After her laughter subsided to small snickers she forced herself to calm down. If only because Avaric began to fidget in discomfort. "How are you feeling?" She asked, her smile turning into a worried frown as she sat at the edge of the bed.
"Like I got fucking shot." He answered bluntly, wiping at his lips.
She ignored that, tossing a bloody towel to the floor. "I had Tibbet go into town and get you some medication. Be lucky you have that in your system."
"Screw me Thropp." He spat and she glared angrily at him, making him wince.
"Sorry, I'm trying." He apologized through his teeth.
"You're going to have to try harder."
"Sometimes I can't help it, I try not to…" Avaric sighed, shaking his head and closing his eyes.
She waited for him and he reopened his eyes to look at her, "Thank you." Avaric finally said.
"Avaric…" She warned and he nodded quickly.
"I know, I know—fight against it… but sometimes I can't." He said, sounding worn out. "This is me and this is who they made me. "
"Well, you have to try harder…" She trailed off looking at him apologetically. Avaric noticed, immediately attempting to sit up but she held her palm against his forehead to stop him.
"What's wrong?" He asked in distress and she glanced at the documents for a moment before turning back to him.
"The papers…They call it a reset." She told him plainly and Avaric tensed as he nodded. "Okay…but, what does it say?" He questioned and Elphaba left his side and walked over to the chair to lift the papers to hand them to him. Avaric took them anxiously, scanning over them and searching for the answer he wanted. "Basically, they are getting into people's heads through an incision behind the ear," she explained to Avaric whose eyes were still pouring over the papers. "...and sending messages with magic to their brain to reroute their memories and implant new ones; and the new ones force themselves to take control, making it easy to change them to whatever the hell they want."
Avaric lowered the papers, "Does it say anything on how to reverse it?"
Elphaba couldn't meet his eye as she took the papers back. "No. There is no reversal, results are said to be final."
It was quiet as she straightened the documents in her hand and put them back into their folder.
"So… I'm stuck as this forever?"
"But you're going to try very hard to remember." She said quickly, not needing him to give up on everything.
"You just told me there was no way for this to be undone!"
"Yet that day I accidentally knocked you out you remembered something." She reminded him and Avaric shrugged, wincing when he moved his shoulder.
"I don't even know if it really was a memory or just a fantasy." He spoke in a low voice, clearly in pain.
"Either way, you are going to fight this."
"I can't," he complained raising his hand to rest across his forehead. "I feel a need to just — These thoughts in my mind want to…"
"I don't care what you feel like you need to do. I don't care how terrible you think your thoughts are—you are going to fight against them and you are going to win. It's difficult, I understand, your internal enemy has your strength and your intelligence, but you have the will."
He sighed, blinking slowly. "I'm trying, but every time… I just feel like getting up and—"
She stopped him there. "Don't think about what you feel like doing, get that into your head, Avaric."
"I know it's wrong."
"Exactly, it's wrong, so fight against it. Fight against what they made you, learn to control it."
Avaric took deep breaths in front of her, his troubled eyes darting everywhere as he began to slowly nod, closing his eyes once more.
"See, just breath and think of nice things." She suggested placing the folder in her hands aside to focus on him.
"I have nothing nice in my life." He said bitterly. His attitude at the moment annoyed her more than it should have. He had been the same way since the beginning but right now it was worse than before. He was acting like a child and it made her want to shove him off the bed.
"Then think of what's most important to you, think of things that make you smile. Think of what is making you do this and be a better person."
His eyebrows furrowed and he shook his head at her. "I have nothing. All I have…is the need to make sure Boq's death was not in vain."
She raised an eyebrow. "So it's revenge that's driving you forward?"
He mocked her facial expression."Must I have another reason?"
There he went again ignoring what she was saying and acting like a stubborn idiot. If it were up to Elphaba she would toss him off the bed as a way to reason with him. Although that wouldn't be the best idea at the moment with his current shoulder problem, so she simply glared at him until he got the memo.
"What do you want me to say? That I don't want anyone else to go through what I am? That I don't want anyone else to get hurt? I don't want someone else to hurt someone they love—"
Elphaba smirked, and at her change of expression Avaric cut his words short. That had worked better than she expected. He must have realized what he told her because there were no other words from him.
Her smug smirk never fell even as the corner of his lips lifted. "You're very sneaky Thropp."
She shrugged with a slight chuckle. "You're too easy."
He blew air out of his nose and smiled. "Okay, I will try." He said in resignation. "I'll do all in my power to keep control of myself."
That made her smile. "That's good, now we need to talk about the event." Elphaba said changing the subject.
"I'm still going to do it. " He said without missing a beat and Elphaba shook her head, pointing at his shoulder.
