The breakout

[Ian Tibbit]

Ian is in the orb room of his castle, looking at the blueprints from the Emerald City Jail, using his recollections of the telepathetic conversation from Gayelette, attempting to pin-point exactly where she was being held.

"Hrm.. this shouldn't be too complicated." Ian thought to himself. He flipped through a few tattered and dusty books with the label "Munchkinland Library, Due: Mon, 04" and began speaking to the air. "Inkec trans Kal Ortega Por" and a portal appeared, similar to the permenent teleportation orbs aligned against the wall except without the glass. "Incredible.." Ian said with a grin on his face. He closed his eyes and began to focus.

"Gayelette, it's Ian. Do you see a small circle with a black glow around it anywhere in the cell?" he asked.

There was no response.

Ian moved toward to orb and disappeared from the castle, entering the almost blinding green of the Emerald City Jail, at arrival killing three guards crowded around the portal, using their bodies to summon undead minions that could last at least an hour. His placement of the orb seemed to be off a little, and he began searching for Gaylette. He raised his hand in the air, screaming loudly, creating a beam taking the shape of a cat-like companion. After a few moments, his soul was successfully split, and his iced white companion began to search for Gayelette in the separate direction to make efficient use of time.

[Nessarose Thropp]

((I'm terribly sorry about this freakishly long post!!! ^__^;; It won't happen again, I promise, lol... ))

Nessarose forced Ozma's legs to move through the hallways, working her way down into the depths of the Emerald Jail.

She had only been in control of Ozma for a short while -- a few months, she supposed -- but in that time Nessarose had learned plenty about the events of the past few years. Everything to do with the Nome King, Mombi, and Ozma's rise to power... by digging through Ozma's memories, Nessa learned it all. She learned several other interesting things as well. Boq's marriage to Glinda, for one, and the birth of their daughter Kay -- who, it seemed, had magically aged somehow. The mere thought made Nessarose seethe with fury. How dare Glinda touch him... on the rebound, no doubt. Everyone knew that Glinda had really been in love with Fiyero. Boq was worth so much more than that ungrateful blonde airhead. But no matter; Nessa knew that the marriage wasn't meant to be. Boq belonged to Nessa after all. She just had to make him see, by force if necessary, that she was the one he truly loved. And their daughter... it sickened Nessarose to think that Glinda's blood had tainted Boq's child. Any child of Boq's belonged to Nessa.

All in due time. For now, Nessarose had to plan how to gain enough power to act on her own. But how? Princess Ozma, being the ruling force behind all of Oz, was an indespensible asset, but her magical powers were fueled almost entirely by goodness, and Nessarose couldn't use them. Nessa wasn't sure why, but somewhere along the line her own essence had received the taint of... what? Wickedness? Perhaps heartbreak and death had turned her into the Wicked Witch of the East after all. Whatever the reason, Ozma's powers were useless to her now. She needed magic of a different sort... dark magic.

The man known as Ian Tibbit intrigued her for this reason. Ozma had already been sending a man named Taye Keats to keep tabs on Ian. After Nessarose had taken control of Ozma she learned of these missions, and of the enormous amounts of dark powers that Ian possessed. She decided that it would be beneficial to continue to keep an eye on him, and thus continued to send Taye on these missions. Lately, Ian had apparently been visiting libraries throughout Oz, searching for tomes of great power. None of them were as great as her sister's Grimmerie, perhaps, but they were still powerful in their own way. On top of that, Ian seemed to be tampering with studies of the undead. Could this man hold the key to returning her to life? He was definitely someone to keep an eye on.

