Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Once upon a time, there was a balloon. This balloon was piloted by a man who didn’t really know what he was doing, and so the balloon was blown off its course. It blew over oceans and through great storms, until it finally alighted in a strange land full of strange people, creatures, and magic, where it would change the course of history in two worlds.

-^-

There are certain things that are expected of the daughter of a minister.

That she be quiet. That she be polite. That she be humble and modest. That she be obedient. That she be reserved. That she be generous and kind. And, most of all, that she be the physical manifestation of her parents’ love.

Elphaba Thropp was many things, but very rarely, if ever, any of those.

Elphie was wild and outspoken. Had a reserve of unnatural strength in both body and mind that she drew upon and believed in without remorse. She obeyed her parents only when she could see the sense in what they were saying. None of this was helped by her unusual green skin and aversion to water. Most people called her a temperamental child, a burden upon her parents and nanny; and if she was a manifestation of anything, it was the troubled nature of her parents’ relationship. Rumors swirled about Munchkinland that the strange green child was a punishment from on high (either from the Unnamed God or Lurline herself) for Melena’s tendency to stray, only to be seemingly confirmed when her second child was born without arms.

But rumors and prejudice, while making her father become more devout and solemn, only served to make Elphaba even more certain in her personal moral compass. It was true that she’d become less outspoken as she’d grown older, but that was only because life at home was so much easier when Frexpar wasn’t bitterly upset about her overstepping her place.

Not that life at home was easy to begin with. It had been bad enough being the strange green child with an awful temper; even if the rest of their lives had been perfect and happy, Melena and Frexpar would probably have always resented Elphaba for her skin and attitude. But then came her sister, Nessarose; a delicate little thing without arms, yes, but who otherwise was a classic beauty and a loving, obedient child to her father. Frexpar loved her, doted on her, and instilled Elphaba with the knowledge that nothing she could ever do would be as important as protecting her little sister. Then, of course, was the stranger Turtle Heart, a man who didn’t even seem to realize the damage he was doing to the family he seemed to care for so much. Elphaba may not have known exactly what was going on, but she’d always been sharp-eyed and intelligent and could see that her parents’ love for Turtle only served to further their resentment for each other.

Turtle’s death was a tragic blow to all of the Thropps and truly seemed to mark the end of any real happiness they could feel in each other. They fled Munchkinland and the angry mob that had destroyed Turtle, settling into his Quadling Country home to play missionary to the other Quaddlings. Neither Frexpar nor Melena ever seemed to truly recover from the loss, and after Melena died giving birth to Turtle’s child, Frexpar went into mourning and never came out of it.

Elphaba was dragged along to help him in his somber missionary work, and every day would return home afterward to help Nanny care for her sister and brother, who it was obvious to anyone — but especially to her — Frexpar loved more. She never truly found a place in her heart to blame him, though; she was a strange and contrary child, after all, and she’d come to hate her green skin almost as much as her parents had thanks to the treatment she received because of it. But Nessarose and Shell were beautiful and almost perfect, and Shell was the child of the man her father had loved. She supposed, if she’d been in his position, that she would have probably felt the same about her own children.

Which didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt, or that she wasn’t relieved (and excited) when she finally got word that she’d been accepted to the elite Shiz University and she’d be leaving the Quaddling Country behind for Gillikin and only a few days’ travel to Oz’s capitol, The Emerald City.

Chapter Text

Crage Hall wasn't quite one of the more renown colleges at Shiz University, but it was one of the few that not only accepted non-male students but allowed them to study the more serious subjects, which was why Elphaba had applied there. Years of proselytizing with her father and listening to the superstitious explanations of every little natural occurrence as The Will Of Lurline hadn't done anything to curb her interest in the sciences.

Elphaba took to her classes with an enthusiasm that the rest of her family would have found surprising. Her assignments were always well-researched, eloquently worded, and handed in on time, if not early; she always did the reading before it was even assigned, devouring her texts and requesting recommendations for further study from her professors; she was well-respected by her professors, or at least the ones who could see past her verdant condition; and her attendance was practically flawless, excepting the occasions when class happened to coincide with a rainstorm, in which case she always made sure to catch up on the missed notes and work.

This, along with her strange appearance and preference for studying over any type of socializing, unless it was dragging people into unwanted, deep and morally fraught political, religious, and academic debates led to many of the students resenting Elphaba. And the fact that she seemed oblivious to their gossiping about her just made them dislike her even more. Elphaba made them all look bad and they ruthlessly used her poor put upon roommate for fuel for their fire.

Galinda had been just as shocked as the rest of them when they'd seen Elphaba for the first time, but her woe had been far and above anyone else's since a scheduling mishap with her Ama -- who should have been there to negotiate a room with one of the higher society students -- had saddled her with the somber green girl. Galinda could just not understand her. How could anyone be so uninterested in even talking to anyone else unless it was about something so fraught as Animal rights? It was no wonder she seemed so angry and impatient all the time.

Still, after the shock of her skin had worn off, Galinda realized that she didn't really have anything seriously against Elphaba. In fact she seemed like she might even be good company if she could just learn to hold a conversation that didn't require people to take a serious moral stance one way or the other. She obviously had a very strong sense of right and wrong, after all, and a fierce loyalty to whomever she'd determined was in need and deserving of her support. But it was just so easy to lose all interest as soon as she started aggressively debating something in lieu of having an actual conversation; which, in turn, made it unfortunately easy for Galinda to make little notes about Elphaba's personal habits while they were in their dormitory to embarrass her with to the other students.

They all treated Galinda like a beautiful, heroic martyr for not only putting up with Elphaba, but actually interacting with her, all to report every embarrassing and slightly odd detail back to them. And Galinda ate it up. If she wasn't able to have a proper society roommate like she should have had if only her Ama had been there at orientation, then at the least she could use her roommate's universal loathing to boost her own popularity. Elphaba didn't seem to even notice at all anyway, or at least she didn't mind. Or maybe she just didn't say anything.

It was hard to tell if Elphaba minded anything, actually. She seemed to just always have the same stern, vaguely annoyed expression on her face; the only exception being the rare occasion when someone agreed with her about something she'd dragged them into a debate about. Those were the only occasions upon which any of the other students would see her smile. Galinda thought that that was a shame. She thought Elphaba had quite a beautiful smile.

In fact, sometimes Galinda even felt a little guilty for how she used Elphaba's humiliation to further her own social standing.

But it wasn't her fault that Elphaba was so strange, right?

-^-

There was a turning point, of course -- there always is one -- and that was the day that they'd gained an unusual mid-semester transfer student at Shiz. Galinda remembered because not only was such a transfer unusual, the student himself had been unusual -- almost as strange as Elphaba. A prince from Winkie Country, covered in striking blue diamonds, and exceptionally handsome besides. Everyone was all a-chatter about the young Prince Fiyero.

That is, until Elphaba staged her first great act of civil unrest.

Not that she'd been the only one uncomfortable with the professor's little experiment; but Elphaba had been the only one to speak up from the very beginning about how inhumane it was to lock a young creature up in a cage -- Animal or not -- taking it away from its mother to experiment on it in the name of some pseudo-intellectual study on the nature of animal versus Animal. She was cheered on by her classmates when the lion cub rushed away from the professor to escape his pain experiments and Elphaba grabbed it and, with the help of Fiyero and Galinda, carried it off-campus to release it back into the world.

"It'll just get snatched up by someone else, the poor thing," Galinda warned, but helped Elphaba untangle the creature from her skirts regardless while the prince kept watch at the campus gate for any unfriendly pursuit.

"He'll be safer the further away he gets from that man," Elphaba argued. "At least out there he'll have a chance to be taken in by someone. Raised like a proper Lion."

"Or lion."

Elphaba nodded, agreeing, "Or lion."

Galinda sighed, gently stroking the cub's fur while Elphaba scratched its chubby cheeks, trying to calm it down, "I just hate to think that he might end up getting snatched up by some hideo-fying fur trapper or Animal trader." It took a couple of seconds for her to realize that Elphaba was staring at her, "What?"

"You called him 'he.'"

Galinda blinked and thought back on what she'd just said, "I suppose I did." She was still confused about what was so surprising, though.

Elphaba could see that, so she finally offered her an explanation, "You've been calling him 'it' since Doctor Nikidik brought him into the classroom."

"Oh. I have?"

"You have." Elphaba watched her flush a little with shame, admiring the way it seemed to almost deliberately accent her beauty. But she took pity on her quickly enough, "I didn't realize how much you cared."

"Why would you think I didn't care?" Galinda asked, truly confused.

Anyone else would have been embarrassed at the question, being so directly confronted with their own assumptions of the worst. Elphaba seemed apologetic, but mostly unrepentant -- she'd made an assumption based on what she knew about her roommate. The fact that she'd been wrong didn't change that her theory had been well-founded as far as she'd known just a couple of minutes ago.

"You seem to only care about what the other girls think of you," she explained. "At least that's the impression you want give."

"Well everyone cares what other people think about them," Galinda said.

"I don't," Elphaba argued without missing a beat.

