Chapter Text
Music sang a symphony throughout the poppy field, notes flowing through the blades of grass, wrapping around each picture perfect flower sprouting up from the verdant sea. Splashes of red and pink amongst the green echoed in the petals scattered over the white aisle stretching from twin tents standing tall at the edge of the forest treeline to the base of the flowering cherry plum tree.
A figure in red and white stood at the base of the tree, deep breaths doing nothing to calm her excited nerves.
Pale fingers twirled a bouquet of poppies around and around as Glinda waited. The proud form of a Lion stood beside her, pristine pink bows tying off braids weaved throughout Brrr’s mane. A crisp pink vest fitted to his large body stood out from his fur, entwined flowers pinned to the front.
The day had been planned right down to the second, and every passing moment had the anticipation inching higher and higher. Her nerves were running wild, eyes jumping from flowers in hand to closed tent flaps as the time drew nearer.
Then the music changed.
A soft piano started up. Quiet. Captivating.
The guests turned in unison to face the tents, one still closed off to the world, at the end of the carefully laid out aisle; ready and waiting.
Glinda’s heart started pounding in her chest, drowning out the song, the hushed whispers, and the sound of her own shaky breaths. Her dark eyes refused to move from the tent.
It opened, and a dream in pink and white stepped out.
Their eyes met, and time slowed.
Pale pink petals lined in gold fell from waist to train like snow, small and sparse at first, pooling in a puddle of flushed flakes. Dark hair pinned back with golden flowers, exposed green skin shimmering with golden dust, and rings upon rings decorating long, delicate fingers. Fingers that were wrapped round their own bouquet of rich pink cosmos.
“Elphie,” she breathed out an awe-filled sigh.
Glinda had never seen a more beautiful sight. She blinked furiously to hold back tears as Elphaba walked arm in arm with Glinda’s father down the aisle towards her. Towards the moment they’d been waiting for. Towards their future.
The music swelled around them as Elphaba approached the altar with silent steps and glistening eyes of her own. The rest of the world faded away as she took her place in front of Glinda, two bouquets passed to waiting hands before they linked together with grounding grips.
Glinda took a shaky breath, letting out a watery laugh as the air rushed out of her lungs. They’d made it. They were there, hand in hand, waiting to be joined together for the rest of their lives.
“Hi,” she whispered.
Elphaba breathed out a laugh of her own, “Hi.”
The officiant began to speak.
It passed by in a blur of teary vision and heartfelt words. Before she knew it, Glinda was being asked for her vows, and her already racing heart kicked in to overdrive.
She’d fretted over the wording, over the cadence with which they would be spoken, over the meaning she was trying to convey. Years of addressing the public was less than adequate preparation for expressing everything she wanted to say.
Glinda felt nerves like she’d never felt before, but one look into Elphaba’s warm, green eyes calmed the spinning world.
They shared a small, secret smile, and Glinda opened her mouth to speak.
“Elphaba-”
The name had barely left her lips before a hushed gasp rippled through the guests. Glinda looked out to the crowd, eyes jumping about the familiar faces of humans and Animals alike as one by one confused faces morphed into shock. Their gazes were no longer on her and Elphaba. They were looking outwards, towards the sprawling field once filled with an equal mix of poppies and cosmos.
As they looked, the dots of pink melted away, leaving the grass bleeding ruby.
A shuddering breath from her side pulled her focus back to Elphaba, and her heart splintered with what she found.
Elphaba’s white gown disintegrated before her eyes, replaced by tattered dark fabric draping over her thinning form. Green skin stretched over high cheekbones, dark bruise-like circles formed beneath her eyes, and the adoring look that had been present since she’d stepped out of the tent faded into one of sorrow and guilt.
“Elphie?” she whispered in horrified disbelief. The Elphaba that stood before her was one she hadn’t seen in years, aged by years on the run, battered by the separation of two halves of a single soul.
Elphaba didn’t speak. Tears welled in her eyes as she took a step back. Her hand slipped from Glinda’s in time with a thunderous boom that shook the earth beneath their feet. No time for reprieve, the sky above lit up with a single bolt of lightning careening from beyond the clouds, striking the tree beside them.
