Wicked Comet part 17
That evening, Elphaba was taking a break from flying over Oz and doing Oz knows what. She spent some time playing a number of different card games, which were equally matched since both Thropp cousins were equals in intelligence. Elphaba took breaks from playing cards to open a trap door leading into the room where Dorothy was being held and shout at her to "get those shoes off your feet!"
"Takes a dead woman's shoes, she must have been raised in a barn!" Elphaba muttered angrily to herself.
"She lived on a farm so she might very well have been" Rich pointed out.
Just then, a bubble appeared from no-where and Glinda stepped out of it.
Rich and Elphaba immediately rose to their feet, Rich with his hand on his revolver.
"Go away." Elphaba said to Glinda, turning away from her.
"They're coming for you" Glinda warned, gesturing out of the window.
Rich looked out of the window and saw there were a huge number of Witch hunters with the scarecrow and the tin-man leading them approaching Kiamo Ko, all of them except the scarecrow were armed and looked ready to kill!
"We don't have long before they arrive!" Rich warned Elphaba as he grabbed a lot of his knockout gas ammunition and a state of the art sniper rifle which Elphaba had nicked off of the Gale force several days previously.
"They're coming for you and to rescue Rich" Glinda pointed out.
"Go away!" Elphaba snapped.
"What rescue mission?" Rich asked.
"The people of Oz think that you are being mind-controlled by Elphaba" Glinda explained.
"That's utter stupidity. I am helping Elphaba from my own free will" Rich retorted, trying to stop himself from laughing.
"Let the little girl go and that poor little dog Dodo" Glinda spoke to Elphaba.
Elphaba just ignored her.
"I know you don't want to hear this, but someone has to say it... You are out of control! I mean, come on! They're just shoes, let it go! Elphaba, you can't go on like this." Glinda protested.
"That's what I've being trying to tell her" Rich added.
"I can do anything I want. I am the Wicked Witch of the West!" Elphaba snapped.
One of the Flying monkeys then swooped in and handed Elphaba a letter.
"At last! What took you so long?" Elphaba snapped at the Monkey. She began to read the letter,
"What's this? Why are you bothering me with this?" Elphaba said to the monkey, but then her eye caught something within the letter's text.
Elphaba's eyes widened as she read the text, Rich moved towards Elphaba in order to read the letter but Elphaba hid the letter from Rich with cleverness.
"What is it? What's wrong? It's Fiyero, isn't it? Is he..." Glinda asked before she trailed off as Elphaba said,
"We've seen his face for the last time"
"Oh no!" Glinda said quietly, horrified.
"You're right... It's time I surrender." Elphaba said in defeat as she fetched a bucket from a corner and filled it with water.
"Elphaba, don't you dare!" Rich exclaimed in alarm as he moved to take the bucket of water away from her.
"Rich, what else is there that I can do now?!" Elphaba shouted at Rich.
"Anything but this." Rich then gestured to the Witch hunters, who were almost at the castle gates "they are going to kill you as soon as you surrender!"
"Then that is my fate." Elphaba said in resignation.
And then to Glinda she said,
"You can't be found here! You must go."
"No" Glinda said defiantly,
"You must leave" Elphaba insisted.
"No! Elphie, I'll tell them everything." Glinda protested,
Rich spoke up too,
"I could help as well. If what Glinda says is true about what Oz thinks of me, my word might still be influential"
"No! They'll only turn against you both!" Elphaba interrupted.
"I don't care!" Glinda snapped, on the edge of tears.
"I do! Promise me, promise me, you won't try to clear my name... promise." Elphaba pleaded.
Glinda, who was trying to stop tears falling out of her eyes and failing miserably took a breath and said,
"Alright... I promise"
Elphaba then took out the Grimmerie and handed it to Glinda.
"Here. Go on. Take this." Elphaba said.
"Elphie... you know I can't read that!" Glinda protested quietly but Elphaba shushed her.
"Well then, you'll have to learn" Elphaba replied with a warm, kind smile and a gentle tone of voice that Rich hadn't seen her use with anyone for a very long time.
By now the witch hunters had burst through the castle doors and were storming through the corridors and up the stairs to where they guessed Elphaba would be.
Whilst Elphaba and Glinda told each other how much they meant to each-other as friends, and were about to give their final goodbyes. Rich activated several locks on the only door in the room.
"They're almost here!" Rich warned Elphaba.
"Promise me you'll protect Rich" Elphaba said to Glinda.
"I will. You can count on me!" Glinda replied and as she said this, Rich took out the battered packet of playing cards from his pocket and handed them to Elphaba.
"Rich, no! They're yours. I gave those to you!" Elphaba protested but Rich interrupted with,
"They've brought me luck all these years. Maybe they'll bring you luck"
Elphaba then hid the playing cards in a hidden pocked in her dress and hugged Rich tight.
"I guess this is goodbye then" Rich said sadly to Elphaba.
"Maybe, but I won't go down that easily" Elphaba replied, trying to make Rich feel better but failing.
The cousins along with Glinda hugged each-other tightly and just before the Witch Hunters arrived, they parted. Glinda lead a protesting Rich away as Elphaba drew a curtain between herself and them. As she did so, Rich and Glinda looked into Elphaba's eyes and she theirs for what they sort of knew would be the last time.
"Hide yourselves!" was the last thing that Elphaba ever said to Glinda and Rich.
Once she closed the curtain, Elphaba turned to face the door which was now almost about to be smashed off of its hinges.
Taking a deep breath, she sank into a fighting stance and braced herself.