her with a worried expression.

"I remember every detail from that day as a whole. But in short, I realized that if I returned to Crage Hall, to Madame Morrible's school, I would be helping the very being that was tearing Oz apart. I knew I had skills that could help overthr—Glinda, no. I don't care how much you believe the Wizard is good or that he's changed. I don't want to hear that."

Glinda glared at her friend in frustration. In truth, she had opened her mouth to agree with Elphaba. She had realized, much later than Elphaba, that the Wizard was an evil and corrupt man. Unfortunately, she didn't have the power to do much.

Elphaba sighed. Damn, Glinda would have spoken. Oh well.

"I decided to go underground. To see if my skills could be used for the greater good. I spoke the truth when I told you I didn't know where I was going, but it was nowhere near as heroic as I made it out to be. I wandered around the Emerald City's alleys for a couple of days, figuring out where I was meant to go and who I was meant to find.

Then, I came across the Underground. They're the main resistance force working to help the Animals and those wrongly punished and imprisoned by the Wizard. They took me in, fed me, and trained me. I worked my way up for over a year until I could actually carry out pieces of the overall mission. I was an accessory, but that was nothing new. I'd been one my whole life; being what I am for a cause seems like a noble intention."

At this Glinda slowly scooted next to Elphaba, putting her hand on the emerald woman's arm gently, smiling in surprise as her friend let it lie there. But a look up at Elphaba's face made her instantly worried beyond belief.

Elphaba's emotions were showing, plain as day, for the first time in her life. She was taking a trip down memory lane, and it wasn't going to be easy for her. That much was obvious.

But Glinda kept to their bargain and kept her mouth shut, gently stroking Elphaba's bare arm with her thumb whenever it seemed she needed comfort. Often.

"Then Fiyero spotted me in a church. Praying," she chuckled, "Or pretending to. He wouldn't be dissuaded, and followed me back to my living quarters. He was extremely stubborn, wouldn't leave. I allowed him inside under the condition that he never come back. Then I let him come back. So stupid. I milked him for information about you, Boq, Nessa, Averic... everybody. It hurt, being cut off from all my old 'friends.'

But then..."

Here Elphaba paused, and looked down at her hands, digging her nails into the palms of her hands. There was a look of emotional pain on her face. Memories were returning to her, of the love that she and Fiyero had shared, and how she had found him. And how he was in a coma.

"Then we became... romantically... involved. Yes, Glinda, I realize I was the other woman, that he was married. I loved... love him. I always will. I can't help that.

After a few more visits, I had a mission to complete. I told him to stay at his house, to remain indoors, but he followed me. I missed my mark – who it was I will not say – and I looped back to return to my quarters. He had gone a more direct route, and had been waiting for me. How long, I dare not hazard a guess.

Somehow, the Gale Force had known where I was staying. They were there when I returned, and had beaten Fiyero to within an inch of his life, as you already know. They were dragging him on the ground, bloody and lifeless, and I followed them. As soon as I figured out the opportune moment, I shot them down, one by one." And here Elphaba would not look at Glinda. "They're all dead. I bet the Wizard knows it was me."

She paused, biting her lip as hard as she could to avoid the tears that threatened to spill down her face. She didn't flinch, even when her lip broke underneath her teeth and a thin line of blood began sliding down her chin.

"I dragged him underneath the bridge, and came to you. You retrieved him. That's all you need to know." She hugged herself tightly as a halfhearted way to comfort herself.

Glinda opened her mouth to speak, but no words would come out. Slowly opening her arms, she moved closer to Elphaba and enveloped her into a large hug, her cheek resting on her friend's chest. She didn't care that Elphaba had killed. She didn't care that Elphaba had deserted her.

"Elphaba..."

But Elphaba was beyond words. Swiftly getting to her feet, she pushed Glinda away and wiped the blood from her chin and mouth. Looking back at Glinda for a moment, she shook her head, and then pushed her way out of the room she was in, on her way to Fiyero's room.

Glinda simply watched Elphaba leave, making no move to follow her. After the door closed, she slowly reached up and wiped a bit of Elphaba's blood from her forehead.

It was time for both of them to think.