Glinda yelped, almost tripping over her feet as she jerked away from the tree as it lit ablaze.
Elphaba didn’t move. The flickering firelight cast wavering shadows across her face.
The guests shrieked, clambering out of their seats in a frantic panic. Their panicked cries joined the distant rumble as the sky darkened and the sun was blocked from view. Beside her, Brrr’s previously proud body trembled, his ears pulling back as he backed away cowering.
No pink bow in sight, no vest to be seen. Stripped of his courage and pride.
“Hide yourself,” the world around them flashed again with the words from a memory.
“What?” Glinda shook her head. “Hide from what?”
“There’s no time.”
Glinda shook her head, taking a step towards Elphaba, “I don’t understand.”
Elphaba mirrored her step as she moved backwards, staying just out of reach, “Hold out, my sweet.”
Before Glinda could speak again, a single drop of rain landed on Elphaba’s cheek.
And another.
And then the screaming began.
~ One Week Ago ~
It was a nightmare, it had to be.
“As I said, I don’t think so.” Glinda could do little else but watch as Elphaba’s hand stretched out to her sides, her fingers curling in preparation to make her stand against Madame Morrible.
Don’t do it, Elphie.
Glinda knew they weren’t nearly good enough at magic to challenge the older woman; Elphaba was strong, limitless in potential, but still unpracticed compared to the decades the other woman wielded with ease.
The words exchanged between the two were lost on her, so fixed on tracking Elphaba’s every move as she was.
Glinda knew without seeing Elphaba’s face that she was going to react without thinking the moment Madame Morrible lifted that cursed notebook. The magic in the air became oppressive, Glinda’s own magic fighting against the bracelets to reach out and play. She ignored the stabbing shocks around her wrists, ignored the tears that were already in freefall.
“Elphie, no!” she shrieked when Elphaba moved, her voice desperate, but the girl was already too far gone.
Magic flew from green hand, formless and unguided, arching towards the Sorceress.
The effortless deflection of Elphaba’s magic seemed to drain the fight from the girl, her shoulders hunching and fingers trembling as her attack lost its spark.
“Did you think that was wise?” Madame Morrible’s voice was quiet and eerily calm. She’d dropped her sneer, eyes searching and curious, uncomfortably intense in the way they bore into Elphaba’s. “That was a… charming attempt, dearie, but allow me to demonstrate what actual power looks like. This might sting a little.”
Everything happened so fast.
A flash of light beyond the tall green-tinted windows, hammering rain pounding heavily against the glass… a rumble that shook the palace beneath her feet.
A twirl of wrists, and a deadly certain flick.
Before Elphaba could even think of raising her hands, Glinda forced her legs to move as she rushed to put herself between her and the shock of blue she could see leaping from the clouds towards the Palace.
The bolt of lightning hit dead centre on her back, spreading out to what felt like every nerve in her body. Arms stretched to the side, Glinda could feel her muscles seize, unable to combat the onslaught of pain barreling into her from the sky.
She couldn’t even cry.
She could feel her features contorting uncontrollably as the pain kept coming. Her own magic, running wild inside her, was flailing. Her wrists felt like they were on fire, burning.
In front of her, Elphaba was frozen, devastation blazing behind green eyes.
Why did you do that? Glinda could hear the question even though no words were spoken.
There was only one answer. She fought, tooth and nail, to make her lips form three, silent words.
‘I love you.’
There was no time for her to see Elphaba’s reaction. The burning at her wrists erupted, her magic desperate. It spread like wildfire through her body. A clink of metal on the stone floor was the last thing she heard before her vision lit up a brilliant pale blue, and the world went dark.
~ Present Day ~
It had been almost a week.
A week of sitting by Glinda’s bedside as doctor after doctor came and went without a single helpful thing to add.
“I don’t see any medical reason why she should not be awake.”
“This is highly unprecedented, it makes no logical sense.”
“In all my years in this profession, I have never seen anything like this.”
One by one they’d come, summoned by the Wizard to examine the unconscious blonde in the hopes they might offer some new insight that would lead to Glinda’s awakening.
Nothing.
