A/N: thank you and welcome to my new followers! don't be afraid to leave a review guys, they keep me motivated *love hearts*

Tell me it's not true

"Fellow Ozians..." Glinda started once the applause had died down. She kept taking deeps breaths to keep herself calm and composed. "As I'm sure you've read over the past few months, I'm sorry to have to tell you that you were lied to for years."

Mutterings from the crowd had erupted as they talked among themselves and to each other. They had indeed seen proof of plans from the Wizard, written in his own hand detailing the oppression of the Animals, even plans on making the poor and struggling homeless, which, upon seeing it had caused outrage among the people.

"And I'm sorry to have to tell you that that's not all. The day that the Wicked Witch of the West had been killed, I was asked a question. A question that I couldn't answer fully for two reasons. I was told not to, and also, to admit it would have made it real. For those horrendible four years, I was lying to you all through no control of my own and I can only apologize."

"How the hell can she still be good at this?!" Elphaba muttered, earning a quiet chuckle from Fiyero beside her.

"Years of practice, my dear."

Elphaba shook her head, glancing over at Anna who was sat in the corner of the room with a colouring book.

"Thank you." Glinda gave the crowd a wry smile as they expressed their love for their leader. Let's see if you still feel that way in a moment... she thought.

Elphaba and Fiyero watched Glinda charm the crowd with her words from inside.

"What is Auntie Linny doing, mama?" Liir asked, looking up at her.

"This is what we've been working on this week. Do you remember I told you about a bad man told lies about me? Well, she wants to put that right."

"Does that mean you'll be happy again?"

Without hesitation, she lifted him up in her arms. "My sweet boy, listen to this, both of you because I want you to remember this." she paused to look at Leila still in Fiyero's arms. "I'm always happy. Do you know why? It's because of you. All three of you, and your father. I have got the most precious gift of all with you, and in my stressful times, in my sad moments, I think of you and it all goes away. Yes, I'll be happy if people knew and accepted the truth, but even if it doesn't, I'll be alright because of what I already have." she smiled when she felt her son hug her, and she held him close to her heart. "I need you both to promise me something. Those people out there have been lied to for years, and there is every chance that they won't like what they're hearing, or what they see when I go out there. I need you both to ignore their shouting and leave it to me."

"But what if they're not nice?"

"Then I will deal with it."

"It's only because they don't understand your mama," Fiyero spoke up. "Not everyone is as accepting as they are back home." He stopped when the doors opened again and he held Elphaba's hand. "Ready?"

Elphaba breathed deeply and she nodded, lowering Liir to the floor and held his hand. "Let's go."

Fiyero smiled, seeing through the facade to her nerves and he kissed her. "We're here."

"Elphie?"

The green witch locked eyes with her best friend and she nodded again, resolutely and she walked with Fiyero out to the crowd. Liir let go of her hand and instead held on to her dress, clinging to her side.

Gasps and shrieking were heard upon seeing Elphaba and Glinda turned back to the crowd.

"Fellow Ozians, please! Everything you heard in the past isn't true!" she fought to be heard over the shouting and calling for the death of the witch.

"It's the Witch! Miss Goodness how can you-"

"That!" Elphaba called out sharply, effectively silencing the crowd, gently prying her son off of her and moving him to stand beside Fiyero instead. She walked forward to stand next to Glinda. "That is quite enough from you, you rusting garden ornament." she snarled, eyes locking on the Tin Man, a face now so recognisable that she barely even remembered the face he had before.

"You made me like this!"

"Do you want to tell the people why Boq?!"

The Tin Man froze at the sound of his name. A name he hadn't heard in years.

"Well?!"

More silence.

"I'll tell them, shall I? Yes, while I can admit now, that my little sister, my sweet little Nessie had become hardened, she truly became the person who deserved her given title. You knew her well enough to know she wasn't always like that. You knew us both. Didn't you."

People surrounding the Tin Man gasped, and shouts of outrage toward her were heard.

"What happened before I saved your pathetic existence?"

"I..."

"What. Happened."

"Y-you tried to stop her from doing something..." he admitted.

"She didn't know how to read spells properly. Anybody can cast a spell. All you have to do is read what's on the paper and hope that you get it right. She was never trained in sorcery like Glinda and I. She read a spell wrong and it shrunk your heart. I stupidly thought I was doing the right thing."

"By turning me to this?!"