Meanwhile, the Good Witch of the South, as well as Taye's wife, had been raising a pair of twins. Nessarose hated children as a whole, but what was intriguing about them was the magical spell that the girl had accidentally cast over herself and her brother, aging the two infants dramatically. Gayelette was her name, and she seemed to have a shocking amount of untapped power -- dark power -- as well as just the right amount of scorn for the forces of goodness. She could surely be a valueable tool if Nessarose played her cards right. Unfortunately, Gayelette had been proving to be difficult to control; she saw Ozma as a meddlesome friend of her mother, so Nessarose was unable to affect her directly. In order to keep an eye on the girl, and to keep her from snooping around Taye's investigation, Nessa had spread a lie that Taye had been murdered by Gayelette. This allowed her not only to keep Gayelette locked up safe in the Emerald Jail, but also to stop anyone from searching for Taye.

The only problem was that Taye Keats had now returned.

Nessarose didn't have much time; she could tell that Taye suspected something fishy was going on, and his fears would be confirmed as soon as he reached the Ozdust Ballroom, spoke to Claire, and discovered that Gayelette had been arrested for his murder. She needed to act fast -- but first, Nessa had a bit of revenge to commit while she had the chance.

Before her was dark, filthy jail cell. The guards had let her pass through without argument; they thought that she was Princess Ozma. This was one of the most high-security vaults, and few other people would have had the authority to get through.

A sunken, hollow face stared through the bars out at her with harsh eyes.

"What do you want?" the voice snapped, still retaining shreds of its old authority. The woman's whispy white hair hung dishevelled around her shoulders. A faded, threadbare dress hung limp around her shoulders, but it betrayed hints of her previous grandeur.

"Hello, Madame Morrible," Nessarose said in Ozma's voice. She gave a cruel, sarcastic smile. "It's too good to see you again."

"P...Princess," Morrible mumbled quietly. She glared at her with clear loathing. "To what do I owe this pleasure? You haven't been too busy laughing it up with dear Miss Galinda and Miss Elphie, have you? Chortling over your victory over the Wizard?"

"Spare your rants," Nessa said coldly. She looked around the cell. "It's fairly dank in here, isn't it? Wouldn't you prefer a change in the weather?"

A faint flicker of recognition flitted over the old woman's face. Her brow clouded with worry. "You... Princess Ozma, that is you, isn't...? You're not... for a moment you sounded..."

Nessarose's spirit left Ozma's body, sending the young girl's body falling limply to the floor. Nessa floated before the cell, giving off a ghostly, silvery glow. She was completely transparent, and her face held a look of cold fury and hatred.

"Good evening, Headmistress," Nessa whispered quietly. A scream looked like it wanted to escape from the old woman, but no sound came out. Madame Morrible's face was simply frozen with a look of terror.

"It seems I have a debt to repay," Nessarose added, glaring at the woman stonily. "You killed me, didn't you? And after all those years as your ward at Shiz. You're a cruel woman, Morrible. A very cruel woman. But two can play at that game."

As Madame Morrible found her voice again and began to scream, Nessarose swooped forward and stole away the woman's last breath.

-----------

Ozma was of no use to her anymore... her light magic was useless. Nessa floated through the corridors, sensing the air for traces of what she was looking for. Finally, she found it -- the darker witchcraft to which she was more attuned. That would surely be Gayelette.

And yet something didn't seem quite right. The spirit of the person ahead felt different. It was as if their spirit was ripped apart; the same feeling was coming from two different places. But one thing was for certain: the spirit was a dark one.

As she couldn't interact with the world of the living very well, she continued to search the corridors until she found the spirit she recognized as Gayelette's. She was in a weakened state; Nessarose was able to enter her easily. But for some reason she was unable to take control. Was it Gayelette's will that was keeping her at bay?

It wasn't worth it to fight for dominion now. Controlling Gayelette wasn't necessary at the moment. Besides, Gayelette wouldn't be able to sense her; for now, Nessa would sit back and wait, merely watching what happened. The approaching split spirit interested her...

[Elphaba Thropp]

Elphaba stepped out of the shadows. She had used her secret key to get into the City, and so hadn't heard any of the commotion. The jail cell looked cold, and silent. She figured the prisoners must be sleeping.

