Author's Warning: Just when you thought it was looking up for Elphaba Avaric has to force his way back in to her life (I promise that one day the bastard will get what he deserves but for now he has to stay intact for the story). There is no actually "rape" in this chapter in the literal sense but it is the most graphic I've gotten with any of the sexual torment Elphaba's been through (the reason behind that being that Elphaba is learning to face her pain now and she has lost the ability to simply block things out and pretend they're not happing. I'm afraid that that's the price of trying to heal – you can no longer ignore what happens to you). So if you have a mild stomach you might want to just skip a couple of the paragraphs near the end or perhaps just skip this whole chapter altogether.
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She smiled. The first smile in a long time that truly reached all the way to her eyes.
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Chapter Fifty-Two: Regression
Elphaba Thropp had returned to class a week or so earlier. She was still scarred, still terrified, but she was accepting. Accepting her pain, accepting her past. She flinched whenever someone touched her and she sat only with Glinda or Fiyero – depending on what class she was in. But at least she was trying to live again.
Madame Morrible had inquired over Elphaba's flu, clearly knowing that what she had been told was a lie, and Elphaba had politely responding with another lie about how she was feeling much better. Her sorcery was weaker than what it had been before and Morrible made sure that Elphaba knew that. By the time she had left her first sorcery class in over a month she was furious and thoroughly disgusted at herself.
Presently Elphaba sat in Life Sciences with Fiyero beside her. The professor droned on but Elphaba no longer had the attention for school that she once held. He was talking about some sort of project they had to do together. They were paired off according to current marks; the better students with the worse students in an attempt to even out the grades. Fiyero was paired off with some giddy girl who was far too excited to get a chance to be with the Vinkus prince. Elphaba felt slightly angry – she had hoped that she would be paired with Fiyero. She didn't know how she would handle working with someone else in her present condition.
"Miss Elphaba Thropp… are you even here today?" The professor asked as he looked up from the list of students in his hand.
"Here," Elphaba muttered as she sat at her desk, reading a book and not paying much attention to the classroom.
The professor frowned as he readjusted his glasses lower and peered over the rims to lay eyes on the green girl. "I don't know how you've managed Miss Thropp, but you still have the highest mark in this class. This project is meant for the higher graded student to inspire the slacker but I highly doubt your ability to inspire another when you rarely show up to class yourself."
Elphaba shrugged, making a mental note of the page number, and looked up to make eye contact with the professor. "If this class was of higher quality perhaps I would find the need to come more often."
The classroom fell silent. Despite all of what Elphaba had gone through in recent times she had not lost her bitter tongue or iron wit. It was, after all, one of the few means she had of protecting herself.
"You're partnered with Avaric."
Elphaba's mouth dropped open in shock and horror. A shiver ran up her spine and Fiyero grabbed her hand instantly for support. "Sir… please…" she said, desperately trying to keep her voice was shaking. "I cannot work with… with Avaric."
The professor shrugged nonchalantly. "What of you Avaric? Do you have any qualms about working with Miss Thropp here?"
"Not at all."
Elphaba swore she could hear the lust in Avaric's voice that so terrified her. She was beginning to shake slightly at the prospect of having to be with Avaric… alone. She suddenly stood up. "Professor!" She was very nearly screaming now. "I beg of you, please! I cannot work with Avaric!"
"They've been intimate before," a student, one Elphaba could not place, spoke up. "Ignore Miss Elphaba professor… she just doesn't want to deal with that."
Elphaba whirled around to face the student who had spoken up. Her eyes flashed with anger as she saw the smirk that the student held on her face. She had known of what Avaric had done – of how he had raped her – and she wanted to see Elphaba squirm. The whole school did.
"A lover's quarrel?" The professor sounded amused. "I'm sorry Miss Thropp but that is no means for a change in partners."
"I don't think you understand sir." Fiyero was standing now. "It is not how the students are saying. I strongly suggest you change Elphaba's partner."
"This is none of your business." The professor was getting frustrated now, angry. "Miss Thropp, either do the project with Avaric or accept a zero. However, if you accept a zero then Avaric automatically does as well. And you are able to afford a zero but Avaric is not."
Elphaba was shaking with anger now. "What do you have against me?" she hissed out.
"I have nothing against you. This is simply how the partnering worked out and had you come to class more often, and shown me more respect, than perhaps I might have considered changing your partner. However, that is not the case and so you must learn to work with Avaric or both of you will be receiving a zero."
Elphaba had words she dearly wanted to say but she bit her tongue to try and keep some sort of semblance of control over her emotions. She grabbed her schoolbooks, hugging them to her chest, and stormed out of the classroom. Fiyero followed quickly behind her. Once outside of the room the Vinkus prince grabbed a hold of Elphaba's wrist and stopped her fleeing movements. "Elphaba?" he asked quietly.
The green girl turned on her heel to face Fiyero. Her eyes were wet with unshed tears and her anger had disappeared – replaced with terror. "I… I cannot do this," she muttered. "Not… not right… now. I… cannot face him. I'm not ready!"
"Then don't," Fiyero said. "Take the zero instead."
"If… if I did that Avaric would just… he'd be worse! It would be worse!"
"Nothing's going to be worse because nothing's going to happen to begin with."
"I have to work with him! Alone! Of course something's going to… to happen! He's going to... try something! It's Avaric for Oz's sake!"
"The guy's insane." Fiyero started to walk down the school halls, leading the stunned Elphaba along. "I'm not leaving you alone with him, no matter what."
"How are… how would you be able to do that?"