"What else could I have done?! You can't undo a spell once it's been cast! Even with a temporary spell, you have to wait for it to wear off!" Elphaba sighed exasperatedly. "Who knows... maybe if I'd have waited it out... risked getting caught just until you woke up to explain the truth. Nessa was always quick to blame me when things went wrong for her. It was always my fault, so what was one more thing?" she turned her attention to the crowd. "All I wanted was to find a place. All I wanted even when I was just nineteen, was to fit in. To be normal. And coming here to the Emerald City that one day with my best friend... That was the closest I came to that feeling for the next four years." she laughed humourlessly. "Funny how things change. All those "attacks" I supposedly made on people? They were Animal concentration camps which I broke into and set fire to once I helped them escape. They weren't rebel Animals. They were helpless and thankful that I had saved them from a fate worse than death. In fact... the worse thing I ever did back then was that I betrayed my best friend. However accidental or indirect... I hurt her in the worst way. I'm not sorry about it now, though. And neither is she."

Glinda smiled and held her friend's hand. "Because your happiness is everything."

The green witch smiled at her and nodded. "Thank you." She turned back to the crowd. "The very reason this whole thing started... was because I saw the wrongdoing of the Wizard after he tricked me. I was just a teenager, a schoolgirl. I think you can see the reason I don't have many friends, and for once somebody saw me, saw my magic as a tool to 'make good' and not a sin that should be hidden. And he used that against me by handing me a book of spells that I had not been taught to read and told me to cast a spell. It should have been just a simple levitation spell, instead, all it did was cause great pain to the Monkeys I had just given wings to." she told them. "From that point, when I refused to stand by his side, I was made an enemy."

There was uncertainty in the crowd, many not believing, or not wanting to believe the words of the apparent Wicked Witch of the West, who didn't look at all wicked or even at all like the wanted posters that had been plastered across the city for years.

"I think you can see for yourselves," Fiyero smirked lightly, pleased with how it was going so far. "Her skin is far from snake-like. There is no extra eye. And... well... she's not melted by water."

"What?!" she turned to look at her husband.

"Okay, you two need to stop doing that!" Glinda pouted as the voices from the crowd grew louder and more restless at the sight of the former Captain of the Guard.

"Enough!" Elphaba commanded as the crowd fell silent once more. "Now... without shouting and calling for my head, what would you like to say?"

"Wouldn't it have been easier to go along with it?"

"Just because it's easy, that doesn't mean it's right," she answered.

"If you didn't launch those attacks, who did?"

A sarcastic laugh. "If you ever find that out, tell me."

"Why did you cast a spell on the Tin Man? And what about the Lion you terrorized?"

Elphaba raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Lion...what?" She paused for a moment. "The only..." she trailed off until the thought struck her like a slap to the face. "A Lion blamed me for what, exactly?"

"He remembered that you cubnapped him, and you scared him so much that he grew up terrified of everything," Boq told her.

"That cowardly little..." she stopped, a snarl on her lips and she shook her head. "As I remember it, I wasn't even the one who grabbed the cage. Yes, Fiyero and I took the cub from our class and we ran, but he was the one who took the cage and he was the one who ultimately set him free. The question remains where he was set free to be scared of every little movement." she cast a glance behind her, and her husband merely shrugged.

"Is it true you killed soldiers?"

Elphaba swore quietly. "I set fire to one. Because he tried to force me to sleep with him, so I set fire to him from his private area."

Fiyero cringed and shifted uncomfortably at that.

"I'm not even going to apologize for it. He was the very definition of wicked. A lot of those men were." Elphaba told them. "I just... got one of the good ones." she smiled and looked over her shoulder to Fiyero, mouthing 'sorry!' at him, and looked back at the crowd.

"How can we be sure you're telling the truth?"

"In those four years, you were told I'd launched an attack on the Wizard and Morrible at least three times. Had anyone ever seen me flying around in the vicinity?" She raised an eyebrow. "Or were all of these so-called attacks in towns and villages too far away for you to go looking?"

Disbelief rippled through the crowd as they were forced to think about what they had been lead to believe.

"Boq... Your time travelling with Dorothy and the Scarecrow. Did you see any of the supposed destruction I had caused?"

"I..."

"Bearing in mind, I can already answer that."

"No..." he reluctantly admitted. "But you did set fire to the Scarecrow!"

"I did." she acknowledged. "He's also here," she added with a smirk.

This time, chatter turned excited as they looked around for their 'hero'.

Elphaba's smirk grew when she heard the gasps from her twins as they made the connection. "Look up."

Fiyero laughed. "Well, it was appropriate... I had used to put up a brainless act in college."

Glinda giggled, watching her friends closely, and the buzz fell into stunned silence.

