AN: Virtual brownies and hugs for Wicked4Life! 106 reviews right now, I want to thank you all very much for that!

Furthermore... Let me just say I take 'wicked mean green thing' as a compliment - does that mean I'm a bit like Elphaba? :D I'd like that... and thank you RavenCurls for protecting me - I guess you're the reason I'm still here to post this new chapter, considering almost everyone else wants to kill me ^^. Unfortunately, I don't think you guys are going to hate me any less after reading this chapter.

Brownie points for the ones who can tell me the title of the song I used below (a line of which also forms the title of this chapter), although I doubt it, since I got it from Crossing Jordan again and you guys... have never even heard of Crossing Jordan :3.

Well I've cried me a river

I've cried me a lake

I've got these tears from a long time ago

When Elphaba opened her eyes, there was light. Soft, white light that illuminated everything around her. Fog was covering the ground, so that it seemed like she was flying between the clouds, but she knew she wasn't flying. She was dead. This must be the netherworld – the afterlife.

It was large and completely empty, and the mist was everywhere, but she didn't particularly care about her surroundings. Her heart ached for the ones she had left behind and she whispered a quick prayer to anyone who might be listening that they would be okay without her, that they would move on and be happy again someday. Then she closed her eyes and did what she had to do.

She started chanting.

'Akele Tum Day Morto, Nile Ehma Patines Tum, Akele Tum Day Morto…'

Glinda felt completely numb and was unable to move as she watched Elphaba's limp form sink onto the floor, all life drained from her body. Morrible yanked out the knife and screamed in victory and the entire Emerald City cheered with her, their voices overwhelming the awful, agonised scream that came from Fiyero's lips and made the blonde wince. Corrin quickly put his arm around her and lead her with him. 'She's been shaken pretty badly by the attack,' he lied to the guards, who all nodded sympathetically. 'I'm going to take her to her rooms. Could you bring Fiyero Tiggular there, too? Lady Glinda seems determined to end the spell resting upon him, and she would want him close, him being her former fiancé and all.'

The guards nodded once more and Corrin lead Glinda into the palace, through the hallways, back to her room. She was oddly quiet the entire way, unable to produce any sound, thoughts and memories whirling around in her head.

'I'm limited…'

I should have stepped up and helped her.

'I'm the one you want! It's me!'

Who cares if all of Oz had turned against me? I let my best friend die!

'Promise me you won't try and clear my name!'

But they would have caught me too if I had…

'Glinda, you can do all I couldn't do!'

Sweet Oz, please tell me this is a nightmare and I'm going to wake up now. Please let me wake up. Please. Please. Wake me up.

'Please wake me up…' she whispered, oblivious to the fact that she had just spoken the words out loud. Corrin gave her a worried look, but didn't say anything as he gently sat her upon the bed and took off her shoes and tiara. 'Glinda?'

She looked at him with dead eyes.

'You're the only friend I've ever had.'

'Do you want to lie down for a moment?' Corrin asked her gently, but she didn't reply at all; she was just staring in front of her without really seeming to see anything.

At that moment, loud noises came from the foyer and although Corrin was very reluctant to leave Glinda on her own right now, he did, just for a clock-tick, to find out what was going on. What he saw broke his heart.

Four guards were dragging Fiyero into the room. He was still fighting them, screaming, yelling and crying at the same time, and as they released him, he dashed towards the nearest wall and began punching it. He punched the wall time after time, until there was a giant hole in the wall and his fist was bleeding, and then he sank down on the floor, crying inconsolably.

Corrin dismissed the guards with a silent nod and knelt down next to Fiyero, gently placing his hand on the younger man's shoulder. 'Fiyero? Will you come with me?'

He helped the Prince get up, but Fiyero's knees buckled and he couldn't keep himself up, so Corrin half-carried him to Glinda's room and eased him down into a seat. When he looked around for Glinda, however, he became even more worried. She was sitting in the window sill, the Grimmerie lying open on her lap, and she was chanting frantically, the same words time after time. 'Patines Nahmen Eleka Day Ah, Patines Nahmen Eleka Day Ah, Patines Nahmen…'

'Glinda?' he asked softly, but she didn't even acknowledge his presence.

'Patines Nahmen Eleka Day Ah, Patines…'

'Glinda. Look at me,' he said urgently. Again, no response at all. Tears filled her eyes and after some time, spilled over, but she didn't seem to notice. She just kept on chanting. 'Patines Nahmen Eleka Day Ah…'

'Glinda!' he yelled finally, and her head jerked up. 'What!' she snapped at him, and he recoiled a bit, taken aback by the fury in her eyes.

'Glinda…' he said cautiously. 'What are you doing?'