Galinda just countered with the simple yet pointed, "Liar." Elphaba opened her mouth again to deny it, but Galinda cut her off, "Everyone cares, even if it's just a little. Don't think I don't notice the way you rush out of a room whenever someone starts talking about you, Miss Elphie."

That did make Elphaba blush; but instead of pinkening into something closer to a normal skin color, Galinda watched fascinated as her roommate's cheeks actually darkened into a deeper, almost flattering forest green. Like the color of the moss and ivy clinging to the walls of Shiz, giving it a sort of dignified air.

Galinda dropped her eyes from Elphaba's cheeks back to the lion cub -- he'd almost stopped shivering.

"Just because I don't care for having arguments with everyone I talk to doesn't mean that I don't care," she said quietly but a little snippily.

Elphaba shook her head in disbelief, "I don't argue with everyone I talk to."

"Oh yes you do," Galinda cut off whatever else she might have to say. "You can call them 'debates' all you like, but when any other person starts yelling at someone else over a difference of opinion they usually call it arguing."

"It's not arguing if it's a mutually agreed upon subject," Elphaba countered.

"And how does that work when you're always the one starting it?"

Galinda looked far too smug for Elphaba's liking at her lack of an answer.

"Face it, Miss Elphie," she continued, "you just like fighting with people." She shrugged, "And some people don't."

Elphaba stared at her, disbelieving and, for once during a conversation, speechless. At least briefly, "People who don't care about the world and only want to talk about dresses and the latest ways to style their hair."

"And what's wrong with that?" Galinda asked. "Appearances are more important than they appear. You'd think you, of all people, would know that." Elphaba didn't appear to react to that, but Galinda regretted saying it anyway, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I mean I did, but just that someone who gets judged on her appearance more than anyone should know."

Elphaba snorted, "Well no amount of coiffing or primping is going to improve people's judgment of my appearance, so why should I care about it?"

Galinda considered that -- considered her -- and shrugged, offering, "You never know. A smart hat can do wonders for a girl's presence."

"Presence?" Elphaba asked hesitantly.

"Sure," Galinda said, smiling and pleased. "You know, the whole package. The ... aura that you give off. For example, mine says, 'Confident, well-to-do, fashionable society woman.'"

She felt Elphaba's eyes on her as much as saw them, raking her up and down, trying to see what Galinda claimed she was giving off. Galinda wasn't sure whether or not she did see it, but she eventually asked, "What does mine say?"

Galinda hesitated, and then asked, "Honestly?"

"Honestly."

"Frumpy. 'I wouldn't buy a nice dress even if I could afford one because I think I'm too smart to have any sense of style, even a bad one.'"

They both went quiet at that, dropping their eyes to the little lion cub -- Brrr, they remembered the professor had called him. It was a little harsh, but then Elphaba had said that she'd wanted Galinda to be honest. Maybe that had been too honest, though? Galinda sometimes had a hard time telling when she was being too frank.

"He can't stay here," Elphaba said eventually. It took Galinda a moment to realize she was talking about the cub again. "Unless you know of some way we can keep him in the dormitories without any of the faculty find out. Or anyone else who might report back to Doctor Nikidik."

"I suppose you're right," Galinda sighed, giving Brrr a little scratch behind his round ears. He'd stopped shivering. "Good luck to you little one. Stay away from nasty looking men with big shears or chains."

She lifted away her hand and watched Elphaba's lift away too. The cub lifted his head to see where they'd gone and tried to sneak into Elphaba's lap. She stood, and Galinda followed suit. He backed up a little, looking fearfully up at his rescuers, and when they didn't move, he took a hesitant step forward that he immediately took back when Elphaba huffed a sigh and told him to, "Go on, now. You can't stay here. You're safer out there. At least there's more places out there for you to be safe."

The cub glanced one last time at Galinda, as if making one last plea to stay with them, but she just shrugged apologetically, "Sorry, little one. She's right about that." And then he turned and, considering the wide world in front of him, carefully picked his way over the grass, across the road leading into Shiz, and disappeared into the trees at the edge of the Great Gillikin Forest.

Galinda watched until she was sure the flickers of gold she was seeing was the sun glimmering through the leaves and not a fuzzy little tail flicking across the underbrush. She knew that Elphaba was watching too, making sure he at least got of sight safely. But she was startled when she turned to look at her to see a smile that Galinda had never witnessed before. It wasn't the same triumphant smile Elphaba got upon convincing someone her side of a debate was right. No, this smile was similar, because it was proud, but it was also just ... happy.

She quickly looked back towards the woods when Elphaba turned to catch her staring, but Elphaba didn't say anything, just turned back towards campus to relieve their lookout.

Galinda glanced between them and the woods, thinking on something, and turned to hurry after them once she'd made a decision.

"Miss Elphie!" she called, jogging to catch up and strolling with them back into Shiz once she did, lacing her arm through Fiyero's and grinning at them both. "A few of us were going to take Fiyero into town tonight to show him around. I just thought that ... well, maybe you'd like to come?"

Elphaba looked at her like Galinda'd just asked her if she wanted to get tattooed like Fiyero with blue diamonds all over to make herself stand out even more than she already did, "Me?"

Galinda just smiled, practically sparkling in the afternoon sun, "Yes you, that is what I said, isn't it? Just one rule," she explained, easily. "No arguing. At least not unless someone else starts it."

It wasn't quite as pronounced as the other one, but Galinda swore that Elphaba actually smiled again. But more importantly, and much easier to confirm at least, she nodded and said, "You know, I think I'll take you up on that. Thank you, Miss Galinda."

"My pleasure."

Chapter Text

As time went on, Galinda and Elphaba didn't find that they were more alike than they'd thought; rather they discovered that their differences weren't as off-putting as they'd assumed.

Galinda found that Elphie really was a loyal companion to whoever she deemed worthy of her time, though Elphaba wasn't really comfortable with using the term "friend" to describe their relationship. And once Galinda had decided that Elphie was her friend, most of her gossiping stopped. She still tittered in amusement at some of Elphaba's more unusual or quaint habits (for example, she still would choose staying in on a weekend to read authors she didn't like, writing about subjects she didn't like), but she no longer reported back to her other friends about what when on in their dormitory.

Of course that meant that some of them suddenly didn't have time to spend with her, and it devastated Galinda at first. But as soon as she realized that the ones who'd abandoned her had started gossiping about her, she suddenly didn't care about losing their company. Though Galinda wasn't sure whether she or Elphie were more surprised when she actually started defending Elphaba when they kept gossiping about her. It really was petty, Galinda realized, sitting in a room you know the target of your gossip is in and talking about them loudly enough that you know they'll hear.

At first Galinda just started fighting back by giving them a taste of their own medicine, after all she knew their little quirks almost as well as Elphaba's. So she'd just sit there with Elphie and whoever they happened to be chatting with, and tell them all about Pfanee's unfortunate bald spot where she'd gotten distracted admiring herself in the mirror while she was using her curling iron and burned off her hair. Or poor little Milla who wears such long dresses to disguise the fact that she's hopelessly unable to balance on the heels that have become so fashionable in the last few years.

That got boring quickly enough, though, and just made their gossip all the more vicious, especially when it was aimed at Elphaba. So eventually, Galinda got so sick of the game and so upset at what they were saying about her friend, that she just stood up and confronted them to tell them how truly immature and unladylike they were being, and if they weren't such cowards and truly believed their own gossip, then they'd say these things to her and Elphaba's faces.

The resulting silence about all nasty things Elphaba only lasted for about a week, but it was something, and even when chatter did start up again it wasn't nearly as vicious. And when it was, Galinda made sure to let the guilty parties know that it wouldn't be tolerated.

Elphaba thanked her for defending her, one night while they were alone in their dormitory studying. Galinda told her that it really was nothing, and then asked her to help her memorize some spells.

-^-

"Kamo etium ventum have tame ayuna kala."

"Are you sure you're saying it right?"

Galinda gave a frustrated huff and looked over where Nessarose had her spellbook carefully balanced in her lap where Galinda couldn't read from it.

"This is all gibberish to me," Nessarose said with a shrug. "But as near as I can tell, yes?"

Elphaba grunted and reached for the book, pulling it into her own lap to curl over and examine the words. "Aha," she said, "see? You have got it wrong, your pronunciation is off. It's 'kamo etiam ventum have tame ayeuna kala.'"

Galinda reached for the book to see for herself, but Elphaba finished speaking the spell just as she did and her fingers touched the pages as a fine frost covered them. She pulled her hand back in surprise at the sharp cold and looked accusingly from the book to Elphaba.

"Did you do that?" she asked disbelievingly.

Elphaba just shrugged, as surprised as her roommate and sister.

Nessarose leaned in to see the crystals sparkling at the edges of the pages, "Do it again."

Elphaba looked between them, got an encouraging gesture from Galinda, and took a bracing breath, finding a better target than her roommate's textbook in a patch of the path they were sitting beside. She concentrated on it and spoke the words again, intoning intention and deliberateness that she hadn't before, "Kamo etiam ventum have tame aeyuna kala."

