Guarding What We Love and Live For, Chapter 1
Guarding What We Love and Live For
A Wicked (Book/Musicalverse)/Kingdom Hearts (post-Xemnas) Fanfiction
By GBL337
Chapter 1
Sora, Riku, and Kairi walked slowly into the gates of the city, emerald green in color all around, in which they landed from the Gummi Ship, and Sora asked in a whisper, “So, d’you think we’ll find Maleficent in this world?”
“I dunno…word has it she and Pete were headed in this direction; at least, that’s what Chip and Dale picked up on the Gummi Radar,” Riku said, looking around and sighing.
The three of them had been traveling around the worlds for quite some time now-even into worlds they had never been to, all in the interest of stemming the tide of Heartless that have been coming despite the death of Xemnas. Riku had been explaining to them that as long as people control the Heartless, the heightened numbers will persist, and thus Kairi thought that they should find a way to defeat any Heartless-user in the worlds, hopefully restoring the balance once more.
“But that means that we’ll have to hit every world we can find! We’ll be old people by the time we finish this!” Sora moaned, looking to Riku like a puppy.
Riku sighed, ruffled his friend’s hair and said with a jaunty grin, “I guess that’ll be our motivation to get all this done as quickly as possible, now won’t it?”
“Alright, Riku-can you land us gently this time?”
“Hey, hey, I didn’t see that rock, that wasn’t my fault.”
“Riiiight, and Sora is patient.”
“Hey! I AM TOO patient! I can’t wait to show you guys!”
They all laughed and landed on the world that came into view.
They landed in this strangest of worlds after pursuing Maleficent in particular for what felt like ages, and now they walked through a city seemingly made of emerald.
“Now, Sora-please, don’t do anything stupid…we need to find a way to track Maleficent without attracting too much attention,” Riku warned, knowing his friend’s penchant for blurting out the worst thing at the worst time.
Sora shot a sour look at Riku, blushed gently in embarrassment and gazed around, searching earnestly. He saw a tall spire, pointed and said, “Maybe we can find out something there?”
The group nodded. At that moment, a pink bubble floated gently over them, hovering innocently toward the same tower.
Whispers around them frothed furiously that day, with mentions of a “Wicked witch returning,” constantly.
“Who’s this wicked witch they’re talking about? Could it be…?”
“Could be…if we find out she is tallish, wears black, and has greenish skin, I think we can narrow it down…”
“You know of the Wicked Witch of the West? You’ve seen her? She has terrorized Oz for ages!” cried out a short man, with glasses and a magnificent beard.
“Oz? That’s this place’s name?” Riku asked, taking charge.
“Of course! Are you another visitor from the other worlds?”
Riku, Kairi and Sora all gasped, worrying about the integrity of the worlds, something King Mickey had emphasized to them rather forcefully as of late. Sora and Kairi looked at each other and their eyes went wide.
“H-How do you know?” Riku managed to stammer, after a few tense minutes of looking frantically at his friends.
“Well, we’ve had another visitor from the far-off land of Kansas. You do not know of Dorothy of Kansas?”
The three sighed deeply, relieved slightly that it wasn’t something to do with their mission, shook their heads, and Sora asked slowly, trying to be as clear as possible without giving anything away, “Um, we’re looking for someone who would know a lot about a lot of things…is there anyone around?”
“Of course, stranger, The Wizard will surely know!” the midget said brightly, heading in the direction of the tower. “Th’name’s Boq, by the way…I’m from the lands to the East called Munchkinland. I am on a visit for some supplies.
“Would he know of a really, really evil witch with ugly green skin, and is surrounded by a lot of morons? Especially this big lug named Pete?” Riku said, half-listening to Boq’s introduction.
“Like I said before, we know of the Wicked Witch of the West-her castle is in Kiamo Ko, in the Vinkus to the West, but first, the Wizard!”
“Thank you, Boq, I think that my friend here was rude enough not to return the introduction. I am Kairi, The boy with the large Key is Sora, and the white-haired boy is named Riku.”
“Pleasure to meet you all…and I hope to run into you again…if you ever feel like going to Munchkinland, you need merely follow the yellow brick road, and you’ll land right in the center of all the action here in Oz! Well, all the action that doesn’t occur in the Emerald City, o’ course.”
They all nodded, smiling warmly at the reception made by this kind, small man as he walked off. In reality, they planned not to go anywhere that was not immediately necessary to the plan-go in, find the source of the Heartless, neutralize the source, and hop back out onto the next one.
“This Wizard sounds like Merlin…” Riku whispered out of the side of his mouth.
“Why worry?” Kairi asked brightly, holding both of their shoulders and grinning. “After all, what’s the worst that could happen?”
They all laughed as they followed the person to the tower. At that moment, however, a small dark spot appeared and a lone Dusk ambled behind them.
A large door loomed over them with a small door-flap at eye-level; the three of them looked excitedly, and the door-flap opened and a bearded guard said irritably, “I take it you wish to speak to the Wizard, eh? What of?”
Riku said, “Well, we are looking for someone. We’re told this Wizard will know.”
“That and we’re looking for information about this Wicked Witch of the-”
“Mention nothing about her!! She has only recently died and yet there is word of her return! Is there no peace destined for Oz?”
