AN/1: Hi! First of all, thanks for all the lovely reviews, you guys are really amazing :)
Second, thanks for making me notice the whole Chistery thing (I had misspelled the name), and sorry about that.
Third, I think all of you had a pretty good idea about the reasons behind the wedding. ChapticSymphonyOfDarkness, my dear Guest, Yelene-ryudream, you are all very close; but I added a little twist to the story that I always thought it would be nice to have ;)
AN/2: I don't own wicked or any of its characters.
"Glinda! Glinda! Are you in there?" a voice came from the other side of the hall along with a loud knock on the door.
"Coming" Glinda replied moving from the bed where she had been sitting.
"Finally!" Milla said once Glinda had let her into the room. "I've been knocking for a while; I thought you had gone somewhere else."
"Sorry about that. I was just lost in my thoughts." She was being honest, she had started thinking about Elphie and their last encounter and her new plan, so she had ended up spacing out.
"How do I look?" Glinda suddenly asked with a bright smile, doing a little twirl for Milla to see. She was wearing a soft blue dress that made her eyes shine even brighter; it was modest but at the same time hugged her in all the right places.
"You look really beautiful." Milla said smiling back at Glinda. "But it may be kind of obvious that you are trying to outshine one of the brides."
"Well, it's not my fault that I want to look my best for one of those brides, the green one to be exact." Glinda said with a mischievous look on her face.
"Thanks for clarifying; I could have never guessed which one on my own." Milla answered with a small smile. "Come on, they're ready downstairs, that's why I came for you. The dinner rehearsal will begin in just a few moments."
"Okay, let's go" the blonde said, taking a deep breath "I'm ready."
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Glinda and Milla had reached the Palace's front doors when they spotted Elphaba and Valerie greeting the guests.
They were both wearing similar kinds of white dresses. But Glinda's breath hitched when she saw her Elphie.
Until yesterday, it had been months since she had seen her, and now she looked absolutely perfect. Her long black hair seemed to be shinning and when she turned around to greet someone else her eyes landed on Glinda and she felt that she had stopped breathing once those deep brown eyes found her own.
Elphaba seemed to be lost in a trance too and she started walking towards Glinda without breaking eye contact.
"Glinda, breath!" Milla whispered loudly next to the blonde before Elphaba was too close to hear them.
Glinda tried to relax but looked steadily at Elphaba until she came to stand right in front of her.
"Glin, you… You look marvelous." Elphaba said with the little tint on her cheeks that Glinda had come to recognize as a blush.
"You too, Elphie." Glinda said blushing.
They stayed there looking at each other's eyes for what seemed like centuries until Milla nudged Glinda.
"Come on, break it off you two" she said, just before another woman came to stand next to Elphaba.
"Hello Glinda, it's nice to see you." Valerie said smiling.
"Oh, Hello Valerie."
"I see Milla was kind enough to look after you."
"Yes, she was." Glinda said with a forced smile towards the brunette.
"Well, in that case" Elphaba began, looking at Milla "I must say I'm finally happy you are my bridesmaid."
"Elphie! Be nice!" Glinda answered giggling and swatting at Elphaba's arm.
"Yes, Fae" Valerie interjected, holding Elphaba's hand "that wasn't very nice."
Glinda gave her a very discreet glare that only Milla seemed to notice.
"Okay, fine. I'm sorry, Milla. But I'm sure you understand why I said that. I mean, we were never the best of friends and then you came here to be my bridesmaid. But, as I said, even if it took me a while, I'm now happy to have you here." She finished with a last glance toward Glinda.
"I understand Elphaba, and I'm actually sorry for all the things that may have happened during our time at Shiz."
"It's okay, Milla. Actually I think you were the most tolerable friend our little social butterfly here used to have."
"Okay, now you are just being mean to both of us." Glinda said with a small pout that seemed to melt Elphaba.
"Never, my sweet, never." Elphie answered with such a loving look toward Glinda that the blonde felt like she had stopped breathing again, until the moment was broken abruptly.
"Come one, Fae. It's time to go to the Main Room, people are waiting for us."