The three young women watched as a thick sheet of ice covered several stones in the path, turning them shiny and slick, and sure enough, while they were sitting there staring, a student walked by and slipped. They quickly gathered up their things, Elphaba shoving the spell book back at Galinda just as she grabbed for it. Elphaba helped her sister stand and hurry across the quad, but they only got a few feet before they heard someone calling to them.

"Miss Elphaba! Oh, Miss Elphaba!"

Nessarose was the first to stop, which made Elphaba stop as well (grudgingly). After they had, Galinda stopped just out of curiosity to see what their headmistress Madame Morrible wanted (though she would, of course, stick up for Elphie if what she wanted was to punish her).

"Miss Elphaba," Madame Morrible said, a touch out of breath from chasing them, "I wish to speak to you about what you just did to the path."

Elphaba tensed, straightening her back, ready to defend herself "It wasn't my intention to make that boy slip," she explained, "I didn't even see him coming."

Morrible just waved her hand, shooing an annoying bug of a conversation topic away, "Nevermind that. Tell me, what did you do?"

Elphaba looked between her sister and Galinda, not entirely sure what she was looking for in their faces. "I ... froze it."

"How?" Madame Morrible asked, insistent.

"We were trying to help Galinda study for her sorcery test, but she was pronouncing the spell wrong. I was just showing her how to pronounce it."

The grin Madame Morrible gave her was a little terrifying. There was some deeper meaning to it that none of them could quite figure out.

"Tell me," she said, "Miss Elphaba. As a second year student you are allowed to declare your specialization. Have you done so?"

Elphaba carefully considered her answer to that question, but decided to just be honest, "I haven't. I'm still trying to decide between specializing in Natural Sciences or Science And Philosophy."

Madame Morrible tsk-ed her, shaking her head, "I think that would be a grave mistake, Miss Elphaba. You have a great natural talent for sorcery."

"But I'm not interested in sorcery," Elphaba told her. "I'm interested in science."

"Is sorcery not simply another way to approach the natural world?" Madame Morrible proposed. Before Elphaba could reply either which way, she held her hand out to Galinda, "Miss Galinda, your spell book."

Galinda dug it back out of her satchel and handed it over.

Madame Morrible examined the cover, flipped to the table of contents, made an approving sound, and handed it over to Elphaba, "Yes, this will do well. Read through this, Miss Elphaba. See if it cannot change your mind. And if you require further reading, please do not hesitate to come see me."

Galinda watched her book change hands and, after a fraught moment of indecision, spoke up, "But Madame Morrible, if Elphie's reading my spell book, how will I study for my exam?"

Madame Morrible seemed disinclined to care, but asked anyway, "When is your exam, Miss Galinda?"

"In just an hour, Madame Morrible," she explained, trying to give the proper desperate tone without coming off as pathetic.

"Then I would advise you that, if you haven't managed to perform your spells properly yet, you aren't likely to in the next hour." With that, she dismissed Galinda from the conversation and bid farewell to Elphaba will a last, "Please let me know what you think of your reading, Miss Elphaba."

The three young women watched Madame Morrible strut away, a little flabbergasted.

"What was that all about, Elphie," Nessarose asked.

Elphaba shook her head, "I don't know," and handed Galinda back her book, "Here."

"Thank you," Galinda gushed, tucking it away again. "You can have it back after I finish my test."

Elphaba just dismissed the whole idea with a wave of her hand, "Don't bother."

"But Elphie, maybe she's right," Galinda said. "You do seem to have a talent for sorcery -- I've never seen anyone summon ice as easily as you did back there. And what's the harm in giving it a try? Besides," she weaseled, "if we're both specializing in sorcery, that would mean you could help me more."

"Fine," Elphaba sighed, if only to convince Galinda to drop it. "I'll read your silly book. Now can we please not discuss it anymore? You have studying to do anyway, and I need to get Nessa to class."

"Whatever you say, Miss Elphie," Galinda twittered, bouncing along now that she'd gotten her way.

Elphaba just kept close to her sister, helping her balance, eyes occasionally drawn to the spell book partially sticking out of Galinda's bag, thoughts never really leaving Madame Morrible's words.

A natural talent.

She'd never had a natural talent for anything before, except making people uncomfortable just by walking into the room.

What would it be like, having a natural talent?

Chapter Text

Madam Morrible and Galinda had been right about Elphaba's natural talent for sorcery. At first she'd insisted that the reason she'd been able to cast the spells in Galinda's spell book so much better than she had was because she could pronounce them without have to double-check the book halfway through the spell like Galinda often did. But as Galinda started getting the hang of some of her spells, it became obvious to them both that Elphaba was still stronger.

Take the ice summoning spell: Where Elphaba had been able to cover a whole patch of the walkway in ice thick enough that it hadn't cracked when someone had slipped on it; Galinda, once she'd mastered the pronunciation, was still only able to summon a somewhat flimsy sheet of ice over a bowl of watery broth (nevermind over something solid). It was a little disheartening for Galinda, but at the same time she took comfort in the fact that most of her classmates could still only summon a light frost.

As enthusiastic as she had been when Madame Morrible had first brought up the possibility of Elphaba specializing in sorcery, though, even she was surprised by Elphie's eventual enthusiasm. Elphaba herself hated to admit that the bigoted and pushy headmistress had been right, but she couldn't deny that there was something fascinating about approaching the sciences through sorcery and magic. And, for that matter, approaching sorcery through the sciences. If science is the study of how the world works when left to its own devices, couldn't that just further one's ability to use sorcery as a means to change that? Could one take their knowledge of science and use it to expand their skills at sorcery, to create spells that had never even been conceived of before?

Spells that could somehow help the Animals whose rights the Wizard had so cruelly begun taking away until the Wizard's mind could be changed. Perhaps even a spell that could change the Wizard's mind. Elphaba wasn't entirely sure what such a spell would entail, but she was eager to find out, nonetheless.

She cringed at the thought that Madame Morrible would consider herself having "won" whatever battle she thought was going on, but that didn't stop Elphaba from declaring her specialization.

-^-

As it turned out, the one Elphaba had the most to immediately worry about was Nessarose. She, of course, had taken very much after her father who, as a devout Unionist minister, looked down on sorcery as no better than the superstitious, self-indulgent pleasure faiths.

Elphaba was not surprised. And she was equally not surprised when Nessarose changed her tune upon receiving a pair of truly breathtaking silver shoes from their father, which Galinda, having become quite adept in her studies nearing the end of their second year, enchanted so Nessarose could balance, stand or sit without anyone else's help.

A few days later she declared that she would be specializing in sorcery as well come her second year.

Some deep dark part of Elphaba might have been jealous that she wasn’t the one her sister looked up to, or that she couldn't even have her studies or friends to herself. But Elphaba just reassured her sister that of course she would help her with her chosen specialization in any way that she could.

Little did either of them know that she wouldn't be there to fulfill that promise.

-^-

The systematic oppression of the Animals of Oz had been going on since not long before Elphaba had been born; so even though she knew intellectually that there had been a time when Animals had been as free as humans, she'd never seen it for herself. What she had seen was a slowly growing disgust among humans for the sentient Animals who were simply trying to live their own lives. And, as a consequence, a quickly declining population of Animals; some of whom were chased out of their jobs and homes, and some who decided it would just be safer to go live among their animal cousins.

But never had she seen the disgust against Animals as obviously taken over almost every aspect of a person's life as she had in her pushy, intimidating headmistress. Madame Morrible could barely stand the abstract idea of the Animals' existence, and made no secret of it. Her obsession with "putting Animals in their place" made most of the students uncomfortable, but the true victim was Dr. Dillamond, a professor of the sciences, and one of the only Animal professors left at Shiz. Dillamond was a constant target for bullying from both Madame Morrible and eventually students as well. What only made it more ruthless was that, in the face of it all, Dr. Dillamond continued his research into scientifically proving that there was no basis for the discrimination faced by Animals.

Anti-Animal bigots hated him for it.

But this, of course, was a subject that Elphaba was deeply interested in and she so badly wanted to help in the fight for Animal rights that she'd become very close to Dillamond over the course of her student career at Shiz. He'd welcomed and encouraged her passion, suggesting reading and discussing actions she could take to help the cause. She had no reason to believe, then, that his unwavering belief in the power of research and academia was somehow misplaced.

But, then again, if it had really been misplaced then he would never have been killed for it.

Elphaba had been the one to find him, having gone to see him early before either of their classes began to return a book she'd borrowed from him and make an appointment to discuss it with him later during their free time. That was why she was the one who had had to speak to the policemen when they finally arrived. Even though they'd already taken their sweet time getting to the scene, and even though they obviously had no interest in anything the opinionated green girl had to say, Elphaba still insisted on explaining to them the abuse suffered by Doctor Dillamond by anti-Animal types at school. Still insisted on pointing out that the hinged chalkboard was positioned to display the side that had been vandalized in paint just the day before with a line often repeated by Madame Morrible herself: "Animals should be seen and not heard." Insisted on explaining to them the nature of his current research.

