Chapter Twenty-One:

Both Elphaba and Fiyero came bolting into the bedroom as soon as they heard the scream.

"Glinda?" Fiyero called out as soon as he saw that the blonde was absent from her bed, "Where are you?"

But Elphaba had figured out where she was first, and Fiyero turned around to see that she had opened the door to the bathroom revealing his fiancée.

"Glin…" said Elphaba softly and hesitantly putting out a green hand on the blonde's arm.

The blonde woman wouldn't look at her. Those blue eyes were locked on the reflection looking back at her in the mirror. Glinda seemed frozen with shock with a hand keeping the peeled skin pushed back so she could see and the other lying limply by her side. Her eyes were wide and big filled with an array of emotions as she stared at the self-exposed wound on her body that revealed the glass heart.

"What happened to me, Elphie, Fifi?" she whispered, her voice on the verge of tears.

Her heart glimmered and shone in the light, blood pulsing in and out of it like it normally would have but it was strange because Glinda, upon a pulse check, had no pulse, "What in Oz happened?"

Her eyes flickered for half a second to Elphaba's and then they looked back at her heart.

"We were only trying to save you," said Fiyero earnestly from his place at the doorway. His eyes tried to connect with Glinda's but she looked away from him.

"I don't understand," cried the blonde as she pulled the layer of skin back a bit farther, proving to herself that her whole heart was made out of glass and that her regular heart was no longer in her body, "What happened to my heart?"

Elphaba tore the blonde's fingers away from the stitches and muttered the spell she had last recited under her breath, healing the stitched skin and patching it back up together with more stitches.

"It was nothing," she said dismissively as she let go of Glinda's hand and pulled up the blonde's nightgown.

Glinda's mouth opened wide as she glared at the green woman, "Nothing?" she shrieked, "My heart is gone Elphaba Thropp and you dismiss it as nothing! Did you do this to me? I knew it! I knew that you would bring ruin onto me! Mr. Boss said you would and I didn't believe him at first but it's true and I should have gotten rid of you when I had the chance!" Glinda was beyond furious and each word to Elphaba was like a knife stab but for once Glinda did not care.

Her breathing came fast and heavy as she paused in her ranting and let silence fill the air. Elphaba stared back at the blonde with a shocked expression covering her green face, "Did you just say that Mr. Boss told you that I would bring ruin onto you?" she asked the blonde.

"That. Is. Not. The. Point!" screeched Glinda as she nearly lunged for Elphaba's throat in absolute fury when she suddenly stopped and doubled over in pain, whimpering suddenly. She clutched madly at her heart as if she was trying to tear off her skin in order to get rid of the problem and the pain that it was causing her.

"Glin?" Fiyero looked at Elphaba for guidance but the non blonde woman in the room was too busy staring intently at what was happening to Glinda, "Glin… what's wrong?"

The blonde woman's breathing hitched as she gasped repeatedly. When she didn't answer, Fiyero went over to her slowly and forced her face upwards to look at him. She looked miserable like she was in the worst bout of pain anyone had ever been through. Her lips quivered, eyes watered and emptied and then filled back up again, and her breath came in ragged hoarse gasps and coughs.

"Glin…" He looked at her with pity. Her hands that were placed against the spot on her chest where her heart was were shaking and trembling as whatever pain she was in intensified.

He had never in all his years of knowing her seen the blonde that he loved so dearly this broken, this hurt, or this furious.

Ever the gentlemen, Fiyero picked up the blonde like she weighed nothing more than air, carried and placed her on the bed. He left her for but a minute to check on Elphaba.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, real concern on his face. She looked like she was frozen, a blank expression on her face that Fiyero could not read. The incident with Glinda nearly lunging at her seemed to have done a job on Elphaba's mindset.

She nodded numbly and weakly after a moment, "Is she?"

Fiyero looked back at the blonde who was still clutching her chest in severe pain as whimpers and gasps left her lips.

"No, not really."

Elphaba looked disappointed, "Well I need to ask her about what she meant by what Mr. Boss supposedly said to her either way."

