Disclaimer: I don't own Wicked.

A/N: Thanks for all the lovely reviews, I want to send this thanks out to those I can't thank personally. Leia Emberblaze, James Birdsong and everyone else who has reviewed and I am unable to PM. Thanks again!

Chapter 9-One Short Day

Fiyero held Elphaba's hand with his own and rubbed circles on the back of it with his thumb. It had been another two days since Elphaba had awoken and told him she loved him. The way her voice sounded, it was almost like a goodbye. He kept watch over her and Glinda tended to sleep in the chair on the opposite side of the green canopied bed that Elphaba lay in.

Glinda sat there now, light snores drifting out of her mouth. Fiyero watched Elphaba's fluttering eyelids as she dreamed.

Fiyero had questioned Glinda on why the guards hadn't come rushing up after them over the last few weeks and she explained that they were probably out looking for the would-be murderer. When he gave her an incredulous look, she said that they probably didn't believe that Elphaba had really shown up, and probably thought that it was a trick of the light causing a perfectly normal woman to look green.

Eventually, Fiyero drifted to sleep in the hard chair he had pulled over to sit next to Elphaba, his head lolling from side to side. Glinda dreamed on.

Neither of them noticed that Elphaba's form seemed to flicker for a few seconds before disappearing.

Fiyero's hand searched for Elphaba's unconsciously. When he couldn't find it he awoke and groggily took in the fact that Elphaba was gone. "Elphaba?" He stood and started calling around the room, just in case she had woken up and gone to the bathroom. When he could find her, his calling became shouting and it soon woke up Glinda.

"Fiyero? What are you-"

Fiyero's panicked eyes met hers for one second before they carried on looking desperately around the spacious room and its adjoining spaces. Glinda looked at the bed, empty except for the messed up blankets that Elphaba had been lying under. "Elphie?" Glinda's voice became just as desperate as Fiyero's as she too started looking for her best friend.

*

Elphaba had the sensation of weightlessness before she crashed roughly onto a hard stone floor. She let out a brief scream of pain as her back made contact with the stone, which cut off as she started coughing. She cracked her eyes open slightly and looked around blearily. She didn't really need her glasses too much, really for reading, but she felt as if she needed them now. She felt around for them, but couldn't find them.

Elphaba heaved herself on to her side as she continued coughing. She heard footsteps and her head turned towards the sound. All she could really see was a long white dress with big boots peeking out from underneath the hem. She shifted her gaze upward to see the smirking face of Nizava Dyns.

"So nice of you to drop in," Nizava said, aiming a kick at Elphaba's stomach. Elphaba groaned when the kick landed, and curl her knees up to her chest but refused to let the arrogant girl in front of her hear her scream. Nizava laughed at the sound of Elphaba's pain.

She walked around Elphaba in circles, her hands on her hips. "Come now, aren't you going to fight back?" Nizava grabbed Elphaba's hair and pulled her onto her knees. Elphaba's arms remained around her stomach as she glared through a curtain of hair at the surprisingly stronger younger girl. "Now you are in your place," Nizava sneered. "On your knees in front of me."

Elphaba spat at Nizava and the younger girl walked around the back of the green woman and kicked her in the back. Elphaba clamped her mouth shut, only letting a small whimper out from between her lips as she fell forward at the force of the kick.

She landed so she was on her hands and knees. She tried to stand but caught her foot in the long dress she was still wearing and fell onto her stomach. She was stopped from trying to stand again by Nizava's boot on her back holding her down.

"I've been waiting for this day," Nizava told her. "It's been fun fooling with you, but now I get to take you down myself."

Elphaba's lips curled down into a snarl. "I don't plan," she rolled over and grabbed Nizava's ankle and pulled her down, "on dying today."

Nizava went down heavily and her hair fell out of its bun and fell around her face. It was one quality that the Wizard must have given them both. Nizava gave out a howl of fury and scrambled to her knees but Elphaba was already standing above her, her knees shaking and her legs feeling weak. She pushed the younger girl back and started walking towards her. Nizava hurried away from her and pulled herself to her feet with the side of a table.

They faced each other. The rain pouring outside sounded deafening, as did their loud breathing. Elphaba struggled to stay standing. Nizava took her chance when Elphaba squeezed her eyes shut for a second to run at her and grab her by the middle. They both went down, but Elphaba knocked her head on the table that Nizava had pulled herself up on. She saw Nizava's twisted face and then the darkness took over.

*

Glinda grabbed hold of Fiyero's stuffed shoulders and shook him. "Fiyero, snap out of it! We will find her!"

Fiyero had been out of his mind panicking and now his frantic eyes met Glinda's calmer ones. He took in a deep breath and let it out again. "I know, Glinda. But-"

"No buts! We. Will. Find. Her!"