"Yes, of course." Elphaba answered, allowing Valerie to draw her away; the happiness in her eyes had suddenly left, but just as soon she was smiling at Val and walking with her through the crowd.
"Well, that wasn't awkward at all" Milla said "But I think you might be right, Glinda. For a moment there I thought Elphaba still loved you. Come on." she said while pulling Glinda with her toward the Main Salon.
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"Hey, you okay?" Glinda heard someone asking her from behind. She would recognize that voice anywhere and she had already recognized that person's sweet scent. Oz, how she missed to be able to just hold her and kiss her whenever she felt like it or needed to.
"I'm fine, Elphie" the blonde answered with a small smile. She had been sitting close to the bar, holding a drink in her hand that she hadn't really touched. "Is it going to start soon?"
"Yes, just a couple of minutes more." Elphaba said, standing next to the blonde.
"Elphie…"
"Glinda…"
They had spoken at the same time.
"You first." Glinda said with a warm smile.
"I was wondering if you wanted to dance."
Glinda looked toward the center of the room where many people were dancing to a fast rhythm.
"I'd love to" she answered, watching how Elphie took her hand and led her to the dance floor.
By the time they had started dancing, a slower song had started to play. For a moment Glinda thought that Elphie was going to pull away, but instead she held Glinda closer while they started swaying to the music.
"Are you sure Valerie will be okay with this?" Glinda asked, somehow wanting to listen to Elphaba say that she didn't care about the brunette's opinion.
"Yes, I think she will. You are my best friend after all."
Glinda pulled away a little to look at Elphaba's eyes.
"Elphaba, don't you really remember anything about your trip to Frottica? Or the things that happened while you were there?"
"Glin, I didn't…"
"No, please..." Glinda asked her more desperately "please before you say it never happened, please try to think about it, try to remember, for me."
Elphaba didn't look so convinced, but she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
It was so hard for Glinda, having her so close, but not being able to do anything about it… Finally she couldn't take it anymore and she started caressing Elphaba's cheek with her thumb tenderly.
"You were mine." She whispered softly.
Suddenly Elphaba opened her eyes and looked deeply at Glinda "I… I'm yours."
"OKAY, EVERYONE, WE ARE READY, LET'S BEGIN."
One of the bridesmaids yelled all of the sudden, causing the music to stop and the couples to leave the dancing floor. But Glinda and Elphaba stayed there standing.
"Glin… I don't know… but I feel…" Elphaba looked so confused and scared that Glinda became immediately worried.
"Come on, Elphaba. It's time!" the blonde heard someone yelling.
"We… we need to talk about this later, okay?" she asked clearly agitated.
Glinda could only nod while Elphaba kissed her forehead and walked away toward the center of the room where Valerie stood talking with the priest.
Glinda took a deep breath and started walking where all the other bridesmaids were standing. She assumed that she would have to stand next to Elphaba and Milla.
However, before she got there she remembered there was something urgent she needed to do, so she walked quickly toward the main door, chanted softly until a bubble appeared on her hand and then released the pink object into the air, hoping it would be received on time.
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A few minutes later, everyone was standing on their assigned positions. As Glinda had expected, she was standing next to Elphaba, and they were all in the middle of the main room. There priest was standing between the brides, reading about the promise they'd be making to each other and the wonderful feature they could have together.
"Are you okay?" Milla asked Glinda, noticing that the blonde was looking constantly at the huge windows that were located behind them, in the room's north wall.
"Yes, I'm fine." Glinda answered. But, how longer do I have to wait?, she thought to herself.
"Okay" Milla said, but she didn't sound very convinced.
"Look Milla" Glinda kept whispering, hoping that no one would hear her. "I know I told you I would let you know if I planned on doing something, but I didn't have a lot of time to do so. So, I should let you know that something is about to happen very soon, but don't worry it is something small and nothing will go wrong."
"What?" Milla hissed.
But Glinda wasn't listening anymore because she had just seen a small dark cloud approaching the Palace, so she started chanting one of the few spells that she dominated. After all… she had always been good at making things explode.