"This was not exactly another lie. I did...sort of betray the Wizard. But at the time, I was also the only one who was brave enough to. Glinda was manipulated and trapped, but I wasn't so easily contained. To put it quite simply, if Elphaba hadn't come to the Palace that day, I'd have gone to her if I found her somewhere else." He told them. "Elphaba cast that spell on me in an attempt to save my life, and it worked." he hugged Leila when she flinched and cuddled against him with a tearful 'papa' in his ear.

Elphaba picked up on her children's distress and she turned back to them, holding Liir in her arms. "We're not talking about this anymore," she stated. "If you want to know more, I'll work with Glinda and we will quite happily publish the statement in the paper." she and Fiyero walked back inside. "I knew I shouldn't have let them hear that," she muttered as she wiped Liir's tears away.

"You did amazing out there, Fae. Don't let this discourage you. They were bound to be upset."

She sighed and nodded. "We didn't give them all of the information, though."

"There's still time to write down the entire story."

"A story that needs to be the truth, Yero, and not the romanticised version from Glinda about how it allowed us two to be together after years of pining after each other," she smirked, causing him to laugh.

He wrapped his arm around her, the twins nestled safely between them and he kissed her. "I think that went rather well."

"Nobody is calling for my head yet." she conceded.

"Can we go home?" Liir asked.

"We can soon." she nodded, kissing the boy's head, and both adults took the children back to their room for a nap, before making their way back to where they came.

"Did you really... um...?"

Elphaba laughed at his unease and she nodded. "Yes. I was waiting in a bar for our contact to tell me where the next Animal camp was. I went outside for some air and I was dragged into an alleyway by one of the soldiers. He got about as far as undoing his pants and ripping the dress before I set fire to it. Of course, by the time he was found, I imagine there was no way to determine who he was visually or where I started the fire."

He couldn't even bring himself to feel anger at the attempt to defile her, he simply stared at her with a mixture of fear and astonishment.

She laughed again and patted his cheek before she walked back to the balcony and watched as Glinda cast a spell with words, charming the crowd, crafting a web of her own with the tale of two friends who loathed each other at first and loved each other enough to sacrifice everything for the other. The green woman slowly, cautiously walked out to her again.

Glinda looked over her shoulder, a silent question in her eyes, smiling when her friend nodded and they stood together, hand in hand. "It's not been easy for Elphie... for all of us really. I had to lose my best friends because of some very cruel lies, and likewise, with them, they had to ultimately lose their freedom."

"I have, admittedly, been very lucky these past six years. The children were a surprise. Trust me, I didn't even expect to be loved, let alone be someone's mother, I wasn't even sure if I would even be good enough. Hell, I'm still not sure, and they're turning six next Lurlinemas!" Elphaba shrugged.

A few murmurs were heard, mostly from other parents who felt the same way as they hugged their children to their bodies.

"Fiyero and I married soon after we left everyone thinking we were dead. His spell wore off just before then... and very soon after that I had been accepted by the Vinkun people, and I am, rather reluctantly, their Queen. And... I explain that like it's been an easy transition." she paused with another sarcastic, bitter laugh. "Oz, I wish it had been. We have seen each other at our lowest points. We have woken each other up in the middle of the night with terrible, vivid nightmares, so lifelike and so intense that the events may well have happened. We've cried and held each other in its aftermath. We still bear the scars both physically and mentally of the past traumatic events. I can tell you now, without even looking at him and without even asking him, I know that my husband's anxiety levels have been through the roof, I know that because mine has too. He would probably drag me and our children to the first train back to the Vinkus, and I'd probably let him."

Fiyero nodded at her words. "Too right I would." He didn't like the fact that everyone now knew of their struggles, but he understood why she had told them.

Glinda bit her lip with tears in her eyes, unable to make a sound.

"If your skin is not a mark of being evil, what is it?"

Elphaba bristled and forced her temper down. "It's nothing. It's just an unfortunate result of my mother giving birth to a green-skinned child." She felt the tug on her hand and glanced to Glinda for a second and she nodded.

Glinda cleared her throat and shook her head. "Is there anything else you would like to know?" silence followed her question. "Right... well look out for a statement from the three of us in tomorrow's paper. I wish you all goodnight and stay safe."

The crowd dispersed in a hum of chatter, everyone trying to process everything they had been told. Torn between wanting to believe their beloved leader and thinking the Wicked Witch has her under a spell. After all, how does one explain away ten years of deceit and horrific actions against what now seemed like a naive college girl? There were, of course, a few people in the crowd who didn't believe Glinda the Good. That the Witch must have forced her to say these things just to get sympathy before striking and attacking them all again.