Glinda let go of his shoulders and went looking fro something. She left Fiyero's room and went to her own. She opened the large doors and walked out onto the balcony. There she found what she wanted. Glinda grabbed it, held it tight for a moment and then ran back to Fiyero's room.

When he saw what she had, his mouth gaped open in shock. She quickly closed the door and went to open the large window on the opposite side of the room to the door. She motioned for Fiyero to join her and he walked over hesitantly. "Glinda, are you sure you can control that thing?"

Glinda mounted the broom and shook her head. "No, but I've got to try. My bubble would be too slow. Come on, Elphie needs us!"

Fiyero came over and touched the wood of the broom with one hand. "Glinda, we don't even know where she is."

Glinda pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to him. "Yes we do. Nizava probably has her. The list had the address written on it."

Fiyero shook his head at her. "We don't even know if Nizava's still there or not."

Glinda's expression was determined. "I know. But we've got to try right?"

Fiyero sighed and nodded. He climbed on behind Glinda and cautiously placed his arms around her waist. Glinda kicked off from the window and they began their trip to the far off castle on the edge of Quadling Country.

Unbeknownst to them, they flew right over Elphaba, hidden in the basement of the mansion on the edge of the Emerald City.

*

Elphaba could feel the shackles digging into her wrists and ankles and she could hear the dips of water as it leaked through the cracks in the walls. She could smell the damp of the room she had been locked in and she could taste the blood in her mouth. The one thing she couldn't do was see anything.

The room was black as pitch and the darkness seemed to be choking her and she made small sounds of distress. She couldn't really make any noise because a gag had been tied around her head, stopping her from making any noise.

She shut her eyes tightly together and tried to take in some deep breaths through her nose. She had never done well in the dark. Ever since Frex would lock her in various closets and cupboards in her childhood home, she had had an intense fear of the dark. She managed to get her breathing back to normal after a few minutes, but her heart continued to pound.

She tried felling around on the floor fro something to try and pick the locks of the shackles, but she found that once she had gotten a certain distance away from where she had been sitting, the chains coming from the shackles pulled taunt and she fell to the floor. Without her hands to catch her, she fell on her stomach, hitting her chin painfully on the hard floor.

Elphaba managed to sit back up and curl up into a ball the best she could. She let out a few whimpers before a few tears leaked out of her still closed eyes. She wiped them away roughly with one dirty green hand. "Stupid eyes," her breath hitched as she spoke to herself, "don-don't cr-cry..."

She failed at trying to stop the tears from coming. She rested her head on her knees and sobbed silently into the thick fabric of her skirt.

Elphaba didn't notice the flickering light coming from a winding staircase. A figure holding a torch came down and ran to her side. She placed the torch in a holder by where Elphaba sat and knelt down next to the green woman. "Elphaba?" Anvesa's soft voice asked.

Elphaba's head rose off of her knees and she stared in fear and the figure next to her. She was too exhausted and beaten to put up her normal facade of strength in a situation like this.

"Nizava?" Her voice shook slightly as her body started to tremble.

Anvesa shook her head. "No. I'm her sister. Anvesa."

Elphaba's eyes widened. "I thought...that you were..."

"Dead?" Anvesa let out a soft chuckle. "Yes. I am. But I am able to materialize occasionally and I am able to hold normal objects. Like these for example."

Anvesa showed Elphaba what she had in her hand. A set of keys.

Anvesa hurried to unlock the shackles containing Elphaba and once she was free, she crawled as quickly as possible to sit next to the light. "Thank you," Elphaba said sincerely as she rubbed where to metal had cut into the skin of her wrists.

Anvesa sat next to her. "You're welcome."

Elphaba looked at her curiously. "Why are you helping me?"

Anvesa sighed and then looked back. "Well, you are family. Yes, I know about the Wizard. And two, since Nizava has trapped me to be forever either here in Oz, or walking the middle place, the places between the land of the living and the land of the dead, I cannot go to Heaven or whatever there is." Her eyes were sad. "I just...I'm tired. I just want it to be over. I just want...Paradise."

"I'm sorry," Elphaba said looking at her hands.

Anvesa laughed sadly. "It's not your fault. You didn't do this to me. And I don't even blame Ava for everything. I blame my mother. She made Nizava what she is. Nizava was always the favourite. Mother only looked at me as her disappointment."

Elphaba thought about placing her hand on Anvesa's shoulder, but thought better of it, as she would probably just go straight through the girl. "I understand," she said quietly. "It was the same for me. I was just the family disgrace. My father hated me and that was no secret. He would...would lock me in my room or in a closet and...sometimes I could swear that he just forgot about me, pretended that he only had one daughter...his precious Nessarose...Nessa I would call her and so would he. Before she was born, I think he used to call me Fabala. But afterwards, all I ever was to him was Elphaba, his disgrace, his mistake. The thing that killed her mother and caused her sister to be crippled."

