The Emerald City was one of the most beautiful cosmopolitan areas that Dorothy, Toto, Bo, Effigy, and Luav had ever seen. Correction, it was the most beautiful cosmopolitan area that the five had ever seen.

It was also the greenest. Tall buildings made of green glass and steel touched the sky, sparkling as the sunshine peeked out from behind the clouds and let its light bounce across the gigantic green prisms. Down below, the streets were green, there were green gardens, green shops, green kiosks, green restaurants, and anything else that you could name was green. It was called the Emerald City for a reason, and the entire city appeared to have been made entirely of emeralds in some places, for it sparkled and reflected its deep greens everywhere.

All the people and Animals they saw also wore exclusively green.

A man in a deep green tuxedo stepped up to the group.

"Is Dorothy Gale present among you?" he asked, peering down his large nose at the group.

She raised her hand and nodded. "I am."

"I am Jomas, and I will be your concierge during your stay," the man said as he took a small bow. "The Wizard has requested that you and your friends stay in the Emerald Hotel, completely free of charge as thanks for your amazing feat in defeating the Wicked Witch of the East. He will see each of you individually, except for the robots, some time this week. I will notify each of you when he wishes for you to visit. For now, I will give you a tour of the City, and show you where you will be staying."

"But I need to see him right now," Dorothy protested, "I didn't come all this way to stay in some fancy hotel room. I came to see him so I can get home as soon as possible."

"He is quite aware of that, Miss Gale, but the Wonderful Wizard's word is law," the concierge said.

She frowned slightly, and heaved a sigh. "Fine. Thank you."

"Right this way, if you please," the concierge said, making a delicate swooping gesture with his hand.

***

Their concierge showed them all over the finest parts of the Emerald City, with the exception of the palace, which was off-limits except for whoever the Wizard allowed entrance and clearance to.

The next day, the concierge gave them each a card so they could purchase things in the various shops, especially clothes. They all would have to purchase something more formal to wear for when they had their audience with the Wizard.

Dorothy left the hotel with Effigy so she could look for a dress for that. Her nerves had been shot with nervousness since their concierge told her that she would be seeing the Wizard after Bo and Luav did, so she had skipped breakfast. Her audience with him was in three days. That was three days until she would find out if she could go home to Earth and to her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. But what if the Wizard was holding off so long because he knew that he would not be able to help her? What if he didn't even want to help her, even though she had killed the Wicked Witch of the East?

Dorothy had been barely paying attention to the dresses that Effigy had shown her. She snapped herself out of her thoughts of worry to try to find a nice dress.

Effigy held up two dresses by their hangers-- one was a simple evening gown that was a deep emerald color, and the was the color of a green champagne bottle and had a long, full skirt.

"That one," Dorothy said, pointing to the evening gown. Truthfully, she didn't care for either of them, but she just wanted to get this over with so she would be free to pace and think in the hotel.

She had tried to talk to Bo about her worries and what the Wizard might be like, but he seemed... distance. He barely spoke at all, and he never spoke when she was around. When she tried to talk to him, he never seemed to listen. He would always stare off into space and nod without saying a word or anything. Then he just started walking off somewhere else when she was around.

It bothered Dorothy no matter how hard she tried to just ignore his apathy, or tried to understand it. He definitely didn't seem to be nervous. Maybe he just didn't care to be around her, and maybe he especially didn't want to be her friend.

Dorothy grabbed the dress from Effigy with a sigh.

"Is there something wrong, Miss Dorothy?" she asked.

Dorothy shook her head quickly. "No, no. I'm fine, really." With that, she went into the dressing room before the caretaker android could say or do anything else.

***
Each day seemed to drag on. First, Bo left to have his audience with the Wizard. He didn't say a word about it when he returned to the Emerald Hotel that evening. The day after that, when Luav went, the Lion returned to the hotel sniffing and crying, but he wouldn't say anything about it either. Maybe, they couldn't talk about it because they weren't allowed to.
Dorothy wondered what had prevented them, or at least Bo, from trying.

She tossed and turned the entire night before she would go to see the Wizard. Thoughts and fears and hopes and dreams and her own terror that that it would have all been for nothing plagued her all throughout the night. She woke up every hour. When. Would. The. Morning. Ever. Come?

Finally, the clock read six o'clock, and Dorothy quickly got up out of the place of her self-inflicted torture.

Effigy was activated by Dorothy's motions.
"I am Effigy, your personal robotic caregiver. How may I help you this morning, Dorothy?"

She grimaced slightly as she pulled the blanket across the bed and smoothed it out. "Just deactivate until I get back. I don't need your assistance this morning."

