Chapter Text
"--Why not?"
Glinda blinked to life with those words. She didn't quite remember the conversation that preceded the statement, but she remembered the context. This was a life-changing day. Or rather a life-changing six and a half hours in the Emerald City.
Glinda took a moment to feel the swish of her dress against her calves and the oddly cold hand of the Wizard on her arm as she reoriented herself.
Knowing more than many ever would, Glinda still beheld the giant mechanical head majesty with fear, and despaired that she was far too late.
Turning away from the thoughts of her future-past and ignoring Morrible entirely, Glinda met the one gaze she couldn't avoid.
Sharp green eyes, almost the same shade of her skin, body enshrouded in black fabric, and a pointed hat (which was slowly growing on Glinda).
Elphaba's greenness was always a shock to see. After their initial meeting, Glinda never let herself get startled by the color, but certainly she wasn't as numb to the difference as she pretended to be. She hadn't seen such green in decades, and more importantly, Elphaba was here in the flesh- unmelted and alive.
Those green eyes were glaring. Elphaba's facial expressions always came in two flavors, more often stoic and infrequently vulnerable. Stoicism was the woman's understandable reaction to her ostracization, and vulnerability was the response to the smallest genuine interactions.
At this moment, there was a new expression on her face.
Before , when Glinda was truly twenty-two, she hadn't understood what would accompany that expression. How much changed in their lives and between themselves, all because Glinda was weak, whereas Elphaba was strong.
Dark eyebrows folded even further at the conclusion of the not-wizard's words. Mouth prepared to form one word with eyes that refused to drift from its determined spark.
"STOP TALKING!" Glinda heard the scream echo. It took a heartbeat to understand that the words had come out of her, but she concentrated more on her success, preventing Elphaba's 'No'.
They were all staring at her: Morrible, apathetic to the situation, the Wizard with smarmy self-assurance, and Elphaba in brief distraction. There was no going back , she had changed the future.
"Everyone, Stop Talking." Glinda pulled herself out of the Wizard's grip, approaching Elphaba with soft feet, trying not to startle the mage, ready to bolt.
"Elphaba, look at me." Soft, pleading, "I know how to fix this." She had made a plan. She had made several plans when time travel became a solid possibility, eighty percent of them would be lost if Elphaba hops on that broom and flies away.
"Glinda," A rough tone, angered eyes trailed past the blonde to glare at the offenders at her back, "if you believe for a moment that I would-"
"Don't Look At Them. Look at me!" With a strength she had never cultivated, Glinda grabbed at covered arms and bodily moved Elphaba into a spin. Now Glinda faced the entertained expressions of their manipulative teacher and false wizard , and Elphaba finally reacted with a hint of vulnerability.
Gazing deeply into uncertain eyes with her fears reflected, Glinda begged. In a manner she had only done once before in a poor attempt to save Fiyero's life. "I know how to fix this. Please, trust me. Let me fix this." And perhaps some of those memories and emotions shone behind Glinda's eyes, and with an infinitesimal movement, Elphaba nodded.
Glinda let out the quickest breath of relief before she stepped around Elphaba to face the ever-watchful eyes of Oz's leaders.
"Elphaba is tired." Glinda had arms out to either side of her- a human shield, though her words did not match her developing conviction- "We need a place where she can sit down and put her feet up, and relax. Perhaps with some refreshments and snacks available..." Her words ended leadingly.
"Of course, we have overwhelmed her." A tone so kind and almost fatherly, "Please, through that door, there are several guest rooms, choose any one. My home is your home." In a way that was the truest statement he had made tonight.
Glinda broke her defiant stare, grabbed the arm of the statue-still Elphaba, and rushed them out of the room before any more could be said .
------
Glinda walked past several grand doors and the rooms behind them, with an increasingly impatient Elphaba being led away .
"Galinda-"
"My name is Glinda."
That unquestioning statement threw Elphaba off enough to let Glinda shove her into a side closet. A mop leaning on the wall, cluttered on the ground, and the dim space was only lit by a peephole window letting in the fading sunset.
This new privacy ensured Glinda could take the moment to breathe and wonder at her success.
Time travel. An impossible feat made possible by decades of studying and practice with The Grimmerie. Glinda might not have the power to magically lift anything heavier than a cup of water , but she has accomplished what many would believe impossible- time travel.