'I'm saving Elphie,' she declared. 'This healing spell worked before. It has to work now. It has to.' Without waiting for a reply, she resumed her chanting. 'Patines Nahmen Eleka Day Ah. Patines Nahmen Eleka…'

'Glinda,' he said, as gently as possible, trying to get her to look at him. 'I'm so, so sorry, Glinda. But you can't help Elphaba anymore, you know that. She's gone.'

'I'm saving Elphie,' she insisted, not taking her eyes off the Grimmerie, only pausing her chanting long enough to get those three words out before she continued again. Corrin looked at her, desperate. What could he do? His heart stung at the thought of what had happened to Elphaba, his little sister, but he simply didn't allow himself to feel it. He had to help Glinda and Fiyero through this first.

Fiyero, in the meantime, had gotten up and looked at Corrin with a blank expression on his face. 'I want to see her.'

Corrin sighed. 'You can't. The guards have taken her.' He knew they were going to burn her dead body within a few days, at a stake, in the middle of the Emerald City. A trophy of their victory.

Fiyero didn't recoil, however. 'I need to see her.'

Corrin mused over the idea for a moment. Could he take Fiyero down to the dungeons to show him Elphaba's body? Perhaps it would give him and Glinda closure – they still didn't seem convinced that Elphaba had actually died, although Corrin himself was absolutely positive. Morrible had stabbed the green girl right through the heart. He had seen the life draining out of her, the light leaving her eyes – it had happened in a mere clock-tick, and then she had been gone.

'Fine, then,' he agreed. 'I'll take you to see her. Glinda? Will you come?'

Glinda shook her head violently. 'I have to keep saying the spell.'

Corrin gently grabbed Glinda's shoulders and forced her to look him in the eye. 'Glin? Will you listen to me?'

She hesitated for a moment; then she nodded.

'I know you're upset, honey. I understand. But you can't hide from the truth – it will cause you to break down eventually. So I need you to get back to reality with me, okay? Can you do that?'

Tears filled her eyes again and she shook her head. 'No, Corrin,' she whispered in the most pained voice he had ever heard her use. 'I can't do that. Because if I do, that means I have to face the fact that… that I've lost her. Again. And again, I didn't do anything to help her. And I just can't bear that thought, Corrin. I can't.'

He knelt before her and took her hands. 'Glinda… you've been so brave. You were so brave last time, and you were very brave again right now. You did the right thing – you kept your promise. I know you feel horrible about this, but it's what Elphaba would have wanted,' he said gently, and that was enough for her to break down into tears. She buried her face in his shoulder, clinging to him and crying for a long time, until finally she pulled back, looking exhausted. Corrin carefully lifted her up and carried her over to the bed, where he tucked her in as if she were a small child. 'Go to sleep, honey,' he said softly. 'Things will look different in the morning.' He wasn't sure they would – or if they did, if 'different' meant 'better' or 'worse', but she seemed to calm down a bit and she drifted off to an uneasy sleep within mere moments. Corrin told a few maids to stay with her, make sure she was all right, and then he took Fiyero's arm and lead the Vinkun Prince through the palace, to the dungeons.

They had left the witch in a small, dark dungeon in the far back corner. The door was wide open – it was not like she would be able to run away – and the guards patrolling the cells didn't even walk past there, since there wasn't really anything to guard. Corrin was glad, because it would give them some privacy, but as soon as he saw Elphaba, his heart sank.

They had merely dumped her in a corner, a small heap of black hair and fabric, and… usually he would have finished that thought with 'green skin', but her skin didn't really seem green anymore. It came closer to gray. Almost white.

As soon as Fiyero saw her, he broke down. He collapsed onto the floor, cradling her limp form in his arms, crying uncontrollably. It was only then that Corrin noticed Doctor Quork standing in a corner, looking at the scene with tears standing in his eyes. Corrin quietly came over and looked at the older man questioningly. 'They wanted me to examine her,' Quork explained softly. 'See if she is really dead.'

Corrin merely kept looking at him, the question in his eyes, and Quork gently shook his head. 'I'm really sorry, Corrin. She's gone.'

'Wait!' Fiyero said suddenly, and the two men spun around, startled. Fiyero looked at them hopefully. 'Look! The stabbing wound – it's gone, isn't it?'

Incredulous, both Corrin and Quork came closer to examine. 'The wound is nearly healed,' he concluded, amazed. 'It almost looks like… magic!'

'Glinda's healing spell,' Corrin said, connecting the dots. He couldn't stop his heart from leaping with hope. 'Does that mean…'

Quork carefully examined the green girl again, but eventually, he shook his head. 'I'm really sorry,' he said again, sadly. 'Her body's almost fully healed, but her spirit is long gone, Corrin. I'm not an expert on magic, but I am an expert on medicine, and I know that healing the body won't do any good if the soul isn't in there anymore. You can't heal a dead person – you have to resurrect them. Could the spell Glinda used have done that?'