"You got shot. I'll do it. "
"No offense, or get offended it doesn't matter to me," he shrugged. "but you are green. "
"And you got shot." She reiterated, proving her point by poking him near his wound. Avaric's eyebrows shot up at the pain, baring his teeth at her, and then suddenly began grinning cheekily, "So," he began. "You are still green. It doesn't matter if you are lanky—like you are, or fat, or have jugs the size of melons. Green is green."
She scowled at him, not dignifying that with a response.
"...And you can do magic which would be nice, if you could do magic well." He said and Elphaba pressed her lips together unable to stop herself from answering.
"I've been trained. " She argued and Avaric started to laugh despite looking like he might faint at any moment from pain.
"For like a month! You can paralyze someone and fix things, but you don't have a spell for disguising yourself, or even healing." He pointed out gesturing to his shoulder.
"I don't have to hide myself as I'm not a fugitive. I've done nothing to be suspected of anything and as far as anyone knows I am on a spiritual retreat. So it matters little if I go out or If I'm green, or if you think my magic is subpar."
"Wasn't your father a unionist minister before?"
"That is relevant how?"
"It is sort of relevant. If everyone knows he was a minister before he became Governor wouldn't people know if you were religious or not?"
"I was often dragged to his little sermons, I was there for most of them. The people didn't really care whether I was there willingly or not—that is, they don't know I wasn't particularly religious, so for anyone who might have known me there, they wouldn't know I was lying now. If Nessa did as I wrote, my absence is explained."
"Exactly. You are supposed to be on a spiritual vacation so you can't go into that event. It's not possible at all... It's a private event and we have a stolen invitation and you aren't even supposed to be in the city. Just let me do it it's easier for me to pretend. I'm Gillikin; I'm blonde; and I'm very male. I can literally blend in with any other Gillikin there, I mean, they wouldn't be as handsome, but I blend in."
He was right but she didn't need him to know that. His ego was clearly big enough as it was. Luckily she had thought of more than one alternative to going to the event. Elphaba grabbed the folder again and skimmed through the documents to find the ones she needed.
"We have the legal documents with the detailed procedures right here, and with signatures…" She handed said papers to Avaric. "Most importantly we have the Wizard and Morrible's names connected to them…We don't even need to go to that event!"
Avaric read over the names and he stilled. Elphaba knew whose name he was reading so she snatched the documents away. They both knew that his father allowed this to happen to him, but it was another thing for him to see his father was in agreement for it to happen to so many others.
Avaric shook his head once and began arguing with her again."Even so, I need to go in there so we can find a way inside."
"Do we have to? I say we take the documents to—"
"To who?" He said resentfully. "Everyone is either on their side, or they will be after they mess with their mind…what we need is to get in there and find a way in so we can—"
"Avaric, I get it, but we don't have the numbers to create an uprising right now. It's three humans and five Animals. None of which have done anything like this before. None of us knows what can happen. We don't even know what might happen." She tried to explain to him and Avaric seemed to understand as he began to nod.
"I know."
"...And other humans and Animal just aren't willing to risk their lives, or their children's lives for this. They prefer living in exile to putting themselves at risk."
"But if we don't do something people are going to lose more!"
"I know what they'll lose. I also know from these stack of papers that it is going to take time, and it's going to segregate a lot of citizens."
"Then what are we doing? We have to go out and do something!" Avaric argued hissing when he moved his shoulder.
They did have to do something, and they would.
"Avaric…What happens when we take this information out to someone who is on our side? They go in and they arrest those who are in any way associated with this, all it takes is a little magic to knock someone out and a little incision to make them forget who they are...and then what?"
Avaric narrowed his eyes at her evidently not getting what she was saying."So you're saying we should wait until an entire country of people forget who they are before we do something?"
"No," She said in exasperation, running a hand through her hair. "I'm saying that if we want to do something we can't do it while we are in hiding."
Avaric stared at her in awe, finally getting what she was trying to say. "Are you saying…"
She nodded. "That we have to become fugitives and call them out…Yes. There is bound to be someone who believes us."
It was risky, but there was no other option to her. Avaric smiled widely reaching towards her. "I could kiss you right now."
She scrunched her nose slapping his hand away. "No thanks."
"You're missing out."
"From what I remember, I'm really not."
Avaric chuckled leaning his head back and sighing.
"Are you remembering your kiss with Tibbet?" She quipped and Avaric chuckled.
"Well, I'm not gonna lie, he kisses better than you... and you are one terrific kisser." He winked at her and she slapped him forgetting about his shoulder momentarily. Avaric hissed in pain clutching at his shoulder.
