79Disclaimers: As much as I may want to claim ownership of this production, I can't because Oz the Great and Powerful belongs to a whole lot of different companies that I can't remember the names of at the moment. Any characters that appear in this fic that is not a part of the original series, belong to me so don't take them without asking first.
Author's Notes: This idea wouldn't leave me alone after watching the new Oz movie. I always wondered what would happen if Oscar Diggs had gone a different path in how he handled Theodora the night he was going to leave the Emerald City to confront Glinda. lol
Spoilers Alert: as a warning to everyone who haven't seen the movie yet, there is mention of some scenes from the movie in here.
Word Count: 3,884
Summary: (Alternate Universe) What if, The night before Oscar Diggs was to leave the Emerald Palace to go after the 'Wicked Witch' Glinda, he had a change of heart about leaving without saying anything to Theodora and pays her a late night visit? (Oscar & Theodora)
Chains of Fire
Prologue: Going a Different Route
By: Sakura Lisel
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Late that night in the Emerald City Palace, found Oscar Diggs wide awake as he lay in the soft downey mattress of the kingsized bed he was laying in, and was dressed in nothing but his underwear underneath the quilted blanket that covered the bed. It had been a few hours since he had headed off to bed in the room he had been assigned to after his talk with Evanora, and despite how exhausted he was after all the traveling he had done with Theodora and Finley for the last few days, and after the grand tour of the palace that Evanora had given him upon his arrival, he found that he couldn't get to sleep no matter what he tried.
After his talk with Evanora, who after showing the Emerald City's treasure room that was filled from wall to wall with gold coins and other treasures littering the floor, had proceeded to tell him that the only way to claim the money and become ruler of Oz was to go out and kill the wicked Witch Glinda by snapping her wand. At first he had been hesitant at the idea, because he had never killed anyone before in his entire life, but he decided to go along with it if it meant helping the two sisters and becoming the new ruler of the kingdom.
Oscar was already making plans to head out first thing in the morning to deal with the Wicked Witch Glinda who was causing trouble for Evanora and Theodora, and he had already spoken Finley about his plans, and the winged monkey was planning to accompany him on his journey.
Remembering Annie also brought a frown to his lips, as he remembered the last time he had seen his old friend, who had always been there for him when they were growing up, and supported his dreams to become a magician and travel the world instead of following in his father's footsteps and become a farmer where he had to eat, breath and die as a farmer, never amounting to anything, and probably drop dead in the fields one day from overwork like his father had done.
More than once, Oscar had always wondered what his life would have been like if he had stayed home, and settled down on a farm with Annie but he never had the courage to do so as he chose to leave his old life behind to follow his dreams.
The day he was brought to Oz, the traveling circus he worked for had brought him close to his old home town, and Annie had shown up at his latest show to tell him that she had been proposed to by another old friend of theirs named Jonathan Gale while he was away, but hadn't accepted the proposal yet because she had wanted to see him one last time before accepting.
When he had heard the news, it had taken everything in him to smile brightly as he congratulated her on the engagement, and wished her well in the future that Jonathan could provide for her, that he wasn't able to do. They had talked some more about their past, until Frank came rushing into his caravan to warn him about Tom Hernes, the circus strong man was after him because he had flirted with Tom's wife, causing Oscar to bid a quick goodbye to Annie and congratulate her one last time on her engagement, just before his caravan door was kicked in by the enraged strong man who was accompanied by one of the circus clowns.
What happened afterwards that day was a blur, that he barely remembered other than he had just barely escaped a pummeling from the taller man, and escaped his caravan and ran for his life before escaping in the hot air balloon where he was caught in an incoming twister, and the rest is history.