Anvesa nodded her head. "I can see how you had it worse than I did. At least my mother could be caring, occasionally."

Elphaba shook her head. "Frex could be caring too, if he wanted to. I mean, when Nessa was still only a little baby and I was still a toddler, I remember him sending me off to play in the garden." She smiled. "I tried to climb a tree, but when I reached the top, I realised I couldn't get down. 'Papa!' I shouted and he came running. He climbed up into the tree after me and helped me down. Then he wiped away my tears and he smiled at me. 'It's alright, my little Fabala,' he had said. It's the best memory I have of him."

Anvesa launched into her own story about her childhood. They passed stories for several hours, until the clomping of boots coming down the stairs hit their ears. "I have to go," Anvesa said sadly. Elphaba nodded and watched her fade before her very eyes.

She scampered into one of the corners not hit by the lit from the torch. She didn't feel so scared when she could still see the light.

Nizava came into view a few seconds after Anvesa left and Elphaba hid. She screamed when she saw that her prisoner wasn't still chained to the floor. Elphaba peeked at where she had been sitting and saw that the chains that attached to the shackles where drilled into the stone floor. She shivered.

Nizava muttered angrily to herself for a few moments before running back up the stairs, not quite shutting the door that lead out of the cellar.

Elphaba took her chance and made her way as quietly up the stairs as possible and opened the door just a crack and looked out. The corridor was empty and she ran for the huge front door she could see. She opened it just as Nizava came out of another door. She made an angry noise when she spotted Elphaba and started chanting under her breath.

"Oh, no you don't," Elphaba muttered to herself and started chanting her own spell that she could remember from the Grimmerie.

Elphaba planted her feet and closed her eyes as she let the words fall form her lips. She couldn't even really remember what the spell was meant to do, but the words felt right and she could feel the heat rising in her chest and come pouring out form her hands.

Nizava kept her eyes open and watched as the elder sorceress performed her spell. She started shouting the words of her own spell to try and overcome Elphaba's more powerful magic.

Elphaba finished her enchantment and fell to her knees. She watched as Nizava was flung against one of the walls and her wrists were held there, as if they were tied to the stone. She struggled and then the other part of the spell kicked in and she fell unconscious.

Elphaba gave her one last grim look before she hurried out the door and down the path. She walked quickly back to the Emerald City and in through the secret entrance that she had used before. She managed to get to the palace just fine and once in the room she shared with Fiyero she collapsed on the bed.

*

Fiyero and Glinda had searched every inch of the castle near Quadling Country and found nothing. They eventually gave up and flew back to the Emerald City. It was late when they got back and no one saw them.

They flew back in the open window that they had departed from and Glinda reluctantly placed the broom the closet. She didn't return.

Fiyero heard deep breaths coming from the bed.

He raced over to the bed and flung back the curtain that concealed whoever was sleeping in the bed. When he saw Elphaba, curled up in a ball on top of the blankets he scooped her up in his arms and spun her round. Still asleep, she swatted at his chest and he placed her back on the bed, but on her back this time. She groaned in pain and rolled back onto her side. Fiyero's eyebrows furrowed and he gently undid the buttons at the back of Elphaba's dress.

What he saw made him feel slightly sick. A huge bruise covered a lot of her back. It was a dark green, purplish colour and Fiyero went to retrieve some of the balm that Elphaba carried round in case she fell off the broom and need to heal herself.

He rubbed some of the cream of her back, trying his best to ignore her noises of protest whenever he touched her skin. She slept on through him placing the healing balm on the injury and once it was done, he lay down next to her and placed his arm under her head and wrapped the other one other her. Elphaba shifted closer and had her hands by her chest and let out a sigh if happiness.

"I've been worried about you, Fae," Fiyero murmured in her ear.

"Mmmm?" Elphaba replied as her eyes opened sleepily and she smiled at him.

"Sorry I woke you." Fiyero's voice was sheepish. "But now you're awake, would you care to tell me why you have a massive bruise on your back and where you've been all day?"

Elphaba scowled. "I probably have a bruise on my stomach as well. Look, I'm really tired, can this wait until I've slept?"

Fiyero looked into Elphaba's exhausted eyes and he nodded. "Thank you, Yero."

Fiyero placed a soft kiss on the top of her head once she had snuggled into his chest. "I love you."

"I know. I love you too," Elphaba replied.

So, will Nizava leave our Elphaba alone? Will Anvesa ever get to pass on? Will Elphaba ever stop being tortured by me? Reviews inspire updates!

Cherry x