Corrin thought about what Glinda and Elphaba had told him about the spell in the past and defeated, he shook his head. 'No. It was a healing spell, not a resurrection spell,' he said softly.

Quork knelt down next to Fiyero and gently placed his hand on the Prince's shoulder. 'I'm very sorry for your loss, Fiyero.'

That was enough to cause the younger man to break down again, and Corrin and Quork exchanged a look before both leaving the cell, wanting to give the Vinkun Prince some privacy. 'There's nothing I can do here anymore,' Quork said sadly. 'Do you want me to check up on Glinda for you? Stay with her if necessary?'

Corrin nodded gratefully. 'That would be wonderful, yes.'

Quork gave him a sympathetic nod and squeezed his shoulder for a moment before disappearing into the dark hallways, leaving Corrin behind in the dungeons with a heart-broken Fiyero.

Fiyero had never felt this way before.

Sure, he had been afraid before, and angry, and sad, but never like this. The fear that rushed through him right now made him want to curl up in a dark corner and cry. The anger he felt made him want to break down the entire Emerald City single-handedly. And the sadness… No, sadness wasn't even the right word. The grief, the pain, the heart-brokenness that consumed him… It made him want to lie down next to her and die as well.

He didn't let go of her for a clock-tick. He held her, whispering pleas to her to please, please wake up. He traced her features with his finger, remembering all the times he had done so before and how happy they had been back then. He caressed her soft, silky black hair, twirling it around in his fingers, imagining her to give him one of those stern look of hers and to ask him in an amused tone of voice what he was doing. He drew her close, planting kisses on her nose, her forehead, her lips, her neck, her hair. He knew she was gone, he could feel it, but he couldn't let go. Not yet.

'Please, Fae,' he whispered, his voice breaking. 'You can't leave me like this. You can't. Please tell me this is some cruel joke and you're about to wake up now. Please tell me this was just a really, really realistic way to fake your own death again. Please wake up. Come back to me, Fae. I can't do this without you. I need you. Please…' He kept going until his voice finally trailed away, resting his forehead against Elphaba's, his eyes closed.

'Fiyero?' he heard Corrin's voice. 'Will you come back up with me?'

Fiyero shook his head, not even bothering to open his eyes. 'I'm not leaving her,' he said, trying to ignore the little voice in his head that told him technically she had already left him.

He felt the other man's hand on his shoulder. 'Fiyero…'

'Do you believe in life after death?' the Prince suddenly asked, opening his eyes and looking up at Corrin, who looked a bit taken aback by the question. He thought about that for a few clock-ticks. Then he said, 'Yes. I do.'

'Do you think she's there now?' Fiyero asked, his voice barely more than a whisper. Corrin knelt down next to him, so he could look him straight in the eye, and nodded. 'She's there now, Fiyero. She'll be happy there. She'll be watching over you, and Glinda, and all of us, I'm sure.' He wasn't even sure he really did believe in an afterlife or that sort of thing, but he felt like he needed to reassure Fiyero, and this was all that came to mind on such short notice.

Fiyero nodded slowly. 'So we could be together there if I…'

'Whoa,' Corrin said, startled. 'Fiyero. No. Don't even think about it.'

The Prince looked up at him and Corrin's heart broke at the utter pain and sadness showing in his eyes. 'I don't want to live without her, Corrin.'

'Do you think that's what she'd want you to do?' Corrin demanded. 'To kill yourself? What about Glinda? Your family? Are you just going to leave them alone?'

'I can't live without Elphaba,' Fiyero insisted, and Corrin gave him a stern look. 'Now listen to me very carefully. I know Elphaba, and she would not want you to do this. In fact, if you do carry it through, I'm absolutely positive she's going to kick your nuts in the afterlife – and then she's going to bring you back to life just so that she can kill you again.'

Fiyero smiled faintly. 'Probably,' he admitted, and his voice became even quieter when he added, 'But at least she'd be there.'

'Come on now,' Corrin said, gently helping Fiyero up and leading him out of the prison cell. 'You need to rest.'

Fiyero didn't even have the strength in his body to protest anymore.

Doctor Quork had given both Glinda and Fiyero some sedatives, so they mostly slept in the next few days. The doctor promised to keep watching over them, leaving Corrin free to make all kinds of necessary arrangements.

An announcement was made to inform the people that Lady Glinda the Good had been very shaken by the attack and would therefore stay inside the palace for the next few days, but that she had not been harmed in any way and was just fine – physically. A servant, who was actually an undercover member of the Resistance, was sent to the Animal hideout in the Great Kells to inform Maráni and the others about what had happened. A letter was sent by express post to the Vinkus, informing Fiyero's family as well and asking them to come over to the Emerald City to support their son in his grief. He also had Doctor Quork take care of Elphaba's body, since they weren't planning on burning it until Glinda the Good was well again and able to attend the happening.