So Elphaba sat, her hand clutching one of Glinda’s in an effort to remind herself that Glinda was still there. She was warm. She was real. She was just asleep.
Or at least, that’s what she was trying to convince herself.
Glinda hadn’t stirred once in all the time Elphaba had been by her side.
It hadn’t taken her long to bully her way to the girl’s location; Glinda would have been proud with her social maneuvering. After her meeting with the Wizard, she’d demanded almost immediately that, given she’d chosen the option that would benefit the Wizard the most, the least he could do was allow her to be with her girlfriend when she woke.
If he was so sure she would awaken soon, surely it made sense for Elphaba to go to Glinda right away?
The man had hesitated only for a moment, before the bright smile he’d been sporting after her decision returned. Two clicks of his fingers and Elphaba was being escorted through the emerald halls and into perhaps the only room with any white in the whole Palace.
The walls, of course, were on theme. Deep, shining emerald, pristine and gleaming. But the furniture showed a remarkable lack of the Wizard’s characteristic colour scheme. It was almost like all the colour had been drained from the room; white bed covers, white sofa, pale wooden table and chairs.
It was soulless.
It was their new home.
Pushing the thought from her mind, Elphaba had hurried across the room in quick steps, sinking into the bed beside the tiny blonde figure laid out in the centre. In their brief time apart, little had changed.
There was still no colour in Glinda’s cheeks, no movement beyond a slight flicker behind her eyelids, no sign of her stirring into consciousness.
But she was warm.
So Elphaba held her hand and refused to let go. She whispered things to the girl in between visits from doctors, speaking to her about everything and nothing, begging her to wake up soon.
Mercifully, there had been no sign of either the Wizard or Madame Morrible during that time. If it hadn’t been for the doctors being sent to the room and the occasional maid delivering unrequested food, Elphaba could almost forget the pair were likely somewhere within the same palace.
It wasn’t until the seventh day that her very welcome respite ended.
“I’m sorry, Miss,” the latest doctor muttered. The man had been glowering in her direction the whole time. It had almost slipped Elphaba’s mind that her skin caused such reactions. She’d almost become used to people treating her…well, normally. Shiz felt like a lifetime ago.
She sighed, “Please go.” Yet another supposed expert unable to do anything.
Elphaba felt a deep exhaustion settle in her bones.
What if Glinda never woke up?
What if…
She shook her head, batting away the spiralling thoughts as the door clicked closed.
What was she supposed to do?
The answer came in the form of the last person Elphaba wanted to see.
“How unfortunate,” Madame Morrible entered the room like she owned it; tall, regal, completely unphased by the sight of Glinda still unconscious. Not a lick of sympathy rang true in her words. It was performative, sarcastic even.
Elphaba had long since outgrown loathing the woman.
She wanted to see her burn.
“Please leave,” Elphaba gruffed, fixing her eyes back on Glinda.
“Now Miss Elphaba,” she gritted her teeth at the edge of amusement in Madame Morrible’s tone, “don’t be so hasty.”
“You’re the last thing Glinda needs right now.”
“Oh really?”
Curious against her will, Elphaba glanced at the woman out of the corner of her eye. She felt a brief flash of smug pride at the sight of the still healing wound just above one neatly plucked brow. It flickered out of existence however when her eyes dropped. The woman’s arms were crossed in front of her, and pressed against her chest within them, the Grimmerie.
The reason they’d wound up in such a mess.
Elphaba didn’t know what to feel.
“I spoke with the Wizard,” the Sorceress took one more gliding step towards the bed. “Given the… circumstances that led to Miss Galinda’s situation, magic might be a more appropriate approach.”
“I’m not going to let you do magic on her with that thing.”
Not. A. Chance.
She was met with a sharp laugh.
“Haven’t you learnt by now, dearie?” One more step closer. “You’re no match for me.”
Heated glare clashed with subtle sneer.
With a huff of a laugh, Madame Morrible broke their gaze, pulling the Grimmerie away from her chest and holding it with both hands.
“Not that it matters, I wasn’t referring to me,” she held the book out with one hand, amusement fading from her eyes, “the Wizard is trusting you with this. Use it only to wake her.”
