The sky was dark tonight, a fact for which Fiyero was grateful. The moon was not very full, and what bit of it was visible was obscured by dark clouds. Fiyero used this cover to his advantage as he made his way around the back of the palace, keeping close to the walls to further hide himself. He knew his way around the Emerald palace well, and he relied on this knowledge as he strained his eyes in the darkness.

The dungeons had several entrances, only one of which led to the outside, and it was that entrance Fiyero was creeping towards under the cover of darkness. He made his way carefully, trying to formulate a course of action for dealing with the guards that would be watching the post.

As Fiyero drew nearer, however, he didn't find two guards standing at attention as he'd expected to. Instead, the two men lay slumped on the ground, quite obviously unconscious. It was all Fiyero needed to confirm his suspicions.

Hastening his pace, he moved toward the entrance as quickly as he could without disturbing the unconscious guards. The door that led to the dungeons was large and old, made up of warped wood and iron. Fiyero flinched involuntarily as he tugged on the handle, expecting the old door to moan horribly as he pulled it open, but it mercifully wasn't as loud as he'd anticipated.

It was even blacker inside. Dark as the night was, the glow from the doorway still cast its light over the dungeon staircase. With one last backwards glance to make sure he hadn't been seen, Fiyero pulled the door closed behind him as silently as he could. He stood still in the darkness for a few moments, hoping his eyes would adjust. When they didn't, Fiyero placed his hand against the wall and began to feel his way down the spiraling staircase.

As he neared the cellblock, Fiyero thought he heard voices and paused to listen. Indeed, there was a pair of voices speaking in low, urgent whispers. Fiyero strained his ears as best he could, but he could make out neither the voices' owners nor the topic of their conversation as he continued to make his way closer. Some light began to reach his eyes now, coming in from the few small windows along the walls by the cells.

The cells were bare right now, at least in this part of the palace where the human prisoners were kept. Most of those wanted for capture these days were Animals, and they were kept in much smaller cells known as "cages."

Fiyero paused as he reached the bottom of the stairs and realized that the voices were coming from around the corner. Though they were still a bit too far away to make out properly, Fiyero registered that they were both female. Their words were becoming slightly louder now. It sounded to Fiyero as though they were having some sort of argument.

Taking a deep breath, Fiyero gathered his courage and poked his head around the corner as far as he dared, hoping that whoever was down here wouldn't notice him.

The first thing Fiyero noted was that four other guards lay slumped around the room in various awkward positions. He supposed it explained why he'd been able to make his way inside unnoticed. Next, his eyes travelled to the two whispering figures standing across the room from him.

The one on the left he recognized immediately. Elphaba's green skin shone noticeably even in the dim light. Fiyero squinted as he tried to make out the other. She was shorter, dressed in a slim but elegant nightgown.Glinda!Fiyero registered with surprise. With all that had been going on for the past couple of days, Fiyero had hardly spared a thought for his fiancée.

Moments later, their conversation seemed to reach its peak, and the two women grabbed for each other's throats. Startled by the sudden display of hostility, Fiyero darted from his hiding place.

The two women nearly jumped out of their skins as they registered his sudden presence. In her surprise, Elphaba threw her hands up instinctively, and Fiyero found himself slammed with an invisible force that sent him skidding across the dungeon on his back.

Fiyero moaned, a bit shocked from the sudden impact. He supposed he should have known better than to rush out like that. Seeing that their unexpected guest was incapacitated, the two women crept towards him to get a closer look. As they neared Fiyero, their eyes widened with recognition.

"Fiyero?" they said, nearly in unison. Whatever they had been about to kill each other over moments before appeared forgotten.

Before anything more could be said, there came a loud knock from the door across the room. The noise they'd made must have attracted attention. Fiyero could see that the door had been barred from the inside, but it strained a bit as something slammed against it.

"Is someone down there?" came a male voice.

All three of them froze, Fiyero still lying flat on his back. Elphaba and Glinda helped him to his feet just as another, harder push forced the door open and half a dozen Gale Forcers came streaming into the dungeon.

"Seize them!" one of the men shouted.

Time seemed to slow down as the guards rushed towards them and Fiyero squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the impact. When it still had not come several moments later, he tentatively opened his eyes.

Fiyero let out an audible gasp as he realized they were no longer standing in the palace dungeons, but rather on the outskirts of the city. Plumes of red smoke were still disappearing into the air, the vanishing remnants of the teleportation spell that had brought them here.

Fiyero twisted around, looking for Elphaba, and was surprised to see Glinda standing close by as well. For a few moments no one spoke.

