AN: I wanted to let everyone know the new M-rated Elpharic, "Lost All Resistance," is up. This is a sort of epilogue that I was playing with at the ending of Substitute. Let me know what you think, and please drop over to read the new work. Thanks for reading.

The wind whipped Elphaba's hair in wild torrents as her cloak flapped enthusiastically in the squall. She clutched the broom handle and pointed toward the rain-slicked earth below her. Safer to wait out the storm below. Her magic still felt drained from her daring escape, and storms were always the most exhausting.

The Great Forest spread its fingers wide here in scattered tendrils of outgrowths, but the angry mobs a village might risk were easily threatened. Far more so than the raging torrent that surrounded her now.

An updraft caught her off-guard and flung her about, so many miles up in the air. Dizzying forces tore at her, tossing her like a rag doll in their iron grip, and she clung to her broom in a pathetic attempt to regain control. She lost sight of direction, the rain pelting her from seemingly each direction, and she struggled to control the urge to panic. She flashed back to that day at the lake. She'd been so convinced she was going to drown, and then Fiyero had saved her.

Fiyero. He was waiting for her, now, at Kiamo Ko. In some ways, she regretted her missed opportunity with him all those years ago. But maybe she'd chosen Avaric then because fate hadn't been ready for them to be together yet.

Even as she thought it, she knew it to be a lie. She'd wanted Avaric. And he'd been right then, the push she'd needed. No, she held no regrets for Fiyero. Avaric, on the other hand. It went as anyone would have predicted – badly. What else could you expect from two explosive personalities challenging the other in a constant battle of wills?

The torrent snatched at her hat, and in a reflex, she reached out to catch it. The motion toppled her final shred of balance, and with a whoosh, her broom plummeted toward the rocky ground below. She chanted a desperate spell before the impact could shatter her skull, her broom clutched so tightly her fingers were almost white in the fierce darkness.

The ground sped closer, a softer thistle clearing ringed by the sharp branches. So when she hurtled into it, it would only kill her, not mutilated her body into a shredded mess. She slammed her eyes shut and threw every ounce of her magic into slowing the rocketing broom. The impact shuddered up the handle first, and with a burst of dirt and a loud slam, she hit the ground shoulder-first.

Her body crumpled in a heap, pain screaming from every nerve ending in her body. She drew a painful breath and opened her eyes. She was still alive. She tested her body, finding it battered, but not broken. She staggered to her feet, shock reeling her vision in a dizzy blur, and she waved her arm out blindly for some sort of support. There was only empty air, and she tumbled back in a graceless pirouette, folded in half and only by the most generous of definitions, upright.

"Holy Kumbricia!"

She pushed herself back up, stumbling like a drunkard. Someone was here? Who? Thank Oz she hadn't landed on them and killed them. A man ran up to her, and she rubbed her eyes. She must have hit her head harder than she'd thought. That couldn't be-

"Elphaba? Sweet Lurline, is that you?"

"Av-Avaric?"

"What the hell? Are you alright?"

She straightened with difficulty. "Yes. I think so."

"What happened? How did you get here? Were you flying in that?" He pointed up at the fierce torrent still pelting them with rain like bullets. "Are you out of your mind?"

She scowled. "You ask a lot of questions."

He took a step back and wiped at the rivulets of rainwater that dribbled down his forehead. "Excuse me if I'm not used to beautiful women falling from the sky."

"Here I thought you had a ready supply of women constantly at your beck and call."

His face creased with hurt, and he took a step closer. "Yes, well, none of them were you, were they?" Before she could react to his sentimental response, he'd caught her arm. "Let's get in out of the rain."

"I don't melt," she hissed, "no matter what the rumors might say."

"I remember. Vividly." And the heated look he shot her made the freezing rain feel like steam. "But I'd rather not have to squint through a waterfall to see you. Come on."

She followed him out of the clearing and into a ramshackle shed, not at all the place she'd have envisioned the pampered Gillikin would have ended up. "I should really be going." Despite her words, she took off her cloak and shook off the rain that weighted the thick cloth. Avaric took her broomstick and hat, hanging them both by the door. A cozy fire cackled in a stone fireplace in the corner, and she edged toward the warmth. "Fiyero will be wondering where I am."

"Fiyero?" Avaric's forehead creased, and a perverse sense of superiority strummed through Elphaba. Was that what every woman felt at the mention of her new love to her old? Or was it because of the bitter ending they'd felt?

