AU where Fiyero took the Goddamn Shot
After seeing For Good and being sent back into the Thropple Trenches, I can't stop thinking about an AU where Fiyero kills the Wizard.
So Fiyero is holding the Wizard at gunpoint after Elphaba releases the Animals from the cages, as is canon. Glinda enters, and then instead of him running away with Elphaba, he panics. He shoots.
The Wizard is now Dead. Oops.
Fiyero is panicking because he just Killed The Wizard. Elphaba is panicking because Fiyero, her friend and sort-of-lover-its-complicated just Killed The Wizard. Glinda is panicking because Fiyero, her beard husband just Killed the Wizard. Morrible and the Gale Force are about to enter the room.
Glinda, in an act of truly impressive desperation, activates the big metal head. She shoves a microphone in front of a semi-catatonic Fiyero because he'd be able to get closest voice-wise, and Elphaba unceremoniously kicks the Wizard's corpse into the secret room where the Animals came from. They have nothing left but Glinda's truly terrifying political sense and manipulation tactics, Fiyero's dramatics and half-decent Wizard impression, and Elphaba's magic that only does what she wants it to do about 50% of the time.
Somehow, this fucking works. Morrible and the Gale Force buy it hook line and sinker. They buy themselves a bit more time.
Cue the Thropple trying their damnest to somehow stop fascism while doing a Weekend at Bernies.
Plot points for the AU include:
Puppeteering the Wizard's corpse with magic so it can talk to Morrible.
Reversing the Anti-Animal laws without tipping off Morrible or anyone else for that matter.
Also pardoning Elphaba without causing a country-wide coup.
Trying to figure out how Glinda and Fiyero (as the Wizard Head) and Glinda and Fiyero (as themselves) can stand in the same room at the same time.
Hiding Elphaba whenever the Governess of Muchkinland comes to visit.
Giving Nessa some help and support in the hopes she gets less dictatory.
Giving the runaround to Boq when he goes to the Wizard to get un-tin-manned and also keeping him away from Nessa.
At some point, the head breaks and the trio try to fix it while none of them even know the slightest bit about machinery.
(Nessa and Boq help fix it, and they get roped into the Weekend At Bernies plot. They're actually very helpful as long as they don't interact with each other for too long and the others play interference)
Dorothy shows up (sans shoes, since Nessa's still alive, of course) with the Lion. Glinda and Fiyero (as the Wizard Head) give her the run around desperately while Elphaba frantically flips through the Grimmerie to find a Back-To-Kansas spell.