On the second day, the guards announced a guest, and Corrin was startled to recognise the former Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He had heard about the man from Elphaba, of course, so he got up and shook Oscar's hand. 'I'm very sorry for your loss, sir.'

Oscar smiled sadly. 'Thank you. I just…' He seemed lost in thought for a moment, before he said quietly, 'They're planning on burning her, aren't they? In the middle of the City, to celebrate her death…'

Corrin nodded solemnly. 'I know. And I'm sorry. I hate the thought of it, but… I didn't really see how I could do anything about it without suspicion arising among the people. And besides… it's not like it would do her any good anymore.'

'You're right, of course,' Oscar agreed, 'but… well… I want to take her with me.'

Corrin looked up in surprise. 'Excuse me?'

'I want to bury her,' Oscar explained. 'It's like you said – she doesn't deserve to end on a stake, even if she isn't really there anymore. You don't have to do anything; I've made… arrangements to be able to take her body from the dungeons without anyone knowing. People will wonder who stole the body, of course, but it wouldn't make any of you suspicious, and it would give her… the right ending.'

Corrin nodded slowly. 'You have my permission. Thank you.'

Oscar gave him another sad smile. 'Don't thank me. I loved her too, you know.'

'You did?' Corrin was a bit surprised at that. 'I mean, I know you felt guilty about the way you treated her, especially after you found out she was your daughter… and I knew you cared about her to a certain degree, but…'

'She was my daughter,' Oscar said simply. 'And I would've given anything to have the chance to build a real relationship with her.'

Corrin gave him a sympathetic smile and nodded. 'All right. Take her,' he said solemnly. 'Give her the goodbye she deserves. And please…' His voice softened. 'Please convey my sincere condolences to Maráni.'

'I will,' Oscar promised and he disappeared. Corrin stayed behind, lost in thought.

Morrible was utterly pleased with herself as she watched the Ozians celebrate. In fact, she wasn't able to wipe a big grin off her face. Elphaba was no longer a threat anymore – the Wicked Witch of the West was finally dead. Apparently the old saying was true – if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. She had proven the saying to be right.

She might have been worried about anyone coming after her to revenge Elphaba's death, but hey, she was still immortal. What could they do to her? Not to mention the fact that Glinda had a reputation to think of and Fiyero, she had heard, was apparently in no condition to be coming after her. She smiled maliciously at the memory of the Winkie prince breaking down right after it happened. Never thought she'd witness that one day, but it had been a satisfying sight.

Someone pushed a can of beer in her hands and they started dancing around the square. Morrible, not really one for dancing, decided to head back home. So far, her plan had been working out perfectly, and she had no doubt the hardest part of it – killing Elphaba – was over; but there was still a lot more to do before she could knock Glinda from the throne and become ruler of Oz herself. She didn't want to waste any time anymore.

While she was on her way home, however, a strange feeling washed over her. Suddenly, she was feeling a little weak and her knees started to buckle, as if she was about to faint. She supported herself with one hand against the wall, wondering what the meaning of this was. She felt as if something was gone that had been inside her before, although she couldn't really say what that something could be. What was happening to her?

Another wave of dizziness and she stumbled, lost her balance and fell, painfully grazing the palms of her hands when they came in contact with the rough cobblestones of the street. She grimaced and scrambled back to her feet. Luckily, the faint feeling was gone now. She repulsively examined her injured hands – Oz, did she hate blood. She kept looking at them in anticipation of the wounds closing and the skin healing within mere clock-ticks, but nothing happened.

She stared at her hands in horror for some time longer, but even after more than ten minutes, her injuries did not heal and she knew that could only mean one thing.

She had no idea how, but somehow, she was no longer invincible.

With the help of a few Resistance members and Animals, Oscar managed to sneak out of the palace with Elphaba's body and take her back to the hideout in the Great Kells, where they placed her on a bier and cared for her as if she were still alive. Maráni was grief-stricken. Hearing about Elphaba's death, as it had happened last time, had been bad; but seeing the green girl dead, knowing for sure that there was absolutely no hope at her living again, was far worse. The other Animals left her alone as she came in to say goodbye to Elphaba.

'Oh, Fabala,' she whispered, nuzzling the green girl's side. 'I'm so sorry… How I wish you'd be all right again.'

She thought about Nuki, and Glinda and Fiyero, and wondered how they were holding up. She prayed for them every night, that they would find the strength to get through this and one day be happy again, and she prayed for Elphaba, that she might find piece, wherever she was right now.

She looked at Elphaba's dead body again and nuzzled her cheek one final time, before whispering, 'Goodbye, little one,' and leaving the room.

I'll probably post the next chapter later tonight, because I have a really long evening of babysitting in front of me (meaning me sitting on the couch at my neighbours' house watching tv while the kids are sleeping upstairs) and I'm bored and that means I have lots of time to write :D.