"He's gone to Kiamo Ko to wait for me. I should have been there hours ago, but this damned storm blew me off course."

"You're risking life and limb for that stooge? I thought he was marrying blondie."

Elphaba jutted her chin forward. "He left her. For me."

"Oh, well, there's a quality guy for you."

"As if you should judge."

Avaric busied himself rubbing the rain out of his hair. "Never left a woman at the altar. Towel?"

She shook her head, her wet hair plastered against her neck, and he rolled his eyes as he tossed it to her anyway. "I should go."

"So you said. But unless you're stupid, which despite Fiyero, I don't think you are, you won't try to take off in the middle of a squall like that." She longed to smack the arrogant smirk off his face, but he was right. He didn't bother to ask before he set a kettle over the fire. "Two spoons of honey for me," he doled them out along with the tea bags, "and a half spoon for you."

She accepted the tea determined not to acknowledge that he still remembered such a trivial detail of their lives together. "Why are you in the middle of the Great Forest in a rainstorm, anyway? I'd never have pictured you as the outdoorsy type."

His smile was enigmatic. "Never pictured you to be the romantic type." Her forehead crumpled in confusion, and he added, "Abandoning your life's work to fly off to your old sweetheart, settle down and have a couple princely babies."

"Who said any of that?"

"You're going after Fiyero, aren't you? Little guess as to what he'll want."

"Not everyone is as crude as you are, Avaric." She stood, despite the tea he'd extended to her.

He stood, too. "That's not what I meant. Please, at least have tea before you go off to get yourself drowned." The tea frothed enticingly, and she took the warm brew against her better judgment. "Sit. Please."

"Only if you stop criticizing Fiyero."

He sighed, "Some things never change."

"You're right there. Some people never stop being obnoxious."

Avaric's eyebrow lifted with a proud glare that she knew all too well. "Or fail to make the same mistakes."

"Trust me, you're a mistake I don't plan to make again." A flicker of hurt crossed his face, and she softened. "I'm sorry. You have an uncanny way of getting under my skin."

That smirk came back, but edged with tenderness. "Oh, I know." He stepped closer, and the memory of his skillful fingers tickled at the back of her brain. "As you have for me."

She backed away to presumably check if her cloak had dried. "I should go. He'll be worried."

"Why?" She turned at the oddly earnest question. "You're the most powerful sorceress Oz has ever known. You strike fear into the heart of your enemies with your reputation alone. Oz, the Wizard had to declare you a public enemy, and that's barely slowed you down."

"Exactly. I'm an enemy of the state, on the run from all civilization. Normal people care about each other."

He rolled his eyes. "You should be more worried about him. That buffoon probably fell out of his own castle without you there to catch him."

"He's not an idiot."

"Right." She didn't bother to argue, and Avaric studied her a moment. "You really think he's worth you?"

The gentleness in his voice took her off-guard, and she stared at the cup of tea cooling in her hands. "I'm tired of running," she admitted. "He makes me feel like maybe I don't have to be the Witch."

"But you are, Elphaba." She glared up at him, but he covered her hands with his. "It's who you are. It's part of your strength. Why would you accept being anything less than you are?"

The air crackled between them, just as it used to, but she pulled away. "Maybe I should have chosen the fairytale. I ended up in it anyway."

"So you can just walk away? From everything that ever mattered to you." She lifted an eyebrow, and he made a disparaging sound in the back of his throat. "Not me. Oz. The Animals. Everything you've worked for."

"What good have I done?" She shook her head. "All I've managed anyone is a lot of pain, most of all myself."

He cupped her chin. "But don't you want all of it to be for something? You can't just give up now." She drew an unsteady breath, and he stroked a thumb over her cheek. "I know Fiyero's the easier way. And you're worn down. Believe me, I get that." Her curiosity over his presence in the woods piqued again, but he didn't give her an opening. "You're better than that, El. You've always been above the rest of us."

"I don't want to be." It was lonely, and cold, and full of self-doubt.

"I know." He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "But you are."

For a long moment, she stared at him. Then with a sigh, she sat back. "Why do you have to be the most colossal jerk ever?"

He chuckled and dropped his hand. "People can't help their nature."

The rain had slowed to gentle drips, and she stood to retrieve her cloak. He handed her the broom and hat without comment, and for a moment, the pair stood awkwardly on the doorstep. "Goodbye, Avaric. Thanks for the tea." He nodded, and she stepped astride her broom. With a glance over her shoulder, she told him, "You didn't change my mind, just so you know."

But he had. And they both knew it.