"Do all your research in the library," Fiyero explained. "I'll be in there at the same time, a few tables over. I'll keep an eye on him. If he tries anything I'll be there in a blink of an eye."
Elphaba froze. Fiyero stopped walking and turned around to face the green girl. "What?" he asked quietly.
"You would do that… for me?"
Fiyero smiled. "Of course. Why wouldn't I?"
"Because… because I'm me!" She was getting hysterical now. "Because I'm a whor–"
"A person," Fiyero interrupted. "You're a person who needs help. And I'm going to be right here to help you."
Elphaba dropped her gaze. The pattern on the tiled floors suddenly became very interesting to her. "I'm not a person," she muttered.
"Why is it so hard for you to think of yourself as a human being?"
"When… when you've lived as nothing more than trash it's hard to… think of yourself as… worth something."
Fiyero nodded, taking the green girl in a tight embrace. He could feeling her shoulders shaking as she desperately tried to keep herself from crying. He wanted to tell her it was okay to cry but she knew she never would. Not in public. She always made a point to never cry in public if she could help it.
The sounds of doors banging open and hundreds of feet echoing against the stone floors signaled the end of the class period. Elphaba pulled herself out of Fiyero's embrace and brushed at her eyes with her sleeve. She took deep breaths to try and calm herself down but it wasn't working too well. Suddenly the crowd of students was upon them. They ignored Elphaba and Fiyero as they tried to make it to their next class on time. Elphaba's faced paled dangerously as she started to panic. The large crowd was suffocating and far too close to her for her liking. She closed her eyes as she tried to ignore every person who bumped in to her but she couldn't. Each touch, each human contact, made her flinch.
A hand grabbed her arm, just below her elbow. She didn't open her eyes to see who it was – she knew it was Fiyero. She let him lead her away from the crowded hallway as she kept her eyes closed and hugged her schoolbooks to her chest.
She thought she heard someone calling her name but it was a faint sound that she choose to ignore; figuring it was her overactive, stressed mind playing tricks on her.
Panic shot through her body, overwhelming her, as she was suddenly thrown to the ground and she heard the slamming of a door. Her eyes flew open to be met with total darkness. She willed her eyes to adjust to the dim light – cast by the sun that shone through a small crack in the blinds – but they didn't adjust fast enough. Someone, the one who had led her here, grabbed her shoulder and forced her to roll over so that she now laid on her back.
"Stop thi–" Her voice faltered as a hand shot up underneath her dress, pulled her undergarments down slightly, and forcefully dug in to the folds of her womanhood. She went completely still.
"Who are you?" she whispered, barely managed to force her voice around the lump in her throat. Her eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness but just barely. She could see the shape of the man on top of her but she couldn't see his face well enough to place him.
He leaned down so his mouth was right against her ear. "Guess."
Elphaba screamed – recognizing the voice as Avaric's – but he covered her mouth with his hand. Muffling the terrified sound coming from her throat. She jerked her body, trying to writhe away from Avaric but he was – as always – far too strong for her. He pulled his hand free of her private area and threw her dress up, letting it crumple around her neck. He sat on her thighs, keeping her legs still, and once again shoved his hand in to her. He forced it in far, deep. Twisting it around, pinching her insides. She tossed her head around to try and free her mouth so that she could scream for help but it was useless. He just put more pressure on the hand covering her mouth to keep her still and quiet.
He delved deeper in to her then anyone else had ever done. She tried to pull away, to get him out of her, but no matter what she did or how much she struggled he would not stop. He forced her head still by putting even more of his body weight in to the hand over her mouth. He stared in to her eyes. Whenever she tried to let her eye-line fall somewhere else, anywhere else, he would roughly shake her head – forcing her to lock eyes with him again.
He stopped pushing his hand in to her and just let it stay there. He wriggled his fingers, pulling and pinching at her insides. Her eyes widened in terror but the hate that lingered in them was just as strong. Avaric smiled, a sick leer that Elphaba knew the meaning behind all too well.
Slowly he pulled his hand out, his smile growing, and then thrust it back in as fast and as hard as he could. Elphaba gasped underneath the hand on her mouth. The force had taken her breath away but she could only breath through her nose and she felt like she was going to choke to death. He pulled his hand out again, thrust it back in. It started at a slow pace but it soon got faster and faster. The pain became greater with every thrust until Elphaba felt like she was going to pass out.
She stared in to Avaric's eyes. Her stomach twisted in on itself when she saw how much enjoyment he was getting out of this torment. Finally he pulled his hand completely out of her and brought it up near her face. She could see, and smell, the stench of her own blood on him. He brought his hand down to her bare stomach, rubbing it over the scars that were there. Some far fresher than others. He ripped her undergarments completely off, including her bra, tossing the now useless fabric to the side. He played with her body for a long time, still keeping his one hand over her mouth. He never took his eyes off of hers.
"We're going to have fun," he said, his voice quiet and nonchalant. "Think of all the time we're going to have together, alone, while we work on that project. Aren't you excited?"
And then he was gone; the door slamming behind him. Elphaba just laid there taking in shaky, deep breaths. Her dress was still crumpled around her neck but she made no effort to pull it down. She doubted it would make a difference to cover herself now – she was stripped naked again, in far more of a sense then just her clothing.
She rolled over to her side, closing her eyes tightly, and hugged her legs to her chest. Tears welled-up in her eyes and sobs built up in the back of her throat. She desperately wanted to cry, to release some of the terror and pain inside of her, but she couldn't. She wouldn't. She absolutely refused to.
There was no way she was going to let Avaric win.
