Galindafied

A murmur went through the crowd as everyone wondered where Carley was, but Glinda silenced them. There was no time to wonder where one missing person was when two of the Wizard's more prominent followers were returning to him at that very moment. Carley's absence could be dealt with later.

"I have called you all here, once again, to disclose some grave news," Glinda said solemnly, staring down at everyone's tired faces. In the 6 months that the actresses and WoO members had been in Oz, they had all heard enough bad news to last them a lifetime. And yet there was more.

"We have been tricked. Dorothy has released Rajah, and they are probably making their way back to the Emerald City as we speak. I have sent Chistery, Kerry and Elise on a search to find them, but for all we know, those two could've gotten back to the palace with a quicker method of transportation." Elphaba, who was still holding her newborn, looked down in guilt. The rest of the room separated into small groups two discuss what they had heard.

"Quiet!" Glinda yelled, clearly getting angry at the talkative bunch. "We can no longer trust anyone. Obviously, we can trust each other, but if anyone else shows up, do not let your guard down for a moment. I do not care if they deliver your baby or save a life. Unfortunately, this is a time of traitorism and backstabbing. So watch your back."

Glinda strode out of the room briskly. As soon as the door had closed behind her, everyone started talking again. Elphaba simply sat in the corner, cursing herself for what she had done. Fiyero noticed this from across the room and walked over to her.

"It's not your fault, Elphaba. You didn't know. And there was no reason for you to be suspicious of her, so don't blame yourself," Fiyero tried to comfort her, but she turned away from him.

"Why do I have to be so darn stubborn! Everyone, everyone warned me! But like a darn fool, I didn't even listen. Now if their world is blown up, who can be blamed? Me! I will be responsible for billions of lives, Fiyero! For these people's loved ones!"

Elphaba hated herself at this moment. She remembered back to how she had gotten Idina captured during her plan with the fake Grimmerie. How she had nearly broken apart Taye and Idina. And how she had gotten Pfanee killed when she sent her in to spy. Then she remembered even farther back to when she had almost ruined Fiyero's life. To when she had abandoned her sister…Twice. To when she had harmed and mutilated all those innocent monkeys. Everytime she had tried making good, it had all gone to h.ell.

"No good deed goes unpunished…" she said softly to herself. She looked up at Fiyero, who was still sitting by her side, and another wave of guilt overtook her. Even after all she had done to them, these people were still supporting her. She didn't deserve their sympathy, and they didn't deserve the destruction that she always caused. Perhaps if she just left, they would be better off. Glinda was born to lead. She could get them through this much better than Elphaba ever could. And they also had Idina. Idina was determined, intelligent and brave. All the things Elphaba was, except Idina truly did make good, while Elphaba just caused catastrophes. Yes, everything would be better if she left. So with her mind made up, Elphaba hesitantly handed her baby to Fiyero. She knew she must part with her child too, if she wanted him to have a good life. Fiyero took Liir, but looked at Elphaba with a mixture of confusion and worry. Then he watched her leave. No one else noticed her, but if they had known that she was leaving for good, they would've stopped her.

An hour passed before Kerry, Elise and Chistery came back from their search, Carley right behind them.

"Carley! There you are!" Some of the WoO members exclaimed and hugged her.

"We didn't find them," Kerry interrupted, right as Glinda waltzed back into the room, looking much happier than before.

"Wait, what? I'm sorry, I just hallucinated. What did you say?" Glinda asked, with a smile still on her face.

"Dorothy and Rajah got away. We split up and searched the entire forest. Carley even followed the Yellow Brick Road all the way to the Emerald City, but we didn't see them anywhere," Elise said.

"What?? Then check again! We can't let the Wizard get back his most faithful supporters!" Glinda yelled, her tiara falling out of place and her face turning red. Jae placed his hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"There's no use. Knowing Rajah, he probably found some way to keep them hidden on the journey back, or they're already safe inside the palace. We'll have to think of another way to get to them," he reasoned.

"Fine! Then start planning!" Glinda yelled, crankily. Her screams made the baby wake up, and Liir soon started crying. "And where is Elphaba! She needs to shut that baby up!"