As far as she was concerned, it was an open and shut case. But when the police took Madame Morrible's statement (who had arrived upon hearing one of her professors had died, of course), they only asked her about Dr. Dillamond's history of agitating behavior and how likely she thought it that Dillamond had committed suicide out of self-loathing. Elphaba left in disgust after hearing Morrible tell them that it was likely, since it was a well-known and well-discussed fact among campus that he and the other Animal professors just weren't very good, held back as they were by their nature.

-^-

Almost the entire student body of Shiz University was shaken at the news of Dr. Dillamond's death. Some gloated about Dillamond "finally getting what was coming to him" but they really were a small minority, the most vocal and violent of the anti-Animal bigots. Most of the student body was just saddened at the loss of their professor, though Elphaba would always judge them for believing the story that he'd killed himself. It was just as well that she kept mostly to herself and her small circle of friends.

There was some debate among them over whether it had been a murder or suicide, some unable to believe that anyone's prejudice against the Animals could truly lead them to do something so extreme as murder them. Elphaba thought this line of thinking naive and made no secret of it. But even though they could all agree that the driving force behind Dillamond's death (be it murder or suicide) was the anti-Animal sentiment that Madame Morrible fostered at the university, none of them would believe Elphaba that Morrible had been the murderer. Or at least they were too scared to admit it.

Galinda was more affected by Dr. Dillamond's death than Elphaba had expected her to be. She was inconsolable for days, wracked with guilt over her own less-than-open-minded treatment of him; she couldn't stand the thought that her snobbish attitude had in any way contributed either to Dillamond's choice to take his life, or someone else's choice to take it for him. After Dr. Dillamond's memorial service she announced to her friends and teachers that she would answer only to her name as it was mispronounced by Dr. Dillamond (despite nearly constant corrections): Glinda. She wouldn't even respond if you accidentally slipped that third syllable in. It seemed a little shallow on first glance, but remembering how emphatically Glinda had corrected anyone who'd made the same mistake, Elphaba knew how sincere it was and what it cost her. Now Glinda would never be able to forget the Doctor and how he'd ended, reminded of him every time her name was spoken.

-^-

Several days after Dillamond's memorial service (which Madame Morrible had attended but made it quite clear what a burden and waste of time she thought it), Elphaba and Glinda were both approached by the headmistress about what she called a very important and but even more private matter.

Elphaba sent Nessarose off to her next class with her companion Boq to chaperone and went with Glinda to Madame Morrible's private quarters.

She offered them tea, which Glinda accepted only out of politeness, but Elphaba declined, preferring to know what they were there for and to get out as quickly as possible. Being near Madame Morrible had become an exercise in anxiety since Dr. Dillamond's murder -- because she never knew if Morrible was going to do something to her, or if she'd do something to Morrible. Elphaba managed to control herself while the headmistress fixed tea for herself and Glinda, though, even if her nails did tear a few holes in the upholstery of her chair from how tightly she was gripping the arms.

Finally Morrible handed Glinda her tea and sat down, ready to explain why she'd ask them there once she'd taken a sip herself.

"As you know, it is my responsibility to follow the academic careers of all of my girls," she said, "and I take that responsibility very seriously. Particularly when it comes to talents such as yours."

Glinda smiled, "Oh, why thank you, Madame Morrible."

Morrible inclined her head and continued, "What I have learned from your professors is that you both possess talents beyond that which even I had predicted. Now," she stood again and reappeared from the kitchen with a platter of small tea sandwiches and cookies and placed it in front of the young women, "what you don't know. I," she intoned, puffing herself up with her own sense of importance, "am a very close colleague of our most wise and wonderful Wizard in the Emerald City."

Elphaba shared a surprised but wary look with Glinda.

"And as such," Morrible explained, seemingly oblivious to her guests' discomfort, "I am privy to many State Secrets. Such as his plans for the Yellow Brick Road, the expansion of the Great Gillikin Railway, and the Great Kells. Oh, but nevermind all that," she said, waving it away as if they'd distracted her with an interesting topic instead of her just bragging. "What is relevant to you, my dear ladies, are the proud and patient Wizard's plans to expand his all-seeing gaze.

"As you know, Oz is ruled by the merciful and mighty Wizard; and each individual land ruled by its own individual leader. Under Ozma and her Regents, these leaders ruled more and more independently until they no longer recognized the caring, intelligent leadership from the Emerald City."

"What does that have to do with us?" Elphaba asked, though she suspected she knew exactly where this meeting was going.

Morrible looked sharply at her, as if trying to subdue Elphaba's urge to interrupt her through will alone. Or maybe trying to keep herself from doing anything more but stare.

"Well, Miss Elphaba," she said finally, obvious in her effort to draw herself up above any petty, insubordinate lines of questioning, "you and Miss Galinda-"

"Glinda. It's Glinda now, Madame Morrible." Glinda got a stare of her own for that, so she smiled and gestured, picking up one of the dainty little cookies, "I'm sorry, please, continue."

"You and Miss Glinda," Morrible intoned with impatience, "were born into positions of some rank in your homelands. That, in conjunction with your natural talents is what makes our gentle and generous Wizard believe you are the perfect candidates to make his first Magical Adepts."

The three of them were silent for a moment, Madame Morrible allowing them time to absorb and react to this clearly meant-to-be exciting news, and the two students trying to figure out what exactly what the news meant.

"Magical Adepts, Madame Morrible?" Glinda asked, trying to get some clarification.

Morrible managed to give the impression of rolling her eyes without actually making the gesture (as it would be far too rude). "Leaders, my dear. Ambassadors of the Emerald City to your respective homelands. Each of you would be empowered to bring your lands back under the hand of our magnificent and marvelous Wizard through your uniquely powerful talents."

"He wants us to be his Generals, you mean, to take away what independence they have," Elphaba scoffed.

"Elphie!" Glinda warned her quietly.

The look that Madame Morrible turned on Elphaba was hard and unwilling to stand for debate, but her voice remained magnanimous as ever. "Of course you mustn't think you must give your answers now. The Wizard has summoned you to the Emerald City to discuss the terms of your appointments with him personally. I have already arranged for your travel, you will depart first thing tomorrow morning.." She stood, wordlessly dismissing them, and ushered them towards the door (Glinda set down her full teacup, the still whole cookie resting on its saucer). "No need to worry about your classes, your professors have already been informed you’ll be absent. Be sure to wear your best dresses, ladies. You want to make a good impression on the Wizard."

Before they could say anything else Glinda and Elphaba found themselves back out on the campus with Morrible's door shut behind them. They stood there, silent and staring, trying to take in what had just happened.

Elphaba had no interest in becoming a Magical Adept, a glorified soldier in the Wizard's war against independent thought in Oz. She had no intention of saying yes, and she suspected that Madame Morrible knew that. She suspected, most of all, that there was a trap here that she wasn't seeing. The timing was just too much of a coincidence -- allowing for the time it would take for letters to be sent to the Emerald City and back, Morrible had to have sent word to the Wizard soon after Dr. Dillamond's murder. And why would she have done that, in the wake of a tragedy involving a fellow faculty member, even if he was an Animal? Elphaba knew that Madame Morrible had heard what she had said to the policemen. Maybe this was just a way to get her out of the way; or maybe it was something more sinister entirely. Maybe she and the Wizard had plotted to try to use Elphaba and Glinda's own over-inflated self-importance against them, offering them glory in the form of the Wizard's seconds in command to keep them quiet about the oppression and murder of the Animals on top of using them to further the Wizard's totalitarian state and eventually destroy them or sacrifice them to the unhappy masses.

Well, the more fool them, Elphaba thought, she had no sense of self-importance, over-inflated or otherwise.

She knew what was truly important, and that was why she would go to see the Wizard, to present to him Dr. Dillamond's work. Who knew? Maybe he would actually change his mind.

"Elphie?" Glinda had stepped in front of her and taken her hand. Once she was sure she had her friend's attention she asked, lamenting and worried, "Oh, Elphie, what are we going to do?"

Elphaba flattered her with an assured smile, taking up her other hand to hold between them as she looked into her eyes, "Glinda, come with me to the Emerald City."

Glinda flushed and smiled, relaxing that Elphaba was so calm and confident (when was she ever not?), "I've always wanted to see the Emerald City ... "

Chapter Text

As promised there was a carriage waiting for Glinda and Elphaba early on the morning after their meeting with Madame Morrible. Elphaba was concerned about leaving Nessarose alone for as long as it would take them to get to the Emerald City and back, but Boq assured her that he'd do everything he could to help Nessarose make her way about campus; and since their Nanny had come to Shiz with her sister, Nessarose would be taken care of in her room as well. It was the best that Elphaba could do short of choosing to stay or sending Nessa back home to their father. For the first time in her life she needed to do something for herself and and not concern herself with what would happen to Nessarose without her family.

It was actually rather thoughtful of Madame Morrible to arrange for their travel herself. It was a good week's journey from Shiz to the Emerald City for most people who couldn't afford a personal carriage and the horses' care. But with the financial backing of both Shiz and the Wizard, the two young women made it in just over three days' time.