She kept chanting very softly, without noticing anything else around her, until she heard someone screaming.
The blonde opened her eyes to look around, but kept chanting under her breath. She turned around in time to see a woman yelling desperately, pointing toward the window "LOOK OUT!" she screamed.
Glinda turned to look at the windows and saw that the dark cloud, a huge cloud of flying monkeys, had gotten closer.
It looked like they were going to collide against the windows, but Glinda had finished her spell just on time, so just before the monkeys crushed into them, the windows exploded, sending thousands of pieces of glass to the floor.
Fortunately there seemed to be a barrier, preventing the glasses to go near the area where the guests were standing, but the noise of the explosion had terrified everyone.
And now a herd of monkeys kept flying around the room and around the guests, picking things up and throwing them away.
Glinda couldn't help but smile at what was going on around her. She knew the monkeys wouldn't hurt anyone, but there was such chaos in the room that she was sure there'd have to be a fourth rehearsal. Especially considering that at that moment the priest was being carried away from the Palace by Chistery himself. She knew the monkey wasn't going to take him far away, but now she had just gained a few more days in her rescuing mission.
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"What was that all about?" Milla asked enraged. They can't even find the priest and the rings are missing too."
"The priest isn't harmed, and I'm sure he'll be back in a couple of days with gifts from various villages he'd be visiting. As for the rings… well, I'm sure they can get new ones."
"But Glinda, you promised me you'd be careful and that you'd let me know if you decided to do something this crazy."
"I did let you know! Don't you remember?"
"Telling me seconds before it happened doesn't really count!"
"Sure it does!"
"No, it doesn't. And you could have hurt people! I mean, we had glass thrown at us."
"There wasn't any danger because I had everything under control. Elphie taught me a spell to freeze things in midair and I used it with the glass. I used to have small accidents around her where things would end up exploding when I practiced some magic tricks, and that's when she decided to find a spell that would help me."
"Well then, don't you think that she'll know you were behind all of this? I mean, she will at least suspect something."
"I thought about that, but at least now…"
Suddenly the blonde was interrupted by a soft knock on the door.
Glinda and Milla looked at each other quizzically before the blonde answered.
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Elphaba."
There you go, I told you. Milla mouthed toward Glinda
Oh, shut up. Glinda answered in the same way.
"Please come in" she then said out loud.
Elphaba opened the door slowly and stepped into the room looking around. "Hello Glinda, Milla. I'm glad you are both okay, I was worried about you."
"It's okay, Elphie. We are fine" the blonde said. She wanted to smile but realized that she couldn't. Elphaba looked so tired and defeated right now that Glinda couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty about what had happened.
"Are you okay, Elphaba?" Milla asked, clearly noticing the same thing about the green girl that Glinda had.
"Yeah, we are fine. This has just become even more stressful, you know? We've been looking for Chistery to try to understand what happened, but we haven't been able to find him. This is just a huge mess."
"Well, if there's anything I can do, please let me know."
"I will, thank you Milla. On the meantime, could you give me a few minutes to talk to Glinda alone, please?"
"Sure" Milla answered, glancing toward the blonde one more time before leaving the room quietly.
Once the door had closed behind Milla, Glinda decided to speak.
"Elphie, are you really alright?"
"I don't know, Glin. I'm tired of things happening around us that make Val miserable. I'm tired that we can't have the ceremony. I'm tired of the whole commotion that has accompanied this wedding. And I'm scared, I'm scared that someone is trying to hurt Valerie and that I don't know who that person is. And, because of everything that happened tonight, I'm scared that person might be you."
"Elphie, I didn't… you can't…"
"I know I can't accuse you just like that, Glinda. And I'm sorry if I'm not being fair with you, but all the evidence points to you right now and you must realize that I'm not the only one who thinks that."
"So Valerie thinks it was me? Do you think it was me?"
"I'm desperately trying to convince myself that you are not responsible for any of this. But on the meantime, could you please stay away from Val and me until the wedding is over? Please?"