They gasped and said, “Did she call herself Maleficent or something?”
The guard shook his head and said, “Only those of us old enough to remember know her true name…it is not Maleficent, I can assure you this. Please, come in, and the Wizard will give you all the information you need.”
Riku and Kairi both glared daggers at Sora’s slip of the tongue. Sora’s sheepish embarrassment was written in every inch of his face as he mumbled, “Sorry, guys…”
They ignored him as they continued behind the guard.
They followed and were finally met with a short, balding man, smiling sheepishly to them. All three of them kept their Keyblades drawn, though they held them at their sides non-threateningly.
“I suppose you are the visitors from the other worlds, I have heard much of you already. You should be thankful that the fellow with the oversized ears warned me in advance of things.”
“THE KING!” they shouted excitedly. Among their journeys these days, the quest to find King Mickey had been around the top of the list, since the apparent death of all of Organization XIII. What worried them was that the Heartless were not disappearing as they had hoped.
“You know him; then you should also know that this place is being besieged by those Heart-whatsits…”
“Heartless?”
“Those. And apparently we have other beings similar to them…only they are white, apparently. Only smatterings of reports of them have reached me, so they may very well be nothing.”
The rest of the group’s eyes went very wide-Nobodies should have disappeared when Sora and Riku defeated Xemnas! They all shot each other nervous glances as they listened.
“They are not rumors, Wizard,” came a light, airy but concerned voice. A woman in a bright pink dress with a blindingly glittering wand came through and said, “I have been watching these three for a while now, and they were trailing a small white being with a zipper on its chest.”
This woman exuded an extremely loud and feminine fashion sense and everything about her seemed pink. Attractive in a very bubbly manner, her face seemed plastered with a smile that Sora didn’t seem to think was genuine, as he stared at her blankly. For once, he kept his mouth shut about this.
“Ah, Glinda, just the witch I’ve been waiting for. These three need an escort through Oz, and you know the place better than anyone, save for Elph---never mind…off with the both of you-Glinda, I fear we will have to investigate Kiamo Ko once more. Would you like the Gale Force with you?”
Shaking her head gracefully, she answered, “No, you have enough security issues in the Vinkus as it is…I believe these people will be more than sufficient, if that King Mouse fellow is right.”
The Wizard looked to Sora, eyed him up and down repeatedly, and his eyes fell on Sora’s keyblade. His eyes never left the keyblade as he said, “You are Sora, if I am correct-King Mickey spoke exceedingly well of you in particular; your friends also hold some clout in his eyes, especially the Riku boy. Be good to Glinda, and,” he paused, looking up at Sora and not his keyblade, leaned into Sora’s ear, and continued in a nearly inaudible whisper, “if you meet with a hawkish woman with an odd skin condition, tell her I’m sorry.”
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The group walked out of the main spire, and Sora had dismissed his keyblade several moments after leaving the company of the Wizard, uneasy at the greedy stare he gave the keyblade; Riku and Kairi followed suit.
Glinda held herself as if she was on a cloud, but anyone could see that her smile was as carefully sculpted and hollow as a plastic doll’s. Kairi moved up to Glinda and asked gently, “Miss Glinda? Are you alright?”
She looked back and sighed, saying, “Just Glinda…long story behind that one and not one I am privy to tell you. I’m glad you guys see through this. It gets very tiresome to come off as Lurline incarnate everywhere I go. The only other person who could ever see through it was Elph-never mind; allow me to guide you to where this Maleficent person would most likely be, if the description checks out.” Her posture slumped very slightly, giving her a more human look now.
“Who is this Elph person?” Sora asked curiously.
Glinda flinched, a longing gaze floated on her face for a moment before shaking her head and saying, “That is one person you won’t be seeing on this trip, unless you believe those rumors to her being brought back to life.” She looked up hopefully it seemed and sighed, murmuring in a choked whisper, “Our last visitor to this world killed her.”
Sora felt extremely sad for Glinda-her gaze said a lot about this person to him. He was tempted to ask her but Kairi held his hand and squeezed it and he fell silent.
“Or that’s what you would enjoy believing, Miss Galinda of the Arduennas of the Uplands…” came a sharp and even voice from behind her.
The reaction of this voice was extreme; Glinda literally leapt several feet into the air and stayed there, quivering with a disoriented, disbelieving gape and gaze, tears beginning to flood her eyes.
With the voice came a stiff and confident strut belonging to a tallish woman with bright green skin and a tall, pointed hat and cloak, all black. Sora saw Riku eye the woman, apparently young judging by the bright skin tone and the lack of age-marks as she leaned her hat back to reveal rich chocolate brown hair and matching eyes, bright and sharp as an eagle’s, glancing down a prominent nose.
She spoke with the same voice, knife-sharp but with a definite tone of sarcastic humor, as she looked up, “You still have the same awful fashion sense. Maybe it should be ME to give YOU the makeover this time around, eh?”
Glinda hovered down, a look of absolute shock on her face, tears streaming freely and squeaked, “I thought you were…”
“Dead? Would I be here if I were?”
So what happened with-”
“Elphaba the Delirious seemed to have known enough to put a doppelganger with Dorothy and escape…ah the wonders of being left alone and sleep-deprived with a giant book.” She said this in a heavily sarcastic tone, her eyes never leaving Glinda’s.
