The breakout

[Taye Keats]

Taye frowned. Something was terribly wrong here. While he didn't entirely support his wife's decision to slap Ozma, he understood her pain at her falsely imprisoning their daughter... but several things weren't adding up.

"Ozma," Taye said slowly. "You were the one who told everyone that I was dead. And I've been going on your missions for months now... it hasn't just been a few weeks. Don't you... remember?" Either Ozma was lying... or something else was going on. Could Ozma really have been controlled? Did Ian have something to do with this, or was it something else...?

[Elphaba Thropp]

"Oh, sweet Oz!" Exclaimed Elphaba, tears coming to her eyes. "No. NO!" She ran back to where Morrible lay on the floor of her cell. She could see Mombie sitting inside. Whoever thought that putting Mombie and Morrible in the same cell was a good idea?!

"Mombie! WHat happened?" She shouted. "You saw." She saw Mombie shaking with fear. Elphie knew what was going on, but she needed Mombie to say it. Mombie...shaking with fear?

[Claire Heart]

Claire felt so overwhelmed. Why was all of this happening? Hadn't the made it through all of this once before? Hadn't this been solved? "I'm sorry for striking you...." Claire mumbled, though still a little angry. "I didn't think it was <i>your</i> fault, per se...but I had no way of knowing you were actually back to yourself..." she looked down to the floor, then saw Elphaba rush over to Mombi. Had Morrible and Mombi been in the same cell? Surely that hadn't been the way it had originally been....something was very wrong. Had Mombi seen Morrible's death? Was Morrible's death unnatural? Not that she didn't deserve whatever she got, wretched wicked creature that she was, but still, murder was murder. "What's going on?" she asked, though not really knowing who she was addressing or which mess she was asking about.

[Mombi]

Mombi shook her head tightly. Life in prison had nearly made her a shell of the powerful, conniving woman that she had once been, but she still held plenty of hate in her heart for these people. They had put her here; it was their fault that she was rotting away in some dark cell beneath the Emerald City rather than ruling it like she had deserved. But should she tell them? More than anything, the vision had terrified her. That silvery figure... and that horrible, angry face. She had never met Nessarose in life... but she had seen paintings, photographs. Mombi wasn't shaken by much, but the vision of that... that phantom had nearly paralyzed her with fear. Something new had clearly entered Oz... something that it wasn't prepared to deal with.

But they were bound to find out eventually. And Elphaba... that green wretch. If anything, Mombi hated her worst of all. How deeply might this news hurt her? To hear that her dearly departed sister was back from the dead, and was on some kind of vengeful killing spree. Surely that would cause Elphaba no end of pain.

A broad smile grew across Mombi's face.

"Oh, I saw it all right," she cackled with glee. She pointed a fat finger at Ozma. "Her voice came right through Kit, controlling her... she spoke hateful words at Morrible. And then left Kit's lifeless body behind, and the spirit flew right into Morrible, killing her."

She wrapped her hands around the bars of her cell, staring maliciously at Elphaba. "But I saw the face of the ghost, all right. It's one I know well. It seems that the reign of the Wicked Witch of the East has come once more!"

She laughed wickedly for a moment, then collapsed to the floor of the cell in a coughing fit. Prison life had been cruel to her... her health wasn't what it had been.

[Elphaba Thropp]

Elphaba almost started shaking. She didn't want to show her weakness in front of Mombie, but she was completely devistated. All she could get out was "Get Glinda. Get Glinda!" And she started to fall back, gripping the bars to hold herself steady.

[Claire Heart]

Claire nodded and quickly disappeared into thin air, returning speedily with Glinda in tow.

[Glinda Upland]

Glinda looked slightly disheveled, but still ravishing in her bubblegum pink ballgown. "Whoa! Claire said something about Nessa. Nessa? Nessa's..." she looked at Elphaba, who looked as though she'd seen a ghost. "Sweet Oz!" she crouched down, pulling her in close. "How? Why?"

[Elphaba Thropp]

Elphaba just sobbed onto Glinda's shoulder. She could hear Mombie's maniacle laughter in the background. She felt like she was going to die. She managed to get out: "She's...Nessa...Morrible..."

[Claire Heart]

Claire didn't know what really to do. She just looked at how pitiful Elphaba looked, and Glinda wasn't seeming to be able to console her...or help the situation. So Claire did the only thing she knew...she screamed "Ellie!"

[Ellie Baum]

Ellie bounded in almost as quickly as Claire had called her. She saw her mother, devistated, and looked around. Suddenly she could see something flickering in the prison cell. She looked past Mombie, giving her a horrible grimace, and looked at the silvery light beyond. It stopped shimmering for a moment, almost as if it were looking back.

[Claire Heart]

"Mombi said Nessa killed Morrible..." she filled her in on about as much as she knew. Then realized Ellie hadn't been there for the whole recap. "Oh, and..." she pushed Taye forward. "My husband's alive. So Gayelette didn't kill him...but she's been kidnapped by Ian."

[Ellie Baum]

Ellie just stood transfixed, as if she hadn't heard anything Claire had said.

[Claire Heart]

"Ellie..." Claire repeated, furrowing her brows. "Are you listening? Nessa..dead...was here. Taye..dead..is alive. Gayelette...innocent...taken by Ian...HELLO?"

[Ellie Baum]

"Don't you see that?" She said, still staring at the shimmering thing. Elphaba was in no condition to pay attention, but Glinda should at least know what this was...

[Glinda Upland]

"Ellie...have you heard a thing Claire has said?" Glinda shot her head up angrily. "What are you looking at so intently? There's nothing there!"