A/N: A shout out to my anonymous reviewer! Glad you liked it. More on our injured soldier in this chapter. ;)

Chapter 26

Elphaba heaved a sigh and collapsed into a chair in the next room in the medical tent. She had worked hard to save the injured man, whose name had only been given to her as Corporal Zink, but she wasn't sure that it would be enough. He'd lost a lot of blood and the wound was infected. Right now, she was struggling to figure out how that could be. Yes, the man had been injured for hours and infections could set in very easily, but she'd never heard of one setting in that was bad enough to have spidered across the patient's body.

The bullet had to have ricocheted off of something as it had lodged into the body, rather than blowing through it. The two dead men's bodies had been brought down to the medical tent and she would need to examine them. Perhaps the only reason the second solider was alive was because he moved faster.

"Fae…" she looked up to find Fiyero standing the doorway to the curtained off area of the medical tent.

"I've done what I can for the living. Now we must investigate for the dead," the green woman said, standing from her chair. Fiyero came closer and quickly pulled her to him.

"Glinda and my parents have been informed. They are working diligently to get the leaders of the rest of Oz in the same room and talking. Glinda has some ideas on how to change the people of Oz's input. Of course, this meeting will now be a very tall order given what has happened," he said.

"Then we must catch who did this and who is behind it all. That is the only way," Elphaba backed away from him, looking him right in the eyes.

"Then let us go," he said.

"You're not going yourselves. Can't risk the Prince of the Vinkus and the future Princess," the two heard the voice and turned their heads to the opening only a few feet away.

"Zetti…" Fiyero gave him a look.

"You'd have to be a complete idiot to not see it. Or maybe you just need to know you well sir. I've got the boys together. To the crime scene. I have Doctor Talib looking over the dead. He's trying to figure how they died and how long they've been like that," the Lieutenant had a smirk on his face. Fiyero shook his head and Elphaba went to make a move but found the room spinning. Both men saw that she was unsteady and grabbed her quickly.

"Maybe you better rest. That was a lot of magic you just did," Fiyero pointed out.

"We put Mr. Kahui in danger and did not do enough to protect him. Now another man is dead and another barely holding on. I cannot lay down and take a nap," she snapped at him.

"The boys are soldiers, we can take a look at a scene," Zetti offered up.

"No. Whatever struck the Corporal, gave him a raging infection. I need to see the scene," the green woman put her foot down, figuratively speaking.

"All righty, well then perhaps a nice ride in a carriage will help you get there. The less energy you expend the better," Fiyero suggested. Elphaba nodded, knowing that she needed to rest despite her implications that she didn't.

"I'm on it. Meet me out front in five," with that the Lieutenant took off. Fiyero didn't have to fight to get Elphaba to sit down for a few minutes. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head.

"I didn't want to say anything in front of Zetti…" she paused for a moment.

"What?" He asked.

"We have to assume that it's a possibility that Zink is in on it. His cohorts probably thought we'd find the bodies sooner. Honestly, why would they leave anyone breathing given what they went there to do?" Elphaba wondered. Fiyero let out a loud breath. There was a possibility of it, but he had not wanted to voice it himself.

"If that is the case, then we must hope Zink survives so we can interrogate him," he said.

To Be Continued…