Elphaba woke up to a banging on the door. Glinda was fast asleep, and Elphaba did not miss the wet spot on her dress next to her face. The banging came again.

"My Lady!" Elphaba heard faintly.

"Glinda! Wake up!" she said, and shook her.

""Hm…Faba?" she grumbled. "Tell Morrible I'm sick."

"Someone's at the door!"

"Who? Biq?"

"Your maid! Get up!" she hissed.

"Oh!" she popped up. "What is it?" she yelled.

"My lady! It is time to get up!"

"Oh! Just a minute!" she turned to Elphaba. "Out on the balcony."

"I'm only in my shift!"

"It'll only be a minute." She ushered them out there and Fiyero followed. Glinda went to her door and opened it. "Sorry about that. I locked it last night to help me focus and must have fallen asleep."

"My lady, do you wish me to fetch the others to begin your make up?"

"No, thank you. I plan on doing it myself today. I feel today is something special. But I do have a task for you. Please find someone who sells Vinkus style clothing."

"Yes, my lady." The handmaid said quizzically. Glinda shooed her out of the room and relocked the door. She then went and fetched Elphaba and Fiyero.

"Good thing I died in summer." Elphaba said.

"Quite. Now, I do have to get ready." Glinda replied and began "Glindafying".

Elphaba, harkening back to her days at Shiz, looked for some way to amuse herself. She saw spelltext book and went to read it. It was one she had never seen before so it did not take long before she was engrossed. Fiyero, on the other, began to read a book on the magical creatures of Oz.

A few hours later, Elphaba looked up from her book. She knew the basics of most of it and was eager to practice. Not wanting to disturb Glinda (she learned that was a mistake a long time ago) and not knowing where Glinda kept her wands, she began to search the room. The one next to her bed was gone; most likely Glinda had it on her out of habit. She went over to a chest and lifted the lid. It contained a bunch of letters, and her little green bottle. Elphaba smiled slightly and went to pick it up when she remember something. Her green bottle was in the secret compartment. At the same time her mind registered there were more bottles in the chest.

Hand shaking, she picked up the errant bottle and examined it. Bright green with simple lettering, it was defiantly the same, if not much newer, as her's. The wax seal on the bottle was not broken; this intrigued Elphaba since her's was long empty. Her label had long since faded to a few illegible letters. On the bottle she could clearly make out the words MAGICAL ELIXER. At that point Glinda walked out of the bathroom.

"Glinda, what's this?" asked Elphaba, her voice quivering. Glinda looked at her curiously but her eyes widened when she saw what was in her hand.

"Elphie, I did not want you to find out about that yet!"

"Glinda: What. Is. This?" she repeated, her voice growing angry. Glinda came over and grasped Elphaba's hand. She knelt on the floor, and Elphaba sat across from her, never taking her eyes off Glinda's. The pair did not notice Fiyero shut his book.

"When you left, I took your little green bottle with me. However, I don't travel nearly as fast as you so, as I've said, I had a lot of time to think. After figuring out you weren't really dead, which didn't take too long-"

"Congratulations."

"I had to occupy my mind somehow. I looked at your bottle and had the uneasy feeling I had seen it before. After wracking my brain for several hours I remembered; when you and Fiyero escaped the Emerald City, the Wizard offered me a drink. A drink from an exactly the same bottle."

"The Wizard." Elphaba hissed and Glinda wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close. Her work was not done and this was going to be the rough part.

"Yes, the Wizard. When I came back, I confronted him about it. The Wizard, seeing the glass, broke down and told me a story. Before he became the Wizard, he was a peddler of sorts. He travelled a lot, and in that time he…got to know…many women. Only one did her ever leave a bottle with."

"My mother." Elphaba said hollowly.

"Yes, your mother. I don't know why but that's what he said. Remember how I said those who cross the barriers of the worlds are special? You, Elphie, are a child of both."

Elphaba began to struggle in Glinda's arms, trying to squirm and get away. Glinda held on with all her might.

"No! I won't believe it! I won't!" Elphaba yelled and began to breathe faster, hyperventilating.

"Shhh. Shhh. Believe it or not, it's true. It does not change who you are, Elphie; you made yourself."

Elphaba continued to struggle against Glinda for a while but she held tight and continued to whisper comforting words. After a little while, Elphaba's struggles waned and her protests degenerated into sobs. Those slowly died out too, and they all sat in stillness.

"Why do you have these other ones?" Elphaba asked quietly and Glinda inwardly sighed. Only Elphaba could go from logical to emotional and back without losing the thread in between.

"The Wizard left them to me; either he couldn't stand to look at them or he thought I had some use for them still."

"Like?

"I have no idea."

"I always wondered what was in it."

"It's a bit early in the day to start drinking."