ElphabaFae

"Glinda are you okay?" Jae asked, "You've been acting not like yourself."

"I'm fine Jae," Glinda said. she was about to say something else, but just then Fiyero came running in.

"Has any one seen Elphaba? I looked all over the castle and I can't find her. Liir needs to be fed."

"Did you check outside?" Glinda asked.

"one of those kids from earth looked for me. they couldn't find her."

"as if we didn't have enough problems," Glinda said. "Okay, get every one together, again. sweet Oz these people are nice but I am getting so stick and tired of seeing their faces from all these meetings we are having."

"Maybe we should only tell the actresses," Fiyero suggested.

"Well, the thing is the actresses all have their followers from that group. They probably wouldn't want to keep anything from them. besides, those kids are smart, even if some of them don't act it half the time, and they would probably realize that there was a meeting going on and join. And they are all together anyway. might as well let them hear. Anyone who isn't there can be told by those who are there," Glinda said, then went back to where every one was talking and trying to figure out what to do.

"Guys, we have more bad news," Jae said, making every one groan.

"What now?" Kaylee asked.

"Elphaba's gone missing," Fiyero said.

"What?" a few people said.

"I looked everywhere and can't find her. she blames herself for everything. She must have left figuring we were all safer with out her."

"We have to find her," Annaleigh said.

"we should separate into groups and spread out and search for her," Ellen said.

"Right, how big should the groups be? And how many groups should we have??"

"How about five groups?" Tiana asked, "one group to stay here in case Elphaba decides to come back. one of the flying monkeys will stay with them, and the other groups will have a flying monkey with them too, so we can message each other if anything happens. The rest of the mankeys will spread out in search of her."

"That's a good idea, Tiana," Stephanie said. every one nodded in agreement.

"So, the group that should stay here will have all the recently injured people in it. Holli, Fiyero, Annaleigh, and Nicole," Tiana said.

"No. I am not staying here while the mother of my child is out there somewhere," Fiyero said.

"Then who is going to stay with the baby?"

"I will," Glinda said, "And maybe Idina should stay here as well since she's pregnant."

"Good idea. And the rest of us will separate ourselves," Jae said.

"Jae, could you stay here?" Glinda asked. Every one looked at her.

"I was actually going to go get the help of the guards in the forest."

"Allens group can ask for their help. Just send a note with them. please Jae?"

"Okay. Anything for you, Glinda."

"I want to stay, too," Kaylee said.

"But we already have enough people here," Glinda said.

"Please?"

"Fine, but you are the last one staying. The rest of you get ready to search for Elphaba. I'll get the Monkeys," Glinda said.

"Jae, I need to talke to you. alone," Glinda said once all the groups, except for hers, had left. She had wanted Jae to stay behind so she could tell him what she had wanted to tell him earlier. Kairi, the young female Monkey who had stayed behind, tried to get every one to step away from Jae and Glinda, but no one paid her any attention. they wanted to hear what Glinda was going to say.

"whats wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Then why do you look so serious?"

"Because, this is serious?"

"what is?"

"Jae, I'm pregnant."

Nicole

As the groups headed out, and Glinda and Jae conversified in their corner, the dynamic duo of Kaylee and Holli, the somehow ridiculously hyper Nicole, the pregnant and rather tired Idina, and the always peppy Annaleigh sat in the castle… waiting. Waiting for somebody to return, waiting for Elphaba to come back, waiting for the baby to cry again. Waiting to Glinda's tiara to explode. Just… waiting.

Nicole lay slumped in Glinda's abandoned pink throne, twirling her tiara back and forth in her hands – and occasionally accidentally whacking the nearby Kaylee with it. Kaylee and Holli had managed to find a piece of string and were trying to see how many knots they could fit into it, and Annaleigh was counting the bricks in the ceiling. Idina was trying to cram in some sleep. She was halfway asleep, and tuning everybody out.

Nicole finally spoke up. "Okay, so… what exactly has happened here?"

Holli frowned. "Well, Elphaba gave premature birth to a surprisingly healthy baby boy-"

"I think that might have something to do with Elphaba's magic – notice how she never seemed to get sick in Wicked or anything? I think." Kaylee frowned, but Holli nodded her head in agreement.