"Elphie… I can't. I… You know how much I care about you, I love you! But something happened to you and I… I don't know what to do, but you felt it! For one moment during our dance you were my Elphie again, remember?"
"I do remember, Glin. I don't know what happened at that moment, but…"
"Then we have to talk about it!" Glinda said louder, interrupting Elphaba "We have to, please!"
"I… I can't deal with that right now, Glin. I'm exhausted and I only came here to make sure you were well and to talk to you about what happened. You may stay here for as long as you please, but at least give us some time until the wedding takes place."
"No! I won't, I can't!"
"Please, Glinda"
"No"
"Fine, then at least give me until tomorrow. That way I have some time to put some things in order and convince everyone that you aren't here to destroy the ceremony."
"Do you believe them? Do you think I planned all of this?" Glinda asked softly. She knew that tonight had been her idea, but the previous disasters hadn't been her fault at all. She shouldn't be blamed for everything that went wrong.
"I don't want to believe them" Elphaba said "That's why I won't ask you if you had anything to do with any of it. I know you care about me too much to do something like that." And with that Elphaba walked toward the door and left the room.
"I do care" Glinda whispered to herself "that's why I'm responsible for some of it, and I would do it again and again until I get you back."
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Glinda had gone to bed after talking to Elphaba, but she hadn't been able to sleep right away.
That's why she hadn't been sleeping deeply when she heard some steps close to her bed followed by a hand covering her mouth.
She started to struggle trying to defend herself, but then she felt a strong hit on the head and everything went black.
Next thing she knew, she was opening her eyes again and looking around realizing she wasn't at the Palace anymore. But she was in a place she knew… somewhere she had been before.
"Good, throw her next to our newest prisoners. That way the little bit of magic she has will be useless."
Glinda recognized that voice… she was…
"Oh, you are up" Valerie said, kneeling down next to Glinda who was lying on the cold floor. "Well, too bad, I would have preferred you not seeing me. You shouldn't have come, Glinda, and you shouldn't have tried to ruin the most special day in my life. You really didn't leave me any other choice. But don't worry, I'll tell Elphaba how you decided to leave because you are such a good friend that you didn't want to cause any more problems. She'll believe that and by the time she decides to contact you again, it'll be too late. She will already be my wife. But don't worry, we will make this place as comfortable for you as possible; after all, you'll be staying here for a really really long time. Take her away" she then added, without giving Glinda any chance to react. She was still gaining conscience and after hearing Valerie talking to her she realized where she was… Southstairs.
"No!" she screamed, finally coming to her senses. "Nooo, Elphie!"
"Oh, come on. Even you are smarter than that, she can't hear you, and she won't come, no one will. Farewell, Lady Glinda."
And with that Valerie was gone. Two guards picked Glinda up from the floor and dragged her into an empty cell located at the end of the corridor, locking the iron door behind them.
What now? Glinda thought to herself. For some reason, being locked in prison wasn't the scariest part. The scariest part was knowing that Valerie may have won, that her Elphie could be gone forever.
She started sobbing uncontrollably at that thought, without really knowing what else she could do.
"Glinda?" She suddenly heard someone calling her from the cell next to hers. "Is that you?"
She recognized that voice, but it couldn't be...
She approached the bars that divided her from the other person and was able to confirm that she wasn't crazy, she had really heard him.
"Fiyero?" Glinda asked completely surprised.
"Oh, Oz. I'm so glad you are okay" Fiyero said "When we heard the guards yelling upstairs we feared the worst."
"We?" Glinda asked "Wait, what are you doing here? What happened?" the blonde felt completely lost at the moment, nothing made any sense "I thought you were in the Vinkus."
"We were, but…"
"See, I told you we shouldn't have sent Chistery to her." Glinda heard someone else saying in the dark next to Fiyero.
She recognized that voice too, but it couldn't be! She had just heard it minutes before. Had she finally lost her mind?
"Fiyero, is that…?" Glinda asked just in case, but it couldn't be possible!
"Hello Glinda" the person next to Fiyero finally came into view.
"Val… Valerie?"
"Long time no see."