“R-really? You always WERE the smarter one…” Glinda muttered, giving a shifty glare at the nearest wall.
A wild grin followed the woman who called herself Elphaba and cackled with joy, whooping, “YOU ADMIT IT!”
“Okay, okay, okay…calm down. For once in your life, you have good timing.”
“Hello to you, too,” she muttered just loudly enough for Sora to snicker.
Sora turned to her and said, “So you’re this Elphaba everyone is scared to talk about?”
“Scared of ME? Never…wouldn’t even think of it…” she said, rolling her eyes very bitterly as she sized Sora up in her mind and shrugged.
“Hey! Do you think I’m a twerp or something?”
“You said it, not me.”
“Say that again…”
“You said it, not me.”
“Sora, I think you should let the woman speak…”
He scowled at Riku’s advice and fell silent once more.
Satisfied at her little argument, she gave a wry smirk and looked up to Glinda and said, “Okay, Lurline-you can come down now…I have a question to ask of you once I can see more than your lovely pink crotch.”
Glinda floated down, glaring daggers at Elphaba, blushing so furiously her face now matched her dress and glowering, asked, “What is it that you wish to ask of me, Your Wickedness?”
Biting her lip as her eyes flashed, she took a deep breath and said, “I don’t much appreciate that title anymore, thank you very much. I was going to ask where you were headed and,” she ran over to her and hugged her very tightly, her eyes closed and she was seemingly breathing in Glinda’s scent, “to say that it’s great to see you, at least not while you’re leading that Dorothy girl down the path to my attempted ruin,” and she grinned, revealing teeth with unearthly brilliance and a slight sharpness to each tooth.
Glinda smiled widely, holding her close, smelling Elphaba’s beautiful hair, and stood there for what felt like a lifetime before she said, her voice breaking, “Glad to see you, too…and glad to know you’ve come around. Got some sleep finally?”
“Finding an antidote to that Elixir the Wizard gave my mom helped a lot. That and some Dreamless Sleep spells I devised got my brain back to working condition. Sleep deprivation is NOT a good thing, especially when it is not in order to pass a test at ‘Dear Old Shiz,’ believe me here.”
Elphaba laughed at her own joke, and Sora did not seem to catch on and Elphaba giggled, ruffling his hair and she said, “I see your friends are of the same level of intelligence as always…”
Glinda asked slowly, head cocked to the side, “But what about your voice, it’s…it’s-”
“Normal-I never talked like that normally; you know how I adored shock value, my pretty...”
“Your face…”
“Come now-you taught me how to do this!”
Glowing with pride, she said, “Well, I suppose I did have some skills in sorcery after all, Miss Elphaba! You look as you did shortly after Shiz!”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, I hope…” Elphaba said, rolling her eyes.
Glinda smiled warmly and said, “Well, either way, it seems there is another doppelganger of you,”
A long time passed as she looked at her and thought, looking up, saying, “I only had enough materials to make one exact copy of myself….that must mean that there is someone of another world…a parallel of me…”
The others blanched at her conclusion as she said waspishly, “No one ever believes me when I say that I am well-versed in spying on people! Glinda-you know that better than anyone and you know for a fact I was watching you guys the whole time. Where was this Maleficent person last spotted?”
“Your old haunt…”
Elphaba’s face fell as she looked around, biting her emerald lips as she paced anxiously, looking back from Glinda to Sora and back to Glinda.
“Kiamo Ko? Oh, blast-I still have some of my old experiments still there. You guys have one more on board on your itty-bitty little journey. I left a few…traps there, and you would definitely NOT want to get caught in…oh, Oz do you not want to…”
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“You dolt! Why did you step on that block?” Maleficent growled while looking at Pete, suspended in air, with a pig’s nose and fairy wings as the two of them trekked through the old castle.
“I didn’t know it’d be so chock full o’ traps!”
“You fool, did you not pay attention to me when I told you who once inhabited this castle? A grand sorceress of unimaginable power and shrewdness! Allow the Heartless to spring the traps this next time!”
“Awright, awright, can ya turn me back?”
Maleficent smiled slowly and evilly as she purred, “I am not sure, that nose is rather…becoming on you.”
“Aw, c’mon Maleficent! Please?”
“When you have learned to listen to me, then perhaps…until then, you can silence that infernal tongue of yours.”
She raised her arms and called out, “Heartless! Come to this castle and make it worthy of me!”
Hundreds of Heartless rose up, mainly Shadows but other types interspersed, and the whole swarm scoured the castle slowly, springing every trap they could get their greedy hands on.
“That, my dear Pete, is how you take over a castle. For once, you were right about that Nobody castle-far too close to the Darkness for even my liking. I prefer to be in charge, not serving another.”
“Darn straight…” Pete muttered crossly, hovering with his lurid wings, following his mistress of sorts.
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The group, now including the two witches, strolled the streets of the Emerald City, and Sora noticed that Elphaba had put a mask on, to cover her bright green skin as she walked with Glinda. Sora piped in, “Hey, Elphaba…why cover yourself like that?”
Turning around, she said, “I’m still Wicked until someone clears my bloody name…I don’t want to get marked for death twice.”