Glinda was the first to shatter the silence. Turning to glare at Elphaba, she half-shouted, half-whispered, "Oh this is just wonderful! Why in Oz's name have you dragged me along with you?"

Elphaba still appeared fairly shocked herself, but she seemed to snap out of it when she heard Glinda speak. "Oh, give it a rest, princess. It's not like I planned this. I panicked. It was an automatic response."

"Well, I for one am not getting dragged into this fine mess you've created," said Glinda, gathering up the bottom of her nightgown so that it would not trail on the ground.

Elphaba grew livid. "The messIcreated?" she spat.

Glinda seemed to deflate a bit at this. She let the bottom of her gown drop back to the floor. "I never meant for it to go this far. Really."

Fiyero was completely lost at this point, and the two women didn't seem to be forthcoming with any sort of details. Shifting his feet, he cleared his throat loudly enough to interrupt their conversation.

Elphaba and Glinda both turned to face Fiyero, though neither seemed to know what to make of him. There was another short pause. This time Elphaba spoke first.

"I'm glad you're alright," she said, though her voice was cold. He supposed the fact that she'd attempted his rescue didn't mean she was any less angry with him.

Glinda was even less happy to see him. "Well, I for one don't care whether you're okay or not. You can drop dead where you stand for all I care," she said. Fiyero could see that her eyes were shining. "I don't want anything more to do with this. I'm going back to the palace."

"Oh, that's a wonderful idea," Elphaba said. "I'm sure Morrible and the Wizard won't suspect that you had anything at all to do with this little escape we just pulled off."

Glinda froze, comprehension dawning on her face.

"You're in this as deep as the rest of us now, Glinda," Elphaba said, picking up her broomstick.

"That's not true," she said, but her voice wavered. "I'll go back and tell them that you kidnapped me against my will."

Elphaba scoffed and replied, "And you think they'll believe that? They'll already have figured out that you tried to warn me, even if this whole mess was your fault in the first place. Do you think they'll welcome you back like nothing happened? You already know they'll have no problem using you as a bargaining chip to get to me, whether you're 'Glinda the Good' or not"

Glinda seemed to be mulling all of this over, but it was apparent by the dawning horror on her face that the reality of her situation was beginning to sink in. She collapsed into a sitting position and dropped her head into her hands. "But I'm not cut out for this! I'm not like you. I can't survive on the run! And you two traitors are the last people I want anything to do with right now!"

Elphaba rolled her eyes at Glinda's tantrum. "Well, you're free to go off on your own then, if you think you'll last more than five minutes out there," she said

Glinda composed herself a bit and rose to her feet. Dusting off her nightgown, she replied, "But where do you even plan to go? You're at the top of the wanted list, Elphaba. Every guard in the Emerald City is probably already out looking for you!"

Fiyero had a sudden thought. Turning to face the two women he said, "My family has a castle at Kiamo Ko. There shouldn't be anyone there but the guards right now and I don't think anyone in the Emerald City knows about it. We should be able to safely hide out there for as long as we need."

The two women turned to face Fiyero as though they'd only just remembered he was there. Elphaba narrowed her eyes at him and said, "What makes you think I'd accept any help from you? I may not have wanted to see you killed, but I still don't trust you."

"Look, you made a good point just now. None of us can go back to the Emerald City. We'd be better off sticking together," he said. He continued before Elphaba could jump in and cut him off, "The castle will keep all of us safe while we figure out what to do in the meantime. What reason could I possibly have to wish you harm at this point?"

Elphaba stared him down as if weighing her options. Finally, she seemed to concede that Fiyero had a point. "You're sure it will be deserted, then?" she asked begrudgingly.

Fiyero nodded and replied, "Yes, I'm absolutely certain."

"Let's go then. Glinda's right. The guards are likely already after us. We need to move quickly if we're going to stay ahead of them," Elphaba said.

Glinda looked back and forth between the two of them, seemingly at a loss. After a few moments she seemed to resign herself to her current fate, and all three of them took off into the forest.

Fiyero trailed behind Elphaba and Glinda, still reeling from all that had happened in just the last couple of hours. The two women had not said a word to him or to each other since they'd departed the Emerald City, and Fiyero was practically choking on the tension. He remembered the way the two had been at each other's throats in the dungeons and knew it was probably wiser not to interfere. He had a sneaking suspicion he was to blame for at least a good deal of the anger between them, and that they both had a fair bit of it to direct his way as well.

