Chapter 3/ Without You

They all stared down at him in shock. Glinda just couldn't believe it; it was like the dead coming back to life when the dead were never even dead in the first place. So Glinda just stood there, with Boq's arm around her, staring at him just as everyone else was doing.

No one talked, no one moved. There was a very tense feeling in the air. They all were trying to think of how they were going to get Fiyero to the hospital when Boq spoke up, "I guess we're just gunna have to carry him to the hospital. Glinda how far would you say the hospital is from here?"

Glinda sniffed, "I'd say it's about a 10 minute walk from here."

"Well then we better get moving, especially in this storm," Avaric said.

Avaric and Boq both approached their ex-classmate and friend. They kneeled down and were about to lift him, when he twitched. They stopped and looked at him closer. From the double take, they noticed that his eyes were also twitching and looked as if they were beginning to flutter open. They both moved over to each side of Fiyero and held his head as he began to go from an innocent twitch to a violent shake all over his body. Everyone got closer as worry washed over them.

Glinda knelt down along with Crope and Tibbett and they held down his limbs while he went through this seizure. Glinda took Avaric and Boq's place and cradled his head while Boq and Avaric held down his legs. She looked at her former fiancée and tears welled up in her eyes. The strong man she once knew now looked liked a weak and beaten human being.

She held his head with one hand and rubbed the side of his face with the other one. She forced every once of faith she had into praying that he would be okay. She cursed herself for not having her healing spell book with her. From now on, she noted, she would never go anywhere without it. However, as of right now, she didn't have it with her and all they could do was wait for him to stop convulsing and then take him to the Emerald City Hospital.

Then the last thing they thought was going to happen, happened. Glinda looked down at Fiyero's face and noticed that his eyes were starting to slowly open. Glinda released a sob when his unfocused, blood-shot, blue eyes stared back at her. They were just like she remembered minus them being blood-shot and filled with fear. He stopped shaking but still held a steady stare with Glinda.

His eyes started to roll to the back of his head as he started to lose consciousness. Glinda started to panic, "Don't leave me, please don't leave me." His eyes fully closed, Glinda let out a blood-curtailing scream, "No! You son of a bitch! Don't leave me!" She began to sob into his chest when Boq came over and gently pulled her off of him, hugged her, and then passed her off to Crope and the other girls.

Avaric and Boq then lifted Fiyero's unconscious form, with a little help from Tibbett, and walked out of the theatre, with the rest of the group following close behind.

******

Elphaba stood in the tower of Kiamo Ko pacing. So many thoughts were going through her head at that moment.

How did I get here? Why was I so SELFISH?! Why couldn't have I just let the witch hunters kill me?

It's because you were too afraid to die. You didn't want to sacrifice yourself for the good of others.

Yes, well who could?

You know who could, and who did.

Elphaba let out a yell of frustration. She couldn't take it anymore! Her thoughts were just going to eat her alive if she was stuck in a tower day and night without nothing to do. That's when she got an idea. She remembered that she still had her crystal ball and immediately went and fetched it.

Once in possession, she summoned the globe to show her Glinda. What she got was her best friend, looking as beautiful and blonde as ever, standing before a small group in a run-down theatre. She looked closer and noticed the she recognized that theatre; it was the same theatre that once held Wizomania. Well, Wizomania must have gone out of business, what with the Wizard's "departure" and all. Elphaba smirked; she knew that was all because of her best friend.

Elphaba refocused her attention on the conversation that was going on before her. As the conversation progressed, Elphaba realized that Glinda must be arranging for a new musical to take the place of the old one. A few minutes later and she found out a few more things. One, she learned the name of the musical was RENT and two, there were some positions open for casting.

Just then an idea struck Elphaba full force. She DIDN'T have to be stuck in this tower for the rest of her life. Well at least not as Elphaba or the Wicked Witch of the West.

Everyone recognized her because of her green skin. But what would happen if she were to get rid of the green skin? Surely then no one would recognize her and she'd be able to have a new life, to start over.

She got to work on brainstorming ideas. She knew she was going to have to use magic. The question now was, how was she going to use it without a spell book? Then her mind was flooded by memories of all of the times when she used her magic without spells. And all of those times, what ever happened, happened because she was so passionate towards her general goal, that in certain ways she got what she wanted. Of course, she never learned how to control her "emotional magic," as she called it. This was going to be tough, but she had to try. This was her last hope.

Elphaba turned to the crystal ball and noticed it was still showing her the image of Glinda in that theatre. Elphaba waved the image away before she had a chance to see a familiar figure come into view.

Elphaba walked towards the center of the room and straightened her posture. She closed her eyes and put her hands together flatly as if she were praying that this would work. She began to concentrate her energy so that it would flow through her veins like blood and sweep across her skin like wind.

All her mind was doing was constructing an image of what she wanted her new skin to look like. She had always admired Glinda's porcelain complexion, but knew that she would not be able to stand having such light skin. She remembered that when she and Glinda were roommates in Shiz, Glinda would always put sunscreen on to make sure she was never burnt.

The tone of the Quadlings was definitely out. She wanted to be a neutral color, not another bright color. She didn't want anything to do with Munchkinland. She didn't want the memories and she didn't want the skin color. Elphaba was going to start a new life so she definitely didn't want to bring anything from her old life into her new life.

The only skin tone that was left was from the land of the Vinkus. She had to put everything she had into not crying so that she wouldn't mess this whole thing up. She had always admired the skin of the Winkies. Their tone was always very tan and for the men, they had the tattoos, well at least the royalty did. Elphaba quickly shook the thought from her head. She was not about to ruin her second chance with her grief.