Glinda turned around and said, “Ah, yes-that reminds me…” and she slapped Elphaba square on the cheek as hard as she could. People turned around for a moment and turned away as if this happened regularly.
“What in OZ was that for?!”
“For not letting me know you were alive, Oz Dammit!” Glinda said, tears running down her face again.
“Miss Glinda, could we please continue this AFTER we’ve left Emerald?”
She shrugged, still glaring tearily at her.
“Oh, don’t give me that look, please Glinda…”
Glinda replied sniffily, “I will do what I can to clear your name…if we perchance defeat this Maleficent, perhaps I will give you the credit; saving Oz sounds about fair to clear you of being the ‘horrible terror of Oz’ am I correct? Or would you rather try something on your own, Miss Independence?”
Elphaba muttered something unintelligible and Glinda tripped over a mop that flew out from under her.
Giving her a nasty glare, she muttered, “If I didn’t know the consequences, I would call you on your disguise right now, Elphaba Thropp.”
“Oh, please, do-I would love to see their reaction upon noticing you didn’t do it awhile back…” she retorted, venom in her voice.
This silenced Glinda rather quickly, a hurt look in her eyes as she slowly got up and dusted herself off.
Sighing, annoyance written in her eyes as she walked over to Glinda and, nose-to-nose, said in a sweeter, softer tone, “Don’t be so easily hurt by my barbs-has it been so long that you are no longer accustomed to such idle banter, my sweet?”
The other three couldn’t hear what was said but the blush remaining on Glinda’s face as she seemingly resisted something surprised them.
“Could they be…” Sora said, trailing off as the two witches spoke in such close proximity.
“Naah…they can’t be…”
“Don’t be so sure…” Kairi said hesitantly, and piped up, “Aren’t we going to go to that castle anytime soon?”
Both of them were hardly moving their lips to each other, merely looking at each other and they both jumped at Kairi’s speech and Glinda said, “Yes, right, Kiamo Ko…Elphie, do you still have that infernal broom?”
Shaking her head, she said “Nope…it was taken, remember? “Proof of my demise for the Wizard,” I believe was what that Dorothy girl had mumbled while I watched her from my scrying ball.” Her edgy tone returned as she glared accusingly at Glinda and folded her arms as they left the gates of Emerald City.
“What else was I supposed to do? The Wizard would have had those shoes and we’d all be in a heap of dung bigger than we had started with! I ENCHANTED NESSA’S SHOES! I know what in Ozma’s name they can do with the wearer. I’m sorry. I didn’t even expect him to order your death, okay?”
Tears freely flowed from Glinda, but Elphaba winced, seemingly forcing the tears not to come. Through gritted teeth, she growled, “Still-Nessa said those would be mine if she ever died. I mean, I couldn’t even take the socks I got her…those would have been enough. I know she was a royal pain in the rear, but she was still my sister and I loved her. I mean, I took care of her for most of her life up until Shiz, and well, it was the closest I ever genuinely felt to being a mother.”
She looked distant as Glinda hugged her softly and gestured the three over.
“How do we get to Maleficent without giving our location away?” Riku asked gently.
“We don’t-if she has taken over the castle, she most likely found my scrying ball and is watching us as we speak. For example,” she looked up at the sky in no particular direction and threw a very vulgar hand signal in the air, shrieking, “THAT IS FOR TAKING MY CASTLE!”
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“Oh ho, so she knows her castle well,” Maleficent said with a distantly amused voice, as she gazed into the flawless crystal sphere at the group.
Pete floated in and said, “Maleficent, ya found ‘em? Let’s sic these new Heartless on ‘em!”
Maleficent raised a sculpted eyebrow and said chillingly with a sneer, “Why that is perhaps the first good idea you have had since we arrived!”
Raising an arm, she called out, “Heartless! Swarm them and show them who the new master of this castle is!”
At that moment, a large group of winged monkeys, black as night with the Heartless emblem on their chests flew out toward the open field in which the five allies were walking.
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The group had fallen silent after Elphaba’s lurid display and began walking along the Yellow Brick Road with Riku, Sora, and Kairi all watching the amusements that followed the reunion of Elphaba and Glinda.
“I still think they have something for each other…” Sora stated, watching the two hold hands.
“We know you think that, Sora-you’ve only said it, what, a million times now? Is lesbianism such an amazing thing that you need to point it out every time we work with them????” Riku said very irritably, glaring at him.
“Riku’s right-it’s kinda offensive to hear it all the time. I mean, what if we’re wrong?”
“Then we’re wrong, but I don’t think we are. They’re more than just friends…”
“Like you and Riku?”
Whirling around, a crimson blush on his face, Sora said, “That’s RIDICULOUS!”
Riku looked away, sighing, hiding his face with his Keyblade due to just how red it was at that moment.
Kairi giggled, looking at the sky as they walked, interested in the cloud in the distance.
Everyone stopped as Sora’s Keyblade was the first to react-that was no cloud. That was a swarm of Heartless, and it was coming straight at them.
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Well, thanks for suffering through the first chapter; stay tuned for many things to come, including our Heroes’ first taste of action in Oz...please comment! Comments are like Drive Orbs!
Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, and Chain of Memories all (c) Square Enix, Ltd. and Disney Interactive
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (book) (c) Gregory Maguire
Wicked (musical) (c) Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman
A Wicked (Book/Musicalverse)/Kingdom Hearts (post-Xemnas) Fanfiction
By GBL337
Chapter 1
Sora, Riku, and Kairi walked slowly into the gates of the city, emerald green in color all around, in which they landed from the Gummi Ship, and Sora asked in a whisper, “So, d’you think we’ll find Maleficent in this world?”
“I dunno…word has it she and Pete were headed in this direction; at least, that’s what Chip and Dale picked up on the Gummi Radar,” Riku said, looking around and sighing.
The three of them had been traveling around the worlds for quite some time now-even into worlds they had never been to, all in the interest of stemming the tide of Heartless that have been coming despite the death of Xemnas. Riku had been explaining to them that as long as people control the Heartless, the heightened numbers will persist, and thus Kairi thought that they should find a way to defeat any Heartless-user in the worlds, hopefully restoring the balance once more.
“But that means that we’ll have to hit every world we can find! We’ll be old people by the time we finish this!” Sora moaned, looking to Riku like a puppy.
Riku sighed, ruffled his friend’s hair and said with a jaunty grin, “I guess that’ll be our motivation to get all this done as quickly as possible, now won’t it?”
“Alright, Riku-can you land us gently this time?”
“Hey, hey, I didn’t see that rock, that wasn’t my fault.”
“Riiiight, and Sora is patient.”
“Hey! I AM TOO patient! I can’t wait to show you guys!”
They all laughed and landed on the world that came into view.
They landed in this strangest of worlds after pursuing Maleficent in particular for what felt like ages, and now they walked through a city seemingly made of emerald.
“Now, Sora-please, don’t do anything stupid…we need to find a way to track Maleficent without attracting too much attention,” Riku warned, knowing his friend’s penchant for blurting out the worst thing at the worst time.
Sora shot a sour look at Riku, blushed gently in embarrassment and gazed around, searching earnestly. He saw a tall spire, pointed and said, “Maybe we can find out something there?”
The group nodded. At that moment, a pink bubble floated gently over them, hovering innocently toward the same tower.
Whispers around them frothed furiously that day, with mentions of a “Wicked witch returning,” constantly.
“Who’s this wicked witch they’re talking about? Could it be…?”
“Could be…if we find out she is tallish, wears black, and has greenish skin, I think we can narrow it down…”
“You know of the Wicked Witch of the West? You’ve seen her? She has terrorized Oz for ages!” cried out a short man, with glasses and a magnificent beard.
“Oz? That’s this place’s name?” Riku asked, taking charge.
“Of course! Are you another visitor from the other worlds?”
Riku, Kairi and Sora all gasped, worrying about the integrity of the worlds, something King Mickey had emphasized to them rather forcefully as of late. Sora and Kairi looked at each other and their eyes went wide.
“H-How do you know?” Riku managed to stammer, after a few tense minutes of looking frantically at his friends.
“Well, we’ve had another visitor from the far-off land of Kansas. You do not know of Dorothy of Kansas?”
The three sighed deeply, relieved slightly that it wasn’t something to do with their mission, shook their heads, and Sora asked slowly, trying to be as clear as possible without giving anything away, “Um, we’re looking for someone who would know a lot about a lot of things…is there anyone around?”
“Of course, stranger, The Wizard will surely know!” the midget said brightly, heading in the direction of the tower. “Th’name’s Boq, by the way…I’m from the lands to the East called Munchkinland. I am on a visit for some supplies.
“Would he know of a really, really evil witch with ugly green skin, and is surrounded by a lot of morons? Especially this big lug named Pete?” Riku said, half-listening to Boq’s introduction.
“Like I said before, we know of the Wicked Witch of the West-her castle is in Kiamo Ko, in the Vinkus to the West, but first, the Wizard!”
“Thank you, Boq, I think that my friend here was rude enough not to return the introduction. I am Kairi, The boy with the large Key is Sora, and the white-haired boy is named Riku.”
“Pleasure to meet you all…and I hope to run into you again…if you ever feel like going to Munchkinland, you need merely follow the yellow brick road, and you’ll land right in the center of all the action here in Oz! Well, all the action that doesn’t occur in the Emerald City, o’ course.”
They all nodded, smiling warmly at the reception made by this kind, small man as he walked off. In reality, they planned not to go anywhere that was not immediately necessary to the plan-go in, find the source of the Heartless, neutralize the source, and hop back out onto the next one.
“This Wizard sounds like Merlin…” Riku whispered out of the side of his mouth.
“Why worry?” Kairi asked brightly, holding both of their shoulders and grinning. “After all, what’s the worst that could happen?”
They all laughed as they followed the person to the tower. At that moment, however, a small dark spot appeared and a lone Dusk ambled behind them.
A large door loomed over them with a small door-flap at eye-level; the three of them looked excitedly, and the door-flap opened and a bearded guard said irritably, “I take it you wish to speak to the Wizard, eh? What of?”
Riku said, “Well, we are looking for someone. We’re told this Wizard will know.”
“That and we’re looking for information about this Wicked Witch of the-”
“Mention nothing about her!! She has only recently died and yet there is word of her return! Is there no peace destined for Oz?”
They gasped and said, “Did she call herself Maleficent or something?”