Yet after another hour of walking in silence, Fiyero found that his curiosity was killing him. He still had next to no idea about what had been going on when he'd found Elphaba and Glinda at the palace, or why Glinda was suddenly along for the ride. If Fiyero didn't speak up soon he was liable to explode.

Breaking the silence tentatively, Fiyero said, "So, does anyone want to explain to me what's going on?"

There was a long pause, during which Fiyero began to wonder if they would answer his question or just continue to ignore him. He supposed it would be fair if that were the case. Both women had justifiable reasons to be angry with him.

Eventually Elphaba supplied a response. "Glinda sold me out," she said. Her voice was even but laced with venom.

As was to be expected, Glinda did not keep silent in the wake of this accusation. "Well, what do you want from me?" she huffed. "You betrayed me first. You and Fiyero! Going behind my back for Oz knows how long!"

Elphaba gritted her teeth. "I've already told you that we haven't been doing anything behind your back! I had never even met Fiyero before two weeks ago. And even if we had been doing what you're accusing us of, that would still not be an acceptable excuse for selling me out to the Wizard!" she snapped.

"Well, I didn't really, did I?" Glinda retorted. "If I had, I wouldn't be in this mess. I'd be back in my bed at the Emerald Palace, not traipsing around the forest in my nightdress with you!"

"You should have just stayed behind then! Oz knows I didn't need your help with any of this!" Elphaba shot back.

Glinda huffed, "Oh come on, Elphie. You know I couldn't stand by and let them capture you. Even if I'm fairly certain I'd like to kill you myself at the moment."

They lapsed into silence while Fiyero struggled to piece together what had happened. He was debating whether to open his mouth again, when Elphaba seemed to realize they'd never answered his original question. "After I escaped, Glinda went to the Wizard and Morrible and told them to use you to set a trap for me. Since I would assume that you'd returned to the Emerald City, it wouldn't be far-fetched that they could take you into custody, and Oz knows they'd have no problems torturing you to get information on me. Then, once they'd lured me to the palace to attempt your rescue, Morrible was planning to catch me with my guard down and take my spell book."

"Yes, but I felt terrible about it! I've been going down to the dungeons every night since so that I could warn Elphaba if she showed up," she explained to Fiyero, then she turned her attention back to Elphaba and said, "So don't make me out to be a terrible person!"

"Oh, you actually feltbadabout effectively sentencing your best friend to death. You're right Glinda, you're an absolute saint," Elphaba shot back.

Glinda sighed and said, "Well either way, I'm paying for it now, aren't I?"

Fiyero still had so many questions that he hardly knew where to begin. He decided to start with Glinda. "Why would you want to help them capture Elphaba in the first place?" he asked.

Glinda puffed up slightly at this and answered, "My fiancé ran off after another woman. I may not be a genius, but it wasn't hard to figure out what must be going on. And I was right, wasn't I? Elphaba told me that that you kissed her." Fiyero could hear the hurt in her voice as she twisted around the face him.

"Glinda it wasn't like that," he began, even though he wasn't fully convinced of it himself.

Elphaba jumped in before he could continue and said, "He was just manipulating me so that he could bargain for his escape." He could hear the bitterness in her accusation.

"It wasn't like that either!" he protested. He hated that Elphaba still believed that he'd harbored such ill intentions.

"Then what was it like, Fiyero?" Glinda demanded. Both women were now glaring at him, as if daring him to even attempt an explanation.

"I-I don't know, okay? It was a very confusing time," he said, suddenly stressed under the pressure of their collective gaze. "Can we talk about this when our lives aren't in imminent danger?" He knew he was only delaying the inevitable, awkward conversation, but at least it would buy him some time. Both women kept their gaze on him for a moment longer, then turned back to face ahead. It was clear neither of them was happy with his deflection, but they were willing to let the matter drop for the moment.

They walked on in silence again after that. The night had grown cold, and Fiyero could feel the chill seeping in through his ragged shirt. Elphaba seemed fine in the heavy black dress and cloak she was wearing, but Glinda, who was dressed in nothing but a short-sleeved nightgown, had visibly begun to shiver.

Noticing Glinda's discomfort, Fiyero said, "It's about a three-day journey to Kiamo Ko, and we don't have any provisions or a change of clothes."

"I still have some supplies," Elphaba responded. "But certainly not enough for a three-day journey."

Fiyero nodded and replied, "Yes, and it also won't do to have Glinda traipsing through the woods in her night clothes and slippers."