Her mind produced an image of her with tan skin yet everything else remained the same. She let the energy serge through her, let it build as it got stronger and stronger. It felt like volts of electricity were running across her skin yet it didn't hurt. She kept telling herself how badly she wanted this and how she deserved a normal life for once. She pictured herself with that skin and never let it fade. Her whole body felt like it was being tickled and then it stopped.

Elphaba slowly opened her eyes to see if her magic had worked. She held out her right hand and instead of staring at her normally green hand, she was staring at a hand that looked like the color of milk chocolate, just a little lighter. She walked over to the mirror in the room and saw that her magic worked, every inch of skin was that same color. It was a shade darker then she had planed, but it was still a beautiful color none the less.

Her jet-black hair that cascaded down her back in curls really complimented her new skin, she noticed. What really stood out now, with her new skin tone, was her electrifying green eyes. Now the only thing left to do was to find a new name and that the name would match her new orientation.

******

Before he even opened his eyes he knew that he was in a hospital. He could hear the noises of the machines and could feel the urgency in the air. But why was he in a hospital? Then he felt the pain and it all came back to him. He could hear people whispering around him but couldn't hear them well enough to pick up any words.

Fiyero still laid there motionless when he realized that the pressure he felt on his right hand from another hand holding it. He also realized that the owner of this hand was crying. Fiyero slowly opened his eyes a little bit and noticed that he was surrounded by a few of his old classmates from Shiz. He now found out who it was that was crying and holding his hand, it was his ex-fiancée Glinda.

Everyone must think I'm in a coma or something. I should say something to make Glinda feel better at least. He thought to himself.

In a raspy voice he spoke, "Its okay, Glinda. Don't cry."

The blonde looked up at him with teary eyes and saw his stunning blue eyes staring back at her. She let out a sob but was cut off from it when he put one of his fingers to her lips and whispered, "Shhh… It's okay now."

As soon as he had put his hand down, Glinda put her arms around him in an awkward hug and laid her head on his stomach to try and muffle her crying. She just couldn't believe that he was alive! And he was still the same sweet man that she had remembered from when they had gone out at Shiz.

Fiyero knew that Glinda was no longer able to say anything so he directed his attention to the people standing before him. In a hoarse voice he questioned, "How did I get here?"

The overly tall munchkin that, Fiyero remembered, used to follow Glinda around everywhere, answered. "Avaric and I carried you here from the theatre," Boq said.

Fiyero looked at him with a confused look, "What was I doing at the theatre?"

Boq shrugged, "We don't know, we were kind of hoping you'd be able to answer that question and some other questions we have."

"Well, what do you want to know?"

Boq started with, "Well can you tell us how you got into this state?" Boq gestured to just some of the many cuts and bruises on Fiyero's body.

"I was almost beaten to death," Fiyero said with a sour tone.

Boq sighed, "Well we know that. But who did this to you?"

Fiyero laughed, "Why, the Wonderful Wizard's Gale Force of course!"

There was a confused silence when Glinda started crying even harder. "I should have stopped them! This all is my entire fault," she sobbed.

Fiyero softly petted her hair. Even though he ran off with her best friend, he did love her, just more as a brother-sister relationship. So he felt it was his duty to comfort her as she cried. The poor girl blamed herself for what happened to him for Oz sakes!

"It's okay. There was nothing you could have done. The officer dragged you out of there, its okay, I understand," he said.

"They said that you were dead though! I shouldn't have believed them, I should have gone back there and gotten you!"

"No, there was nothing you could have done, Glinda," he explained.

There was another moment of silence before Fiyero asked, "So am I going to be arrested by the Wizard's men once I'm out of here or what?"

Glinda shook her head, "No, the Wizard's gone, never to return. The Gale Force now responds to me, I'm the leader of Oz now." Fiyero looked at her as if she had three heads.

This time they all fell into a long silence. There was one more question that needed to be asked and Fiyero didn't want to ask it and nobody wanted to answer it. The time went by very slowly, and eventually Fiyero couldn't take it and had to ask the question.

"Where's Elphaba?"

Those two words and the look of hope on his face just made Glinda want to curl up into a ball and cry until she died. She turned to face everyone else and saw many of them lower their heads while the rest of them gave her sad and apologetic looks. Because who in Oz would want to tell someone that the person they love is dead?

Glinda turned back around and looked at Fiyero. She saw his face lose the hopeful look that it had, and saw it turn into worry. Glinda's eyes filled up with tears, why did she have to do this? Why her? She looked directly into his eyes and forced out, "She's gone… Oh Oz Fiyero! She's dead!!"

She started balling her eyes out and looked at him to see how he would take it. His eyes went blank and glazed over and his brow, furrowed. He developed a pained look on his face as he tried to hold back tears. "How," he choked, "How did it happen?"

Glinda was no longer able to form words so she looked to her friends for some help. Boq saw her silent plea for help and immediately stepped up. "There was this girl," he said, "She came from a place called Kansas. Her house landed on Nessarose and killed her. Angry at the girl for taking Nessa's shoes, Elphaba went after her. This girl, Dorothy's her name, was then somehow brought in with the witch hunters. They all marched into Kiamo Ko to confront Elphaba. I wasn't there so I don't know all of the details but all I know is that Elphaba had a fire and the Dorothy girl threw a bucket of water on her, and melted her."

Fiyero looked up at Boq with such sorrow in his eyes, it made Boq want to cry. "So you mean to tell me that this child that's not even from Oz, killed Elphaba with a bucket of water?"

Boq nodded his head grimly.

Fiyero's eyes filled up with tears, which this time he didn't try to fight. He leaned his head back against the pillow and ran his fingers through his hair.

As everyone was asleep that night in his hospital room, Fiyero lay awake crying because in his dreams all he saw was his lover, his beautiful Elphaba.