Fade to Black 13/14 by Light_spectre, R
Took a while. But the time has been used to tailor this, and improve it. Enjoy!
Title: Fade To Black 13/14
Author: Lumiére
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Elphaba/(Dark)Glinda
Verse: Book (mostly)
Summary: Chaos ensues at Shiz and a certain bubbly someone loses their way. Why is Glinda suddenly so cruel and with a tongue even sharper than Elphaba's?
Disclaimer: "No... harm is meant a-and... well, Light doesn't-" Lumiére now!! "--Lumiére doesn't actually own anything. She's like... ownerless... and, oh hell..." Herbert... don't cry so. This may be almost over, but it's... you're making me cry too...!
Wordcount: 4, 025
CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 7- CHAPTER 12 -
CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 8 Part One
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 9 Part Two
CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 10EPILOGUE
================================================
Fade to Black
The Emergence of Dark Glinda... CHAPTER 12, Part 2
She couldn't breathe. The panic was almost paralysing as Nessarose hurried through the corridors, passing the odd latecomer in just as much a rush as she. But thankfully the majority of guards were in and surrounding the hall. The rest, she supposed, with her sister. She wondered of the most merciless evil: the guards and their wrath? or the time that slowed for no one? And surely too much of it had passed already... was her sister even still here? Elphaba couldn't be gone. Not yet. The very idea had Nessarose stumbling and she gasped as she nearly fell. A choking sort of gasp as her blood ran even colder once again, like a tap with waning hot water. She turned a corner, and then another. Less guards now. She hadn't seen one for several corridors. Toward the interrogation room. Surely they were using the same one. A final questioning before being carted off. Surely. Now in the area she hastily looked around but the tears made it hard to see and dizziness made it hard to function. She needed her whits about her but all she could do was cry and gasp, sucking in great lungfuls of air that did little good. “Elphaba,” she whispered, so close to sinking to her knees in misery. She managed to decipher the door just in front. A wave of nausea. She shook her head, desperately trying to clear her vision. Yes. That was the door. Just there... no window. Right. What could she-? She turned back, sure she had seen it somewhere around here. The small box with a button... the alarm. She rammed into it, unmindful of the pain. The way it dug into her ribs. Again. And again. Finally, the siren sounded and Nessarose lurched away, waiting just by the junction as the door burst open and guards came running out. They went past, and Nessarose dashed forward but it was quickly shut again. Frantic, she stared at the handle. What could she...? No! And she doubted enough of them had left. There would still be so many in there!
This was all too much.
Nessarose froze, listening intently. She could hear raised voices...
An alarm had just sounded, and despite the painfilled haze, Elphaba's head snapped up. Now - now's the time! Three guards left, and the Inquisitor watched her, while the others had paused, in process of wrapping rope around her wounded wrists. They saw the determination, then heard the muttering-
“What are you...?”
She continued, her eyes ablaze, her tongue numb and wounded... the worst pain she had ever felt from the blows to her head, but she continued.
“What are you doing!”
“Sir, she's-it's a spell!”
“Quick!”
“Damn it, stop her!”
A guard reared his arm back but the final syllable was uttered and before the blow connected, an explosion filled the room, throwing them all away from the spell's caster. They writhed, trying to regain their footing, but were blinded by the purple swirling lights and unnatural howling wind within the room.
“Get... her...!” the Inquisitor ordered, but his voice was lost in the chaos. He watched in horror as the green girl rose from her seat in one fluid motion and it flew back, a sneer on her bloodied face. Her eyes dark - soulless. If there had been any question before on whether she was the culprit, they were all answered now as she rounded the desk, stalking with a predator's grace. “Don't... please...” he begged, but she only continued to stare with just as much violent intent, while the others watched her, silent and unmoving, cradling their wounds. “Please...!”
Nessarose stepped to the side just in time, her eyes wide at the sounds of men pleading from within. Heart in her throat, she could only watch as the door was pulled from its hinges and a dark figure came rushing out of it. Nessarose choked on her fear, her panting turning into strangled gasps as she was clutched by a sudden coldness. Her skin begain to prickle. The face... it was... “Elphaba?” Alone. The dark figure stopped, turned to her and Nessarose froze. “Is that... you...?” The men inside the room were groaning in pain. She glanced in, then glanced back in time to see the figure move off, down the corridor with unnatural speed.
Finally Nessarose sank to her knees, the tears fully renewed. The green face... it could only be her sister. But the horror - soulless... evil.
An alarm had sounded and she could hear the raised voices as people began to panic in the main hall, and even the representatives waiting to go on. “Not to worry!” Morrible had called, after a moment when the alarms finally silenced. “Everything's just fine! Testing the alarms - though, why now, I'm not quite sure,” and she laughed in a nauseating way. Glinda stared at her hands, pink and clammy in her panic.
“...sure you've all been waiting for,” Morrible continued in her booming voice.
The other sorcery girl had retaken her seat beside Glinda. “Don't worry so,” she whispered. “You're amazing. You can do no wrong.”
“...the headline presentation!”
“You deserve all this, Miss Glinda. You are the best thing Shiz has seen in so long. That's what my parents told me. They came here too.”
Glinda bowed at her head, hot tears falling.
“Miss Glinda of the Arduennas! The leading sorcery representative!”
“Miss Glinda...”
“Everything's gone wrong. Everything,” Glinda murmured wetly. The girl laid a hand on her arm, but Grommetik had whirred in front, beckoning for her to follow.
“Good luck.”
