Thanks so much for reading! I thought it best to specify that this is the last chapter, because very few people seemed to realize that AOF was Complete when it was.
Peering into her class orb, Elphaba felt her head spin, and diverted her eyes. There was no need to watch until the deed was done.
She would never get there in time to help.
And her help probably wouldn't do any good, anyway.
She was a curse.
"I'm a curse. I've murdered him," she murmured. She felt something inside her break, like she would never understand anything ever again. "Look what you've made me do," she said quietly, to the silence. "Look what's happened now. Do you see?" She paused. "I see. I see many things. I see many things," she whispered.
From their corner of the tower, some crows replied, the sound of it harsh and sharp.
Elphaba saw the Witch Hunters coming; it took them awhile to resume their march toward her. A little girl led the way, accompanied by a Lion, a Tin Man, and a Scarecrow. "Damn and blast them," she cursed. "Chistery! I want the girl, bring me the wretched brat - but gently! I want her alive!"
Alone once more, she paced, howling to nobody in particular about her failures - how she had abandoned Nessa and Glinda, how she had betrayed them all, how she had broken Fiyero's heart more times than she could count, how Avaric had died and nobody but her could be blamed.
Funny how the arrival of her intended murderer was a relief from the nauseating hold of guilt, like a vice on her internal organs.
The girl was sturdy, but afraid, and Elphaba hadn't really the heart to kill her.
Yet.
She pulled up an hourglass and flipped it. "You see that? That's how much longer you've got to be alive! And it isn't long, my pretty, it isn't long!"
Retreating to another room, she watched the little girl ponderously. She didn't appear to be very powerful; why had the Wizard sent her?
"I'm frightened. I'm frightened, Auntie Em, I'm frightened," the girl cried.
YOU'RE frightened? And that name...
Em.
Well, alright, then have a little look at your poor old Auntie Em.
"I'm here in Oz, Auntie Em, I'm locked up in the Witch's castle! And I'm trying to get home to you, Auntie Em. Oh, Auntie Em, don't go away! I'm frightened, come back!"
That damn name. "Auntie Em, Auntie Em, come back," she mocked.
She wasn't proud. She was hurting, she was angry, and she was carrying the burden alone.
"I'll give you Auntie Em, my pretty," she snarled, cackling. "Alright, enough of that," she said to herself. "You'll have to direct vengeance at those responsible. The little farm girl is irritating, yes, but not entirely to blame. You're to blame. You're to blame."
Glinda's entrance was surprising and sudden, and she found herself cursing the Unnamed God that yet another person had appeared just in time to be at risk.
"Elphie, they're coming for you!"
"I know, don't you think I know?" she barked, pacing. "They killed Avaric, you know. Did you know?"
"Yes, I know," Glinda said, quietly. "Quick, where are you keeping the girl? I'll go free her and you can run out some other way."
"How did you get here so quickly?"
"I left before everyone, before Fiyero, even."
"I heard of your engagement," Elphaba tossed over her shoulder, collecting items for which Glinda couldn't even begin to guess a use.
"Yes, well," Glinda said, fiddling with her dress. "That's neither here nor there."
"Congratulations."
Glinda couldn't think of a response to that. "Where's Dorothy? And tell me you haven't hurt that little dog, Dodo."
"Through there," Elphaba said, gesturing toward the door. "I should surrender myself."
"Elphie, you can't! You have to run; you have to hide."
"Glinda, I won't."
"Yes you will, Elphaba Thropp. I am Glinda the Good, you must respect my authority!"
Elphaba snorted, but Glinda didn't back down. "You're the only friend I've ever had," she said, pulling Glinda tightly to her.
"And I've had so many friends..." Glinda mused. "But only one that mattered. There's no time for words. We shall have to wait. Now go!"
Elphaba ran down a back staircase and out into the woods beyond the great castle, down the steep slope, practically throwing herself into the bushes just as the Witch Hunters passed by.
The vast empty castle, with its stone walls, floors and ceilings, reverberated all sound, and so Elphaba was able, even from a distance, to hear what came next.
"She called the Witch Elphie," she heard Dorothy cry. "Nobody can be trusted, oh, somebody help me! I want to go home!"