Elphaba laughed. "I agree."

"Now, I have to start my final preparation. Will you be ok?

"Yeah. Thanks, Glinda. Oh, one more thing."

"Yes?"

"Where's a wand? That's what I was looking for to begin with."

Glinda laughed and got her one.

Glinda was at the post-speech ball. She glided from place to place entertaining. No one could place it but Glinda the Good seemed more radiant tonight and her laugh lightened every heart.

"Lady Glinda." A man said

"Yes?" she replied smiling.

"In your speech you said nothing of the Wicked Witch of the West." He said, and Glinda went cold. She knew she had to handle this perfectly. She fixed her smile and made her voice cheery.

"You mean the Witch of the West? I think she not important."

"But she is the reason we celebrate today."

"Is that so? For what do we celebrate her for?"

"Her death."

"How terribly morbid. What ever made her so vile that we would celebrate her dying?"

The man shifted uncomfortably. "She was an enemy of the state."

"I see. What did she do?"

"She…opposed the Wizard and spread sedition."

"Are you sure you're not confusing her with the Wicked Witch of the East? Sedition sounds more like something she would have done. She was, after all, trying to get Munchkinland to secede. She died around this time too, if I recall."

"No, I speak of the Green one."

"Was she green? I only saw the Western Witch here in the Emerald City, and you know how everything has a green tint here. Perhaps she was merely very pale."

"You said you knew her at school."

"I said I knew a green girl at school, yes. But she left after two years and I positively did not keep track of her after that."

"But how many green women can there be? Wouldn't it make sense that the green girl you went to school with became the Wicked Witch of the West?"

"It would, but I never saw her do any magic at Shiz. In fact, I was the only one in my sorcery seminar my entire three years." Glinda said, and gave a silent thanks to the Wizard and Morrible for altering school records to exclude Elphaba. It would not have been good for the public to find out she had learned magic at Shiz under the Wizard's press secretary.

"But what of the strange happening reported in those years?"

Glinda laughed. "Strange tales always come from schools. Usually from those who had too much of a good time. Also, there are all manner of prank shops around Shiz willing to sell students magical jokes." Glinda glanced around. She could tell even behind the society faces that the tale was working.

"So the Wicked Witch of the West was not the green girl form Shiz?"

"I really can't say. All I know is that the times I ran into her, it was always dark or in the Emerald City. Not to mention she always draped herself in those hideodeuos black layers."

"And what of Dorothy's story, then?"

"A ten year old girl who came from another world by house? She may not be the most reliable witness."

"What about her friends?"

"That's a magnificent idea!" Glinda said with a smile, but then turned it into frown. "but I seem to recall they've all disappeared. Except the Tin Woodsman, who now is running Munchkinland."

"That's true."

"Plus, I don't know if the Wicked Witch of the West even lived out west. I have friends in the Vinkus, from my college days you know, and they had no idea there was a Wicked Witch of the West!" Glinda said with a look of incredulity. "My guess is that some Munchkinland loyalist wanted to support the Wicked Witch of the East, and made up a persona for herself. She grabbed a ratty old hat and cloak, and enchanted a broom with a floating spell. Then she made up some story to help bolster the Munchkinlanders' confidence and make the Wizard worried. Having enemies on either side of Oz would be dangerous. Dorothy, after deposing the Wicked Witch of the East, went about her business until the fraud confronted her. Then she either gave up, or she met an untimely end." Glinda paused to see how it was settling in. While she did it she put a look of concentration on her face to make it appear as if she was thinking of it for the first time.

"I would not be surprised," she continued, "If the Tin Woodsman was already jockeying for the Throne of Munchkinland and killed her himself so there could be no pretender. Then they either covered it up from Dorothy, or simply made up the absurd story about the melting to help her cope."

"So…you're saying they were in collaboration with Munchkinland?"

"I really hadn't thought of it before, but it does make some sense. Where did Dorothy find all of her companions? Munchkinland. Now, the Tin Woodsman is their leader and all the Animals are flocking there. The Lion could be there too. As for the Scarecrow, after the Wizard granted him brains maybe he saw how foolish the plan was and left. I mean, it takes a lot of heart and courage to secede from Oz, but not a lot of brains." That got a good chuckle out of everyone.

"So, the Wicked Witch of the West was a fake?"

"It could very well be. I mean, she probably wasn't green, couldn't do much magic, and most likely was a Munchkinland sympathizer. When you think about it, she really didn't accomplish much, now did she?"

With that, the man bowed his head and Glinda kept moving. She was pleased. Her story seemed to gain acceptance.

The man moved over to a group standing by the wall.

"You buy any of that?" he said. They all shook their heads no. "Me either. I wonder what's really going on. Stay sharp boys."