For some reason, she had been thinking about Nessa a lot lately. She missed her sister dearly, and had always felt responsible for what had happened.

Elphaba heard a slight groan. She raised her hand and illuminated the cell - there was Morrible's lifeless body lying on the ground. She rushed to it. But her reaction was not quite what she had expected. "For my sister" she said. "Things will never be even but now, maybe the score is a little more settled." It looked like she had died naturally. There were no visable wounds, and anyways, who would murder Morrible. "Forgive me Nessa! I couldn't! Forgive me!" Elphaba would never be able to bring herself to kill someone, but she had been tempted, oh how she had been tempted with Morrible!

[Gayelette Keats]

Gayelette felt a little funny for an instant, dizzy. Then she heard Ian's voice. "Ian!" she called out, standing up, grabbing onto the bars. 'Oh.." she cried, feeling woozy suddenly. "I...I...Ian!" she called again, trying to hold onto the bars as she felt the blood rushing from her head. She sunk to the bottom of the cell, eyes fluttering shut. What had just happened? Why did she feel so weak? It felt almost as if someone was fighting with her, but there was no one there.

[Ian Tibbit]

Riarti ran next to the cell and quickly identified the soul in which Ian had assigned for him to find. Riarti opens his mouth wide and makes a loud roar, calling Ian, giving him the exact location that Riarti had found Gayelette.

Ian blinks to Riarti's location and goofily smacks Riarti in the mouth with the spellbook Ian had in his hand called "Spells, the common, and the not so common". "Can you be any louder?" Ian snapped. "I'm sorry I'm sorry.." Riarti said while rolling his eyes. "I did all that research and worked on your development of speech for you to growl?" Ian asked, at this point with a joking tone. Although an unusual bond, Ian and Riarti were inseparable, like brothers, or a man with a really obnoxious dog. After all, they were technically one soul split in half. Ian had not only found a way to make him speak and convert him into an Animal (which gave Ian much pride and joy for his Animal rights activism when he first got to Shiz. I guess Ian and Elphaba really aren't too different in this respect, in many respects actually) but also managed to find a containment spell which kept Riarti's spirit back inside Ian's body and could cast him out when needed, although never fully merging their souls together into one because that was just impossible.

"Focus Ian!" Riarti snapped.
"Right, right." Ian said.

Ian stared into the cell and saw the limp body barely hanging on to the bars, sprawled on the floor.

"Gayelette..." Ian called out. "It's me, the one who talked to you through Telepathy, Ian, Ian Tibbit." he said. Although Ian had bad intentions, he was still a good being and actually felt sorry for the girls condition.

Ian then pointed at the cell and Riarti turned transparent, walking through the bars and into the cell. He opened his mouth and a beam of light appeared, covering the room, melting the metal bars, however not burning or damaging Gayelette or Ian. Gayelette now had a clear way of exiting the cell.

[Princess Ozma]

Ozma stirred. She sat up wearily; her head was throbbing, and for a moment the pain was all that she was able to focus on. Suddenly she noticed her surroundings. Everything was dark and dirty... where was she? Was this the prison? Why in Oz was she here?

She got uneasily to her feet; she felt as if she would fall over any moment. For the first time, she realized that a familiar face loomed over her. The woman hadn't noticed her yet.

"Miss Elphaba," she said quietly, reverting back to the way of speaking she had used when she had simply been Kay Tip, the servant girl. "What happened? Where am I?" Her head was in searing pain; she could barely think. She felt like something was wrong... but what? She remembered going to bed... but everything beyond that was a huge blank.

[Gayelette Keats]

Gayelette stirred, seeing Riarti melt the bars and screamed out of fear. It wasn't something she was used to seeing. She sat straight up, panting, and scooted her way to the back of the cell as quickly as her feeble legs could propel her. Her big brown eyes stared wide at the cat, then looked at Ian, and then back to the cat.