Fiyero took his cue and took both girls inside. The door hadn't even fully closed when the blonde rounded on them.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because there was nothing you could have done, Glin. It was a struggle we had to go through both alone and together, there was no way you could have helped with that." Elphaba explained gently. She wouldn't deny that she had so often wished her best friend was there, and yet she understood that she couldn't be.

"There have been times over the years that I haven't even told Elphaba what's going on up there." he tapped his head. "And even now, she struggles to tell me what's in her head. We've lashed out at each other, physically, verbally. We have blamed each other for things outside our control and at the same moment turned to each other for comfort. If you heard our arguments, you would have thought we hate each other."

Elphaba nodded, holding his hand. "Neither of us loves the blazing rows between us... But thankfully they are now few and far between."

"The nightmares are still there, but they're manageable," he added.

"Elphie... when he says physically, he... He doesn't mean..." she paused when Elphaba's face turned a dark green.

"Uhm..." she cleared her throat before forcing herself to look her best friend in the eye. "He's never hit me. But... we're physical in... other ways. And we're not exactly gentle with it."

"What?" Glinda thought about it for a moment. And then her cobalt coloured eyes grew wide. "Elphie!"

Fiyero laughed at that. "Can I put in here that she doesn't exactly complain when I get rough?"

"No!" both women told him.

He laughed again and shrugged, he loved teasing them. "Sometimes, I don't know what's better. The sex during a fight or the makeup sex after it."

"Fiyero, shut up, or you won't get any for a while."

"Whatever you say, Fae. I doubt it would last long," he smirked. They knew what made the other weak enough to give in and knew abstinence would never last.

She rolled her eyes, giggling. "I swear if you pick a fight just to get off..." she raised an eyebrow at his shrug.

"Oz, it really is a wonder how you don't have more children..." Glinda shook her head.

"I definitely do not miss being pregnant."

"I do." Glinda smiled, linking her arm with her friend's.

"I'll remind you of this if it happens again. I'll also be there to remind you of the total mess that you became during pregnancy." the green woman smirked.

"Oh, shut up." the friends giggled together and walked out arm in arm, leaving Fiyero to follow them.

Later that evening, they were sat in the meeting room, Leila and Liir attached to their parent's sides like sloths in a tree, their hands joined together while the adults read over the ten-page document making sure it was ready to be published, detailing in the shortest way possible their tale.

"Glinda, nobody needs to know that." Elphaba scoffed, crossing out a paragraph about what happened when she and Fiyero ran off together. "I don't even want these two to know."

Glinda pouted. "But it's romantic."

"What is romantic about that?! No. You only know that because I told you. I wouldn't have even told you if you didn't guess correctly anyway."

"Elphie!"

"No!"

"Fine!"

"They don't need to know you have the Grimmerie either. You don't need or want anyone wanting that much power breaking into your home to get it."

Fiyero nodded and crossed it off. "She's got a point."

"Why don't we put in there the moment you fell in love with each other?"

"Because it happened when we were together?" he cringed.

"So? It sounds better than you suddenly ditching me at our engagement party to run off with my best friend. I get we want people to love Elphie, but we don't need the pitchforks aimed at you."

Elphaba bit her lip, unsure. The memory of their moment in the clearing with the cub, as tainted as it had become today, was still a sacred moment in her heart. "I... I don't want them to know about that."

"Why not?"

"Because it's too special for me, Lin. It was a time where things were simple and they had started to become complicated by this... this feeling I had never felt before for a boy I couldn't even have."

"But you do now. Elphie, the past hasn't been kind to you, you haven't been kind to yourself. Let yourself have this moment, share it with the people. Show everybody that even the school outcast can find love."

That made her laugh. "You were good until that last sentence!"

Glinda giggled and Fiyero shook his head in confusion. "It's true." she nodded. "You could have had all this time together."

"Your friendship was still new, Glinda, she wouldn't have done that to you even back then."

Elphaba shuffled uncomfortably and looked back at the document again. "Fine... fine we'll put it in."

He held her hand. "We'll write it together."

"Write what?" Leila's sleepy voice asked.

"Another story, it's about me and your mama." he smiled.

"I want to hear it."

He chuckled quietly. "Another time."

The little girl pouted and her eyes fell closed once more, snuggling closer to her mother's chest.

"You know this one's gonna be no exception once she tells him about it," Fiyero smirked, nodding to the boy at his side and then a pointed look at his wife.