The Emerald City was lavish beyond what either of them could have imagined. It sparkled so brightly that every person who entered the city gates was issued a pair of spectacles with green tinted lenses and between them and the shimmering reflections of the Glikkus emeralds adorning the buildings, it gave the illusion that Elphaba wasn't the only one with verdant skin. It was another first for her, not feeling alone in the world; feeling that maybe she was beautiful too, like the brilliant emeralds sparkling everywhere, instead of like a soggy stewed vegetable loathed by children everywhere.

Something important changed that day, she could feel it in her bones, in her muscles, her skin, her hair. She felt it extend even to Glinda as they absorbed the rich atmosphere, taking in what sights they could before their meeting with the Wizard. Ephaba was no longer the homely young woman that Glinda had befriended in spite of her off-putting appearance and attitude. Now? They were just two dear friends, inseparable as they primped and laughed and enjoyed some true freedom for the first time in their lives. They made a promise to each other that, after they graduated from Shiz University, they would move to the Emerald City to live among the devastatingly fashionable and terminally cultural.

But first, they had an important political meeting to attend to.

-^-

The Palace stood at the center of the city, the tallest building, of course, covered in the most emeralds, built of the finest green marbles. Elphaba and Glinda had washed and changed and freshened up from their journey and arrived an hour before their appointment to speak with the Wizard.

Yet despite their appointment, and despite their early arrival, they still ended up having to wait several hours before they were even called in to be pre-interviewed by the Commander-General of Audiences. He informed them, in dull, bored tones that their initial time was only the time they were meant to be reviewed to make sure that they were worthy of the Wizard's very valuable time; then he gave them the time they would actually be allowed in to see His Grand Eminence and shooed them off.

By the time they got through the whole process and were waiting outside the entrance to the Throne Room, Elphaba's good mood had soured back into one more akin to her more familiar mood. Glinda, in the meantime, had gotten so nervous that she could barely sit still. She fussed and fussed over her dress and her hair and her hat. Until Elphaba, out of annoyance, grabbed her nearest hand.

The gesture startled both of them, in fact, as Elphaba wasn’t prone to casual physicality like this, but as Glinda looked down at Elphie's hand closed around hers, felt the all-too-human warmth of it, she somehow felt calmer. Elphaba too visibly relaxed, her grimace fading at the feel of Glinda's hand in hers, her soft skin so smooth under Elphaba's rough calloused fingers.

"Oh Elphie," Glinda whispered nervously.

Elphaba looked up, catching Glinda's eyes, and told her firmly, "Don't worry. Everything's going to be fine."

And Glinda, sitting there with her hand being gently, almost curiously caressed as she gazed into her dear friend's eyes, actually believed her.

There was more to say, more to express, but they were finally summoned to enter the Throne Room then, and they couldn't afford to wait.

-^-

The hallway leading from the waiting area to the throne room was lined floor to ceiling in exquisite dark green marble that was obviously obsessively cleaned and shined regularly, and was dimly lit by torches, creating the effect that the walls and floor and ceiling were lined in inky mirrors. It was a transparent intimidation tactic, but effective nonetheless.

Of course it was nothing compared to the throne room. The shining marble spilled out of the hallway into a large dual-level room, lit again by torches and lined with decorative columns. In the center of the room was a menacing throne of what looked like organ pipes that towered over everything and everyone. The throne was flanked by two pedestals with a metal bowl perched atop each. Behind and on either side of the throne were small sets of stairs that led up to a slightly elevated area where the young women could see several closed (and presumably locked) doors. To their left was a green velvet curtain, and in front of it a glass and marble display case -- neither of them could see yet what was inside of it.

Neither Elphaba nor Glinda quite knew what they'd been expecting to find when they got there, but it wasn't what they were eventually presented with. After another uncomfortably long wait, the young women were startled by an explosion of fire and smoke from the bowls on either side of the throne. Smoke billowed up from the pillars and from the pipes, creating a wall that rose up to the ceiling that was impossible to see through. After a few moments of thundering clanking some of the smoke cleared enough for them to see a great disembodied head that flashed gold and green.

"I am the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz," it declared in a booming voice that echoed from the walls and floor and ceiling, filling the Throne Room. "Who are you?"

The visitors were momentarily struck speechless, which was exactly the effect the Wizard intended.

He asked again, "Who are you?"

Glinda eventually managed to break out of her apprehension and step forward, "If you please, your Wizardship, I am Glinda Upland, of the Arduennas of the Uplands." She gestured to Elphaba, who stepped forward but still seemed to be unable to find words, so Glinda introduced her, "And this is my dear friend-"

"Elphaba. Elphaba Thropp. The Third Thropp Descending of Nest Hardings."

Glinda smiled at her as she finally found her voice.

"We're here at the behest of-"

"I know why you are here," the Wizard announced, cutting her off.

Elphaba found this quite rude and asked him, annoyed, "If you know why we're here, then you must know who we are, so why did you ask?"

"It is not for a student to question the actions of your Wizard," the head boomed, voice rumbling in the very floor itself and making the two young women cover their ears.

When the outburst finally stopped echoing and his visitors were properly silent, waiting instruction or question, the Wizard finally spoke again, his tone much calmer, almost conversational.

"I know your headmistress, Madame Morrible. She has told me of your talents in sorcery. That is why you are here. Now, a demonstration of your abilities."

Glinda glanced at her companion and shifted to step forward, taking a breath to start casting a spell, but Elphaba threw her arm out, stopping Glinda.

"I think we deserve to at least know why you want to see our skills," she told him.

The head lifted up, hovering higher over the throne as the flames on the pedestals grew and more smoke billowed, "I see you have a problem accepting your place, Miss Thropp. Allow me to remind you. I am the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz. You are but students -- mere ignorant children. Madame Morrible claims you have the potential to be more, but that is for me to decide." Elphaba wasn't cowed, but she was silent, so the fire and smoke drew back and the head lowered back to hover just over the seat of the throne. "Now, read from the page."

Glinda looked around confused, but spotted the display case and hesitantly walked over to it while Elphaba stubbornly stayed where she was. Inside the glass, Glinda saw a page covered with writing so unfamiliar that she wasn't even positive that it was writing at all. She squinted at it, tilted her head, walked around the case hoping that it would sort itself out if she just looked at it from the right angle. But it seemed to be hopeless.

"I'm- I'm sorry," she said eventually, disappointed in herself, sure that she'd just proven herself incapable as a sorcerer. "I can't read this."

The head just dipped in a nod seemingly unsurprised and turned back to Elphaba, "Now you, Miss Thropp."

Elphaba huffed a sigh, arms crossed and refusing to move, "I'm not here to play your games. I came here to talk to you about a serious matter-"

She was cut off by an explosion on the pedestals, startled into movement, only coming back to her senses once she was nearly at the podium enough to grumble, "I don't know what you're expecting. If she can't read it then ... "

She stood at the case, gazing down at the page and placing both hands at either edge of the glass. Her eyes strained as the lines on the page twisted and warped in and out of focus.

"What language is this?" Elphaba asked, her previous annoyance forgotten in her curiosity.

Glinda stood disbelieving behind her.

"Nevermind," the Wizard told her impatiently. "Can you read it or not?"

Elphaba stared at the words, but every time she found a line and started following it, the letters mangled themselves into something alien. She tried to focus, to will them to stay still and they slowly, very slowly obeyed.

"I think so," she told the Wizard.

The fire flared again and the head rose, but seemingly in excitement this time, instead of offense. There was a long pause and Elphaba thought she heard the sound of quiet muttering behind the green curtain, but she was too interested in the page before her to bother worrying about it.

"The first line," the Wizard told her finally, and she noted that the Wizard's mouth didn't move as he spoke right away, as if he'd forgotten to open it, "read it. Cast the spell." Then, almost like he'd caught how un-regal he was acting in his excitability, added in a much more dignified and ordering tone, "Let me see your skills."

Elphaba looked back down at the page and forced the first line to stand still while she read it.

"Votre manassu er aberto tora agus mox votre manassu bedzie dunta."

She struggled through it, straining her eyes and losing focus on the spell just to make sense of the words, she could feel it, so it was no surprise to her when the Wizard demanded of her, "Again!"

"Votre manassu er aberto tora agus mox votre manassu bedzie dunta."

"Again!"

The spell was coming easier now, the words settling into their shapes as they settled into Elphaba's memory. The fourth time she repeated it, casting it now instead of just reading it, Elphaba could feel the power fill and then spill out of her, she'd never felt power like it before. There was the sound of metal sliding against metal, but Elphaba almost didn't notice it, too intent on finishing the chant.

Until Glinda cried out in horror, "Elphie!"

The spell remained half-finished as Elphaba looked back at Glinda, who only pointed in front of her.

The green curtain to the side of the throne had been drawn back and there, chained to some sort of control panel, was a cowering Monkey child.

Elphaba drew back from the podium as another explosion shook the Throne Room, the Wizard demanding to know why she'd stopped. But it wasn't out of fear of the Wizard's theatrics, it was out of horror and disgust for what she'd just been tricked into doing; something she didn't even fully understand until the Monkey started begging them for help in broken half-sentences.

"What did you make me do?!" Elphaba demanded.

