A\N: I'm sorry.

Elphie was losing control.

Glinda realized that as soon as she walked in. Oh, at Elphie's level of power she may not be, but a knack for empathy like Glinda's was nothing to sneeze at, and Glinda had to stop herself from smacking her lips to clear the bitter taste of insanity and despair from her mouth.

The stink would linger in her mind even if she cleared her mouth.

Apparently, since Dorothy was now clad in soft leatherlike slippers-Glinda had a feeling they were her old faux-leather ones that had mysteriously 'vanished' to reappear as Elphie's favorite dorm slippers-the insanity had passed. Glinda had even thanked Dorothy for her help in it. Giving Elphie a hug had been simply inspired. Elphie was even dealing with Toto rather well, and the idiot of a dog had been trying to eat her hair for the past fifteen minutes.

But she was starting to wonder if she'd been hasty in that assessment.

"Elphie?" Glinda asked quietly. "Remember what happened last time you had a Plan?"

Elphaba just grinned.

"Why? What happened?" Dorothy asked curiously.

Glinda shut her eyes in horror while Elphaba's grin grew wider. "Oh, nothing." The Wicked Witch chirped cheerily. "Toto, no. That is my hair."

"Elphie. You can not call three very large and annoyed Velociraptors attacking Boq's hat in the gymnasium because they think it's their unborn egg nothing." Glinda said with a shudder. "And that was just the end result."

"Veloci-whats?" Dorothy asked, a rather unbecoming and mischievous sparkle in her eye.

"Dangerous and extinct." Glinda said firmly, trying to silence that train of thought before it got started. The last thing Oz needed was for Elphaba to take on an apprentice in insanity, not in the least because Dorothy appeared so innocent at first.

Elphaba's grin just grew worse. "All the more reason to want in." She handed Dorothy Toto. "Gale, take your dog before I'm scalped."

Glinda paused and considered.

"Okay, you have a point." She admitted. "But I am getting you in front of a licensed mind-healer as soon as it's over, got it, Elphie? And you are talking, missy. No more of that dumping-fish-on-the-healer's-head nonsense!"

Elphie shrugged. "Fine."

Glinda was definitely warning the healer about Velociraptors.

Dorothy looked up at Elphaba in unadulterated awe. "Elphaba? Can I help with the Plan? Pleeease?"

"No." Glinda said firmly. Elphaba's Plans were not for children's eyes.

"Actually, it sort of hinges on her." Elphaba said apologetically.

Glinda sighed. "Dare I ask why?"

"...She has to throw a bucket of water on me."

"This is just going to get weirder, isn't it."

"Oh, yes."

Glinda turned and waved her wand. "In that case," She decreed, "We could all use some peppermint tea."

The Wicked Witch of the West was no more.

The Vinkus were singing that fact rather enthusiastically. Glinda winced as she heard it. The song was nearly as bad as the one the Ozians had decided to perform for Dorothy before she set out on her journey. Glinda had seen the terror on the little girl's face and knew it had been mirrored on her own.

Luckily, Dorothy was too young and stupid to remember it for long.

Glinda, safe in her bubble, floated down to the crowd with a false smile on her face and began explaining events, or rather the official version. Her handshakes and brief smiles were reassurances; her words soothing gestures. As an empath, Glinda made a skilled politician.

But it was worthless without Elphaba.

When the rather irritating Vinkus farmer demanded to know if Glinda was Elphaba's friend, it nearly broke her heart, because in truth, she wasn't. A real friend would have stopped Elphie.

But Glinda was a best friend. And a best friend did exactly the opposite.

A best friend knew when to let go.

So she hid her tears and smiled and lied. And when she returned to the Emerald City, the Wizard and Madame Morrible offered horrible false sympathy.

Dorothy did not return.

Glinda offered, by way of explanation, the burnt Witch's broom. The Wicked Witch had gestured grandly, lit her broom on fire from a torch, and accidentally lit her own skirts aflame. Dorothy had found a bucket of water handy and thrown it reflexively. But the fire had spread to the walls, and so Dorothy, trapped in the fire, had burned to death.

A failure of a death for a promising life.

And the worst was that Glinda didn't know whom she referred to when she said it, Elphaba or Dorothy.

Glinda, citing a 'slight headache', had gone into her room and locked the door.

As soon as she did, her eyes lit up.

It had been three days since the Witch's death. Everyone was thrilled.

And then they saw the cloud of dust.

The Emerald City's inhabitants had been surprised at first. Whom could be arriving, that would make such a fuss?

And then they saw the Animals.

The collective thought seemed to run thus:

Oh, shit.

However, to everyone's surprise, the walls of the Emerald City held. The Animals were kept outside, the people in, and all was well.

Then, an hour later, the attack stopped.

Surprised, everyone rushed to the Palace. What was happening? Why?

And who was on the balcony? Not Press Secretary Morrible, no. This was a tall, gaunt woman, draped in long black shawls and hunched over a book. But Lady Glinda was beside her, so she couldn't be that bad, could she?

"Fellow Ozians!" Glinda said aloud, and, for a change, somberly. "I am astonished and saddened to report that the Wizard has been arrested, as has most of his advisors."

Gasps.

"This is because the Wizard has lied. He has lied about the Animals. He has lied about his own power. And to prove to you his lies, the most powerful sorceress in all of Oz will let your glasses fall from your faces." Glinda held up a hand. "Judge for yourselves, people of Oz! If I am wrong, then the city will be blindingly bright, and I will willingly accept whatever punishment is dealt. But if I am right?"

She grinned.

"The city will not be green."

The citizens murmured, and Lady Glinda nodded at the sorceress.

Then, quietly, the woman began to chant.

"Eka eka thurnamos, eka eka thurnamos, eka...eka...THURNAMOS!" The woman cried, her power shooting out and unlocking the glasses.

And then the truth was revealed.

Shouts and cries came from the crowd. A nightmarish rumble was beginning. The Ozians had been lied to.

And they were angry.

As they lifted the bars on the doors and let the Animals in, tearing any Wizard propaganda down and destroying it, Elphaba Thropp lifted her shawl. No one noticed.

But Dorothy, Boq, Fiyero, and the Lion crept out from behind a curtain to stand beside her, the circle complete.

Elphaba, watching as her world righted itself, stood tall. See, she told her teenaged self, just beginning at Shiz, There was a celebration in your name, you survived it, and now you are the most powerful person in Oz. Now you can truly change and save lives.

Be proud. You've earned it.

"Wait," Dorothy asked, "Where's Toto?"

Elphaba frowned and turned her head.

Toto saw her hair...

And leaped.

The End.