[Ian Tibbit]

Ian quickly raised his hands in the air and Riarti stared at Ian then began to run toward him as if Riarti were going to knock him down and jumped into the air and disappeared into Ian's body.

"It's alright Gayelette. I apologize for the spectacle.. I tend to like my spells to be, how do you put it, flashy." Ian said with a grin.

"I feel that there is something about to happen, we must leave soon. I sense the presence of someone great, however I can't tell who or when he or she will show up." he said in a serious tone. "This will be the best time to take over her motives and intentions.." he thought to himself as he saw her laying there, vulnerable.

"Will you come with me? Will you let me save you from this place?" he asked her.

[Gayelette Keats]

She nodded, standing up, slowly. She was terrified of this person, but he'd come here to rescue her. Hadn't he? Hadn't he come to help her? He had. There were no bars. She was...free.

Gayelette put her hand in Ian's and nodded. "Thank you. I'm with you."

[Taye Keats]

Taye and Claire ran through the corridors of the prison, panting; they had run all the way from the throne room. Taye had been in the jail a few times, but didn't really know his way around it that well. He turned to Claire.

"Do you... know where she's being held?" he asked between heavy intakes of breath. Something was urging him onward, as if they didn't have much time. Was that just because he wanted to see his daughter that badly, or was there something more there?

[Ian Tibbit]

Ian grinned. As she placed her hand in his, Ian's eyes began to glow a bright red and their surroundings began to change, whir pooling and whip lashing until they were finally at the entrance to the Nome Kingdom, which was now Ian's home.

"Are you alright?" he looked over to the what seemed like slightly nauseated girl.

[Claire Heart]

"Ozma offered to take me to her, but...she'd just told me she placed a spell on me...and that she'd killed you...so i told her no." She hated herself for it now. If she'd listened to Gayelette...maybe they wouldn't be in this mess. "I could...maybe..." she stopped, held on to his hands and concentrated. "Just try to sense her with me. And pray I've got enough something to take us there."

[Taye Keats]

Taye nodded, closing his eyes and taking Claire's hands in his. He had never been good at sorcery, not at all, but in the past he had proved to have at least a small amount of magical ability present. It had always come out when he had needed it the most, and that time was definitely now.

Eyes held shut, hands clasped, the two concentrated as hard as they could on the essence of their daughter. Taye had yet to meet Gayelette now that she was fifteen... but he still knew what she felt like. She was his blood, after all. It felt odd, reaching off into nothingness for some trace of his family member, but at last he seemed to feel something.

He opened his eyes abruptly. "She's not... here?" He prayed that he was wrong, but somehow he didn't think so. If Gayelette really wasn't in the prison... then where was she? Something was terribly, terribly wrong.

[Claire Heart]

"The bars are...melted..." Claire observed. She didn't think Gayelette was capable of that sort of power, but it was altogether possible. After all, she hadn't thought she was capable of aging she and her brother either, but she had. "Do you think she--" she looked at Taye. "Or--" she was flabberghasted.

Claire stood gaping a moment longer. "Or did whatever got Ozma get her too..?"

[Taye Keats]

Taye shook his head slowly. His heart began beating quickly, and he started to feel very, very angry as he realized the implications of what were going on.

"No. Feel that? There are traces of magic left behind. We've felt that magic before. Don't you recognize it?"

Betraying them was one thing. Working with Mombi, going against Elphaba, searching for black magic, Taye didn't care about any of that. He had been their friend, right? Even during the past few months, Taye had been keeping tabs on the warlock, but he had never felt any particular malice towards his old schoolmate.

But the moment that Ian Tibbit put a single finger on his daughter, he sealed his fate. Nothing he could ever do would ever be redeemable in Taye's eyes. He was a dead man.

Taye ran a hand through his messy hair and began to pace; he was beside himself with rage. "I... am going to kill that... that d**n Munchkin! How dare... "

Breathing heavily, he turned to face Claire. For the first time, fear showed itself through his anger.

"Claire... he has our baby girl. What are we going to do?"