She attempted to move past him but Fiyero did not budge.

"Not now," he cautioned, "She nearly tore your face off last time, remember?"

"Yes I do, but she's vulnerable now, weak, I can get her to tell me or do anything if I like," those were the words that Elphaba had just spoken and they chilled Fiyero to the bone.

"No, not now," insisted Fiyero but Elphaba ignored him as she brushed past his shoulder and strode over to the blonde woman.

"Glinda, tell me what you meant when you said that Mr. Boss told you that I would ruin you," hissed Elphaba through her teeth as she roughly grabbed Glinda's face and forced the crying woman to look at her. At first Glinda was shocked by the rough action by who she thought had been a friend, an ally to her at least, but then she obliged with an answer.

"It was when you… you first came," replied Glinda in between gasps of sheer pain but it seemed to both Glinda and Fiyero that Elphaba did not care, "and I had left to go think things over… I met him in the woods that night accidentally of course. And he… well that Dragon Clock thingy and him told me that you would be the one thing in this world that would ruin me. At first… I thought he was referring to the attraction I had to you, that the feelings I had for you would bring ruin down on me… but now I realize that it's what you've done to me. You've turned me into a monster!" Glinda snarled as she curled up against herself and said no more.

Elphaba looked reproachfully at the blonde as she lay there shivering and trembling from pain. Elphaba felt a flash of cold, hard anger that she had felt too many times in her youth rise up inside of her.

"I didn't do that, Glinda. You always were a monster. This spell just proves to the world that you really have no heart," spat the green woman.

Glinda looked at Elphaba who in that instant looked as wicked as any human being could be and Glinda found that she had no retort.

"Elphaba…" was all Fiyero could say in response to that. He stared at her, his ears not believing what he just heard, "That's a wicked thing to say."

"But it's true," snapped Elphaba as she whirled around and faced Fiyero, "and don't you deny it." She smirked cruelly at him and then turned around to Glinda again.

"And we all are a little bit wicked sometimes, aren't we my pretty?" she crooned at Glinda who looked quite frankly petrified of Elphaba.

"I don't know what you're talking about Elphaba," she said quickly as she regained control of her breathing and stared at her.

"Elphaba, you're not acting like yourself… what's gotten into you?" asked Fiyero as a concerned expression came onto his face.

"Wouldn't you like to know…" she growled at him fiercely. Fiyero was baffled by this sudden change of demeanor from Elphaba. He had no idea what had caused it but the one thing he did know was that Elphaba was deadly frightening when angry, she acted almost like how a wicked witch would have portrayed in a fairytale.

"Elphaba…" Fiyero put a hand on her shoulder and Elphaba felt the weight of his hand instantly, "Let's talk about this… something is clearly bothering you."

Elphaba rolled her eyes, "You're too brainless to figure it out…"

Her words stung the prince, "Try me," he said coldly as his eyes bore into hers.

If Elphaba had been amused or even a bit intimidated by his retort she didn't show it in her face. Her expression remained passive and emotionless as she stared at him.

"That would be too easy, you're already too blinded by your love for Glinda to see anything else in this world."

Elphaba shoved herself off of the bed and Fiyero's hand fell from her shoulder limply. Glinda and Fiyero both stared at her in wonder at what in the world had gotten into their newfound friend.

"Elphie… wait," called out Glinda. Her chest pains had ceased for the moment, which Glinda was more than grateful for, and she had finally summoned up enough strength to fully sit up and look at Elphaba in the eye.

The circus woman looked at the blonde woman who had a soft pleading glaze in her eyes, "I didn't mean what I said… I'm just upset and scared and horrified that this could have happened to me. You did the best you could and I'm grateful that you saved me."

It was a good apology as any and Glinda and Fiyero watched as the mean glint in Elphaba's eyes dimmed and the horridly wicked streak in her subside.

"You're welcome," she said tartly as she quickly glanced at the blonde woman, "But don't expect me to save you next time. It's not good to have a reputation as being the damsel in distress all the time," she remarked with a slight smile that showed the two residences of the house that their friend was all right now.