She groaned. "Sometimes I curse that day."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do. You're insufferable!"

"I thought I was incorrigible."

She growled in frustration and any further words were silenced when he kissed her.

Glinda watched them bicker with amusement. "I think it's cute."

"What is?" Elphaba growled.

"You two." she grinned and jumped to her feet. "I'll go and advise the press office to stay open a little longer while you two write your epic love story." she giggled and bounced out of the room before her friend could smack her.

"I swear to Oz..." Elphaba muttered, glaring after her friend.

Fiyero laughed and shook his head, turning to a blank page in the notepad. "Come on. If we don't write this, she'll write her own interpretation of something she wasn't even witness to," he told her. "Unless you want it to be filled with rainbows and flowers."

"Well... the flowers would be right." She smirked. "We ran out into a field of poppies."

"It had been raining earlier that day." he nodded. "The scent was dulled a bit because of it."

She smiled. "Yeah... I don't think she would have been too impressed to find us passed out from poppy fumes together with a cub between us." She shook her head. "What if..."

"What?"

"What if that day your head was messed up because of the poppies? They may not have sent us to sleep but they were known to make your brain foggy..."

"Fae? What are you talking about? If they can heighten an emotion already there, then yes, it did mess my head up. But," he paused and held her hand again. "My darling girl, I fell in love with you from that very first moment I saw you. Glinda asked me if I was looking for something...or someone. I told her yes because I was looking for you. And then... things sort of got out of hand very quickly."

She listened to him with a small pout on her lips and she looked up at him. "Fiyero..."

"Yes?"

"I love you."

He grinned. "I love you too. Every last gorgeous green inch of you."

She ducked her head with a blush. "Sappy fool."

He wiggled his eyebrows. "If you want, I'll prove it to you tonight."

She laughed and her blush deepened. "Well... you should know by now that I'll not say no to that."

He groaned and kissed her. "Oz, woman! Don't say things like that!" his response made her laugh again and they wrote their story, their joint memory of that fateful day they realised their love for each other.

Later, it was handed to Glinda.

"No reading it. You can read it when it gets printed." Elphaba told her.

"Elphie!" she pouted.

"No. I want to see your reaction the first time." she grinned and she walked out, leaving Fiyero behind her to join her children in the playroom.

"Please let me see."

Fiyero laughed. "No chance! She'd kill me."

"Do you really have to leave?"

"We can't exactly rule the Vinkus from the other side of Oz, Glinda."

"I suppose not..."

"Think of it like this, if this goes well, at least you don't have to hide who you're visiting anymore. And we can come back here too."

Glinda nodded and threw her arms around him in a hug, which he returned.

"You need to get that sent off or it won't be published tomorrow." he smiled. "I'm just gonna check on Fae. Night, Glin."

She nodded again and watched him leave.

Fiyero paused outside of a bedroom when he heard his wife's voice, he snuck a glance into the room to see the twins curled up either side of their mother, listening to a story she was telling them.

"I know you're there."

Fiyero entered the room at her amused tone and walked in quietly being sure not to wake them. "You did great today, sweetheart." he smiled.

She looked at her children. "You think so?"

"It could have gone worse," he admitted, kicking off his shoes and got ready for bed.

"There were still a few people shouting things though."

"Fae, you know by now that you're never gonna win everybody over. And a few are better than the whole crowd this time." he sat on the bed beside Leila, gently picking her up and shuffled closer to Elphaba, holding her close against him. "There's still time to convince them, with our story out in the world. Think of it as one last fuck you to that bastard locked up at home," he smirked

She giggled at that and shook her head. "I don't know..."

"He doesn't have a hold on you anymore. You don't need to be afraid of him."

She nodded.

"Come on, we'll get some sleep and then we can make our way home tomorrow."

"Good. I can't believe I actually miss it." she shuffled down until she lay down, she shifted Liir between them to lay beside his sister.

"I can. The Vinkus was always home for me. Isn't that the same where you grew up?"

She scoffed and shook her head. "No." she sighed. "I never really fit in anywhere, Yero. Not many people wanted to get to know the green kid. I mean... I grew up in Munchkinland, but it isn't home for me."

He looked at her sadly. "Fae..."

"No, it's alright. It's fine now, it's over." she shrugged. "I'm just glad these two don't have that problem. They come home from school completely unharmed, they have friends."

He nodded, leaning over and he kissed her. "No harm will come to you now. I promise."

She smiled. "I love you."

"I love you too."