“I'll need it.” And she stood, following the little copper man. Never before had she such an urge to kick it as she did now, watching as he teetered precariously on the edge of a step. He managed to right himself, then turn, whirring, and nod toward the opened doorway through which Glinda could see the final steps to the stage. Another jerk of his copper head, and Glinda stumbled through, finding herself in the darkened wing of the hall, just by the stage. She hurriedly wiped her face as she ascended up the remaining steps.
“Ah, there you are!” Morrible exclaimed by the podium, chillingly pleasant, but her eyes were harsh. She beckoned Glinda closer. “A case of sudden shyness, it seems,” she chortled, and the audience laughed good naturedly. Most likely relieved the intermission was so close. “Come on!” Morrible whispered harshly, and Glinda scurried to her side.
“The book, child, where is it!”
“Don't - I don't... need it,” she whispered, and flinched when Morrible clutched her arm tightly. The one furthest from the audience. Out of sight.
“Listen here, I expect the spell. If for some absurd reason, you've decided to play games, child, you will not see another day. Do you hear? You will do the motivation spell. For your own good.”
Glinda nodded, trying desperately not to cry.
“What's happening?” Boq whispered. There was a delay. Morrible seemed to be whispering intently to Glinda, with the most sickeningly false smile he had ever seen.
“Pep talk,” Crope replied. “Most likely of a threatening kind.”
“Look! Thenidee's just got onto the stage!”
Indeed, the lanky teacher had made his way there like some of the other teachers had, standing by, giving support from the edge. He seemed so sheepish and concerned but failed to intervene.
“Look at him. The man looks so scared of her!”
“Who wouldn't be? Morrible's an evil cow,” Tibbett murmured. “Either way, get ready to run up there if this all goes to hell.”
Guards had been swarming the corridors, and eventually honed in on the source. There were only so many points where the alarm could be triggered, and not far from one was an armless girl, sobbing beside the open door of the inquisition room. The guards slowly advanced, some drawing their weapons and going straight to the threshold, while the others surrounded the girl, beside herself. “Miss,” one said. “Miss... what's happened here?” But of course she didn't answer. She only continued to cry.
“We have wounded in here!” another called from within the room.
The Inquisitor shivered. “She's... she escaped.”
“Sir?”
“Miss Elphaba Thropp. It's... her.... The hall. She's on her way there. Be... swift.”
She had been surreptitiously pushed to the podium, and now standing at it, seemingly ready, the audience clapped and cheered again. Delighted to see her. She stared into the sea of faces, all expectant, some more excited than others. “F-For...” Glinda began, “Or, rather... the uh... since... the beginning, there have been... examples of power.” She took a shuddering breath. “Sorcery aiding in medicine - healing, or a-abating pain. In times of... famine in, say, Quadling Country, where food was scarce... Sorcery has been used to... to, uh, transfigure simple plants into edible meals of superior nourishment.” Glinda swallowed painfully, shaking and sweating. Despite the shining sun streaming through the grand windows along the two longest walls, there were still lights on her. Overheating her. Panicking her even more. “But... there...” she glanced to the left to see Morrible staring at her with oversized stern eyes. Threnidee just behind, looking just as scared, himself. “There are, the... instances of sorcery for spectacle. But that's... not what I'm going to... show you. Sorcery can be of worth,” she swallowed again, nearly panting. “even to... to, uh...” the levitation spell. She had to do the levitation spell... but, Morrible... what should she...
“Child,” she heard Morrible whisper dangerously. “Do it.”
Glinda jumped. “T-to all of you! The... this will-could, I mean, affect you! Help... with your studies... or in general... life. It's...”
“Hurry up!”
“It's the motivation spell! Much sought after!”
A cacophony of whispers and some cheering.
“It could help with exams. No m-more paralysing fear... or laziness!” She was speaking quicker, frantic as her mind tried to decide what best to do. “Motivation is the key!” and by then, almost all were cheering. But she could see the boys at the side, watching her with grim faces, and Nanny at the back with the Amas scattered around her. “I'll show you,” she whispered, head down. Her... wand, was even there. Already. Somehow. She picked it up, and stepped to the side, away from the podium. She glanced at Morrible, still so terrifying and Glinda said the first few syllables. Her eyes watered as she looked out at the faces watching her, but no Elphaba. No Nessa and no Elphaba. No saviour. She continued, her heart sinking as she realised she had failed them all. She was too weak and scared to cast the backup spell. Scared of what Morrible would do - scared of all these people laughing at her having done the wrong spell. Terrified of it all.
“Ungh!” and with the gasps, Glinda convulsed, the podium toppling under the strength of the force. Purple light circling her as she shook, forcing her lungs to breathe. People were already clapping, happy simply for the light show. Some standing up to get a better view, some talking... some scared... but... most... so... happy...
the...
morons...
Appraising anything. They have no bloody idea what'll hit them. They'll think it the best day of their lives. The idiotic masses suddenly able to actually do something other than sitting there quaffling about how wonderful they are. Glinda straightened, with a smirk. Well, let's see what they'll do. What's in their hearts. Hardly as special and pristine as their exteriors.
Glinda stepped forward, smiling sinisterly, and some were still whispering to each other, alarmed. Others delighted at the obvious change. “Well!” Glinda said, chucking the wand at Morrible, who caught it in her hammy hands, a look of shock on her fishy face. “Do you see the difference? I'm sure you all do. Look at me!” Glinda grinned ferociously, “Hardly the quaking mess I was only moments ago! Able to speak, stand up straight, and say - what I - really mean.” She caught sight of Elphaba's little friends, gaping at her, not liking that she suddenly had a spine. “Yes, I'm sure many of you are deluded into thinking you are God's gift. That you can make such a difference - Oh hush! Don't gasp as if I've said something awful. You'll know when I actually mean to hurt.” She took another step forward, on the very edge of the stage, staring at all of them. “I doubt you can. Not like this, while so insecure and immersed in your insipid little woes.”