Effigy obeyed and deactivated.

Dorothy sighed and stuck the pillows against the bed's headrest, then grabbed the stuff she needed and went to get dressed.

***

At promptly eight o'clock, as she had been told to do so, Dorothy arrived at the Emerald Palace of Oz. The guards directed her to a sitting area just outside of the Wizard's personal office.
She sat there for an hour, and his secretary came in every few minutes to make sure that she was alright, or to see if she wanted any food or beverages, or if she need absolutely anything and please do not hesitate to ask her for whatever it was.

Finally, the secretary came back in to let Dorothy in to see the Wizard.

She stood up from her seat, where she had been sitting as rigid as ice in the freezing cold. She clenched her fists and her teeth to prevent herself from trembling so badly from her shot nerves. Her stomach felt empty and it throbbed as she followed the secretary to the Wizard's office.

Dorothy followed the secretary through the dark green hallway, then she opened the door and stepped aside so she could enter. She did so, and the secretary closed the door behind her with a clanging thud.

Dorothy winced slightly and looked up, expecting to see the Wizard. There was an empty chair that was elegantly adorned with golden trimming along the top of it and the arms, and she presumed that it was his throne.

"Hello?" she called out nervously.

A large green face appeared above the throne suddenly, and Dorothy jumped back a little in surprise.

"I am Oz, the powerful and great," the head said in a loud, booming voice that echoed off of the walls. "What do you seek?"

Dorothy rolled her shoulders back and straightened her spine in an attempt to appear more brave and confident than she felt. She then realized that the head was only a hologram. That must have meant that the Wizard was too much of a coward to face her himself.

"I want to go back home, to the planet Earth," she said.

"When you have done something for me, I will do this for you," the Wizard said.

Dorothy glared up at the head, trying to spot the source of the hologram. "I already killed the Wicked Witch of the East, Malideena. I did something for you before I even came!"

"That was before you had even become aware of my existence," the holographic head sneered.

"So? I did something for you just the same, and it was something you couldn't do! Or were you too much of a coward to try to do it?"

"Don't you dare speak to me like that," the Wizard's holographic head snapped. "I will give you what you want, if you fulfill this simple request. Your friends have been given the same task, and they shall accompany you on your journey."

There was a standstill-- a bludgering silence that pounded against Dorothy's ears as they still rang from the Wizard's booming amplified voice. She glared into the head's flaming eyes.

"What request?" Dorothy asked, her voice cracking slightly. "What? Kill the other Wicked Witch?"

"That is exactly what I want you to do. Bring me back her broomstick," the Wizard demanded.

"That's not fair! I already killed one witch for you, and it's not my fault that you can't kill them yourself!" Dorothy shouted, her throat beginning to feel scratched raw. She noticed that her entire body was tense, and that her nails were biting into her sweating palms.

The Wizard let out an angry hiss, his holographic head tilting forward slightly. "Nothing in life is fair, Dorothy Gale. You will kill the Wicked Witch of the West, or you will remain in Oz for the rest of your pitiful existence. Now, go, and do not return until you have killed her."

The giant holographic head disappeared just as Dorothy stomped her foot down. She let out a screech of frustration and left the room, hot tears of anger streaming out of her eyes.

Getting back home to her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry was more important to Dorothy than anything. If she had to kill another Witch to get back home to them, she would do so.

***

Dorothy returned to the hotel about an hour later, her eyes still red from crying. She put on a brave face before opening the door, not wanting to look like she was about to cry.
When she opened the door, she looked up to see that Bo and Luav were sitting on the couch. Both her and Bo's bags were already packed and were beside the door, and Effigy and Toto stood on the other side of the door, ready to go.

"You ready to go, Gale?" Bo asked, pushing himself off of the couch, his metal joints in his ankles creeking a tiny bit.

Dorothy nodded a bit.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't tell you. He did something to make us physically unable to," he told her as Luav stretched off of the other couch.

"I understand," she said quietly.

"We're going to help you. We all will," Bo said. "Right, Luav?"

The Lion sniffled a little bit, dabbing his eyes with his paw. "I don't want to have to go find the Witch."

Bo glared at him. "We have to." He turned back to Dorothy. "Even if Luav is too much of a coward to even bother helping you, I will. I'll be with you until the very end."

A/N:
Fun Fact: Bo's name is actually a shortened version of Boq, which was the name of a Munchkin in the Broadway musical Wicked, who became the tin man.

1.What do you think of the Munchkin Incognito Coup of the East?

2.What do you think of the length of the chapters and the amount of chapters there's been so far?

3.Do you like the retelling so far as a whole?