"And then Dorothy freed Rajah and ran off, and Kerry, Elise and Chistery went out looking for them… and then Elphaba ran away?" Annaleigh blinked. "Yeah, that's right."

"Because she feels like it's her fault. My sister's fifth grade class had this thing were you picked a scapegoat, and anything that went wrong that day – haha, scapegoat! It just clicked! – was that person's fault. I am today's scapegoat, so this is all my fault." Nicole grinned, then frowned. "But I hate sitting here, doing nothing…"

--

"You're… you're…" Jae blinked. "Say wha?"

"I'm preg-nant." Glinda enunciated the word carefully and slowly, hugging her stomach – if she was still enough, would she feel the baby? "Do I have to spell it out for you?"

"No, it's just… I didn't expect that so soon in our relationship." Jae looked rather like a deer (albeit a rather attractive one) caught in headlights.

"Backing out?" Glinda felt tears come to her eyes as she turned away from him, and suddenly his arms were around her.

"No, no…" Jae's arms were wrapped around her, and she felt secure in his embrace.

"Do you think," he murmured, lips brushing against her ear, "That something amazing as a baby would scare me away from you? You're in the wrong line… try getting my sister mad at me. Now that, my dear…"

--

Elphaba kept walking until she knew she had reached the meadow where her and Fiyero had, um, 'lain' together for the first time. It seemed forever ago… but she knew nobody would find her here.

An Owl hooted. "What are you doing here, Elphaba? I have not seen you in suns!"

Well, except for Mrs. Peabody.

"I've been busy, Mrs. Peabody." Try as she might, Elphaba couldn't hide the weariness in her voice from the motherly Owl.

"Busy? My, my, Elphiephaba, you sound exhausted! Why don't you sleep? I shall watch over you…"

Elphaba nodded, moving to lean against a tree, sliding down so she was curled up in the safe embrace of the roots of the tree, Mrs. Peabody watching her – and the surrounding area – carefully.

"Sleep… does… sound nice…"

And next to the sleeping Elphaba was a beautiful pink poppy.

--

The four other groups, out searching the woods, stopped, meeting back in front of Kiamo Ko. Nobody had seen anything that could have betrayed where Elphaba was – or, for that matter, where Rajah and Dorothy were.

"Fiyero, let's face it. We're not going to find her unless she wants to be found." Stephanie rested a hand on Fiyero's arm, her sympathy for him at her highest. Although he looked a bit like Sebastian, she felt no attraction to him whatsoever – he was Elphaba's, heart and soul. "She'll have to come to us."

"darn it!" Fiyero shrugged her arm off, glaring at her. "We can't just give up!"

"I'm not going to say I searched as hard as you did, nobody has, Fiyero." Taye stepped up to the front of the group. "But if she's anything like Idina – and she's a lot like Idina – she won't be found."

"But she's not Idina. You might want to get that through that thick skull of yours." Fiyero's eyes were shooting daggers into Taye's skull – never had he been this angry. This upset. This distressed. This… everything.

"Fiyero!" Willemijn pushed her way to the front of the room, a light German accent tinging her words. "Nobody has searched harder for her than you have! But… you have to wait for her. When she wants to come back, she will. We all need a break, we've searched the whole outer edge of the woods. There's no place else we can look!"

"Yes, there is!" Ellen grinned at everybody as her and Allen, the only to Witches of Oz members left in the search party, pushed there way forward.

"What?"

"Look in the crystal ball."

--

Meanwhile, Rajah knocked on the Wizard's chambers. "Is that you, my friend?"

"No, it's Elphaba in disguise," said Rajah sarcastically.

"Why, that's a horse of a different color, come on in!"

And Dorothy – who, in a moment of brilliancy, had concentrated on the Wizard's palace and clapped her heels together three times – pushed open the door and into the Wizard's house.

"Well, hello, my friends! Rajah, did you get the-"

"Yup." He handed the Wizard a slim blade of grass – a type that only grew under a certain kind of flower that only grew at Kiamo Ko. "For the bomb, sir."

"Ah, I love explosives," he murmured, and bent back to work…