"I am so sorry." She apologized again, finding the pain medication on the small bed stand and offering him a couple which he refused.
"You are trying to kill me aren't you?" He gasped biting down on his lip.
"I'm not trying to kill you. You annoy me."
"Hmm sure.. So how are we doing this? "
"We have to make the citizens aware of this any way necessary. "
"The way you speak. It's such a turn on. "
Her nostrils flared. "I will refrain from the punch I want to give you until you are fully healed —That does not mean you can say your stupid remarks whenever you want. "
"So if I ask you if you would just strip and—" Elphaba pinched his lips shut. Her temper beginning to get the better of her. "You say another sleazy thing and I swear I will find a spell to shut you up forever. "
Avaric mumbled something under her fingers and she let his lips go.
He stretched them out quite dramatically. "It would take a lot more than a spell to make me quiet forever. "
She rolled her eyes."Clearly another bullet in you."
Avaric looked at her and chuckled."You are something else. "
"Clearly." She said gesturing to her skin. "Now stop distracting me. I'm going to that stupid thing and finding a place to enter from the outside. "
"I'm distracting to you?" He smiled annoyingly. "I didn't know that I had that effect on you."
"You don't, you are just a bother."
"But I still distract you. That right there is development to me."
"No, " Elphaba sighed irritably, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You are infuriating."
Avaric chuckled again, leaning back. "You and I would make a lot of sense. "
Elphaba eyes flicked over to him. "I'm sorry? "
"I said that you and I would make sense." He repeated.
Elphaba blinked, he was being serious. "How?"
"We would constantly challenge each other and never back down." He explained, to her disbelief.
Elphaba raised her eyebrows. "You and I as a couple you mean? "
"Well I wasn't talking about Tibbet and I. "
"You two would make a lovely couple. You did say he kisses better than I do. "
Avaric rolled his eyes. "But you and I would be perfect. You're already here helping me, now imagine if we got together and argued about something meaningless? Can you imagine the mind-blowing angry sex we would have afterwards? "
Elphaba laughed, shaking her head at Avaric. "This is really a conversation we are going to have?"
"Yes. Think about it. It might work well for the two of us. "
Elphaba snorted."Yes, with your infallible logic of having mind-blowing sex after an argument."
"We'd make it work. You help me not be an arrogant snob and I help you not be so stuck up."
Elphaba froze, glaring at Avaric. "Stuck up?"
"Like. A. Tampon. " He enunciated his words carefully, a cheeky smile on his face.
Elphaba narrowed her eyes at him before sitting back. "I'm not falling for it. "
Avaric blinked innocently. "Falling for what?"
"The best thing that you would receive from an argument is me ignoring you. Angry sex is not going to even be considered for a moment. "
"Not a little bit? Look at me, I've been shot, I'm helpless right now!"
Elphaba snorted again wanting nothing more than to throw something at his face.
"Avaric shut up and rest, or am I going to have to put you to sleep? " She threatened raising her hand and Avaric immediately paled. "Understood."
It was quiet for a few minutes before Avaric decided to talk again.
"I'm still the one who is going to go to that event. I can handle it. I won't do anything stupid. Please believe me. " He said genuinely, the joking behavior past him.
"You are hurt and if someone recognizes you…"
"'I'm not a fugitive..yet.. I mean, I think, as long as I wasn't blamed for... his death.. I can do this."
She pursed her lips in thought. "I don't know."
"Please. I swear for the love I have for Galinda that I will be careful and stay out of trouble. "
"You're hurt and it's two days until event. "
"My shoulder is hurt, my legs and perfect smile are not. " He grinned winking at her to make his point clear.
"But you have a chance at getting caught and you can't fight back." She argued and Avaric waved her off.
"I'll be careful. I've snuck around plenty during my short time at Shiz and even before that. I'll be okay."
"Okay, you can go if only because it would be a stupid thing for me to do." She admitted in frustration. "I'll let you rest now, If you get lonely let me know."
"Oh?" Avaric lifted an eyebrow curiously.
"Yeah, so I can send in Tibbet to keep you company." She grinned leaving the room.
Avaric was still in pain the day of the event. They had both found out that it was actually a birthday celebration for the wizard, meaning Avaric would need to be extra careful as there was sure to be double the security everywhere. Elphaba tried to argue with him to stay behind when she found out, promising him that somehow they would find another way in, but Elphaba could not persuade him.
They had pitched in - with most of it coming from Tibbet's income as an assistant librarian in the Emerald City library - to get him a suit. He had put it on with the help of Elphaba who had stayed unusually quiet throughout Avaric's snide remarks, something she hoped scared him enough to be quiet.