'I wonder if Annie and Frank along with everyone else managed to get away and to safety, before the tornado struck the circus? It almost doesn't seem fair that I alone managed to survive that day and was brought to this wondrous place,' Oscar thought silently to himself, as he flinched a bit as a memory of his ride in the tornado filled him, as he remembers nearly getting hit by one of the carts from the circus that the tornadoes had lifted off the ground as he was flung around inside the hot air balloon, as the last thing he remembered seeing of the circus was people running away screaming as soon as they saw the tornado coming just as he was sucked inside and lost sight of everything happening on the ground, 'while everyone back home was killed by that blasted twister! But I guess I'll never know now. If anyone survived they probably think I'm dead since the last time they saw me was when my stupid balloon headed straight for that blasted tornado...'
When he had arrived in Oz, he had been amazed by the strange and wondrous things he saw all around him, things that he had never seen in his years of travel with the circus, and for a moment he thought that his trip through the tornado had indeed killed him and he was in heaven until he met Theodora, who had become his guide and newfound friend in this strange land that she called Oz.
Thinking about Theodora now brought a warm smile to Oscar's mouth, as he thought about the young brunette woman who had been his friend and companion in Oz since his arrival in the strange world a few days ago. At the moment he hated to admit it to himself, but the young witch had warmed her way into his heart like no other woman had before, at least not since Annie.
One of the things that he couldn't understand about Theodora though, was when he had given her the last of his music boxes as a thank you gift for everything that Theodora had done for him since they met, and she had looked lost and a bit suspicious at the idea that he was giving her a gift and not wanting anything back from her in return, which made him wonder about what kind of life she had been living up until now, especially when he had offered to dance with her to the music of the music box, and she had informed him that nobody had asked her to dance before either, and he could see the hurt longing in her eyes as she looked up at him from where she was sitting, before he reached down and gently pulled her to her feet, and offered to teach her to dance, and spent most of the night dancing, before the finally got tired and stopped to rest and wound up kissing each other.
He didn't know what had brought on the kiss, but now that he thought about it, the kiss had felt right, and far better than the other times when he had kissed women in the past, and had been a bit disappointed when it finally broke off, leaving them both feeling flustered, as a small chuckle escaped from Oscar's lips as he remembered how Theodora's face had turned as red as her clothes after they had kissed, before she excused herself to go to sleep for the night.
By the time morning had come along, they had continued on their way to their destination, while stopping to rescue a winged monkey in a blue bellhop outfit from a lion who Oscar had scared away with his magic tricks. The monkey's name was Finley, who joined their group after declaring that he would serve Oscar for the rest of his days as payment for saving him from the lion, and the trio quickly continued on their way to the Emerald City, and as the magnificent emerald green palace came into view as they stopped on top of a hill, to his surprise Theodora started talking about how great of a wizard and ruler he would be once he fulfilled the prophecy and beat the wicked witch, and how they could rule Oz together as King and Queen.
When she had first talking about the possibility of the two of them getting married he had frozen up, like he normally did when the women he was with started talking about making a future with him, and part him had wanted to nip that idea in the bud before Theodora got the wrong idea, but as he stared at the witch before him, he felt he couldn't do it as the more he thought about the idea himself, he realized that he didn't really mind the idea of one day marrying Theodora if she would have him even when she found out he was nothing more than a fraud and wasn't the 'wizard' she was hoping he would be, and managed to talk her out of making plans by promising they could talk more about it later, and that was when he started feeling extremely guilty about the whole situation, especially when Finley laid into him about lying to Theodora when he confessed the truth to the winged monkey.
As they entered the emerald palace, even now he wondered who could have treated Theodora the way they had, and who could have hurt her and given her such a low self-esteem of herself, since was a delight to be around, and fun to be with, wished that he could teach whoever had hurt a lesson if he ever met them.
Though he did start getting a clue about who the main culprit might be responsible as soon as they finally reached the throne room, and Oscar had met Theodora's ever so 'charming' older sister, Evanora, who seemed to just be waiting for them to arrive.
He didn't know what the reason was, but there was something about the woman that didn't sit well with Oscar, that made his skin crawl just by being around her. Despite her obvious attempts of being nice and polite to him when they first met in the throne room, and during the tour of the palace that she personally gave him, Evanora reminded him of those prissy stuck up rich folks back home who came to his shows that looked down on him and the other circus performers with their noses stuck in the air.
