Late chapter! I know. So sorry!
Ultimate Queen of Cliffies: Is this your chapter? *Check name and gasps* I think it is! LOL!
Wanli8970 (Guest): I do like doing requests, but I've never seen that movie. If you want, you can check out ExoticPeachBlossom's stories. That happens in a few of them.
Elphaba struggled to keep up with Maddalia's long strides as they made their way to the arena. She couldn't believe she was practically running to keep up with her.
"Hurry up, Fae! We're late!" Maddalia called over her shoulder.
"I would hurry up if you slowed down!" Elphaba called back.
The warrior turned around and narrowed her eyes at the green girl, as if making a mental note to herself to do something to her.
Elphaba gulped. She learned the hard way never to mess with these girls, but Maddalia's hard glare vanished as quickly as it appeared and she smiled at the emerald girl before taking her hand and dragging her behind her. "Come on, we have a lot to do today."
Elphaba sighed as Maddalia pushed the arena doors open and dragged her inside. The emerald woman mentally prepared herself for the worst, whether it is being blasted against a wall or turned into something or… anything, really.
"There's no need to look so scared, Fae," Maddalia smiled, leading Elphaba to a different part of the arena.
"I doubt that," Elphaba muttered.
"Or, you know, we can always do this the hard way," Maddalia said, glaring at the green woman.
"Never mind."
"Good." They stopped in front of a large pool of crystal clear water. "Isn't this beautiful."
"It's… just water," Elphaba said, not seeing the significance.
"Just water? Just water!? Have you ever seen water so clear, so clean, so beautiful?"
"Well, even if I did, I wouldn't remember it, now would I?"
Maddalia looked taken aback. "I… I'm sorry."
"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that," Elphaba said, looking down.
"Maybe if you talked about it, you would –"
"Can we get started, please?"
The younger girl pressed her lips together and nodded. "Well, firstly, I'm a water bender. Which includes water in all it's forms; snow, ice, stream, liquid, blood…"
"Wait, blood?" Elphaba gasped.
Maddalia nodded. "There's water in blood. But I won't teach you that. At least, not today."
"Then, what are we learning today?"
"I am so glad you asked." Smiling, Maddalia turned towards the water and slowly raised her arms, a large blob of water rising from the pool. "Hold this for a sec, will ya?"
Elphaba held out her arms and watched as Maddalia bent the water towards her. She copied the young warrior and the water floated a few inches above her hands.
"That's very good, Fae."
Elphaba smiled. She felt relaxed, just like she felt when she was air bending with Juyaliana. She sent the water back to Maddalia, who received it and sent it back to Elphaba, making the water travel in a circular path.
The two continued with that for a while, sending the water back and forth in between each other.
"Now we're gonna try something a little bit different," Maddalia said as she stopped the water flow. Fisting her hands, the water splatted on the ground in front of her. "In order to actually bend the water, you have to get it from its source, obviously. In this case, it's the pool. Allow me to demonstrate." Smiling, the younger girl faced the pool and slowly raised and lowered her arms in steady, graceful motions. Elphaba watched as the water began to rise and fall with Maddalia's arms. After a few more times, Maddalia lifted her hands and a large blob of water rose from the pool and floated over to her. "See? Simple."
"It's easy for you to say," Elphaba said, staring at the pool.
"Well, until you try, you never know. I've had years of experience."
Elphaba blinked and faced Maddalia. "What did you just say?"
"I've had years of experience," Maddalia repeated.
"No, before that."
"Um… until you try you never know?"
"Where… how…"
"That's what I always say when I'm trying to get Nathalinia and Juyaliana to try new foods. It's harder than it sounds. They are such picky eaters. The irony is that Nathalinia loves to cook, so I don't know why she won't try new foods."
Elphaba backed up. Her hands cupped the sides of her head as she heard ghost-like voices. They started to take over her mind and consume her thoughts.
"Fae!" Maddalia shouted as Elphaba crumbled to the ground. She rushed over to her and felt for a pulse. Finding one, she slowly relaxed, but tensed as she felt herself slip into unconsciousness.
"I'm through accepting limits, cause someone says they're so."
Maddalia heard the voice of someone singing and soon, the darkness surrounding her melted away and she found herself in a room. It looked like an attic. There was a green skin woman who looked like Fae standing next to a blonde girl in a yellow dress. The green woman was wearing a long-sleeved black dress and a funny, pointed hat.
