Chapter Text
The dark words spun and swirled across the worn pages of the Grimmerie like black crows across a clear winter sky. Though she couldn’t consciously articulate what the words meant, Elphaba could feel their meaning as deeply as her bones.
For instance, the levitation spell felt like running across fields of blonde wheat with arms outspread, like dancing with Glinda amid their peers as if no one were watching, like giggling with Glinda at that first rush of speed as the train took them toward their destiny in the Emerald City.
It felt like freedom.
And as the Emerald City guards clamored just beneath them, Elphaba needed freedom.
“Ah ben tak kan, ah ben tak kan ah tum...”
“Not that hideoteous levitation spell,” Glinda groaned somewhere behind her, “Elphaba, please.”
Elphaba continued to chant, though her focus wavered in the face of the blonde’s chatter. Doubt seeped in at the edges of her mind even as she forced herself to focus on the drifting letters of the book.
“You don’t know what you’re doing with that, please,” Glinda begged.
Elphaba narrowed her eyes, doubling down on the intensity of her chanting. She knew exactly what she was doing. What had happened with Chistery was a horrendible mistake, but Elphaba would get it right this time. She had to.
“Ah ben ana tah, ah ben for…” Elphaba continued, practically panting at the power she was beginning to feel course through her veins like warm honey.
“Stop!” Glinda cried, “Stop!”
The fear in Glinda’s voice finally snapped Elphaba out of the spell. She looked back, half-guilty and half-frustrated. Glinda returned her gaze with a desperation that surprised her.
“Well,” Glinda sighed, gesturing to Elphaba, “Where are your wings?”
Elphaba looked away, the power she’d felt moments earlier dissipating like smoke.
“Maybe you’re not as powerful as you think you are,” Glinda said, voice breaking with some emotion Elphaba could not identify even as the words stabbed at Elphaba’s most sensitive spots.
‘Stop your useless jabbering.’
The voice of her father echoed in her head. Was that all her chanting really was? Glinda seemed to think so, even after professing her supposed belief in Elphaba earlier that day.
‘You can do this. You can do anything.’
Those words that had meant so much to Elphaba… Had they been a lie, too? Just like Morrible, just like the Wizard… Of course no one could truly care about Elphaba. She’d been stupid to hope. She’d told herself not to time and time again, but her wicked heart could never help it.
Maybe her father was right. Maybe Elphaba’s powers were useless except to cause pain and destruction.
Elphaba shut her eyes as memories of her inadequacies, of all the people she let down, filled her thoughts...
Then, a whimper.
At first, Elphaba just shut her eyes tighter. She was tired of hearing Glinda’s cowardly pleas and cries for them to go back to normal. Couldn’t the other girl see that nothing could ever go back to normal now?
But then the whimper turned into a gasp of pain.
Despite herself, Elphaba’s eyes shot open, and she whipped around just in time to see Glinda stumble to her knees. Her wide brown eyes were full of confusion and surprise and something Elphaba had never expected to see after everything they’d been through together--fear of her.
There was a sickening crunch, like bones not just snapping but crumbling, and Glinda cried out loud in pain.
Elphaba was at her side in an instant, all previous annoyance forgotten.
“Galinda,” she blurted out, trying to scoop the other girl up into her arms without hurting her further.
Glinda arched her spine, a scream bursting out of her throat as if it were ripped from her very core, the sound so violent that Elphaba worried it would somehow tear the girl's vocal cords to shreds.
Elphaba’s heart pounded against the walls of her chest as she struggled to at least gather Glinda’s thrashing head into her lap so that she wouldn’t hurt herself more. As Glinda continued to convulse wildly and scream brokenly, Elphaba’s mind was too clouded by panic to understand why any of this was happening. All she knew was that she wanted it all to stop.
“Hurts,” Glinda wheezed between agonizing cries, sweat beading along her hairline, “Elphie, please.”
“J-just hold out,” Elphaba managed to say through the lump in her throat.