Many men spoke at once, obviously trying to decide who was to be believed, what was to be done, and to get more information out of the little girl.
Then, came Glinda's chilling cry: "Stop, leave me alone! Let go of me!"
"It's either you or her," a man's voice shouted.
"Glin -"
Strong arms grabbed her before she could storm back into Kiamo Ko, a hand over her mouth. "Fae, don't fight, it's me."
"They're after Glinda!"
"It'll sort itself out," he grunted, fighting to drag her deeper into the woods.
"It won't. I won't let her die for me, not another person who dies for me." She had finally wrestled out of his arms, and spun to face him.
"Avaric -"
"Don't you dare speak of him."
Her eyes looked hollow. "He knew what he was fighting for, Fae."
"No, he didn't. He died for me, like a sucker, the poor bastard I dated in college who never knew I was in love with another man."
"He knew," Fiyero said, quietly. "He told me, just before he went... He knew. He knew what he was fighting for."
Elphaba took a deep breath and then released it, breaking down into a sob as she did so. "It doesn't help enough to make me feel better. It's my fault he died."
"He sent me to make sure you survived," Fiyero offered lamely. "One of us had to stay to create a diversion. He wanted to stay."
Elphaba understood. It could have been Avaric standing in front of her, saying Fiyero had died. There would be time to grieve Avaric later, but she didn't have time for anything but Fiyero now. Being very close to a certain death at the hands of an angry mob brought her situation into sharp relief, and she saw Fiyero, really saw Fiyero, for the first time in years. She crossed the space between them and enveloped him in her arms. "I'm sorry about everything," she said, frantically pulling him close. "I'm sorry we weren't together, and I... I'm so sorry!"
"Shh, Fae, none of that matters now. We were young, we were trying to do the right thing. I love you, nothing will ever change that." He kissed her, and she melted into it, knowing she'd been missing that feeling for years, and that, if she'd known she could come back to it, things might have turned out differently for her. "We don't have much time," he said. "You have to run and hide."
"I can't," she said. "I refuse."
"They'll kill you," he hissed.
"Then I die. Somebody has to take a stand, has to be willing to die for what is right," she declared.
"Well it can't be you, because I can't lose you. Please, Fae... We did things your way once, and now that I've found you, I need to keep you."
"I'm yours, you'll keep me forever. I've always been yours, and I always will be."
"Prove it," he challenged.
"How?"
"Marry me," he said.
"When?"
"Now."
"How could we? There's nobody to do the marrying, nobody to see -"
"We only have to say it, to vow it the way we would if we were having a ceremony. It's written that it's the same, that the witnesses and the officiator make no difference. Marry me," he repeated.
Elphaba, still shocked, slowly nodded. "What should I say?"
"Whatever you want," he smiled. "Whatever you feel is important."
Elphaba spent a moment thinking. "I take thee..." she took a deep breath. "I take thee, Fiyero, to be my husband. I vow to love you and only you, to support you and admire you, and to be the very best I can be in honour of you. I hope for the strength and grace to be everything you deserve and more. Do you take me as your wife?"
"I do take thee, Elphaba..." his words and phrases came between kisses. "I take thee as my wife, my eternal partner. On this earth, and until forever, through good times and bad, in sickness and health. I will love, honour and cherish only you, until the the end of time. I take you as my wife. Do you take me as your husband?"
"I do," Elphaba said, kissing him back.
"Then we're married," he murmured with relief. He froze, kissing her, realizing that now there was nothing between her being in his arms and departing, and tried to hold back his tears.
"Glinda," she started.
"Alright, go," he said, releasing her. "Go, my wife. I'll find you."
"You can't," she said, pulling back to look him square in the eye. "It's too dangerous, and if something happened to you... I couldn't live with myself."
"They said it was either her or you..."
"I know," Elphaba said. And, though she didn't say it, both knew she was thinking that it wouldn't be Glinda.
"We'll be together again," he vowed, pulling her back against him, murmuring into her ear. "I love you."
"I love you," she replied, kissing him. "My best friend, my husband. I love you."
And then she was gone.