Chapter Text
“…Elphie…”
Elphaba didn’t want to open her eyes. She was in pain, her entire face aching as though someone had yanked locks of hair from her scalp by hand. “Elphie!”
She could feel something faintly in her mind; a distant thrumming of magic that was trying to touch her thoughts but couldn’t quite reach. “Elphaba!”
“…G—Glin…”
“Elphaba! Elphie, ma cariza, please come back to me! Please!”
“…Glinda…” Elphaba struggled, but forced her eyes open. Except something was terribly wrong. Where one eye opened, the other remained dark. Had she bruised it shut, perhaps? What happened?
“Elphie? Elphie, my love, what have they done to you?” A gentle hand touched the underside of her chin, caressing it with the utmost tenderness. But the skin was cold as ice, fingertips faintly trembling. Another vibration pressed against Elphaba’s thoughts, whispering past her mind as though it was just a breath of wind. “You’ll be alright, Elphie. You have to be alright.”
“Glinda. Where…where are you?” Elphaba blinked her one good eye, trying to see her beloved in the dark. But despite feeling and hearing her other half, the sight of her was hidden somewhere in the shadows.
“I’m here, Elphie. I’m here, I promise. Something's wrong; your magic is so weak. And your beautiful face, oh, what has he done!”
“Glinda.” Elphaba shuddered a pained breath, moving her hands forward to try and feel Glinda for herself. But there was a loud rattle of chain-link, her wrists unable to rise with the heaviness of iron manacles. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, we should’ve just left this desert.”
“No Elphie. No, we’re needed here.”
“I’ve put you in danger again, I should’ve listened to you.”
“Elphaba, we have been brought to this place for a reason,” Glinda insisted, her gentle touch pushing a stray hair out of Elphaba’s face. “I found them.”
“Them?”
“The women and children of Singra. I found them; I’ve seen it for myself. They are here in the palace, in a cavern deep underground. They’re imprisoned, Elphie. Being readied to be sold off or sent to dig in ruby mines as we speak. We can’t let that happen; not again. You must find a way to reach Tip. He will take you to them.”
“What about you?” Elphaba tried to move forward again, only to be stopped by her iron chains as they clunked and halted her progress. “That woman is going to steal your head! The Emperor is going to force your hand in marriage for a phony alliance. Glinda, you’re in danger. You need to get out of here.”
“We’ll worry about that later,” Glinda whispered, though her voice was terse and distant. “The Emperor isn't going to kill me; it would send the Quadlings to war with Gillikin. Even he isn’t stupid enough to do that.”
“Glinda, where are you?” Elphaba struggled to part her eye again, searching in the haze to see anything beyond a hazy black void. But there was nothing, not even a flicker of sunlight. “Where are you, my sweet?”
“I’m not sure. In a tower, maybe? It’s…the smoke is heavy here. It’s hard to tell.”
“Smoke?” Elphaba jerked in alarm. “What smoke?”
“Mombi. She lit…she lit an aroma before she left. Incense or…or something…”
“Glinda? Glinda, what’s going on?”
“I feel drowsy, Elphie.” With a weak sigh there was a thump in the dark. Then it was silent, and the magical touch she’d been sensing vanished. It was a feeling so familiar that it sent a wave of panic through Elphaba’s heart.
“Glinda? Glinda!” With her wife no longer answering her call, Elphaba scrunched her face despite the pain of doing so. With all her might she pushed the haze away, willing herself to see through it. And though the moment was brief, when she opened her eye again, her sight was clear. It was a room of nothing but wooden panels and glass hutches, each with brass numbers above them. In the cupboards were dozens of different heads, their pretty eyes closed as though in sleep. A rolling red smoke billowed across the floor, thick and glittering.
Poppy extract. The same kind used in the Emerald City.
At the center of the room, Glinda lay collapsed on the cobble in a tangle of limbs. There was an iron cuff around her ankle, keeping her tethered to the nearest wall. She was unconscious in the curtain of red, one of her eyes dark with a blotchy purple bruise and a split through her swollen bottom lip. She wasn’t moving, but her chest rose and fell with deep, strong breaths. She was ok. She was fine, but for how long…?
…
..
It took longer than Elphaba wanted to escape the haze of unconsciousness. Her head ached like nothing else, a loud ringing deep within her ears. One side of her face was on fire, blistering hot as though someone had dumped hot coals on it. Hanging limply by the wrists, she could feel the chilly iron cutting into her skin as well as her magic. She had no idea there was metal strong enough to do such a thing, but alas, she learned much too late. Groaning in pain, the sound echoed down the hall. But it was also accompanied by something else.