The Wizard was infuriatingly dismissive in tone as he answered, "You were simply reverting this poor creature back to its true state."

"This poor creature's 'true state' is as a thinking, speaking Monkey! This is cruelty! This is exactly why I came here!" She pulled a parcel from her bag, several notebooks bound together. "Your Wizardship, this is the work of Doctor Dillamond, a professor at Shiz University, he was studying the differences between humans and Animals up until the day he was murdered, and I think if you'd just read his research you'd find-"

"I am aware of the bleating goat who called himself a professor," the Wizard roared over her. "I find it admirable, in a naive womanly way, that your compassion allowed you to indulge his ridiculous notions of teaching. But the truth is that animals are not capable of handling what is required of them to be fully functioning members of society." Elphaba tried to interrupt, but the Wizard merely raised his voice, speaking right over her, "It is simple science that animals are happier being stupid mindless creatures, working for their human masters or being free and independent living in their own filth in the wild."

Elphaba was silent with fury, past the point of trying to calm herself to try and reason with the Wizard -- clearly he was a man who could not be reasoned with.

He turned the subject of discussion back to what Madame Morrible had sent them there for, but Elphaba didn't hear any of it. She dropped Doctor Dillamond's notebooks onto the display case and stormed over to the frightened Monkey, ignoring all questions about what she was doing. She took his shackles in her hands, summoned a freezing ice to pierce the metal through, and tore them from the Monkey's wrists, tossing them at the floating head of the Wizard, hearing a metallic clank as they impacted. The Monkey climbed up Elphaba's arm and huddled on her shoulder, gripping her dress as she walked back over to the display case, took the notebooks, and used them to smash the glass. She took the page of spells and shoved it into her bag and left the notebooks in its place just as the Wizard shouted for the guards.

"Elphie!" Glinda cried, reaching for her friend's hand, only to be yanked herself, pulled along at a run as the sound of footsteps echoed down the hallway towards them.

She was led to the back of the Throne Room where Elphaba slammed shoulder-first into the nearest locked door, forcing it open and pulling her inside. The Monkey chittered agitated in sounds that were almost words as Elphaba closed the door and rubbed her hands along the seem of it, chanting until the door disappeared into the wall.

"There, that should buy us some time."

"Some time for what?!" Glinda demanded. "Elphie, what are we doing?!"

"Escaping!"

"To where?!"

"I don't know yet!" Elphaba pulled her hat from her head, one that Glinda had given her during their first year at Shiz, looked at it in her hands as if expecting it to tell her what to do. "I can't go back there, not with Madame Morrible still there."

"Why not?" Glinda asked, gently, trying to find Elphaba's motivation so that she could reason with her.

Elphaba snorted, "What do you mean? After what she sent us here to do?"

"You don't know that she sent us here to- to-"

"To lobotomize an Animal!" Elphaba finished for her, not in the least bit regretful when Glinda winced at the harsh phrasing. It may have been harsh, but it was the truth and there was no way to put it more delicately without outright lying. "How do you know she didn't?" she demanded, gesturing furiously with the hat still in hand. "A woman who has no qualms about murdering a sentient Animal wouldn't have any qualms about destroying another one's mind!"

Glinda pressed her hands over her ears until Elphaba stopped talking, trying to block out the awful ugliness she was trying to make Glinda believe.

"So what are you doing to do?" Glinda demanded. "Are you just going to run away?"

Elphaba was silent a moment, but shook her head, "No." She smoothed her hair and put the hat back on. "I'm going to stay."

"Stay?"

"Here, in the Emerald City." She reached up to stroke a surprisingly gently hand down the little Monkey's back, twining her fingers in his tail. "There are underground resistance groups all over the place here, Doctor Dillamond told me about them."

"A terrorist group?! Elphaba-!"

"They're no more terrorists than he is! He's destroying the lives of thousands of rightful citizens of Oz, chasing them from their homes, condoning the murder of them, and looking for ways to take away their voices and free will for good!" Elphaba gestured to the Monkey, filled with righteous fury on his behalf.

But when she looked at Glinda, at the fearful look on her face -- not fear on her own behalf, but fear for Elphaba's future -- she couldn't help but lose some of her angry bluster. There was shouting outside in the Throne Room, coming closer, and Elphaba stepped forward urgently, taking Glinda's hands in her own, clasping them tightly.

"Glinda, nothing's going to change if we don't take a stand to change it. This is the only way."

Glinda huffed and shook her head, looking at Elphie, pained, "I don't know that I believe that. Wouldn't it be better to work with him? So you can show him how wrong he is?"

"You can't reason with these men!"

Pounding now. Not on the wall, but nearby. Elphaba suspected they were at the door next to the one she'd pulled Glinda into.

"Elphie you don't know that! Believe it or not, you don't know everything! And even if it is true, you could do more good in a position of power like that Magical Adept thing than sneaking through the streets like a beggar and blowing up buildings!"

"No!" Elphaba insisted. "I couldn't live with myself if I even pretended to be the pawn of that- that-" More shouting, the floor shook, and the pounding got closer. Elphaba lifted her hand to her friend's cheek, that same surprisingly gentle touch, an expression of desperate hope that Glinda had never seen on her face before, "Glinda. My dear Glinda. Stay with me. Just think of what we could do together. We could change the world. You don't need them to do that, you're already powerful all on your own."

Glinda gazed breathlessly into Elphaba's eyes, drawn in, as she always had been, by the passion of her words and the world she saw. Could they? Could she? She thought about it, about a life spent on the streets of the Emerald City, making it their own, disappearing through the crowds like shadows, only surfacing long enough to chip away at the Wizard's reputation, leaving the people of the city only with the impression of beautiful, justice-seeking spirits that might never have been there to begin with, rallying the oppressed and abused to take their land back from a cruel, unjust ruler. It was all so romantic, an adventurous tale worthy of the great novelists.

But the banging and pounding, now where the door had once been, startled Glinda out of her fantasy, the distaste of living a life of abject poverty and the very real fear of being thrown into the prison at Southstairs bringing her back to reality. To her reality. She couldn't live like that. She wasn't strong the way Elphaba was. She knew that Elphaba could survive whatever the world or the Wizard threw at her -- she already had -- but Glinda was just a spoiled society woman who'd never thought to care about anything particularly important until Elphaba had come into her life.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice thick with sadness at her own weakness. "I can't."

Before she could explain why she could never live up to Elphaba's hopes for her, Glinda found herself wrapped up in strong arms (the Monkey hopped from his perch as soon as it moved) as Elphaba kissed her. Glinda whimpered and lifted her own arms around Elphaba's neck, opening her mouth to her. The kiss felt like forgiveness for her weakness; understanding for her shortcomings; it felt like an apology for all of the things that had gone and would go unsaid; but most of all, and most devastatingly, it felt like goodbye.

When they finally parted, Elphaba was blinking back tears, but for Glinda it was already too late for that.

And without another word Elphaba reached out an arm to the rescued Monkey, who eagerly climbed back up to her shoulder, and turned into the room (that she realized for the first time appeared to be a sitting room of sorts), looking around for something to help her escape from the palace without running into the guards. There was a small closet at the furthest corner where she found a broom, which she perched on a side table and chanted over, "Ahben tahkay ah tum entay ditum entayah," until it hovered of its own accord.

"Go back to Shiz," she told Glinda, taking the broom and opening one of the windows. "Do what you need to do. Do what you think is best. And so will I."

"What about Nessa?"

Elphaba looked back from where she was perched on the windowsill, sitting with her feet hanging down the side of the palace. She considered the question, and told Glinda with a smile, "Tell her that she'll make a wonderful Eminent Thropp, if she cares to!"

With that, Elphaba placed the broom between her legs like a strange exceedingly emaciated and unfortunately headless horse, and leaped out into the open air, to true freedom.

Chapter Text

It didn't take long at all for wanted posters to be put up all over the Emerald City, plastered with the striking green face of Elphaba, now dubbed the Wicked Witch. A terrifying specter who roamed the skies of the city on her enchanted broom, seeking out victims for her irrational violence, killing and maiming all in the name of defending the inferior Animals supposed rights to be treated the same as the clearly superior and more intelligent humans.

Actually, Elphaba hadn't killed anyone since joining the underground resistance, and "maim" was a stretch too. Not that she hadn't caused her fair share of chaos since leaving Shiz, but there were lines even she wouldn't cross, even if they did become more attractive with every new lie the Wizard came out with, every prominent Animal rights activist who mysteriously went missing or ended up dead.

It was suspected that well over 90% of the so-called criminals being held in the Southstairs prison were Animals and human Animal-sympathizers. Elphaba had been pushing her contacts in the Resistance to stage a mass breakout for them since she'd joined up with them, but that kind of mission required significant planning and resources that they just weren't ready for yet.

On some level, Elphaba was fine with that. Of course she worried about the wrongfully imprisoned every day, but she also knew that when the day came that she would stage a large-scale mission like that, it would also likely be the last day she'd be able to stay at the Cloister of Saint Glinda.