Elphaba hesitated, before reaching out with her free hand. Was she really being handed the thing they’d risked everything to take?
“If you can,” the smirk was back, and Elphaba’s grip on the Grimmerie tightened. The taunting, the doubt, the challenge… Glinda wasn’t a game.
She stayed silent, setting the book on her lap as she watched the woman turn.
“Do not forget this kindness, Miss Elphaba,” the Sorceress gave her one final warning, “things could be much worse for you both.”
And then she was gone.
Pushing away thoughts of suspicion, Elphaba descended into the magic of the Grimmerie with unbound enthusiasm. If the doctors were no help, then she would find the answer herself.
She studied each page meticulously, the strange markings making little to no sense at first. Elphaba recognised a handful from what Glinda had managed to write down from memory, and slowly things started to make a little more sense.
She couldn’t read it per se, it was more like a feeling. A sense of what the words were saying, a hazy image in her head of potential results the words might lead to. The images flickered and shimmered, almost undecided on their shape and form.
It took a handful of agonisingly quiet days of studying before the Grimmerie finally offered her something that gave her any sense of ‘healing’. Elphaba took in the drawings on the page, took in the lone figure in the middle of the top illustration. Her green eyes reflected the glow coming off the symbols back into the room as her jaw dropped just enough for a rush of air to escape.
Magic swirled around the drawn figure. Gold was lifting off the page, interspersed with iridescent blues, pinks, purples. The exact shade of blue Glinda had filled the Wizard’s chamber with. The colours danced in the space just above the aged parchment. It took Elphaba a moment to realise that the figure, once dull and lifeless, was shifting too. They were a silhouette, indistinguishable as anything other than human. The only defining feature was the bolts of jagged lines lighting up in waves with the technicoloured shimmer.
The imagery of what she’d come to associate with channels, of a person’s magic, made the decision for her. There was no resisting the urge to start chanting. Bolstered by hope, Elphaba’s voice rang out clearer than it had in days.
Time slipped away, or maybe it stopped. Elphaba’s whole being was poured into the spell. Over and over she chanted, the glowing cloud of magic pulsing and growing, spilling out from the space above the Grimmerie onto the bed, seeping into the covers as it spread towards Glinda’s still form.
The moment the magic touched pale skin, the blue hue bloomed, bleeding through the other colours until it consumed them completely. Veins of gold shone from within the pearlescent cloud, the only evidence of the unyielding hold of the magic of the Grimmerie.
Elphaba, unaware of the changes around her, kept going.
The cloud thickened around Glinda, condensing and obscuring her form from Elphaba. The gold strands wavered, curling in on themselves.
There was a break in the words, and from beyond the blue, a softly muttered word.
“Elphie.”
As soft as the lightest puff of air, as quiet as the last leaf falling from an autumn tree. Almost impossible to hear, but to Elphaba it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever heard.
The pull from the Grimmerie released her. She jerked away from the book. The cloud shrank, wrapping around Glinda.
Elphaba held her breath.
A ripple in the blue, and then it lifted like a blanket away from the girl below. The still shimmering magic clung to Glinda, a fainter blue leaching from her skin.
As Elphaba watched agape, her fingers gripped tightly at the bed covers.
More and more blue bled from Glinda, weaving its way into the dense cloud above. It twisted and turned, shrinking into a long, thin stretch of opacity. The edges hardened, the magic becoming tangible, losing its density in favour of fading to translucence.
The room stilled.
Elphaba blinked, taking in the details of the spell’s creation hovering above Glinda. Two twisted threads of crystalline blue, so closely intertwined that it looked like one, almost half the length of Glinda’s body. The golden veins reached from end to end, weaving between the two threads. There was the faintest of glow coming from within, the gold peeking out through the blue like beams of sunlight breaking through clouds.
At one end, shards of azure erupted from the threads, dangerous, but softened by the ball of shimmering gold sitting safe in the centre.
Elphaba didn’t realise she was shaking until she reached out with a trembling hand. The object was surprisingly warm, matching the warmth she’d become so accustomed to from Glinda’s hand.
Glinda’s hand that was not within her own.