"I agree," said Glinda from her spot on the bed, "But I bet it's not better having a reputation as a wicked witch," Glinda half meant it as a joke and a stab towards Elphaba to open up about what had just happened to her. But the green woman just smirked at her. The tension in the air thickened as both Glinda and Fiyero wanted to pounce into an interrogation of the green woman's strange and bizarre sudden change of actions. Neither of them could figure out a reasonable explanation for Elphaba's quick change of mood but they both agreed silently that they didn't ever want to deal with a cross and very wicked Elphaba ever again.

"I don't think that's true… sometimes it's better to live up to people's expectations rather than defy them and fulfill your own. Give them what they want so to speak," said Elphaba gently with an edge of her voice that gave a hint as to maybe there was something dark in her past that had given her such abnormal ideas about reputations.

"Well I say bully to that. I disappointed my parents one too many times to count when I got kicked out of every school that I went to but they still love me," Fiyero admitted.

A glint flashed in Elphaba's eyes, "Some people aren't that lucky… or that brave."

"You should rest, don't want those heart pains to get any worse by getting sentimental and all with this foolish talk of our pasts," said Elphaba sternly to Glinda as she opened the door halfway to leave.

"She's right," agreed Fiyero after a moment. He placed a caring hand over one of Glinda's hands, kissed it, and let her be.

Fiyero exited the room where he had left Glinda in and looked around for Elphaba, to find that she was nowhere to be found. It was like she had disappeared in thin air.

The prince shook his head as he found the hallway to appear empty. But what he didn't know was that Elphaba was hiding against the far corner's inner wall, hating herself that she had let her childhood inner demons get the best of her, causing her to lash out at the two people in the world who were trying to help her.

Her father's words came into her head, words that had been viciously yelled at Elphaba since the second she had been born and when her father had realized she was green.

A sinned child, the devil's daughter, a monstrosity unlike anyone had ever seen before… Elphaba ran a hand through her hair, crunching bunches of it in her grasp as she remembered the horrid memories of her past that had caused her to break today. It wasn't just because the cold hard truth that Fiyero didn't love her had broken her heart, it was the terrifying memories that had been stirred up when Glinda had screamed at her and nearly lunged for her.

Elphaba shuddered and she remembered every beating she had received, every blow that had shattered her skin by her own father during her childhood. When she had ran away, those some odd years ago she had promised herself that she never would return. No one wanted her back anyways, they had probably all forgotten about her by now.

Back home, Elphaba knew her place. Even in the circus the green woman knew where she stood amongst the ranks of the performers, and even more than that she knew where she stood in society. But now, with Glinda and Fiyero they didn't judge her or try and force her to conform and be someone she was not, or at least now they didn't judge her.

Elphaba peered around the corner just in time to see Fiyero retreat back into the bedroom with Glinda. She quietly wiped away the few tears that had managed to leak from her eyes and had left burns and scars on her face in a line straight down from her eyes to her cheeks. The water left slight burns on her fingertips, something that was tender to the touch and reminded Elphaba why she very rarely cried.

Letting soft breaths exhale from her lungs, she reflected on her behavior towards Glinda and Fiyero today. She had been quite terrifying, if Elphaba really thought about it in hindsight. Something in her had snapped, like it had many times before and Elphaba was just glad that this time it hadn't ended like some of the other incidents had… Sometimes Elphaba just lost control, like the magic that she had inside of her just blew up, and other times where her emotions took full control. This time, Elphaba's emotions and memories had overshadowed her judgment and that scared the woman because what if it happened again… and what if Elphaba couldn't pull herself out of that wicked streak that sometimes consumed her… Elphaba didn't even want to think of the possibilities if she lost control of her judgment and of her magic. It could be even more disastrous than her worst nightmare.

Sorry for the wait but I wasn't so sure about this chapter but my faith in it was restored by ExoticPeachBlossom! Thank you so much for your wonderful encouragement! And also you all should go check out her AMAZING story called I Fall Into You. It's fantastic.

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