"Something's I cannot change, but 'til I try, I'll never know."
She tried to run towards the two women, but found her feet stuck to the floor. She opened her mouth to speak, but seemed to have lost her voice. Frowning, the young warrior was forced to watch the scene in front of her.
"Too long I've been afraid of, loosing love I think I've lost. Well, if that's love, it comes at much to high a cost!"
The scene fast-forwarded and soon, guards were storming into the room. Maddalia screamed and tried to run, and almost fainted when she felt on of the guards run through her. The blonde woman screamed and ran to find a place to hide, but the emerald woman stood her ground and created a fireball in her hand. She threw it at the group of guards, who quickly jumped out of the way to avoid it.
"I'm sorry, Glinda," the emerald woman whispered, flying out the window, her hat falling off in the process.
The scene faded back into darkness and Maddalia forced her eyes open with a gasp. She shook her head, trying to process what had just happened. She laid eyes on Elphaba, who was still laying on the floor.
"Fae!" she shouted, shaking the green woman's arm. "Fae, wake up! We need to talk! Wake up!"
Elphaba moaned and slowly opened her eyes. She jolted up, not expecting to see Maddalia hovering over her, her dark brown eyes staring down at her.
"What was that?" Maddalia asked once she sensed Elphaba was fully with her.
"What was what?" Elphaba asked, sounding tired as she turned towards Maddalia.
"That scene. What was that?"
"You… you saw that, too?"
Maddalia nodded. "We were in this room. It looked like an attic. There was this woman, I think it was you, and she was with this petite, blonde girl. They both looked terrified and then guards appeared and the green woman flew out the window."
Elphaba pulled her knees to her chest, refusing to meet Maddalia's gaze.
"Okay, I know I promised we wouldn't pry and force you to talk, but this is serious. It's affecting you. Wait, are those dark circles under your eyes?"
Elphaba hugged her legs tighter. She didn't want to admit that she was haunted by horrible nightmares of a past she couldn't remember.
"You'd better not let Elicity catch you with bags. She'll have a fit. Wait…" Maddalia reached into her belt and pulled out a small jug. Uncorking it, she bent the water out and softly breathed on it. The water glowed and spun around itself. "Close your eyes."
Elphaba turned and did as she was told. Maddalia gently placed the water against Elphaba's eyes and a few seconds later, the dark circles were gone.
"There, much better," Maddalia smiled and Elphaba opened her eyes. "Now you can tell me what's bothering you. Why haven't you been telling us about your flashbacks? I know what you said before and I know you weren't telling us the truth."
"It's nothing," Elphaba whispered, sinking deeper and deeper into herself.
"No, it's not 'nothing'. It's something. If it was nothing, it wouldn't be affecting you like this."
"I said it's nothing!" Elphaba snapped, suddenly becoming very annoyed.
Maddalia didn't back down. "Normally, I wouldn't be pushing you like this, but I saw that flashback, too. Now, we can do this my way or the hard way."
Elphaba roughly pushed the brunette away from her and stood out before stomping towards the door.
"Fae, stop!" Maddalia called, but Elphaba ignored her. "Looks like we're doing this the hard way, then." Growling, she bent the water from the pool and used it to create a wall of ice, blocking Elphaba way to the exit.
In her fury, Elphaba punched the wall and it shattered before melting into a large puddle.
"Alright, then. I thought I wouldn't have to do this, but you leave me no choice." Taking a deep breath, she stretched out her hand towards the green girl.
Elphaba stiffened, suddenly finding herself unable to move. She was forced to turn around and her eyes widened, seeing Maddalia with a look of fury on her face. She had never seen her, or any of the other girls, so angry before.
"No one… walks… away… from… me," Maddalia snarled, pulling her arm in.
Elphaba found herself being forced to walk back to the younger girl. She tried to fight it, but her grip around her was too strong. What was Maddalia doing to her?
"Fighting only makes it worse," Maddalia said as she forced Elphaba to stop.
The realization hit Elphaba like Maxinena had hurled a rock at her. Maddalia was blood bending her.
"You can't break the blood grip," Maddalia said as she saw Elphaba trying to struggle against the grip.
"Yes… I… can…" Elphaba said, jolting her arms forward and sending Maddalia flying through the air. The brunette landed in the pool and snarled. "You forget… I'm the warrior princess."