"Glinda, what's going on? Do you- do you understand what's going on? Morrible and the Wizard have caused all the unrest in Oz; they are fabricators of suffering-" Elphaba turned away to face the sickly yellow cleaning supplies, hiding her emotions.
In the future, many would have never believed that The Wicked Witch had ever held anything but contempt for the Wizard of Oz, but Glinda knows better. Knows how, in her younger years, Elphaba pinned all her hopes of 'normality' on that man, and this past year at school, that desperate admiration had blossomed into an encompassing desire to stand by the Wizard's side as an equal.
To have her dreams dashed so, and in a manner knowing that the Wizard was a cheat and responsible for the bad happenings in Oz? The way Elphaba was able to rally away from that pain and rebuild her hopes and dreams without the magician- honestly breathtaking.
"I don't know what your plan is? But I'm not going back there, certainly not going to help them in their speciesist, xenophobic, political domination-" Elphaba began a rambling rant.
Glinda's mind had returned to her dashed plans. Time travel isn't exact, of course it's not. Glinda had calculated her landing for the beginning of the school year. She had hoped to have a better first impression with Elphaba , and she had planned for every landing point before that and up to the train ride. She never planned to arrive smack dab in the argument that birthed Oz's number one enemy.
So the plan had to be adjusted. Now!
"Elphaba, please stop talking. I'm not as smart as you, and I need to think." Glinda needed the silence.
The woman in black was offended, "What? Glinda, you are plenty smart. You could stand to apply yourself better to academic endeavors, but miscellaneous tests don't have the measuring accuracy or the best bearing on intelligence-"
"Shush, shush," the itching sound finally quieted the vibrating girl. The room grew ever darker as the sun made its final appearance in the west. Glinda reworked some of her other plans, combined something here, removed one thing there , and finally, the perfect checklist was in motion. Why didn't she think of it before? No matter, time to sell it to the brass.
Glinda blinked back to life.
In the intervening time, Elphaba turned a trash bucket upside-down to use as a seat, leaving the lopsided chair in the corner for Glinda. How kind.
"Oz is Shiz." Her first rest assured words in many hours.
Elphaba spoke through her light doze, awaking, "What?"
"Oz is Shiz, you are you, and I am the Wizard or maybe Morrible." Glinda nodded, it made a lot of sense.
"If this is an analogy, it's terrible. And if this is your way of telling me that you agree with them-."
"No, no," Glinda interrupted before Elphaba could build up her anger.
"Listen. Oz is Shiz, the people are easily led by what is pretty and what is popular. Led by people who seemed to have it all, so the Wizard is me. And you are you, the person who's often on the outskirts of society. Similar enough that you can be recognized as human, different enough that many wouldn't care to treat you as such. Do you understand?" Glinda pleaded for understanding with her eyes.
"Sort of," Elphaba may have just agreed in an effort not to sadden her best friend.
"So you see, if you go against the Wizard in such an obvious and uncontrollable way, then like I ostracized you from Shiz, he can do the same- but with all of Oz." Were Glinda's words making an impact?
The green girl rubbed at her arms, no doubt always conscious of what made her different and how many used it against her. "What are you suggesting?"
"Elphaba, I know it may have gotten lost with the cacophony of everything else, but you read from The Grimmerie." Pointing to the book that was almost forgotten dangling from her sharp fingertips, "You crafted a powerful spell with a large area-of-effect with no drop in energy or backlash to yourself. You are the one who can and will fulfill the prophecy foretold by the Magical Wise Ones."
Elphaba tried to deny it, but Glinda steamrolled over her. "You have a lot of bargaining power; State your terms. And as long as Morrible and the Wizard can be comfortable and admired , they will accept them ." She, herself, had accepted such a deal in the future-past.
"I don't know if I can face them, let alone work with them. How much more harm will they cause while in power versus if I could get the people and Animals of Oz to rise against them?"
"It's more difficult for you to get people behind you than for me. So I will strike a deal for you, something palatable , of course ." Glinda rose, gesturing for them to leave the closet. She had a hand on the door handle before she paused.
"Elphaba, the Wizard may have the showmanship to pretend to be unassailable, but he is mortal like all of us, and one day he will fall. Have a little patience." With those final words of sedition, the closet door was opened , and the future was endless.