Right next to her ear, something was moving around. It was the softest tik-tik-tik noise, scraping around just shy of her burning face. Peeling her eyes open, just like in the vision, she could only feel one of them. The other was too bruised or swollen to be open. In the dark of some kind of dungeon, Elphaba was staring at a familiar polka-dot shirt that had seen better days, and a ratty maroon jacket.
“…J—Jack…?” Elphaba garbled out the name, spitting from between her lips as drool caught on her chin. There was a creak as the pumpkinhead moved, leaning over so his orange face was nearly upside-down in her line of sight.
“Hello again, Elphaba,” he greeted kindly, as though waking up beaten to a bloody pulp was just another regular occurrence. “Did you know you talk in your sleep?”
“I wasn’t sleeping,” she muttered, grimacing at the disgusting taste in her mouth. “What happened?”
“The meeting didn’t go well, I suppose,” her companion offered, returning to whatever it was he was doing. “Father sent me to you.”
“To do what?”
“To free you, of course,” Jack claimed, the sound right by Elphaba’s ear causing gooseflesh to erupt across her skin. “That man you came with said you could help us.”
“Fiyero?”
“Yes, I do believe that was his name.” There was a hard, metallic jostle and a satisfying click as one of Elphaba’s arms was released, falling limply to her side.
“Oh, Oz,” she hissed, shaking pins and needles from her fingertips which were covered in dried blood.
“Your face looks terrible,” Jack mused, reaching into his front pocket with a branch-limb and pulling out a handkerchief. “Here.”
“Thank you.” Accepting the gift, Elphaba gently pressed it against her eye, hissing at how badly it hurt. “Where’s Glinda? Do you know?”
“I’m afraid it’s not good news. Mombi has taken her into the tower. And girls who go in there never come back out, at least not with their heads still attached."
“Can you release my other arm?”
“I’ll sure try, ma’am.”
And try he did. Jack began to pick at the short manacles, restarting the same scratching noise as before. Elphaba let him work, refusing to look at the handkerchief which was quickly going from white to red. She faintly remembered Shell holding a knife to her face; what he’d done with it was still unknown to her. But, based on where her newest wound was and how much her head hurt, she had a suspicion of what had happened. Huffing in pain as the chains snapped open, Elphaba grabbed her wrists with a moan as she rubbed the pain away.
“How is that?”
“Good, Jack.” Elphaba hissed between her teeth, the world spinning as she laid against the chilly brick wall. “Where am I?”
“In the dungeon. I freed your friend already and sent him ahead.”
“Ahead to where?”
“The caverns,” Jack replied. “Theres too many of us to keep chained up. So we stay down here when not above.”
“W—we?”
“Can you stand?”
“I don’t know.” Elphaba slid forward a little, struggling to keep her balance as she awkwardly found her footing. Something was wrong in her head as she stumbled, her coordination unable to match her legs as she skidded along the stone floor knees first. Thankfully, Jack seemed sturdy enough, offering a branch as she was pulled back to her feet. They walked together, leaving an empty iron cell whose door had been left wide open. But despite this clearly being a dungeon, there were no guards. “Where are the guards?”
“There aren’t any down here,” Jack explained. “They aren’t needed, we can’t get out of the cave without Mombi’s help.”
Elphaba wasn’t sure what Jack meant, leaning heavily on her companion’s elbow to stay upright. But as they walked, the narrow, stone hallway soon began to crumble and widen. Voices and low chatter wafted through the air, echoing off the limestone walls. There was the trickling of water; something which made Elphaba lick her lips. And as they left what little proper dungeon there was, a massive underground cave was revealed. It stretched towards the ceiling in an impressive, naturally-carved dome. At the highest point, a palm-sized hole had crumbled through the rocks, allowing a beam of light and a stream of water to enter. But the cave was not empty.
There were people everywhere, sitting on rocks or laying across ledges. Fires had been stoked using what little natural growth was in the cave, burning upon makeshift torches jabbed into the orifices of the walls. Their voices silenced as she entered, still leaning on her companion who didn’t seem to mind one bit. The women and children of Singra, just as Glinda had claimed.
“Elphaba.” Fiyero stood from where he’d been conversing with a few of the women. He looked terrible, his black and blue face puffy and obscuring his usually handsome features. “Hey, you’re awake.”
“Fiyero.” Elphaba accepted the hug the Vinkus prince offered, leaving Jack’s arm to be supported by another human instead. “Oh gods, what happened? Are you ok?”
“Just a bit swollen,” Fiyero offered, swinging his shoulder under her arm for a bit of extra balance. “You’re one to talk, though. How’s your face?”