“Sweet Oz,” Tibbett murmured. “She's gone and done it. That's Dark Glinda!”
“Hush!” Crope nudged him, “Keep quiet. How do we... Oz, how do we... what do we do?”
“Go up there?” Boq suggested, but his feet were firmly planted to the floor.
“Run up there and throw her over our shoulders so she can stab us in the back? Great. Damn great. Yes,” Tibbett strained.
“Well we have to do something...!” Boq whispered.
“We might not have to,” Crope said, watching the girl intently. “She may settle on just being rude. She doesn't seem murderous...”
Glinda laughed at the offended expressions before her. To the back, Morrible leaned and whispered to Threnidee, “What, in all of Oz, is she doing!”
“Motivation?” the man said, trembling.
“So, the day you've all been waiting for,” Glinda trilled, in a mockery of her usual high tones. “Where,” she smirked again, and dropped her voice to its lower register. More sultry, husky... “you achieve your potential. Behold.” And she raised her arms, chanting loudly.
Most of the audience realised what was happening. Many jumped up, cheering, and the rest were looking horrified and scared. The tension in the room multiplied and more and more were rising from their seats, some trying to get to the door, inconspicuously, while one girl stood shouting for Glinda to stop, who only laughed in response, continuing.
“Bloody run!” Tibbett cried at Boq who had worked his way just in front, but everyone was up, chaos already.
“I can't get through!”
“Well push them!”
Pfannee and Shenshen were one of the many standing up, beaming. “Over here! Over here!” Pfannee cried, wanting all of it for herself. While Shenshen cried, “Me too!” but Milla was turning on the spot with wide eyes, seeing the confusion and fear overtake those around them. She spotted Avaric nearby, muttering to a girl, boredly reassuringly her.
“Miss Glinda!” Morrible whispered, unwilling to destroy this exposition any more than it had already. “I urge you to stop!”
Lights started streaming, as if in slow motion, and some began to scream. Glinda looked positively insane with her manic grin as purple and blue lights shot from her fingers and the hall was overtaken by great winds. Only the people at the back noticed when the main entrance door burst open, admitting a murderously dark Elphaba, screaming odd words at the top of her lungs, hand outstretched, much like Glinda's. Immediately the guards were on the move, most of them to Elphaba and the rest toward Glinda, realising the depth of the situation.
“Oz! Did you see her!” Crope shouted, “She's-” but Glinda's spell had finished and the purple haze spread around the hall, like a possessive cloud, and the guards tackled Elphaba. She threw them off her with alarming strength; some of them colliding sickeningly into the nearby wall, until more arrived and they piled on top of her. She strained, veins popping, her bloodied face twisting in ferocity. She growled the final syllables as more and more were screaming and she convulsed under the pressure of the cast spell. The shouting around the hall peaked as fighting broke out, some convulsing as the spell possessed them. Children crying, some adults tackling others to the ground intent on violence, and others with lust. A grotesque stench swarming, of sweat and fear and something altogether... different.
Boq heaved, raising a hand to his dry mouth. “We're too late!” he muffled, and Crope staggered back against the wall, crying out as a stream of purple engulfed him.
“Crope!” Tibbett howled, lunging, until he saw the change in demeanour. The dark eyes, his face twisted into something terrible. “Crope, no...”
But as quickly as it happened, Glinda's cast spell rose once again, leaving its hosts, including Elphaba, and including Glinda. Rising and rising, leaving those affected shuddering and fighting for air.
“It's not - me, you idiot!” Elphaba rasped, breaking out into a fevered sweat as she struggled. She was about to be sick, and the pain was back, but the startled bumbling guards had lost their grips and she ripped herself free, eyes on Glinda, who had just collapsed on the stage. She ran as fast as she could, pushing others out of her way while guards scrambled to follow, but getting caught among the others. Closer and closer Elphaba forged, desperately trying to ignore the state she was in. She needed... to be there... for Glinda...
“Come on!” Boq shouted, taking Tibbett's hand and beginning to run but was jerked back as Tibbett remained by Crope's side. “Tell me you're okay,” Tibbett said, pulling the shaking Crope into an embrace. “Please, tell me you're okay.”
“God,” Crope whispered breathlessly. “I hope that never happens again.”
“I'm sorry,” Boq said.
“Glinda...” Elphaba cried, flying up the steps on the stage, sinking by Glinda's huddled form, crying in great agonizing sobs. “Glinda, it's okay. It's... it's okay...” But Glinda seemed broken. Curling in on herself even tighter, her sobs dispersed with pleas for forgiveness. Elphaba heard her name, but Glinda didn't seem to know who was even by her side. “I'm here, Glinda. It's me.”
“You idiot,” Morrible whispered to Threnidee, who looked more terrified than ever, pushing himself against the back wall of the stage, as if wanting to be swallowed entirely by it. “PLEASE, EVERYONE! STAY CALM!” she hollered over the frantic cries and the guards' shouts for control. “JUST A LITTLE HITCH!”
“A hitch!” someone replied, incredulous. “You're lucky no-one's been killed!”
Elphaba glanced up, then back at Glinda, her hand on the girl's heated damp back. “Please, Glinda, we have to...” she glanced up again, and sighed, then tried to haul the hysterical girl up with her. Tears of pain springing to her eyes. “We have to move - I fear the worst - of this - is... not yet over...” But Glinda frantically shook her head, overwhelmed by her remorse. “I'm sorry Elphie... so... so sorry... everything... I...”
“Glinda,” Elphaba pleaded thickly. “I can't carry you. Please!”