Glinda’s lovely brown eyes seemed to look past her, darting back and forth as if she couldn’t see what was right in front of her, “Elphie… Elphie!”
“I’m here,” Elphaba pleaded helplessly, stroking her long nails through soft blonde hair.
“E-elphie,” Glinda cried, tears slicing down her cheeks, “Help.”
“I’m sorry,” Elphaba whimpered, tears of her own dripping down her cheeks to join Glinda’s, “I don’t know what to do.”
With a particularly violent spasm, Glinda managed to flip herself around so that she was on her hands and knees, head hanging low enough to touch the ground. Some distant, instinctual part of Elphaba worried about how the position might expose Glinda, clad as she was in a dress, to the guards if they were to enter. However, that worry was quickly overshadowed when the reason for Glinda’s sudden episode became sickeningly clear.
Strange ridges were growing on either of Glinda’s shoulder blades, bulging beneath her clothes. Then grotesque, bony protrusions sprouted from the area, tearing through her pretty dress like it was made of paper. Glinda shrieked one last time before slumping fully onto the floor, finally unconscious, as those protrusions expanded and filled out with flesh and feathers until it was clear what they were--what had happened to Glinda.
What Elphaba had done to her.
The wings were different from the ones she had bestowed upon Chistery. Except for the red streaks of blood and what Elphaba nauseously realized were chunks of flesh ripped from Glinda's back, the wings were white. As if Elphaba had subconsciously planned for them to fit nicely on her cute little roommate, the wings had a pink shimmer to them, iridescent and shiny where the light from the setting sun touched them.
‘Look what you’ve done!’
The voice of her father echoed again through Elphaba’s head as she choked on a sob. For the first time in a while, Elphaba could only agree with his sentiments.
“Glinda, I’m sorry,” she cried, pulling the limp girl prone into her lap, careful to avoid jostling the wounds on her back.
Glinda stirred beneath her touch, blinking up at her innocently unaware for a brief moment that Elphaba had hurt her, “Elphie?”
“I’m here,” she soothed, voice cracking, “I’m here, my sweet.”
Before Glinda could reply, the guards finally burst into the room with a bang.
Elphaba didn’t even glance their way, as she couldn’t take her eyes off of her poor Glinda’s familiar, sweet face clouded with pain.
“Dear Oz,” someone swore, sounding disgustified, “What is that?”
Elphaba glanced up, for a moment instinctively expecting the person’s gaze to be fixated on her own verdigris. Instead, the guards’ eyes were all on… Glinda.
For once, Glinda seemed to shrink under the attention, her complexion going even more ashen with fright.
“What?” the girl asked, voice uncharacteristically small as she craned her neck to try and see her own back.
“The Witch did this!” someone yelled, setting off a ripple of shouts.
“It’s uncanny!”
“It’s obscene!”
“Enough!” Elphaba shouted, her voice harsh and unfamiliar to her own ears, driven by the pain of seeing the same horror she experienced daily suddenly thrust upon her best friend.
Elphaba felt a bolt of magic flow out from her along with the shout, and the guards were all pushed back behind the door by an invisible force. With a grunt, Elphaba waved her hand, and the door slammed shut once more.
The banging on the door resumed, and Elphaba realized she and Glinda were still stuck at the top of the tower with no way of escape.
Unless…
“Glinda,” Elphaba said urgently, looking deep into her friend’s frightened eyes, “Listen to me, there isn’t much time.”
“Elphaba, what’s happened to me?” Glinda pleaded, clinging on to Elphaba's dress like a lost child, “I’m scared.”
“I know,” Elphaba murmured, pulling Glinda close against her, “But I need you to be brave for me for a little while, okay? I need you, Glinda.”
Glinda was silent for a clock tick, her face hidden in Elphaba’s neck, “Okay,” she finally whispered uncertainly.