She had no recollection of letting it go, but with her free hand, she reached out frantically. The warmth was still there, equal and as dynamic as the warmth from what Elphaba could only describe as a wand.
Glinda was still and as statuesque as she’d been before the spell. Other than the breathy whisper of her name, the now rapid movement behind her eyes, and the very real wand in her hand, Elphaba could have been convinced it hadn’t worked.
But something had happened.
The once occasional eye movement was now constant. There was a hint of a smile pulling at Glinda’s lips, a twitch of an eyebrow, an uptick to her breathing. She looked happy.
Elphaba tightened her hold on Glinda’s hand. “Come on, Glinda,” she whispered to herself. “Wake up.”
She waited, watching the ghost of a smile grow, hinting at the dimple she so adored.
Elphaba felt herself smile at the sight, hope spreading.
And then the smile fell.
Glinda’s brow furrowed delicately.
Her lips moved, and another “Elphie” escaped. Only this time, Glinda sounded scared.
Dimple gone, smile nowhere to be found, the crease on her forehead deepened.
A tear slid from the corner of her closed eye.
Then, her lips parted.
And Glinda screamed.
Elphaba didn’t know what to do as the heart rending sound shattered the quietness filling the room.
It broke her.
She felt her heart fracture at the pain fueling the wail. Tears were flowing freely from behind tightly closed lids, pink lips were quivering, and the previously limp hand held in her own was holding on for dear life.
“Glinda,” Elphaba called out. The wand was quickly discarded beside her as she grasped at Glinda’s shoulder, shaking her. “Glinda! You need to wake up now.” She knew full well she was panicking. Every intake of breath hitched in her throat, the screaming sending her senses into chaos. She was frantic, blind to anything other than Glinda, and desperate to do something.
Another shake of Glinda’s shoulder.
The blonde’s voice broke off with a mournful crack.
Elphaba felt that crack deep in her soul.
She stopped shaking Glinda, pausing as her lungs struggled to recover from half-formed breaths.
The screams may have stopped, but the tears continued to fall.
Screwed up eyelids scrunched tighter.
Then loosened, barely noticeably. But Elphaba noticed.
She waited, heart leaping as they finally parted.
Not fully, but just enough for her to see the first hint of dark brown that she’d been deprived of for an unacceptably long time.
A dark brown that Elphaba had missed far more than she thought possible was revealed in flickers as Glinda’s eyes fluttered open for the first time in days.
The sight was less of a relief than Elphaba thought it would be.
While open, Glinda’s eyes were unseeing, stuck in whatever vision she’d been cursed with.
Elphaba watched, tense, as she blinked.
Her eyes jerked haphazardly around the room, taking in the green walls and the sky-high ceiling, before coming to rest on Elphaba’s taut form still partially leaning over her.
“Elphie?” The third time her name had left Glinda’s lips, it was in disbelief. Awareness trickled into her gaze, her eyes still hazy, but finally focusing back on reality. She stared up at her, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. “The rain…” The tremble in Glinda’s hand was alarming as she lifted it to Elphaba’s cheek, stroking a shaking finger along it before it dropped back to the bed with a quiet thump.
Elphaba swiped a hand along the same path, bewildered when her hand came back damp from tears she hadn’t felt fall. “Yes, yes I’m here.”
Glinda blinked, disbelief fading to uncertainty as each one grew progressively slower. “What is this?” Her words were drawled, mixing together into a continuous sound. She sounded… not quite all there.
The barely faded panic reared up again as she watched Glinda seemingly lose the battle with whatever was luring her back into unconsciousness. “No, Glinda, stay awake.”
“But I’m so tired,” Glinda breathed out as her body visibly lolled in exhaustion.
Elphaba had just got her back, and she was losing her all over again. She took Glinda’s hand between both of hers, raising it up to her lips to press a longing kiss over her knuckles. “I know, my sweet,” she muttered against skin. She breathed in the faint flowery scent that was uniquely ‘Glinda’, drawing in the warmth emitting from her hand, relishing in the twitching fingers between hers. “You can sleep.” A final tear slid from green eyes as Glinda’s eyelids closed and didn’t open again. “Just come back to me.”