“But of course none were killed.” Morrible laughed. “Don't be so dramatic, my dear. This is all fine! A marvelous little burst of excitement!”
Some were curiously turning back to the stage. They saw Morrible smiling like a shark, wringing her fat bejewelled hands. “It's all fine,” she repeated. “It's fine, dears! Take your seats, won't you!” She made calming motions, flapping, “Don't you want to see the rest-” she hadn't been aware of the expressions of shock and renewed fear as they watched her. She hadn't been aware of the residual spell floating like a pinkish mist, having paled, but floating toward her. Over her.
Behind her.
The sudden giving out of her legs had been a shock, and she had fallen, but somehow kept upright on her knees. An exclamation of outrage frozen on her lips when she saw the doors of the two exits slam shut from some invisible force, and she cursed loudly. “Threnidee!”
“Oh, do be quiet,” a cold voice ordered from behind her. She struggled to turn her head, and saw his hand outstretched to her; not an offer of help, but rather restraining with magical force.
He stepped forward, a sickening grin on his face.
“You idiot!” she cried.
“You would do well to shut up.”
Morrible seemed to shake with fury, though could not break the bonds holding her in place, and neither did she speak; she only turned her dreadful eye on the unlikely captor with a sort of disdain none in the room had thought humanly possible. Least of all from the high society blow-fish, such as her, who perpetually bared her teeth in humour. Or rather an unfortunate mimicry of it.
“And what were we meant to do in this instance?” Tibbett whispered to Boq, who could only stare toward the stage in horror. “Well?”
“I don't know. I don't know.”
Crope groaned, still recovering, then mumbled something about lying down.
Many in the audience could barely stand under the impact of events, and those few that could had worked their way to the doors, pulling and straining to no avail. But still they tried, until Threnidee's cold and detached voice called to them to not be quite so stupid and accept they were under his control. Elphaba too, had slumped, defeated, having hauled Glinda off the stage and nearly to the backstage door. And throughout this, Morrible continued to peer at Threnidee, shaking her head in disappointment, and she said, “You are not your mother's son, Gregor.”
“By hell I'm not!” He whirled round, furious and sneering. “She was a society whore, just like you and just like your 'protégés' of deviants....” He seemed to remember the trembling audience and addressed them too. “This institution is a damned breeding ground, and yet none of you are aware. So immersed in all that you do! The lot of you! Affected airs of being so damned good and proper and yet you are soulless! Nothing inside... and you grow and go about Oz, tarnishing it and moulding it to your ways! But some are aware.” He laughed. A dry rasping sound utterly devoid of mirth, and it ended just as quickly as it had started. He peered at the pallid faces all watching him, huddled. Children clinging to their parents, with tears in their eyes; students clinging to one another. “Oh yes,” Threnidee said. “For the sake of Oz, you need to be stopped! You...”
Morrible snorted in disgust, interrupting his tirade. “The book is yours. The spell is yours...”
“How could you think otherwise?”
“You, boy, are an idiot.”
There were collective gasps and whimpers, and Tibbett winced. “You'd think she would handle this a little differently. That is a murderous lunatic, after all.” Boq nodded in agreement, while Crope groaned again.
Morrible continued, and Threnidee stepped closer to her, threateningly. “I had trusted you, boy,” she said contemptuously. “I was a dear friend of your mother's-”
“My point-!”
“And she was a far better person than you could ever hope to be! Bless her soul... You may have inherited her aptitude at sorcery but you are ill of the mind!”
“I'm more lucid than you and your-”
“Look at what you are doing!”
“Or what I have done? I will do more, and finish with you.” He turned again, toward the sea of people. He rose his hands and tilted his head up, ready to cast. The guards began to move again, but with the hall so full, and the people suddenly exploding into a panicked frenzy, they couldn't cover enough ground. He began to mutter, louder and louder over the din of the rain outside and soon the cracking of nearby thunder. The closest guards began to shoot, but with Threnidee so close to Morrible, the risk was too great, and the shots were missing. Understanding the worsening situation, people began pounding on the doors, trying to open them and some guards assisting, while others waited for him to move away from the Head.
His chanting grew louder, and whatever it was, it was nearly done. Some in the audience had stopped moving, fighting for breath. Their throats tightening and tears springing to their eyes. Such chaos; a guard fell, and beside him Avaric yelped, jumping into motion and abandoning his hysterical date in favour of the nearby exit. “Make way!” he cried, all the while rain had begun to lash against the huge windows of the hall. "Ungh!" and like the others, Avaric suddenly found his breath stolen. “Rain,” Elphaba muttered, sure it had not been there moments ago; and with an almighty crack and blast of light, the window closest the stage had been shot through. By what, it was hard to tell as it happened so quickly. But in the shocking moment where Threnidee had paused, Morrible had worked herself free, trembling, and lurched to the side as shots once again rang through the hall among the screaming.
And Threnidee had fallen.
================================================
Threnody n. - a poem, speech, or song of lamentation, esp. for the dead; dirge; funeral song.
So, many suspected, but the answer has pretty much been there all along. At the very least, Threnidee/Threnody is connected to death, though he doesn't exactly lament it. Just changing the spelling - I hoped no one noticed the sorcery teacher's name being familiar. It was me having some risky fun.
But, as I'm sure you've noticed, not all questions have been answered. It doesn't quite feel like the end, does it? No. It's actually the Epilogue that concludes the story, so whatever you do, don't miss it. As always, give generously to the Feedback Monster, as it does scare me and it might actually eat me in my sleep. *ahem* But the epilogue really will be here shortly. I hope you've enjoyed the story, and thank you all for reading, and double thank you for all the wonderful feedback you've all left. You've made this a pleasure. :)
*sniffles*
Title: Fade To Black 13/14
Author: Lumiére
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Elphaba/(Dark)Glinda
Verse: Book (mostly)
Summary: Chaos ensues at Shiz and a certain bubbly someone loses their way. Why is Glinda suddenly so cruel and with a tongue even sharper than Elphaba's?