The guard shook his head and said, “Only those of us old enough to remember know her true name…it is not Maleficent, I can assure you this. Please, come in, and the Wizard will give you all the information you need.”
Riku and Kairi both glared daggers at Sora’s slip of the tongue. Sora’s sheepish embarrassment was written in every inch of his face as he mumbled, “Sorry, guys…”
They ignored him as they continued behind the guard.
They followed and were finally met with a short, balding man, smiling sheepishly to them. All three of them kept their Keyblades drawn, though they held them at their sides non-threateningly.
“I suppose you are the visitors from the other worlds, I have heard much of you already. You should be thankful that the fellow with the oversized ears warned me in advance of things.”
“THE KING!” they shouted excitedly. Among their journeys these days, the quest to find King Mickey had been around the top of the list, since the apparent death of all of Organization XIII. What worried them was that the Heartless were not disappearing as they had hoped.
“You know him; then you should also know that this place is being besieged by those Heart-whatsits…”
“Heartless?”
“Those. And apparently we have other beings similar to them…only they are white, apparently. Only smatterings of reports of them have reached me, so they may very well be nothing.”
The rest of the group’s eyes went very wide-Nobodies should have disappeared when Sora and Riku defeated Xemnas! They all shot each other nervous glances as they listened.
“They are not rumors, Wizard,” came a light, airy but concerned voice. A woman in a bright pink dress with a blindingly glittering wand came through and said, “I have been watching these three for a while now, and they were trailing a small white being with a zipper on its chest.”
This woman exuded an extremely loud and feminine fashion sense and everything about her seemed pink. Attractive in a very bubbly manner, her face seemed plastered with a smile that Sora didn’t seem to think was genuine, as he stared at her blankly. For once, he kept his mouth shut about this.
“Ah, Glinda, just the witch I’ve been waiting for. These three need an escort through Oz, and you know the place better than anyone, save for Elph---never mind…off with the both of you-Glinda, I fear we will have to investigate Kiamo Ko once more. Would you like the Gale Force with you?”
Shaking her head gracefully, she answered, “No, you have enough security issues in the Vinkus as it is…I believe these people will be more than sufficient, if that King Mouse fellow is right.”
The Wizard looked to Sora, eyed him up and down repeatedly, and his eyes fell on Sora’s keyblade. His eyes never left the keyblade as he said, “You are Sora, if I am correct-King Mickey spoke exceedingly well of you in particular; your friends also hold some clout in his eyes, especially the Riku boy. Be good to Glinda, and,” he paused, looking up at Sora and not his keyblade, leaned into Sora’s ear, and continued in a nearly inaudible whisper, “if you meet with a hawkish woman with an odd skin condition, tell her I’m sorry.”
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The group walked out of the main spire, and Sora had dismissed his keyblade several moments after leaving the company of the Wizard, uneasy at the greedy stare he gave the keyblade; Riku and Kairi followed suit.
Glinda held herself as if she was on a cloud, but anyone could see that her smile was as carefully sculpted and hollow as a plastic doll’s. Kairi moved up to Glinda and asked gently, “Miss Glinda? Are you alright?”
She looked back and sighed, saying, “Just Glinda…long story behind that one and not one I am privy to tell you. I’m glad you guys see through this. It gets very tiresome to come off as Lurline incarnate everywhere I go. The only other person who could ever see through it was Elph-never mind; allow me to guide you to where this Maleficent person would most likely be, if the description checks out.” Her posture slumped very slightly, giving her a more human look now.
“Who is this Elph person?” Sora asked curiously.
Glinda flinched, a longing gaze floated on her face for a moment before shaking her head and saying, “That is one person you won’t be seeing on this trip, unless you believe those rumors to her being brought back to life.” She looked up hopefully it seemed and sighed, murmuring in a choked whisper, “Our last visitor to this world killed her.”
Sora felt extremely sad for Glinda-her gaze said a lot about this person to him. He was tempted to ask her but Kairi held his hand and squeezed it and he fell silent.
“Or that’s what you would enjoy believing, Miss Galinda of the Arduennas of the Uplands…” came a sharp and even voice from behind her.
The reaction of this voice was extreme; Glinda literally leapt several feet into the air and stayed there, quivering with a disoriented, disbelieving gape and gaze, tears beginning to flood her eyes.
With the voice came a stiff and confident strut belonging to a tallish woman with bright green skin and a tall, pointed hat and cloak, all black. Sora saw Riku eye the woman, apparently young judging by the bright skin tone and the lack of age-marks as she leaned her hat back to reveal rich chocolate brown hair and matching eyes, bright and sharp as an eagle’s, glancing down a prominent nose.
She spoke with the same voice, knife-sharp but with a definite tone of sarcastic humor, as she looked up, “You still have the same awful fashion sense. Maybe it should be ME to give YOU the makeover this time around, eh?”
Glinda hovered down, a look of absolute shock on her face, tears streaming freely and squeaked, “I thought you were…”
“Dead? Would I be here if I were?”
So what happened with-”
“Elphaba the Delirious seemed to have known enough to put a doppelganger with Dorothy and escape…ah the wonders of being left alone and sleep-deprived with a giant book.” She said this in a heavily sarcastic tone, her eyes never leaving Glinda’s.