"So how do I look?" Avaric asked her as he stood straight. Elphaba took a step back from him and looked him over.
"Not bad." She admitted seeing him check himself out in a small mirror they had.
He was wearing an all black suit, which was great since he was still bleeding from his shoulder. He had shaved and showered by himself even though he had asked if Elphaba wanted to join him; with a great show of restraint she had not broken his nose.
"Okay, I'm going to be outside just walking around the city if at any time-"
"I'm not doing anything stupid," He repeated, for what felt to Elphaba like the millionth time. "I'm going in and charming everyone I talk to while I look for possible entrances. I know what to do."
Elphaba clicked her tongue, straightening the black tie he wore. "I know you do, but sometimes you can't control what you do."
"I can control myself. I might never be able to go back to who I once was but I can try and be someone else. I can pretend if I have to." He said confidently and Elphaba believed in him nodding at him with a smile.
"Okay," She accepted, double checking that no white bandage was visible. She fixed a stray blonde hair on his head and took a step back. "You do your best."
He grinned and she excused herself to find her cloak.
"You know you're going to look suspicious as hell walking around the palace with a cloak over your head."
"I'll just cough and tell people I'm sick…they'll steer clear." She answered, fixing the cloak around her.
Avaric squinted his eyes, confusing her. Had she put the cloak on backwards? "Well, you are looking a little green there."
"Asshole."
He just laughed.
It was an hour later that Elphaba watched as Avaric strolled up to the palace. Gale force guards in green and gold uniforms surrounded the entire area, overseeing that everything went well. She watched as he blended in with the others that had been invited and entered easily.
All she could do now was walk around and look like she belonged.
Avaric's heart was pumping, his shoulder feeling numb as he flashed a charming smile to the woman, lifting his stolen invitation and being waved in. He was lucky they were women up front because otherwise he would be in trouble. He let out a small breath as he made it inside smiling and politely greeting those who would speak to him. The place was unsurprisingly decorated in green and it was certainly impressive but he was not here to marvel at the lights or the women— like the one who was eyeing him from across the room. She was a tall brunette and she was very appealing. When was the last time he had some fun? He winked at her and she giggled making his body burn in want.
"I don't care what you feel like you need to do…you have the will." He could hear her stern voice in his head. But he didn't want to do anything bad at all. It was a natural response, nothing out of the ordinary, just day to day urges of a young man.
Day to day urges...but not what he was here for. So Avaric repeated Elphaba's words and he turned away from the brunettes sight. He had to focus on what he was here to do. He wasn't here to enjoy himself and he wasn't here to find someone to warm his bed. He crossed the room to grab a drink, taking a glass of what smelled like some sort of champagne while smiling at the server. He tipped it back downing it all in one gulp. The server looked at him in awe as he placed the glass down and thanked him. Hurrying to excuse himself from a man who began to talk to him so animately. He walked out of that room towards the restroom watching the guards standing in the hallway to stop those that wandered. He went inside the restroom cursing under his breath. How in hell was he going to get past them? He looked around the restroom, finding nothing that could help him. Honestly he hadn't thought this plan through when he came in - he really hadn't, and Elphaba had warned him about it.
He pounded his right hand on the emerald sink something he instantly regretted when the pain shot across his shoulder. He clenched his teeth and closed his eyes tightly, letting himself breath deeply.
He'd have to get out of here, there was no way he could sneak inside the palace, especially with his shoulder now that his pain medication wore off. He turned the tap on the sink and let the cool liquid flow through his hands, patting his face to cool himself. He took one of the fresh towels that were nearby and dried his face, slicking his hair back and throwing the towel in the hamper. He took a small breath as he stepped outside of the restroom and immediately felt his shoulder radiate in pain as he bumped into someone. He bit his tongue from the pain that was going through him, hunching over and jutting his hand out to the wall to hold himself up.
"Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to-
His head whipped up as he recognized the voice.
"Avaric?" She said quietly, looking beautiful as ever in the amber colored dress she wore. "Galinda?" for a moment his lips turned up into a smile before he realized she shouldn't be seeing him. She shouldn't be there.
"Avaric you—
He didn't listen to the rest of her words as he took a step back, one of the guards eyeing him and urgently coming towards him with his rifle raised. He could hear Galinda shouting as he sprinted off towards the palace doors.
…And stopping immediately when a group of soldiers stood at the door, with Morrible standing in front of them, smiling but not at him.
His whipped his head around to see who she was smiling at and he was sure he stopped breathing.
"Excellent job my dear." Morrible praised Galinda who nodded and went over to her. "We got him."
Morrible smile was then directed at him as a hand grabbed onto his arm.