Disclaimer: "No... harm is meant a-and... well, Light doesn't-" Lumiére now!! "--Lumiére doesn't actually own anything. She's like... ownerless... and, oh hell..." Herbert... don't cry so. This may be almost over, but it's... you're making me cry too...!
Wordcount: 4, 025
CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 7- CHAPTER 12 -
CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 8 Part One
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 9 Part Two
CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 10EPILOGUE
================================================
Fade to Black
The Emergence of Dark Glinda... CHAPTER 12, Part 2
She couldn't breathe. The panic was almost paralysing as Nessarose hurried through the corridors, passing the odd latecomer in just as much a rush as she. But thankfully the majority of guards were in and surrounding the hall. The rest, she supposed, with her sister. She wondered of the most merciless evil: the guards and their wrath? or the time that slowed for no one? And surely too much of it had passed already... was her sister even still here? Elphaba couldn't be gone. Not yet. The very idea had Nessarose stumbling and she gasped as she nearly fell. A choking sort of gasp as her blood ran even colder once again, like a tap with waning hot water. She turned a corner, and then another. Less guards now. She hadn't seen one for several corridors. Toward the interrogation room. Surely they were using the same one. A final questioning before being carted off. Surely. Now in the area she hastily looked around but the tears made it hard to see and dizziness made it hard to function. She needed her whits about her but all she could do was cry and gasp, sucking in great lungfuls of air that did little good. “Elphaba,” she whispered, so close to sinking to her knees in misery. She managed to decipher the door just in front. A wave of nausea. She shook her head, desperately trying to clear her vision. Yes. That was the door. Just there... no window. Right. What could she-? She turned back, sure she had seen it somewhere around here. The small box with a button... the alarm. She rammed into it, unmindful of the pain. The way it dug into her ribs. Again. And again. Finally, the siren sounded and Nessarose lurched away, waiting just by the junction as the door burst open and guards came running out. They went past, and Nessarose dashed forward but it was quickly shut again. Frantic, she stared at the handle. What could she...? No! And she doubted enough of them had left. There would still be so many in there!
This was all too much.
Nessarose froze, listening intently. She could hear raised voices...
An alarm had just sounded, and despite the painfilled haze, Elphaba's head snapped up. Now - now's the time! Three guards left, and the Inquisitor watched her, while the others had paused, in process of wrapping rope around her wounded wrists. They saw the determination, then heard the muttering-
“What are you...?”
She continued, her eyes ablaze, her tongue numb and wounded... the worst pain she had ever felt from the blows to her head, but she continued.
“What are you doing!”
“Sir, she's-it's a spell!”
“Quick!”
“Damn it, stop her!”
A guard reared his arm back but the final syllable was uttered and before the blow connected, an explosion filled the room, throwing them all away from the spell's caster. They writhed, trying to regain their footing, but were blinded by the purple swirling lights and unnatural howling wind within the room.
“Get... her...!” the Inquisitor ordered, but his voice was lost in the chaos. He watched in horror as the green girl rose from her seat in one fluid motion and it flew back, a sneer on her bloodied face. Her eyes dark - soulless. If there had been any question before on whether she was the culprit, they were all answered now as she rounded the desk, stalking with a predator's grace. “Don't... please...” he begged, but she only continued to stare with just as much violent intent, while the others watched her, silent and unmoving, cradling their wounds. “Please...!”
Nessarose stepped to the side just in time, her eyes wide at the sounds of men pleading from within. Heart in her throat, she could only watch as the door was pulled from its hinges and a dark figure came rushing out of it. Nessarose choked on her fear, her panting turning into strangled gasps as she was clutched by a sudden coldness. Her skin begain to prickle. The face... it was... “Elphaba?” Alone. The dark figure stopped, turned to her and Nessarose froze. “Is that... you...?” The men inside the room were groaning in pain. She glanced in, then glanced back in time to see the figure move off, down the corridor with unnatural speed.
Finally Nessarose sank to her knees, the tears fully renewed. The green face... it could only be her sister. But the horror - soulless... evil.
An alarm had sounded and she could hear the raised voices as people began to panic in the main hall, and even the representatives waiting to go on. “Not to worry!” Morrible had called, after a moment when the alarms finally silenced. “Everything's just fine! Testing the alarms - though, why now, I'm not quite sure,” and she laughed in a nauseating way. Glinda stared at her hands, pink and clammy in her panic.
“...sure you've all been waiting for,” Morrible continued in her booming voice.
The other sorcery girl had retaken her seat beside Glinda. “Don't worry so,” she whispered. “You're amazing. You can do no wrong.”
“...the headline presentation!”
“You deserve all this, Miss Glinda. You are the best thing Shiz has seen in so long. That's what my parents told me. They came here too.”
Glinda bowed at her head, hot tears falling.
“Miss Glinda of the Arduennas! The leading sorcery representative!”
“Miss Glinda...”
“Everything's gone wrong. Everything,” Glinda murmured wetly. The girl laid a hand on her arm, but Grommetik had whirred in front, beckoning for her to follow.
“Good luck.”
“I'll need it.” And she stood, following the little copper man. Never before had she such an urge to kick it as she did now, watching as he teetered precariously on the edge of a step. He managed to right himself, then turn, whirring, and nod toward the opened doorway through which Glinda could see the final steps to the stage. Another jerk of his copper head, and Glinda stumbled through, finding herself in the darkened wing of the hall, just by the stage. She hurriedly wiped her face as she ascended up the remaining steps.