Evanora had hidden her contempt for him, but he had seen right through it almost immediately, especially when she had finally shown him the royal treasure room. Sure the sight of all that gold in the room had left him feeling excited at the idea of all of it belonging to him now, but as he glanced at Evanora for a moment, as she told him that he could do whatever he wanted with the treasure, he decided to put on a show for Evanora to see, as she he took a running jump into a nearby pile of gold, rolling around it and laughing like a loon as he grabbed fistfuls of gold and jewels off the floor and tossed them in the air as he rummaged through to different piles of gold and jewels and pulling them out to examine with interest, not paying attention at all to what Evanora.
After a few minutes of this, he finally decided to take a look back at Evanora to see how she was reacting to his antics, as he casually picked up a nearby golden chalice filled with gold coins, and turned to Evanora, pretending to not know what kind of cup it was that he was now holding, it was then that he had seen the smirk and shrewd look in the woman's eyes as she watched his antics in the room, and that was when he knew for sure that he was being played.
The look on Evanora's face made her look like a cat who had just caught a canary bird and eaten its fill as she looked at him and was looking proud of herself but the look had quickly disappeared as soon as she saw him looking her way, as she started explaining what the chalice was when he asked her about it.
Evanora had allowed him to have his 'fun' for awhile longer before finally breaking the 'bad news' about how he couldn't have the money in the treasure vault of become king of the kingdom unless he fulfilled the prophecy that she and Theodora had been telling him about, and that he was destined to hunt down and kill the wicked witch that was plaguing Oz who had murdered the former king in cold blood for the throne. He had protested at first, saying that he didn't want to kill anyone, but when she pointed out that if he wanted the throne and the wealth that came with it, he had reluctantly agreed to it, and she had smirked and suggested that he should leave first thing in the morning to deal with Glinda, as she pulled out her wand and waved it and a map appeared before his eyes, as she showed him where he could find Glinda.
Though when she suggested her telling Theodora about the plan, he had immediately shot down the idea, giving Evanora the excuse that he didn't want Theodora to know where he had gone, in case she decided to follow after him, and he could see the creepy little smile that appeared on Evanora's face at what he had just said, as she agreed and promised not to say anything to Theodora before bidding him good night and heading on her way to bed while he made his way to his own chambers to rest for the night.
'Number one rule of the business. Never try and con a conman. Especially if they know the signs to look for when they think they are being conned. If I didn't know better, I would think she reminds me of some of the jerks I had to deal with back home, acting all nice and sweet, while having ulterior motives.' Oscar thought silently to himself as her turned over to lie on his side on the mattress as he stared out at the balcony window for a moment, as a thoughtful look appeared on his face as he remembered the conversation he had with Evanora just a few hours ago, as a small frown crept to his face as he remembered the way Evanora had spoken to him and the way she acted, 'There's something off about Evanora that I just plain didn't like. It's on the tip of my tongue about what it is though. She seemed a little too eager about me leaving and not talking to Theodora first, before I go hunt down this Glinda person.'
It wasn't that he didn't want Theodora involved in what he was doing, but it was more like he hoping to put some space between them, as he thought over what he was going to do when he completed what he was setting out to do, especially with Theodora making noises about the two of them getting married and ruling Oz together as the new King and Queen, and how he was going to handle Evanora when he got back from his mission.
Sighing a bit, Oscar reached over to his nightstand and picked up his pocket watch to check the time, and is able to see the time using the moonlight that's shining through his window, and cursed a bit when he saw how late it was getting, as he reluctantly came to a decision.
'Okay, who am I kidding? I can deny it all I want, but I've never felt this guilty over anything in my entire life, at least not since my pop died. Yet now I am feeling it? I'll never get any sleep at this rate, if I don't go talk to Theodora,' Oscar thought angrily to himself as he kicked off his blankets and sat up as he swung his legs over the side of his bed and stretched a bit before standing up, as he moved to where he had left his clothes, and started pulling on his pants and shirt, while running a hand over his mussed up hair as he slipped his feet into his shoes as he starts making his way towards his bedroom door, 'and talk things over with her and settle things once and for all before I head out in the morning. Besides, who knows. If this wicked witch is as bad as everyone says, I might not even make it back to talk to Theodora to begin with...'