“Terrible,” Elphaba murmured, limping with her companion to an empty, flat ledge where she was allowed to sit. “What happened?”
“Well…nothing good.”
“Obviously. Everything went dark.”
“You aren’t going to be using that eye again anytime soon,” Fiyero told her, accepting a wet cloth which one of the women brought to his hand. He thanked her softly, pushing Elphaba’s palm away from her wound. Just seeing it caused the man to grimace. “That’s ugly, Elphaba.”
“It’ll heal.”
“Uh, no. Elphaba, your eye is…gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean gone?”
“I mean, gone. No more. Zip. Nada.”
“You mean I’m—I’m blind? It’s not just swollen shut or something?”
“Afraid so.” Fiyero dabbed at the newly empty socket, cleaning it of blood and fluid that seeped from the now empty hole. “Based on how loud Glinda screamed earlier, I have a good guess where it ended up. I’m pretty sure all of Singra heard her.”
“What do you mean Glinda screamed? Is she ok? I have to get to her.”
Fiyero opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off.
“Your good witch is as good as gone, you know.”
“Jin?” Squinting in the shadows, a familiar head of dark hair emerged from the cover of a rock. “Is that you?”
“Yeah. Thanks for throwing me into the snake pit. Really great of you.”
“We had to,” Elphaba grumbled, rolling her eye, only to immediately stop when it made her face hurt. “It got us in.”
“Oh yeah, cause that did you a lot of good. So what’s the plan, your majesty? Your darling wife is with Mombi, you look like horseshit, and we’re all still stuck down here!”
“The plan is to give Ephaba a moment to rest,” Fiyero argued, causing Jin to sneer.
“We don’t have time for that,” she shot back. “Any moment now the Emperor could decide to execute us. And we’re just going to what, sit around?”
“Jin—”
“He won’t,” Elphaba cut off, lifting her hand. “He’s preoccupied, which gives us some time.”
“Preoccupied?” Jin hoisted her brow in confusion. “With what?”
“His wedding. Fiyero, Glinda’s in danger. We have to get her.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Shell. He’s going to force Glinda to marry him in order to make an alliance with the Gillikin North. He’s going to try and overthrow the Emerald City.”
“That’s a good thing though, isn’t it?”
“Not unless you want what happened here to happen to all of Oz,” Elphaba hissed, laying down on the rock as her head throbbed. “Mombi plans to take Glinda’s head after Shell marries her, to wear and pretend she’s a Patron Sorceress.”
“No one would actually believe that, right?”
“I don’t know. But we don’t have much time. Shell doesn't seem like the patient type.”
“So what do we do?”
“I don’t know yet,” Elphaba murmured, raising a weak hand to pinch the bridge of her nose.
“Why don’t you use your magic and blast us out of here?”
“It’s not that simple,” Elphaba heaved, staring at the hole in the distant ceiling. “My magic is powerful, but without Glinda around it’s destructive and hard to control. If I made an attempt to blow up this cave it could come down on top of us. There’s too many people to risk it.”
“What about Glinda,” Fiyero offered, sitting beside her on the rock and pressing the wet cloth to her face. “Maybe she can help us from out there.”
“No, Glinda’s asleep.”
“Asleep?” Fiyero’s brow arched. “How do you know?”
“I saw it in a vision. Mombi lit the essence of poppy extract. Glinda’s been under its influence before; it dulls her senses like nothing else can. We can’t expect much help from her until she’s out of that smoke.”
“Ok. So we can’t blast our way out, and we have no contact with Glinda,” Fiyero recited. “That’s…not helpful.”
“Great plan,” Jin grumbled, scoffing. “So sitting here and waiting to die is our best bet?”
“For now? Yeah. The good thing is that we have Jack.”
The Pumpkinhead in question turned around at being addressed, nearly tripping over a rock. “Yes, Elphaba?”
“When you’re able to get out of here, I need you to find Tip; he’s the only one who can walk around the palace unnoticed. Then, go to the tower and check on Glinda for me.”
“What! I’m not going anywhere near Mombi’s quarters. That’s crazy.”
“Jack, please. I need you to try and extinguish whatever is making the poppy smoke. Once you do, Glinda should wake up on her own.”
“B—but Mombi…”
“You’ll have to be sneaky,” Elphaba begged. “If you can’t get in, at least make sure Glinda’s still breathing. Please?”
“Whatever you say, ma’am. But only because father really likes Miss Glinda,” Jack worried, his branches rattling. “Oh dear, oh dear.”
“In the meantime, we need to think of a plan,” Elphaba insisted, once again staring up at the hole in the cave ceiling. “Hopefully.”