“Remember that ‘hideoteous’ levitation spell?” Elphaba asked gently, leaning back and cupping Glinda’s face in both her hands to look directly at her face, “I’m so sorry, but it…”
Elphaba swallowed against the bile of her self-hatred that rose in her throat, “It went wrong. I suppose my attention drifted to… you, and now… Well…”
Glinda’s eyes shone with dreadful recognition, and she reached a trembling hand behind her back. Only, the second her hand brushed the new addition to her anatomy, she flinched in pain, a horrendible whimper escaping her throat.
“I’m sorry,” Elphaba whispered, “Glinda, I’m so sorry.”
“It hurts,” Glinda whined, eyes wide, “Can’t you make it go away? Please, Elphie?”
Whatever remained of Elphaba’s heart crumbled into a million pieces, “Glinda… I would if I could, but a spell from the Grimmerie can never be reversed.”
“Oh,” Glinda replied, in that same tiny, frightened tone that hurt Elphaba’s ears worse than even the increasingly loud banging on the door to their room in the tower.
“We have to go,” Elphaba said urgently, rising to stand, “It’s not safe here now, for me or for you.”
Glinda tried to stand as well, but the weight of her wings must have put her off balance, because she instantly toppled back to the floor, landing unceremoniously on her bottom. Wincing in sympathy, Elphaba offered a hand to help her up and was relieved when Glinda took it, accepting her help even after what Elphaba had done.
“What are we going to do?” Glinda asked, teeth chattering a little.
Elphaba didn’t know whether it was from fear or cold or pain, but the girl was shaking like a leaf. She must have lost her jacket at some point in all the chaos, and she also now had two gaping holes in the back of her dress.
Desperate to do something, Elphaba took a moment that she didn't really have to scavenge through all the junk around them to find some object capable of warming Glinda even a little bit. She picked up a large black sheet, but there was no way to wrap Glinda in it without covering up her wings, which would be needed in a clock tick. Instead, Elphaba settled on a smaller white blanket. It was covered in dust, but she did her best to shake it all off before approaching her friend.
“Here,” Elphaba said softly, “Put this around you.”
Glinda looked at her, trusting despite everything, as Elphaba wrapped the little blanket around her head like a shawl and tied it in the front.
It wasn’t enough, so she wrapped the other girl up in a hug as well, careful to avoid touching the sensitive wings.
“We have to go now,” Elphaba murmured in her ear, “You have to take us out of here.”
“What? But Elphie,” Glinda protested, “I can’t--”
“You can,” Elphaba said firmly, believing it with everything in her, “Glinda, you can do anything.”
She really could. She’d had the whole of Shiz wrapped around her little finger within seconds of setting foot on campus. She’d wanted to date a Prince, and she’d gotten him within a twenty-four hour period. Even in the things she struggled with, like history and sorcery, Glinda never seemed to give up. Elphaba couldn’t think of a more capable person.
“No,” Glinda shook her head, shutting her eyes tight as if to block everything out.
Then the guards burst through the door again.
This time, they’d come armed.
“We have to go,” Elphaba repeated desperately, caressing Glinda’s goose-pebbled upper arms in an attempt to convince her as well as warm her, “Please, Galinda.”
Elphaba waited until she felt a nearly imperceptible nod of Glinda’s head, and then she grasped the other girl's hand and quickly led her to the edge of the tower. Glinda’s wings fluttered out behind her, large and unwieldy in comparison to Glinda's small frame, but so beautiful. Elphaba could only hope it would be enough to lift them both with the added help of her own magic, which Elphaba knew from practicing in her sorcery seminar could levitate herself short distances.
“Get her!”
“Kill her!”
Elphaba tightened her hold on Glinda’s hand, and the two looked at each other for just a clock tick as violence approached them from behind and open sky awaited them ahead. Though Glinda’s eyes were puffy from crying and wide with fear, she still managed to give Elphaba a trembling tiny little smile, complete with those familiar dimples Elphaba had grown to adore. Despite her tears, Elphaba smiled back at her with a wink and squeezed her hand tight before they both turned back to the sky.
Then, they leapt.
Together.