Chapter Text
Elphaba gave a small cry and slid on her knees towards the remnants of her sister.
“Nessa, please, please, please forgive me,” she whispered, curling into herself. If only I—
“Elphie, you mustn't blame yourself. It’s—it’s dreadful to have a house fall on your, but accidents will happen—”
“You call this an accident? ” Elphaba hissed, her eyes narrowed.
“Yes!” Glinda paused, eyebrows furrowing. “Well, maybe not an accident…”
“What do you call it then, Glinda?” Elphaba was using all of her willpower to make sure she didn’t jump her former best friend right then and there.
“Well…a regime change. Caused by a bizarre and unexpected twister of fate.”
Elphaba shot up, the clamp on her fury slowly beginning to weaken. “You think cyclones appear out of the blue?”
“I don’t know, I never really—”
“No, of course you never! You’re too busy telling everyone how wonderful everything is!”
“I’m a public figure now!” Glinda shouted back. “People expect me to—”
“LIE? ”
Glinda spluttered. “Be—encouraging! And what exactly have you been doing besides riding around on that filthy old thing?” She gestured wildly at the broom, loosely held in Elphaba’s hands. It wasn’t even grimy, the wood was polished and neat. Glinda just needed something to say.
“Well, we can't all come and go by bubble. Whose invention was that, the Wizard's?” Elphaba sneered. “Of course, even if it wasn't, I'm sure he'd still take credit for it.”
Glinda frowned. “Yes, well, a lot of us are taking things that don't belong to us, aren't we?”
Elphaba paused, her brows rising in disbelief. “Now wait just a clock tick! I know it may be difficult for that blissful, blonde brain of yours to comprehend that someone like him could actually choose someone like me! But it happened...it's real. And you can wave that ridiculous wand all you want, you can't change it!”
Glinda’s eyes turned angry.
“He never belonged to you, he doesn't love you, and he never did! He loves me!” Elphaba briefly wondered what Fiyero would think, having two girls fight over him. He’d probably say something stupid and make the whole situation worse. She shook her head fondly.
Suddenly, a sharp pain erupted across Elphaba’s cheek. She laughed maniacally. “Feel better now?” Elphaba said mockingly, mildly surprised by the slap.
Glinda turned her nose up. “Yes. I do.”
“Good!” Elphaba stepped closer. “So do I.” She slapped Glinda in turn, making sure her nails didn’t cut a slice in the other girl’s cheek.
Glinda gasped indignantly and began to twirl her wand, gearing up to fight. Elphaba rolled her eyes and hefted her broom, pointing it at Glinda. The second both of them reached each other, they dropped their respective weapons and just tackled one another. Glinda screeched as she ripped off Elphaba’s hat and began to whack her over the head. Elphaba was very close to biting Glinda’s arm to get her to stop.
“Halt, in the name of the Wizard!”
Suddenly, Elphaba was dragged away, her legs scraping the gravel.
“Stop!” she yelled, thrashing in their arms. “Let me go!”
Glinda was also being dragged away, albeit with more respect and gentleness. “Let me go!” she screeched again. “I almost had her!”
“I can’t believe you would sink this low!” Elphaba spat, giving up on trying to escape the guards and instead focused the whole of her vitriol on Glinda. “To use my sister’s death as a trap to capture me?” Elphaba was trying hard to keep a lid on the overwhelming feeling of hurt threatening to explode from her chest.
“I never meant for this to happen! Elphie—”
Something clothed in a deep emerald green swung over Glinda’s head and landed in the middle of the two groups.
“Let the green girl go!” Fiyero shouted, aiming his gun at Elphaba’s captors. The girl in question felt a piercing sense of relief immediately followed by fear for her beloved.
“Fiyero?? How in Oz?” Poor Glinda sounded extremely confused. Fiyero felt a pang in his chest as he ignored his ex-fiancée and instead repeated what he had said before.
“I said, let her go!” Fiyero swallowed, readying himself for what he was about to do next. “Or explain to all of Oz how the Wizard's guards watched while Glinda the Good was slain!”
He swung the gun towards Glinda, pointing it at her chest.
“Fiyero,” Glinda gasped, tears welling up in her eyes.
Fiyero felt his own eyes beginning to water, but he blinked them away as the guards finally released Elphaba.
“Elphaba. Go, now,” he desperately tried to make her leave. “Please.”
“No,” she said resolutely, running up to his side. “Not without you.”
“Fiyero, please—”
“Hush!” Fiyero cut Glinda off. He turned his head towards Elphaba, who was frozen. “Now, go!”
Elphaba made an attempt to move, but continued to hesitate. “Fiyero, Glinda…”
“DO IT!” Glinda cried, pleading visible in her eyes.
Elphaba ran.
The moment Elphaba was out of sight, Fiyero slumped like he was a marionette and someone had cut his strings. He let the gun dangle loosely from his hands and looked sorrowfully at Glinda.
“Glinda, I—”
“Seize him!”
Fiyero yelped as those who he had considered acquaintances, even friends, grabbed his arms and wrenched the gun out of his hands. Two of them dragged him backwards, trying to force him to the ground. Someone elbowed the space between his shoulder blade and his spine, and Fiyero gasped for breath, finally falling to his knees.
“Wait, what?” Glinda surged forward, trying weakly to pull Fiyero out of the guards’ arms. “What are you doing? In the name of goodness, stop! Don’t you see? He wasn’t going to harm me, he just…”
Glinda brushed her hand across Fiyero’s cheek sadly. He dropped his head, letting his hair fall into his face. She moved her hand, pressing it into Fiyero’s rough palm. It wasn’t the soft skin of a prince, probably because of the years spent as the Captain.
“He just loves her.”
Fiyero squeezed Glinda’s fingers. “Glinda…I’m so sorry.” Glinda could hear the pain, the anguish , in his voice, and her tears began to flow.
A guard wrenched Glinda away, as another began to drag Fiyero towards a huge expanse of land.
“Take him up to that field there! Put him on one of those poles until”—Oh, Oz, Fiyero thought, fear gripping his heart—“he tells us where the witch went!”
“NO! ” Glinda screamed. “Don’t hurt him! Please, don’t hurt him! FIYERO! ”
At least , Fiyero thought as he was very nearly being choked by the grip the guard had on the collar of his coat, those two still care about me.