Flinging his door open with a determined look on his face, Oscar strode out of his room with a purpose in mind.
It hadn't taken Oscar long to find a palace servant who pointed him in the right direction towards Theodora's bed chambers, as he quickly made his down the hallways towards where Theodora's bed chambers were, before stopping before the closed double doors that led into her room.
'Should I really do this? I should just go back to bed and continue with my plan to leave without talking with her.' Oscar thought nervously to himself as he stared at the double doors for a moment hesitantly, as a small frown appeared on his lips, as he felt torn about what he should do, as he looked around the empty hallway to see if anyone was coming but didn't see anyone, before turning his attention back on the closed door, 'It's the middle of the night. She's probably asleep by now. But still what could it hurt to make sure?'
After a few more seconds of considering his options, Oscar finally reluctantly raised his hand up to knock firmly on the closed bedroom door, and winced a bit when the sound of the knocks seemed to echo in the hallway, before stepping back to wait. After a couple of minutes, of waiting he didn't see or hear anything from within the room, and let out a sigh.
'I guess she's asleep. I'll have to talk to her when I get back later and...' Oscar thought silently to himself as he started to turn away to make his way back to his own chambers, when he stops as he sees a light turn on through the cracks of the closed door, and taking a chance he knocked on the door again, 'I might as well see this all the way through now that I've woken her up, instead of letting her wonder about who or woke her...'
"Who is it? Hold on for a moment, I'm coming." Theodora's sleepy voice called out from the other side of the door, as he heard the sound of her getting out of her bed and her footsteps coming towards the door, and could hear her unlocking the door "It's the middle of the night, can't whatever it is wait until morning?"
"Theodora, it's me Oscar. I'm sorry to have woken you up so late, and I should have come talked to you earlier," Oscar said cheerfully as the door was pulled wide open to reveal a sleep disheveled Theodora standing on the other side, dressed in a white nightgown, and her black hair hanging loosely down her back as she stared at him in surprise as he continued speaking, "But would you mind if I came in and talked to you in private about something important? I may not be able to do so later."
For a few seconds, Theodora stared at Oscar in surprise when she heard his request, as she thought for a moment about whether or not she should let him in her chambers to talk, before finally nodding her head at him, as she stepped to the side to let him inside her room.
"Sure, Oscar. You can come in." Theodora asked, as she watched Oscar enter her room, as she peeked out into the hallway for a moment to see if anyone was around, before shutting the door behind Oscar and locking it behind them, "What's going on that you don't think whatever you have to say can't wait until morning?"
To be continued...
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Author's Notes:
So what do you guys think? This chapter is completed at 6 pages. This is my second attempt at writing anything related to Oz The Great and the Powerful, with my first being my story 'Withered Hearts' so I hope you all like my second attempt at writing the series.
So what do you guys think of Chains of Fire? Please leave a review to let me know if you like it or hate it, so I can know if I should continue it or not? Flamers will not be tolerated.
After watching the movie, I never thought I'd actually feel sorry for the wicked witch for once. After everything she's done or going to do in the future by the time Dorothy shows up to save Oz.
On another note, I need help everyone with my Harry Potter and YuYu Hakusho fanfic known as 'Night Guardian' everyone. I have a poll up on my profile page so everyone can vote on which Dark Tournament team Kuronue/Melody gets put on, when Yomi finally calls in his favor with her. And she'll also be the new captain of said team. I had updated the story itself with an announcement as 'Chapter 5', saying that people should check out my profile for the poll, but didn't keep it up long enough for a lot of people to see the announcement, so I'm also putting it up here. I'm also looking for five OC's in that story, and an application form is up on the profile page, if anyone is interested in giving a go of it.
Started On: March 18, 2013
Updated On: March 21, 2013