Maddalia blinked. That was the first time Elphaba admitted who she really was. If she was scared, she certainly didn't show it as she rose to her full height. "Alright then, warrior princess." Raising her arms, she covered them with water, making a water whip extension of her arms. Elphaba saw what she was doing and quickly created an ice igloo around herself. She felt Maddalia stamp her foot and the ice scattered around her.
The girls continued to fight, with Maddalia making most of the offensive attacks and Elphaba either dodging the attacks or bending the water back at Maddalia. The emerald woman ran past the pool when she suddenly got an idea. She turned around and saw Maddalia running towards her with her water whips. Elphaba took a deep breath and, raising her arms, created a wall of water behind her. She thrust her arms forward and sent the water wall crashing into Maddalia. The younger girl yelped in surprise as she swept her shoulder length brown hair away from her face. She looked at Elphaba with a mixture of awe and hurt, but mostly hurt.
Elphaba took a step back. She didn't mean to hurt her. "Maddalia, I…"
Turning, the younger girl ran out of the arena and slammed the door behind her, leaving Elphaba alone.
Later that evening, Elphaba went on a search for Maddalia, but couldn't find her anywhere. She walked into the common room and found Maxinena, Chanela and Juyaliana all lazily laying on the floor.
"Oh, hi, Fae," Chanela smiled, noticing the green woman.
"Hi," Elphaba said, smiling softly. "What are you doing?"
"Absolutely nothing!" Juyaliana sighed, elongating her words out of boredom.
"Have you seen Maddalia? I can't find her anywhere."
"No, sorry," the girls said in unison, shaking their heads.
"Hey, guys!" Nathalinia smiled, skipping into the room. "It's quiet in here. Too quiet."
"Well, Nelliee's taking a nap," Maxinena quipped.
"There's a shock."
"Elicity's in the garden," Chanela said, rolling over onto her stomach.
"Understandable."
"And Lizzie's… somewhere. I don't know," Juyaliana sighed, closing her eyes.
"Nattie, have you seen Maddalia?" Elphaba asked, turning around to face the younger girl.
Nathalinia tilted her head to the side. "I saw her earlier. She stormed of the arena, soaking wet. She looked really upset. Did something happen?"
"Maybe she fell in the pool and felt embarrassed," Juyaliana shrugged.
"I don't know why she looked so upset. The girl knows how to swim," Nathalinia sighed, laying down in between Chanela and Juyaliana.
That night, while the other girls were asleep, Elphaba was sitting in front of the fire in the parlor. She sighed as she watched the flames flicker. She didn't mean to snap at Maddalia like that. She knew she was just trying to help her.
"Can't sleep?"
Elphaba turned around to see Maddalia standing in the doorway, dressed in a long, silk nightgown under a fuzzy, purple robe. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and she was holding a bowl of something in her hand. The warrior smiled softly as she entered the parlor and sat next to the emerald woman. "Soup?"
"You're… you're not mad anymore?" Elphaba asked, wondering if she should take the soup.
"Mad? I was never mad. I was in awe of your ability and a bit hurt that I got my butt kicked by a newbie, but not mad."
Elphaba smiled as she accepted the soup from Maddalia. "I… I'm sorry about today. With the vision and the water and…"
"It's okay, Fae. I'm sorry today, too. About the blood bending, but the fact that you broke out of it shows how powerful you really are. No one's ever able to break away from the blood grip. Think of it as... a learning experience... for both of us."
Elphaba smiled as she began to eat the soup. She felt an extra weight on her and turned to see Maddalia leaning against her shoulder. Smiling, she wrapped her arm around the younger girl.
"You know… you're like the older sister I never had," Maddalia smiled, looking up at the green woman. "As one of the older girl, I have to be the big sister, which is fun, especially when I get to tell them what to do and they have to listen to me whether they want to or not."
Elphaba smiled, feeling a familiar feeling of sisterly love wash over her. It felt like she had done this before. Did she have a sister?
"Well, it's getting late. I'm going to bed. Goodnight, Fae," Maddalia said as she wrapped her arms around the green woman and stood up.
"Goodnight," Elphaba whispered as she finished the soup. Rising to her full height, she yawned and stretched before walking out of the parlor.
Well, the lessons are over. What comes next, you ask? Well… you'll just have to tune in and find out.