She'd moved into the mauntery on the outskirts of the Emerald City almost a year after she'd left Shiz and joined the Resistance. It had become far too easy and common for the Wizard's police to follow her back to her apartments and safehouses, but even the police were hesitant to suspect that a house full of holy women were harboring a dangerous fugitive. So Elphaba became Sister St. Aelphaba, who wore modesty coverings like the devout maunts, who did her chores quickly and thoroughly, and who mostly kept to herself otherwise. It was perfect. Elphaba took to cloistered life easier than many of the novices as a result of her religious childhood; in fact it almost made her nostalgic for the Quaddling Country and her father. Almost.

Chistery, the little Monkey that she'd rescued from the Wizard, had chosen to stay with her, despite several attempts to place him with a family. He seemed to like her for some reason, so eventually Elphaba had just given in and started pouring over the page of spells she'd also stolen from the Wizard, trying to find a reversal spell, and reteaching Chistery language in the meantime. He'd taken well to life at the mauntery too, though for him it was more about the freedom to climb and swing through the trees surrounding the grounds. Elphaba tried to make sure he kept as inconspicuous as possible, but none of the other maunts really bothered him or bothered with him; and those who did usually only did to feed him scraps from the garden.

So it was a quiet and modest and private life that they lived at the mauntery, which was fine by Elphaba. And when she would receive her assignments through letters secreted into a loose stone in the walled fence, she would (taking her broom if necessary) sneak into the Emerald City wrapped in her religious garb, shuck it to do whatever act of civil disobedience she'd been called to, and then rewrap herself to sneak back out again in the ruckus.

The only drawback to life at the mauntery, she supposed, was that she was cut off from any real news of the world. She picked some gossip up and the occasional newspaper while in the Emerald City on her assignments, which was how she'd found out that after graduating Shiz University, Glinda had accepted the position of Magical Adept under the Wizard. Elphaba had never experienced such feelings of betrayal, even destroying the wretched newspaper that had dared to make her read the story. Bitterness had built between them ever since that day and Elphaba didn't care that Glinda knew nothing about it; she couldn't possibly expect anything less having gone to work for a man she knew better than anyone how corrupt he was.

The only other way to receive news at the Cloister of Saint Glinda was through the various travelers who sought refuge there. One such traveler -- a Munchkinlander by marriage going to visit his family in Gillikin and who wanted to avoid the crowded streets and overpriced inns of the Emerald City -- was how Elphaba had come to learn that Nessarose had ascended to Eminent Thropp. Which meant, of course, that her father had died. When or how she would never find out. Elphaba had tried to say a few prayers for his immortal soul, but she'd never really believed in such a thing, so it only felt hollow and insincere. So instead, she promised that if she was ever able to return to Munchkinland that she would lay flowers at his grave.

-^-

The Great Gillikin Railroad was the first and only railroad in all of Oz. It stretched east from The Glikkus and the emerald-filled Scalps, all the way west through the Great Gillikin Forest to the Pertha Hills; north from Mount Runcible, the tallest peak in Gillikin, to Shiz university. And that's where it stopped, at least originally. Back when the railroad was first being built, the industrialists who'd funded the project had been wary of this new Wizard and how much power he was exerting by funding the laying of the Yellow Brick Road. For years they'd negotiated, trying to find some compromise that would extend the GGR to the Emerald City.

Finally, the Wizard had agreed to cut them in on the profits from the emerald mining in the Scalps, since they already used the GGR to transport them as far as Shiz.

As soon as the deal was announced there was uproar all across Oz. Or, well, at least across Munchkinland. Obviously Gillikin was pleased at the prospect of finally having a train that would reach to the Emerald City; Munchkinland on the other hand only saw this as a way to further Gillikin's unfair advantages. Why should Gillikin profit from the mining of the Scalp emeralds? The Glikkus wasn't part of Gillikin any more than it was Munchkinland, but Munchkinland shared a far larger border with it. Besides, since the railroad would be coming into the Emerald City from the north, Munchkinlanders wouldn't gain any benefit from it excepting those who went to Shiz or the very rare visitor to Gillikin.

It was an obviously biased and corrupt move, which already set Elphaba's teeth on edge. But then news came that the GGR extension would be built by Animal slave labor and Elphaba was already planning how to disrupt the ground-breaking ceremony for the Emerald City’s railroad station when the official assignment came.

As with all of the Resistance's major missions, no single agent knew the whole plan. Each was given their assignment, warning if they would be working directly another agent, and nothing else. The idea was to make sure none of them could reveal anything incriminating enough to bring the whole organization down should any of them be caught.

For the GGR assignment, Elphaba knew what her part was and that there would be another agent splitting the work. They were both to wear a brown scarf around their right arm to indicate to each other who they were. Elphaba waited until she'd slunk over to the large machinery that would be used in the construction of the train station and then tied a scrap of rough brown fabric she'd torn from her maunt's robes before getting to work. She didn't know much about the large clockwork machines and their inner workings, but it wasn't very hard to figure out where the most important pieces of machinery were nor how to make sure some serious damage was caused. Bolts were loosened, gears stopped up, and piles of hay and sticks shoved under the bellies of the massive metal beasts, doused in oil, and lit on fire.

As the smoke built up around the machines, Elphaba finally came upon her fellow agent, working their way from the other end of the machines to meet her in the middle of the line. But what struck her wasn't so much the lovely brown silk scarf tied around his sleeve. What struck her was the familiar combination of brown skin and blue diamond tattoos.

Fiyero stared at her through the growing haze and Elphaba stared back. Both of them caught off-guard when the leader of the mission, who'd taken the podium when the Wizard's Public Relations man had stepped away to check on the smoke, shouted into the crowd, "No freedom for Animals, no freedom for Oz! Down with the tyranny and greed of the Wizard!"

After a flustered moment of surprise and almost missing their cue, Elphaba and Fiyero rushed around the machines to join in the answering echo, soon turned into a chant building in vehemence as the fires burned and warped the metal tools, building up pressure inside their bellies.

It didn't take long for the Emerald City Police to come barging in to break the scene up and before Elphaba even knew she was going to do it she'd grabbed Fiyero by the arm and dragged him off into the city. It was the largest and most destructive mission that the Resistance had pulled to date and she was running on pure instinct, determined not to get caught and not to let a newly discovered ally get caught either. She'd noted as she'd turned to grab Fiyero's arm that he'd had the good sense to wrap another scarf around his head, similar to Elphaba's maunt's robes, masking his identity in front of the crowds. He shed it as they came to the alley where Elphaba had hidden her robes and broom. She wrapped herself in them and impatiently assured Fiyero that the broom could carry them both; whatever serious concerns for safety he had, though, were obviously of less importance than their final orders to get out as quickly as possible away from the shouting policemen.

So he climbed on behind Elphaba, who rebalanced according to the extra weight, and the Wicked Witch flew the skies over the Emerald City once more to the horror of its citizens left in the wake of the explosions caused by the fires.

-^-

Elphaba didn't take Fiyero to the Cloister of Saint Glinda, at his own insistence, not wanting to risk endangering her or her cover. Instead, after a circuitous route, she flew them to a nearby headquarters of sorts for the Resistance.

The barn and nearby little wooden home had started out their lives as the home of an apple farmer and storage for the apples and all of the tools needed to farm them (inversely respective, of course). Technically they still were. But the apple farmer had evolved from being just an apple farmer to being an apple farmer and a key member of the Resistance; and the barn no longer just stored apples and apple farming paraphernalia, it also was a key part of the Resistance. Not only did the barn -- located well to the west of the Emerald City (some ways south of the Cloister) -- provide a perfect large and isolated space for meetings, it also provided space for a printing press that printed out news and assignments to distribute to agents of the Resistance, and a place for them to hide if needed.

And Elphaba and Fiyero needed. The Emerald City was on high alert after the attack on the railroad and the Wicked Witch stuck out like a sore green thumb.

The barn had no real beds to speak of, but since they were the only (or more likely just the first) agents hiding out there, at least they were able to tumble into the hay loft together, expend the lingering energy and adrenaline, and then sleep the long evening off.

-^-

They spent nearly a week together at the apple farm, catching up on the last two years in between helping the farmer in his orchard. Elphaba learned that Fiyero had married shortly before graduating Shiz and that his family was upset that he spent so much time away from home in the Emerald City. He couldn't help it, though, he explained; that day in class with the poor helpless lion (or Lion) cub had never left him. Elphaba and Glinda had inspired him to do something and, in petitioning around the Emerald City for Animal rights, Fiyero had been introduced to the Resistance.

With how high-profile and destructive this past mission had been, though, and how angry it had made the Wizard and his men, Fiyero had informed his contacts that it would have to be his last mission, at least for the time being. He did have a family to think about, after all, and he intended, once he thought it would be safe, to return to the castle of Kiamo Ko where they waited for him.

Elphaba offered little information about her own life after she'd left Shiz, but she readily answered Fiyero's questions. In that way, Fiyero learned about her connection to the Resistance, her life at the Cloister. And in listening to the way she spoke about her life, he learned that she held a grudge against Glinda, and another lesser one against her sister, and that Elphaba fully expected to give her life to the cause or live the rest of her days as a maunt.