Elphaba, who seemed to have been oblivious to Glinda's predicament up to this point, turned her gaze to her shivering friend. She sighed grudgingly and unfastened her cloak from around her neck. Without a word, she held it out to Glinda, who seemed surprised but accepted it gratefully.

Fiyero was pleased to see that the two were at least willing to get along, despite the hard feelings between all three of them. He supposed this was a matter of survival. "So I was thinking, would we be able to pick up some supplies if we stopped at the Animal camp in this direction? The one you were at most recently before you came to the Emerald City to find me. It's not too far out of our way, no more than an extra half day's journey," Fiyero suggested.

Elphaba seemed surprised. "How do you know about that place?" she asked, a small measure of distrust in her voice.

Fiyero was taken aback at her tone. He'd forgotten that she hadn't exactly wanted him to follow her there. "I went looking for you after you vanished. I realize you probably told the Animals at the first camp not to give me any information about where you were going, but I suppose you forgot to give Lorgen the memo," he replied.

Elphaba shook her head and said, "That girl," but Fiyero could still hear the fondness in her voice.

Fiyero continued, "She pointed me in the right direction, and from there I found the other camp." He left out the bits about the Lion, deeming it unnecessary information for the time being. He glanced over at Glinda as he finished his explanation. He knew this was probably not what she wanted to hear, but she said nothing, and her face was unreadable in the darkness.

"Why were you looking for me in the first place?" Elphaba asked. "As far as I'm aware, our business was quite concluded."

Glinda turned to look at him as well, and Fiyero realized too late that he'd unintentionally backtracked into dangerous territory. There was a pause, before Elphaba seemed to pick up on the tension and changed the subject. "At any rate yes, I think stopping there would be for the best," she said, "but I think we should continue for as long as we're physically able for now, then take short rests in shifts. We'll need to stay off of the beaten path as well."

Fiyero nodded his approval, ignoring the fact that the gesture would go unseen in the darkness. He imagined that Elphaba had plenty of experience evading Gale Force guards, but she had also never traveled in a group. He was particularly concerned about Glinda, who had never lacked for comfort a day in her life. To her credit though, she did not protest Elphaba's plan.

And so, as promised, the three walked on for as long as they were able. Elphaba had taken the lead, and Fiyero glanced about with a sort of vague recognition as they went. He could hardly believe he had passed through these woods on his own such a short time ago.

Eventually, the three travelers grew too weary to continue. As was expected, Glinda was the first to give in to fatigue, though Fiyero was not far behind her. By that time, the first light of dawn had begun to creep its way over the treetops, and even Elphaba's steps were beginning to falter.

Before she would allow them to stop and rest, Elphaba insisted on flying up on her broomstick to confirm that there were no Gale Force troops in their immediate vicinity. Taking care to remain out of sight within the tree branches, she did a quick survey of the area that apparently assuaged her fears. There was no way to tell whether they'd lost the members of the Wizard's guard completely or merely gotten a respectable head start but, given their exhaustion, they had no choice but to take a short rest and hope they would remain out of sight.

To no one's surprise, Elphaba volunteered to take the first watch. Fiyero protested out of courtesy, but he already knew any attempts to dissuade her would be futile. The three found a suitably secluded place to sleep and cobbled together a makeshift camp in silence. There was still obvious tension between them, and Fiyero couldn't help but feel that they weren't going to be able to go on like this forever. Eventually the three of them were going to have to talk.

As he finished arranging some leaves into a pile roughly the size of his body, he glanced over and realized that Glinda was already fast asleep, wrapped tightly in Elphaba's cloak. He smiled sadly. On some level, it was his fault that she was out here. He'd never meant for her to get mixed up in this.

Fiyero shook his head and sighed. Glancing behind him, he found that Elphaba had already taken up her post. He knew she must be tired as well, but she still stood tall and imposing, clutching her broomstick at her side. Feeling Fiyero's eyes upon her, she turned to face him.

"You should get some sleep. I'll wake you when it's your turn. I think we should just split the watch between the two of us. Glinda should sleep if we want to keep up our pace tomorrow. I can't really say that I trust her abilities as a guard at all anyway," she said.

Fiyero nodded, already feeling drowsy. "I never got a chance to thank you for coming to my rescue," he said, his voice slurring slightly.

It was still dark, even with the sun beginning to rise, but he liked to imagine that Elphaba was smiling slightly. "Well, I couldn't just leave you to die, could I? I thought we'd already established that I'm not really a wicked witch."

Fiyero wanted to say more to her, but sleep was already overtaking him. Before he could manage another word, he was snoring softly and Elphaba had returned to her watch.