“R-really? You always WERE the smarter one…” Glinda muttered, giving a shifty glare at the nearest wall.
A wild grin followed the woman who called herself Elphaba and cackled with joy, whooping, “YOU ADMIT IT!”
“Okay, okay, okay…calm down. For once in your life, you have good timing.”
“Hello to you, too,” she muttered just loudly enough for Sora to snicker.
Sora turned to her and said, “So you’re this Elphaba everyone is scared to talk about?”
“Scared of ME? Never…wouldn’t even think of it…” she said, rolling her eyes very bitterly as she sized Sora up in her mind and shrugged.
“Hey! Do you think I’m a twerp or something?”
“You said it, not me.”
“Say that again…”
“You said it, not me.”
“Sora, I think you should let the woman speak…”
He scowled at Riku’s advice and fell silent once more.
Satisfied at her little argument, she gave a wry smirk and looked up to Glinda and said, “Okay, Lurline-you can come down now…I have a question to ask of you once I can see more than your lovely pink crotch.”
Glinda floated down, glaring daggers at Elphaba, blushing so furiously her face now matched her dress and glowering, asked, “What is it that you wish to ask of me, Your Wickedness?”
Biting her lip as her eyes flashed, she took a deep breath and said, “I don’t much appreciate that title anymore, thank you very much. I was going to ask where you were headed and,” she ran over to her and hugged her very tightly, her eyes closed and she was seemingly breathing in Glinda’s scent, “to say that it’s great to see you, at least not while you’re leading that Dorothy girl down the path to my attempted ruin,” and she grinned, revealing teeth with unearthly brilliance and a slight sharpness to each tooth.
Glinda smiled widely, holding her close, smelling Elphaba’s beautiful hair, and stood there for what felt like a lifetime before she said, her voice breaking, “Glad to see you, too…and glad to know you’ve come around. Got some sleep finally?”
“Finding an antidote to that Elixir the Wizard gave my mom helped a lot. That and some Dreamless Sleep spells I devised got my brain back to working condition. Sleep deprivation is NOT a good thing, especially when it is not in order to pass a test at ‘Dear Old Shiz,’ believe me here.”
Elphaba laughed at her own joke, and Sora did not seem to catch on and Elphaba giggled, ruffling his hair and she said, “I see your friends are of the same level of intelligence as always…”
Glinda asked slowly, head cocked to the side, “But what about your voice, it’s…it’s-”
“Normal-I never talked like that normally; you know how I adored shock value, my pretty...”
“Your face…”
“Come now-you taught me how to do this!”
Glowing with pride, she said, “Well, I suppose I did have some skills in sorcery after all, Miss Elphaba! You look as you did shortly after Shiz!”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, I hope…” Elphaba said, rolling her eyes.
Glinda smiled warmly and said, “Well, either way, it seems there is another doppelganger of you,”
A long time passed as she looked at her and thought, looking up, saying, “I only had enough materials to make one exact copy of myself….that must mean that there is someone of another world…a parallel of me…”
The others blanched at her conclusion as she said waspishly, “No one ever believes me when I say that I am well-versed in spying on people! Glinda-you know that better than anyone and you know for a fact I was watching you guys the whole time. Where was this Maleficent person last spotted?”
“Your old haunt…”
Elphaba’s face fell as she looked around, biting her emerald lips as she paced anxiously, looking back from Glinda to Sora and back to Glinda.
“Kiamo Ko? Oh, blast-I still have some of my old experiments still there. You guys have one more on board on your itty-bitty little journey. I left a few…traps there, and you would definitely NOT want to get caught in…oh, Oz do you not want to…”
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“You dolt! Why did you step on that block?” Maleficent growled while looking at Pete, suspended in air, with a pig’s nose and fairy wings as the two of them trekked through the old castle.
“I didn’t know it’d be so chock full o’ traps!”
“You fool, did you not pay attention to me when I told you who once inhabited this castle? A grand sorceress of unimaginable power and shrewdness! Allow the Heartless to spring the traps this next time!”
“Awright, awright, can ya turn me back?”
Maleficent smiled slowly and evilly as she purred, “I am not sure, that nose is rather…becoming on you.”
“Aw, c’mon Maleficent! Please?”
“When you have learned to listen to me, then perhaps…until then, you can silence that infernal tongue of yours.”
She raised her arms and called out, “Heartless! Come to this castle and make it worthy of me!”
Hundreds of Heartless rose up, mainly Shadows but other types interspersed, and the whole swarm scoured the castle slowly, springing every trap they could get their greedy hands on.
“That, my dear Pete, is how you take over a castle. For once, you were right about that Nobody castle-far too close to the Darkness for even my liking. I prefer to be in charge, not serving another.”
“Darn straight…” Pete muttered crossly, hovering with his lurid wings, following his mistress of sorts.
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The group, now including the two witches, strolled the streets of the Emerald City, and Sora noticed that Elphaba had put a mask on, to cover her bright green skin as she walked with Glinda. Sora piped in, “Hey, Elphaba…why cover yourself like that?”
Turning around, she said, “I’m still Wicked until someone clears my bloody name…I don’t want to get marked for death twice.”