Once word came that the hunt in the Emerald City was dying down a bit, Fiyero bade farewell to Elphaba, urged her to not think so poorly of Glinda until she'd spoken to her, and departed for the Vinkus.

Elphaba considered heeding his advice, but in the end she just traveled back to the Cloister to lie low and reassure Chistery that she was alright.

Neither of them promised to keep in touch. It would only have put both of them in more danger than they already were.

-^-

A little over a year went by before Elphaba received another assignment. When she read what she was to do, she knew that it would be her last, one way or the other.

When she finally arrived back at the Emerald City, she learned that her notoriety had only gotten stronger in her absence. The green-clad citizens almost seemed like they had little else to do than talk about the latest rumors -- that she'd flown to the Glikkus to hoard all of the emeralds for herself; that she was lying in wait to foist out her sister and take up her rightful place as Eminent Thropp; that she'd already taken over the Vinkus and Quaddling Country and was rallying them into her own personal army. Very few people seemed to think that she'd just retired, but some of those who did believed that she'd gone to see what lay beyond the unknown western border of the Vinkus.

Elphaba found every idea more ridiculous than the last, but it only further proved to her that she was already feared and that after this mission there would be nowhere near the Emerald City where she would be able to run.

She worked mostly alone this time -- there were very few agents working on it since it was so dangerous; Elphaba could only imagine that the other agents were like her with very little to lose and ready to disappear afterwards. Each of them knew their jobs well, though, and knew how to keep out of sight, so by the time the blast wrenched through the air, the only living beings Elphaba had seen were the now-unconscious guards, and the soon-to-be former hostages of the Southstairs Prison.

It was early in the morning still so despite the blast, it was still unnaturally quiet in the aftermath as Elphaba and the other agents led their groups of refugees to scattered but nearby escape routes from the city. There, they were given food, water, and directions to the apple farm and other safe havens with a password that would guarantee them passage to safety away from the reach of the Emerald City.

By the time Elphaba was done seeing off former comrades, classmates, and even some former teachers, the police had gone on full alert. The Emerald City was quickly being locked down, citizens warned of dangerous escaped prisoners and that they should stay inside, not answer the door except for uniformed officers. She knew it would make it harder for her fellow agents to get out of the city safely, but she also knew that they'd gone into this expecting that outcome. If they didn't have a backup plan, then that wasn't her responsibility; once she'd gotten her group of refugees safely out of the city, her only responsibility was getting herself out safely, and no lockdown could keep her grounded.

-^-

Elphaba managed to lie low at the Cloister for some time without incident -- as expected, even the thugs of the Emerald City police force were hesitant to knock on a mauntery's door and accuse a group of religious women of harboring a dangerous fugitive.

But several weeks later, after admitting a new novice from the Emerald City itself, the Superior Maunt, for the first time since showing Elphaba to it, entered her room.

"Sister St. Aelphaba," she said in not a small amount of distress, "it is time for you to leave us."

Elphaba looked up from her meditations over the page of spells, confused and concerned, "Excuse me, Sister?"

The Superior Maunt wasted no further time explaining the situation, "The new novice recognized you and has reported your presence here to the police. If you leave now you'll have a day's headstart." Elphaba couldn't react, could only stare at the woman who'd apparently known who she was ... for how long? "You really don't have time to waste," she warned Elphaba and turned for the door, telling her as she left, "Do not tell any of us where you're going. We'll all be safer that way."

Finally Elphaba managed to push herself into action and called after the Superior Maunt, "Wait! If you knew who I was, why did you protect me?"

The Superior Maunt stopped just in the doorway and turned back to tell Elphaba, "We're here to protect anyone who seeks refuge here. Besides, you're hardly the only one who dislikes the Wizard."

Then she left and closed the door behind her to give Elphaba her privacy while she gathered her things to escape. It took almost no time at all, since she didn't plan on taking much -- Chistery, the page of spells, some spare robes and food, and the broom of course. She had a small internal debate over whether or not to take the tall pointed hat that Glinda the traitor had given to her so long ago, but eventually decided that it would at least give her some protection from the elements since she wasn't sure yet where she was going or how long she would be flying, and that was the only reason, she told herself.

She left everything else behind and once again snuck out through the window, flying somewhere she wasn't sure of yet. But she took to the west and never looked back.

When the police finally came from the Emerald City, the Superior Maunt showed them to a room that was sparsely furnished and recently cleaned. She explained to them that Sister St. Aelphaba had always been a quiet, pious woman and had decided that life near the busy Emerald City was just too much for her, so she'd left the day before to find a mauntery in more isolated lands. The Superior Maunt suspected she'd gone south towards Quaddling Country. When they asked about the infant, she told them the sad story of the mother who'd stayed with them when she'd given birth and had chosen to leave the babe in their care than take him with her to be raised by a mother who didn't truly want him.

And when they asked about the Wicked Witch, the Superior Maunt told them with greatest confidence, that there had never anyone by the name of Elphaba Thropp at the Cloister of Saint Glinda.

-^-

Elphaba briefly considered returning to Munchkinland to hide out with her sister, but quickly decided that she would be too easily found there, putting herself and Nessarose in danger. Instead she followed her original path, taking to the western skies and flying for the Vinkus. There she would touch base with Fiyero and he could help her find someplace in his country where she could hide out.

She flew almost nonstop for three days before she finally saw the towers of Kiamo Ko looming up amongst the peaks of the Great Kells. But rather than feel relief at the sight of it, she felt an oncoming sense of dread, and from the agitated way he was acting, she knew that Chistery felt it too.

They made a circuit of the grounds before finally landing in the courtyard. Waited for someone to come out and greet them. And were only further dismayed upon finding the doors open and unlocked when no one came.

Elphaba's greetings were only answered by her own echoes and the further she explored, the more certain she was that something awful had happened to Fiyero and his family. But awful or not, she had nowhere else to go, and the castle was well-guarded and well-placed to see any oncoming attacks well beforehand from the top of the clearly long-unused towers. So Elphaba cleared a room out at the top of the southeast tower that looked out in the direction of the Emerald City.

Which was how she came to spot an old Winkie woman come one morning to tend a patch of flowers in the courtyard. She nearly gave the woman a heart attack, bursting from the castle the way she had, demanding to know what she was doing and if she knew anything of what had happened to the Prince and his family.

The woman invited herself inside once she’d finished tending to the garden and made them both tea while she explained the whole tragic affair to Elphaba as well as she knew it.

Fiyero had been very paranoid when he'd come back from his latest trip to the Emerald City and had hired guards to keep watch day and night all around the castle. But when four months had passed without even the sight of a green wool coat, he'd relaxed and sent most of the guards away. Two months later, almost to the day, a contingency of Emerald City policemen surprised the castle in the early morning hours. The woman had been out with her sheep on a hill to the west of it and heard the sounds of battle and saw the smoke. She kept her distance until the smoke cleared (what could an old woman and some sheep do that a young strapping prince and his guards couldn't?) and made her way over to the castle in time to see the policemen moving out.

They'd been brutal and she had no qualms in letting Elphaba know what a favor she'd done her by cleaning up after the brutes instead of letting her find them herself. She'd cleaned up the bodies and buried them, marking their graves with the flowers she came back once a month to tend to.

Elphaba numbly thanked the old woman for the information and for the tea and sent her on her way. Once outside, the old woman fled as the Wicked Witch's shrieks rent the air, echoing almost unnaturally throughout the walls of Kiamo Ko.

Elphaba rampaged through the castle, despair and guilt giving way to horrible ugly rage. She tore and smashed anything that hadn't already been destroyed or stolen by the Wizard's men, making her way from ground level up through the towers. By the time she'd worked her way around to the southwest tower, she'd gotten her wits back enough to actually see the things she was grabbing; which was lucky because otherwise the book would have been lost forever.

The title twisted in her vision in a way that was immediately, nauseatingly familiar. She forgot about her rampage, crouching on the floor to scour over the book, seeking out the place where the page she had stolen from the Wizard had been torn out. She found it in the middle of a section that, near as she could tell, contained spells for use on intelligent, sentient beings, though it only specified humans. There were several sections in the book, all describing spells that effected a different part of the world and nature and the creatures in it.

She took the book and hurried back to the room she'd made for herself in the southwest tower, propping it at the window where she could almost make out the sparkling green spires of the Wizard's emerald palace in the distance. Chistery chattered and squealed in excitement as she flipped through the pages, finally landing on the section for weather.

"If the Wizard wants a war," she muttered to herself and Chistery, "then that's what this Wicked Witch will give him."

-^-

Around one hundred miles away, give or take, the Emerald City was brought to a standstill as dark, looming clouds came quickly upon them from the west. Of course storms weren't unheard of in the warm Spring months, but even those people who hadn't noticed the way the stormclouds had almost stampeded towards them had to stop and take note when a horrible crashing sound filled the city.

And then the screams.

It would take the city weeks to repair the damage, for the wounded to fully heal. But the rumors had already spread, after all what else could cause a massive freak hail storm in the middle of Spring other than the return of the Wicked Witch, now more dangerous than she’d ever been?