“Ah, there you are!” Morrible exclaimed by the podium, chillingly pleasant, but her eyes were harsh. She beckoned Glinda closer. “A case of sudden shyness, it seems,” she chortled, and the audience laughed good naturedly. Most likely relieved the intermission was so close. “Come on!” Morrible whispered harshly, and Glinda scurried to her side.
“The book, child, where is it!”
“Don't - I don't... need it,” she whispered, and flinched when Morrible clutched her arm tightly. The one furthest from the audience. Out of sight.
“Listen here, I expect the spell. If for some absurd reason, you've decided to play games, child, you will not see another day. Do you hear? You will do the motivation spell. For your own good.”
Glinda nodded, trying desperately not to cry.
“What's happening?” Boq whispered. There was a delay. Morrible seemed to be whispering intently to Glinda, with the most sickeningly false smile he had ever seen.
“Pep talk,” Crope replied. “Most likely of a threatening kind.”
“Look! Thenidee's just got onto the stage!”
Indeed, the lanky teacher had made his way there like some of the other teachers had, standing by, giving support from the edge. He seemed so sheepish and concerned but failed to intervene.
“Look at him. The man looks so scared of her!”
“Who wouldn't be? Morrible's an evil cow,” Tibbett murmured. “Either way, get ready to run up there if this all goes to hell.”
Guards had been swarming the corridors, and eventually honed in on the source. There were only so many points where the alarm could be triggered, and not far from one was an armless girl, sobbing beside the open door of the inquisition room. The guards slowly advanced, some drawing their weapons and going straight to the threshold, while the others surrounded the girl, beside herself. “Miss,” one said. “Miss... what's happened here?” But of course she didn't answer. She only continued to cry.
“We have wounded in here!” another called from within the room.
The Inquisitor shivered. “She's... she escaped.”
“Sir?”
“Miss Elphaba Thropp. It's... her.... The hall. She's on her way there. Be... swift.”
She had been surreptitiously pushed to the podium, and now standing at it, seemingly ready, the audience clapped and cheered again. Delighted to see her. She stared into the sea of faces, all expectant, some more excited than others. “F-For...” Glinda began, “Or, rather... the uh... since... the beginning, there have been... examples of power.” She took a shuddering breath. “Sorcery aiding in medicine - healing, or a-abating pain. In times of... famine in, say, Quadling Country, where food was scarce... Sorcery has been used to... to, uh, transfigure simple plants into edible meals of superior nourishment.” Glinda swallowed painfully, shaking and sweating. Despite the shining sun streaming through the grand windows along the two longest walls, there were still lights on her. Overheating her. Panicking her even more. “But... there...” she glanced to the left to see Morrible staring at her with oversized stern eyes. Threnidee just behind, looking just as scared, himself. “There are, the... instances of sorcery for spectacle. But that's... not what I'm going to... show you. Sorcery can be of worth,” she swallowed again, nearly panting. “even to... to, uh...” the levitation spell. She had to do the levitation spell... but, Morrible... what should she...
“Child,” she heard Morrible whisper dangerously. “Do it.”
Glinda jumped. “T-to all of you! The... this will-could, I mean, affect you! Help... with your studies... or in general... life. It's...”
“Hurry up!”
“It's the motivation spell! Much sought after!”
A cacophony of whispers and some cheering.
“It could help with exams. No m-more paralysing fear... or laziness!” She was speaking quicker, frantic as her mind tried to decide what best to do. “Motivation is the key!” and by then, almost all were cheering. But she could see the boys at the side, watching her with grim faces, and Nanny at the back with the Amas scattered around her. “I'll show you,” she whispered, head down. Her... wand, was even there. Already. Somehow. She picked it up, and stepped to the side, away from the podium. She glanced at Morrible, still so terrifying and Glinda said the first few syllables. Her eyes watered as she looked out at the faces watching her, but no Elphaba. No Nessa and no Elphaba. No saviour. She continued, her heart sinking as she realised she had failed them all. She was too weak and scared to cast the backup spell. Scared of what Morrible would do - scared of all these people laughing at her having done the wrong spell. Terrified of it all.
“Ungh!” and with the gasps, Glinda convulsed, the podium toppling under the strength of the force. Purple light circling her as she shook, forcing her lungs to breathe. People were already clapping, happy simply for the light show. Some standing up to get a better view, some talking... some scared... but... most... so... happy...
the...
morons...
Appraising anything. They have no bloody idea what'll hit them. They'll think it the best day of their lives. The idiotic masses suddenly able to actually do something other than sitting there quaffling about how wonderful they are. Glinda straightened, with a smirk. Well, let's see what they'll do. What's in their hearts. Hardly as special and pristine as their exteriors.
Glinda stepped forward, smiling sinisterly, and some were still whispering to each other, alarmed. Others delighted at the obvious change. “Well!” Glinda said, chucking the wand at Morrible, who caught it in her hammy hands, a look of shock on her fishy face. “Do you see the difference? I'm sure you all do. Look at me!” Glinda grinned ferociously, “Hardly the quaking mess I was only moments ago! Able to speak, stand up straight, and say - what I - really mean.” She caught sight of Elphaba's little friends, gaping at her, not liking that she suddenly had a spine. “Yes, I'm sure many of you are deluded into thinking you are God's gift. That you can make such a difference - Oh hush! Don't gasp as if I've said something awful. You'll know when I actually mean to hurt.” She took another step forward, on the very edge of the stage, staring at all of them. “I doubt you can. Not like this, while so insecure and immersed in your insipid little woes.”
“Sweet Oz,” Tibbett murmured. “She's gone and done it. That's Dark Glinda!”
“Hush!” Crope nudged him, “Keep quiet. How do we... Oz, how do we... what do we do?”
“Go up there?” Boq suggested, but his feet were firmly planted to the floor.
“Run up there and throw her over our shoulders so she can stab us in the back? Great. Damn great. Yes,” Tibbett strained.
“Well we have to do something...!” Boq whispered.
“We might not have to,” Crope said, watching the girl intently. “She may settle on just being rude. She doesn't seem murderous...”
Glinda laughed at the offended expressions before her. To the back, Morrible leaned and whispered to Threnidee, “What, in all of Oz, is she doing!”
“Motivation?” the man said, trembling.
“So, the day you've all been waiting for,” Glinda trilled, in a mockery of her usual high tones. “Where,” she smirked again, and dropped her voice to its lower register. More sultry, husky... “you achieve your potential. Behold.” And she raised her arms, chanting loudly.
Most of the audience realised what was happening. Many jumped up, cheering, and the rest were looking horrified and scared. The tension in the room multiplied and more and more were rising from their seats, some trying to get to the door, inconspicuously, while one girl stood shouting for Glinda to stop, who only laughed in response, continuing.
“Bloody run!” Tibbett cried at Boq who had worked his way just in front, but everyone was up, chaos already.
“I can't get through!”
“Well push them!”
Pfannee and Shenshen were one of the many standing up, beaming. “Over here! Over here!” Pfannee cried, wanting all of it for herself. While Shenshen cried, “Me too!” but Milla was turning on the spot with wide eyes, seeing the confusion and fear overtake those around them. She spotted Avaric nearby, muttering to a girl, boredly reassuringly her.
“Miss Glinda!” Morrible whispered, unwilling to destroy this exposition any more than it had already. “I urge you to stop!”
Lights started streaming, as if in slow motion, and some began to scream. Glinda looked positively insane with her manic grin as purple and blue lights shot from her fingers and the hall was overtaken by great winds. Only the people at the back noticed when the main entrance door burst open, admitting a murderously dark Elphaba, screaming odd words at the top of her lungs, hand outstretched, much like Glinda's. Immediately the guards were on the move, most of them to Elphaba and the rest toward Glinda, realising the depth of the situation.
“Oz! Did you see her!” Crope shouted, “She's-” but Glinda's spell had finished and the purple haze spread around the hall, like a possessive cloud, and the guards tackled Elphaba. She threw them off her with alarming strength; some of them colliding sickeningly into the nearby wall, until more arrived and they piled on top of her. She strained, veins popping, her bloodied face twisting in ferocity. She growled the final syllables as more and more were screaming and she convulsed under the pressure of the cast spell. The shouting around the hall peaked as fighting broke out, some convulsing as the spell possessed them. Children crying, some adults tackling others to the ground intent on violence, and others with lust. A grotesque stench swarming, of sweat and fear and something altogether... different.
Boq heaved, raising a hand to his dry mouth. “We're too late!” he muffled, and Crope staggered back against the wall, crying out as a stream of purple engulfed him.
“Crope!” Tibbett howled, lunging, until he saw the change in demeanour. The dark eyes, his face twisted into something terrible. “Crope, no...”
But as quickly as it happened, Glinda's cast spell rose once again, leaving its hosts, including Elphaba, and including Glinda. Rising and rising, leaving those affected shuddering and fighting for air.
“It's not - me, you idiot!” Elphaba rasped, breaking out into a fevered sweat as she struggled. She was about to be sick, and the pain was back, but the startled bumbling guards had lost their grips and she ripped herself free, eyes on Glinda, who had just collapsed on the stage. She ran as fast as she could, pushing others out of her way while guards scrambled to follow, but getting caught among the others. Closer and closer Elphaba forged, desperately trying to ignore the state she was in. She needed... to be there... for Glinda...
“Come on!” Boq shouted, taking Tibbett's hand and beginning to run but was jerked back as Tibbett remained by Crope's side. “Tell me you're okay,” Tibbett said, pulling the shaking Crope into an embrace. “Please, tell me you're okay.”
“God,” Crope whispered breathlessly. “I hope that never happens again.”
“I'm sorry,” Boq said.
“Glinda...” Elphaba cried, flying up the steps on the stage, sinking by Glinda's huddled form, crying in great agonizing sobs. “Glinda, it's okay. It's... it's okay...” But Glinda seemed broken. Curling in on herself even tighter, her sobs dispersed with pleas for forgiveness. Elphaba heard her name, but Glinda didn't seem to know who was even by her side. “I'm here, Glinda. It's me.”
“You idiot,” Morrible whispered to Threnidee, who looked more terrified than ever, pushing himself against the back wall of the stage, as if wanting to be swallowed entirely by it. “PLEASE, EVERYONE! STAY CALM!” she hollered over the frantic cries and the guards' shouts for control. “JUST A LITTLE HITCH!”
“A hitch!” someone replied, incredulous. “You're lucky no-one's been killed!”
Elphaba glanced up, then back at Glinda, her hand on the girl's heated damp back. “Please, Glinda, we have to...” she glanced up again, and sighed, then tried to haul the hysterical girl up with her. Tears of pain springing to her eyes. “We have to move - I fear the worst - of this - is... not yet over...” But Glinda frantically shook her head, overwhelmed by her remorse. “I'm sorry Elphie... so... so sorry... everything... I...”
“Glinda,” Elphaba pleaded thickly. “I can't carry you. Please!”
“But of course none were killed.” Morrible laughed. “Don't be so dramatic, my dear. This is all fine! A marvelous little burst of excitement!”
Some were curiously turning back to the stage. They saw Morrible smiling like a shark, wringing her fat bejewelled hands. “It's all fine,” she repeated. “It's fine, dears! Take your seats, won't you!” She made calming motions, flapping, “Don't you want to see the rest-” she hadn't been aware of the expressions of shock and renewed fear as they watched her. She hadn't been aware of the residual spell floating like a pinkish mist, having paled, but floating toward her. Over her.
Behind her.
The sudden giving out of her legs had been a shock, and she had fallen, but somehow kept upright on her knees. An exclamation of outrage frozen on her lips when she saw the doors of the two exits slam shut from some invisible force, and she cursed loudly. “Threnidee!”
“Oh, do be quiet,” a cold voice ordered from behind her. She struggled to turn her head, and saw his hand outstretched to her; not an offer of help, but rather restraining with magical force.
He stepped forward, a sickening grin on his face.
“You idiot!” she cried.
“You would do well to shut up.”
Morrible seemed to shake with fury, though could not break the bonds holding her in place, and neither did she speak; she only turned her dreadful eye on the unlikely captor with a sort of disdain none in the room had thought humanly possible. Least of all from the high society blow-fish, such as her, who perpetually bared her teeth in humour. Or rather an unfortunate mimicry of it.
“And what were we meant to do in this instance?” Tibbett whispered to Boq, who could only stare toward the stage in horror. “Well?”
“I don't know. I don't know.”
Crope groaned, still recovering, then mumbled something about lying down.
Many in the audience could barely stand under the impact of events, and those few that could had worked their way to the doors, pulling and straining to no avail. But still they tried, until Threnidee's cold and detached voice called to them to not be quite so stupid and accept they were under his control. Elphaba too, had slumped, defeated, having hauled Glinda off the stage and nearly to the backstage door. And throughout this, Morrible continued to peer at Threnidee, shaking her head in disappointment, and she said, “You are not your mother's son, Gregor.”
“By hell I'm not!” He whirled round, furious and sneering. “She was a society whore, just like you and just like your 'protégés' of deviants....” He seemed to remember the trembling audience and addressed them too. “This institution is a damned breeding ground, and yet none of you are aware. So immersed in all that you do! The lot of you! Affected airs of being so damned good and proper and yet you are soulless! Nothing inside... and you grow and go about Oz, tarnishing it and moulding it to your ways! But some are aware.” He laughed. A dry rasping sound utterly devoid of mirth, and it ended just as quickly as it had started. He peered at the pallid faces all watching him, huddled. Children clinging to their parents, with tears in their eyes; students clinging to one another. “Oh yes,” Threnidee said. “For the sake of Oz, you need to be stopped! You...”
Morrible snorted in disgust, interrupting his tirade. “The book is yours. The spell is yours...”
“How could you think otherwise?”
“You, boy, are an idiot.”
There were collective gasps and whimpers, and Tibbett winced. “You'd think she would handle this a little differently. That is a murderous lunatic, after all.” Boq nodded in agreement, while Crope groaned again.
Morrible continued, and Threnidee stepped closer to her, threateningly. “I had trusted you, boy,” she said contemptuously. “I was a dear friend of your mother's-”
“My point-!”
“And she was a far better person than you could ever hope to be! Bless her soul... You may have inherited her aptitude at sorcery but you are ill of the mind!”
“I'm more lucid than you and your-”
“Look at what you are doing!”
“Or what I have done? I will do more, and finish with you.” He turned again, toward the sea of people. He rose his hands and tilted his head up, ready to cast. The guards began to move again, but with the hall so full, and the people suddenly exploding into a panicked frenzy, they couldn't cover enough ground. He began to mutter, louder and louder over the din of the rain outside and soon the cracking of nearby thunder. The closest guards began to shoot, but with Threnidee so close to Morrible, the risk was too great, and the shots were missing. Understanding the worsening situation, people began pounding on the doors, trying to open them and some guards assisting, while others waited for him to move away from the Head.
His chanting grew louder, and whatever it was, it was nearly done. Some in the audience had stopped moving, fighting for breath. Their throats tightening and tears springing to their eyes. Such chaos; a guard fell, and beside him Avaric yelped, jumping into motion and abandoning his hysterical date in favour of the nearby exit. “Make way!” he cried, all the while rain had begun to lash against the huge windows of the hall. "Ungh!" and like the others, Avaric suddenly found his breath stolen. “Rain,” Elphaba muttered, sure it had not been there moments ago; and with an almighty crack and blast of light, the window closest the stage had been shot through. By what, it was hard to tell as it happened so quickly. But in the shocking moment where Threnidee had paused, Morrible had worked herself free, trembling, and lurched to the side as shots once again rang through the hall among the screaming.
And Threnidee had fallen.
================================================
Threnody n. - a poem, speech, or song of lamentation, esp. for the dead; dirge; funeral song.
So, many suspected, but the answer has pretty much been there all along. At the very least, Threnidee/Threnody is connected to death, though he doesn't exactly lament it. Just changing the spelling - I hoped no one noticed the sorcery teacher's name being familiar. It was me having some risky fun.
But, as I'm sure you've noticed, not all questions have been answered. It doesn't quite feel like the end, does it? No. It's actually the Epilogue that concludes the story, so whatever you do, don't miss it. As always, give generously to the Feedback Monster, as it does scare me and it might actually eat me in my sleep. *ahem* But the epilogue really will be here shortly. I hope you've enjoyed the story, and thank you all for reading, and double thank you for all the wonderful feedback you've all left. You've made this a pleasure. :)
*sniffles*