Glinda turned around and said, “Ah, yes-that reminds me…” and she slapped Elphaba square on the cheek as hard as she could. People turned around for a moment and turned away as if this happened regularly.
“What in OZ was that for?!”
“For not letting me know you were alive, Oz Dammit!” Glinda said, tears running down her face again.
“Miss Glinda, could we please continue this AFTER we’ve left Emerald?”
She shrugged, still glaring tearily at her.
“Oh, don’t give me that look, please Glinda…”
Glinda replied sniffily, “I will do what I can to clear your name…if we perchance defeat this Maleficent, perhaps I will give you the credit; saving Oz sounds about fair to clear you of being the ‘horrible terror of Oz’ am I correct? Or would you rather try something on your own, Miss Independence?”
Elphaba muttered something unintelligible and Glinda tripped over a mop that flew out from under her.
Giving her a nasty glare, she muttered, “If I didn’t know the consequences, I would call you on your disguise right now, Elphaba Thropp.”
“Oh, please, do-I would love to see their reaction upon noticing you didn’t do it awhile back…” she retorted, venom in her voice.
This silenced Glinda rather quickly, a hurt look in her eyes as she slowly got up and dusted herself off.
Sighing, annoyance written in her eyes as she walked over to Glinda and, nose-to-nose, said in a sweeter, softer tone, “Don’t be so easily hurt by my barbs-has it been so long that you are no longer accustomed to such idle banter, my sweet?”
The other three couldn’t hear what was said but the blush remaining on Glinda’s face as she seemingly resisted something surprised them.
“Could they be…” Sora said, trailing off as the two witches spoke in such close proximity.
“Naah…they can’t be…”
“Don’t be so sure…” Kairi said hesitantly, and piped up, “Aren’t we going to go to that castle anytime soon?”
Both of them were hardly moving their lips to each other, merely looking at each other and they both jumped at Kairi’s speech and Glinda said, “Yes, right, Kiamo Ko…Elphie, do you still have that infernal broom?”
Shaking her head, she said “Nope…it was taken, remember? “Proof of my demise for the Wizard,” I believe was what that Dorothy girl had mumbled while I watched her from my scrying ball.” Her edgy tone returned as she glared accusingly at Glinda and folded her arms as they left the gates of Emerald City.
“What else was I supposed to do? The Wizard would have had those shoes and we’d all be in a heap of dung bigger than we had started with! I ENCHANTED NESSA’S SHOES! I know what in Ozma’s name they can do with the wearer. I’m sorry. I didn’t even expect him to order your death, okay?”
Tears freely flowed from Glinda, but Elphaba winced, seemingly forcing the tears not to come. Through gritted teeth, she growled, “Still-Nessa said those would be mine if she ever died. I mean, I couldn’t even take the socks I got her…those would have been enough. I know she was a royal pain in the rear, but she was still my sister and I loved her. I mean, I took care of her for most of her life up until Shiz, and well, it was the closest I ever genuinely felt to being a mother.”
She looked distant as Glinda hugged her softly and gestured the three over.
“How do we get to Maleficent without giving our location away?” Riku asked gently.
“We don’t-if she has taken over the castle, she most likely found my scrying ball and is watching us as we speak. For example,” she looked up at the sky in no particular direction and threw a very vulgar hand signal in the air, shrieking, “THAT IS FOR TAKING MY CASTLE!”
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“Oh ho, so she knows her castle well,” Maleficent said with a distantly amused voice, as she gazed into the flawless crystal sphere at the group.
Pete floated in and said, “Maleficent, ya found ‘em? Let’s sic these new Heartless on ‘em!”
Maleficent raised a sculpted eyebrow and said chillingly with a sneer, “Why that is perhaps the first good idea you have had since we arrived!”
Raising an arm, she called out, “Heartless! Swarm them and show them who the new master of this castle is!”
At that moment, a large group of winged monkeys, black as night with the Heartless emblem on their chests flew out toward the open field in which the five allies were walking.
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The group had fallen silent after Elphaba’s lurid display and began walking along the Yellow Brick Road with Riku, Sora, and Kairi all watching the amusements that followed the reunion of Elphaba and Glinda.
“I still think they have something for each other…” Sora stated, watching the two hold hands.
“We know you think that, Sora-you’ve only said it, what, a million times now? Is lesbianism such an amazing thing that you need to point it out every time we work with them????” Riku said very irritably, glaring at him.
“Riku’s right-it’s kinda offensive to hear it all the time. I mean, what if we’re wrong?”
“Then we’re wrong, but I don’t think we are. They’re more than just friends…”
“Like you and Riku?”
Whirling around, a crimson blush on his face, Sora said, “That’s RIDICULOUS!”
Riku looked away, sighing, hiding his face with his Keyblade due to just how red it was at that moment.
Kairi giggled, looking at the sky as they walked, interested in the cloud in the distance.
Everyone stopped as Sora’s Keyblade was the first to react-that was no cloud. That was a swarm of Heartless, and it was coming straight at them.
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Well, thanks for suffering through the first chapter; stay tuned for many things to come, including our Heroes’ first taste of action in Oz...please comment! Comments are like Drive Orbs!
Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, and Chain of Memories all (c) Square Enix, Ltd. and Disney Interactive
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (book) (c) Gregory Maguire
Wicked (musical) (c) Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman