Dorothy Comes Back To Oz (Fanfic)

Dorothy woke, finding herslef back at the farm in Kansas.  Everyone told her that her adventure in Oz, meeting the strange Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion was nothing more than a dream.  That the wizard who turned out to have no powers at all, but was an ordinary man, was a figment of her imagination.  But she knew better.  She had gone to Oz.  It was a real place, and she had been told by the Wizard to kill the Wicked Witch of the West.

She learned not to mention Oz, however.  It made her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry nervous.  They had enough stress already, what with the farm losing money.  People were using machines now, processing fruit and grain and vegetables in factories.  No one was interested in buying them home-grown anymore.  So Dorothy learned to keep her mouth shut, keep her head down, and do her chores around the house.  She knew, though, that she had to find a way back.  Somehow, someday, she would manage it, too.  Because there were even times where she believed her adventure in Oz had been merely a dream.  But one thing kept her knowing that it wasn’t.  One thing that even Auntie Em and Uncle Henry could not explain away into dreamland.  The ruby slippers.  Dorothy had gone to Oz wearing her flat black shoes.  She’d come back wearing the ruby slippers, given to her by Glinda.

Dororthy often wondered about the witch of the East.  Glinda had told her that the witch of the East and the witch of the West were sisters.  Sometimes Dorothy found herself thinking about the two.  Why did they become so evil?  Everyone in Munchkinland was so happy to see someone dead, but why?  What did the witch of the East do to them?

Then there was the witch of the West . . .  Dorothy shuddered.  She still remembered being trapped in that castle, the witch demanding that she relinquish the ruby slippers.

But that was why she had to go back.  The witch of the West never actually did anything to her.  She just wanted her sister’s shoes back.  And Dorothy intended to deliver them.  Somehow.

And that was the problem.  She had no idea how to get back to Oz.

She went to bed that night, hoping, praying that she could get back somehow.  She had unfinished business to take care of.

*~*~*~*~*~*

“I’m here . . .” Dorothy murmured, stepping out of her house. “I made it back somehow . . . “

She looked around and realized that this was the same Muchkinland that she’d landed in before. But there was no one here. “Hello?” She waited a few minutes but no one answered.

“Hello?” she called again. This time, she saw a pink bubble floating towards her from the sky. She didn’t feel apprehensive, because she knew it had to be Glinda. Sure enough, when the bubble was about Dorothy’s height, it slowly turned into a lovely blonde woman in a pink lacey dress.

“Dorothy?” Glinda said in suprise. “How did you get back here? Why are you here?”

“I’ve come to return these,” Dorothy said, holding up the ruby slippers. “I know I . . . killed . . . her, but I wanted to . . . well . . .”

“Pay tribute?” Glinda supplied. She seemed strangely sad herself.

“Yeah, something like that,” Dorothy said. “I mean, the Wizard seemed to think she was such an evil person, but . . . she didn’t do anything to me in the castle, except yell a lot and tell me how she wanted the ruby slippers because they belonged to her sister. I– I didn’t give them to her because you told me not to, but I feel bad. I killed her sister, too . . . And she didn’t even deserve it.”

“No . . .” Glinda agreed. “Nessa didn’t deserve it . . .”

“Nessa?”

“NessaRose. That was the witch of the East’s name.”

“Name?” Dorothy blinked. “I hadn’t realized she had a name.”

“Yes, they both do. Did . . .” Glinda trailed off, sadness once again coming to her eyes.

“What was the witch of the West’s name?” Dorothy asked. It was the closest she could come to asking why Glinda looked o despondent talking about this.

“Elphie . . . I mean, Elphaba,” she answered.

Suddenly it clicked in Dorothy’s mind. “How long were you friends?”

Glinda looked at her sharply. “Friends? I wasn’t friends with Elphaba!” She took Dorothy’s wrist and started walkig. Dorothy was pulled out of Muchinland and into the cornfield where she first met the Scarecrow. Only there did she release Dorothy’s wrist. “She was my best friend.”

“What??” Dorothy cried. “You were best friends with–!”

“Don’t say it!” Glinda cried. “She wasn’t evil. She was misunderstood.”

“Misunderstood?” Dorothy raised an eyebrow.

“You know, for someone who came here to pay tribute to her, you’re not starting out very well.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just . . . everyone said she was so horrible . . .”

“Yes, I know. Everyone was turned against her when she realized, much like you, that the wizard had no real power.”

“Why would that turn people against her?”

“Because the wizard wanted to stay wonderful. He couldn’t have someone ruining his precious reputation. So he made the citizens of Oz afraid of her. It wasn’t hard. Enough people already disliked her because of how she looked and how smart she was.”

“How she looked . . . You mean she was always green? I thought she was that way because she was . .. well . . .”

“Wicked? No . . . She was born that way. Her mother . . . was less than faithful. And the man who was Elphaba’s father was a trickster. He made Elphaba’s mother drink some kind of green elixir before Elphie was born.”

Dorothy gasped. “That’s horrible!”

“Yes . . . It’s what made Elphie’s father so paranoid when Nessa was going to be born. He was taking so many precautions because he didn;t want another green child to be ashamed of. He had Elphie’s mother eating some kind of plant, and that made Nessa come to early, and killed their mom.”

Dorothy gasped again. “Did their father care for them?”

“Yes, but Nessa was crippled.”

“Crippled?”

“She was unable to walk for most of her life. The same time Elphie went into hiding because of the wizard, Nessa became governess of Munchkinland. But she’d grown very bitter by that time. She’d always had Elphaba to wait on her, care for her. Once she was ruling Munchkinland, she forced a Munchkin named Boq to serve her. I suppose she had no idea how to care for herself.  It did’t help that Nessa had had feelings for Boq.  Feelings that urned sour, I suspect.”

“Turned sour?”

“Yes.  Boq never loved her back.  I suppose in many ways, it’s my fault . . .  I wanted to get rid of Boq, so I told him to go invite Nessa to a dance, back when all of us were in school.  Nessa fell for Boq because he invited her, but he only took her because I asked, and because he felt sorry for her.”

“So, were the ruby slippers something that the witch of–  that Nessa was particularly fond of?”

“I suppose, in a way.  Perhaps.  Elphie appeared in Munchkinland wanting Nessa to help

her hide.  Nessa, already bitter and soured by unrequited love, demanded to know why Elphie hadn’t given her to ability to walk.  All the power Elphie supposedly had now, and she wouldn’t even help her own sister.”

“The wizard turned Nessa against her own sister?”

“I don’t know.  Nessa may have gotten to that point on her own.  In any case, Elphie put an irreversible spell on the slippers and it gave Nessa the ability to walk.”

“That’s wonderful!” Dorothy cried.  “Oh . . .  But then I . . .  And you . . .”

“Yes.”

“I have to find her.  Elphaba, I mean.  I have to find her and give these back.”

Glinda smiled.  “You mean we can bring these to her castle.  Remember, Elphaba’s gone . . .”