Roses and Nightshade

a labour of love

Note: I do not in any way, shape or form own the rights to any of the characters mentioned in this story. This is purely fan fiction and is not intended to be canonical. In fact, I daresay it's wildly NON-canonical. Call it, the world as it could have, maybe even SHOULD have been, but then again, I've always been rather arrogant. Please be advised also, that there's a smidge of yuri here, but if you're reading this, you likely were looking for it anyway, so well done! If you AREN'T looking for that, however, I offer you this opportunity to turn back and forget that you have ever seen this meager work.

Still here? Good. Let me tell you a tale...

One

It was warm, warmer than usual, out on the plains. The sun had set hours before, but that lingering heat that you only ever really got out in the wastelands still made its presence felt. A small fire crackled, more for preparing food than for warmth. It didn't get cold anymore. Not for a while, anyway.

A young woman sat by the fire, staring intently into the flames. She'd been on the run a while now, and though she was clearly no older than nineteen or twenty, she had a look of worry on her face that would have looked more natural on someone twice that age. How long had it been, truly, since she had gathered up those she could, and ran for their lives out of the cities? Time somehow meant less now, out here in this barren territory. She couldn't say how long, only that it was too long.

So many she'd cared about, even some she'd loved, however secretly, had died in the initial attacks. The hordes came literally out of nowhere, after SHE had arrived. A shiver ran down the young woman's spine as a thought of the monster crossed her mind. The young woman lowered her head, letting her forehead rest on her knees. She was tired, more tired than she could ever remember being, and all the more weary for knowing that come sunrise, she and her companion would have to start running again.

She looked over at the sleeping form of her companion. A willowy slip of a woman, long brown hair splayed all about in her fitful sleep. Her eyes were closed, hiding the deep emerald gleam that seemed to go on forever, eyes you could get lost in. She slept, for now, and the awake woman did not want to trouble her. Aerith slept so little these days, it was just best to let her sleep when she could. It did nothing to ease the lonely ache in Tifa's gut, of course, to sit here in silence, alone. Tifa really didn't care, though. She was trying to work out some sort of plan for the coming day. She didn't know where they would, or even could, go. Options were becoming more and more scarce as more and more cities fell to the onslaught brought on by...

No, thought Tifa to herself. I won't even THINK her name. It's dangerous. SHE will know.

Though Tifa never considered herself superstitious, and certainly no coward, she still treated the beast that ravaged her world with an almost reverent fear. It was not foolishly founded; ever since SHE came to their world, everything she knew, everyone she cared about...destroyed.

Her eyes moved back over to Aerith's sleeping form. Almost everyone...

HER arrival had actually started out with promise. For the first time in what seemed like forever, all the factions that had been so bitterly at war had joined together in a last-ditch effort to drive off the invaders. Shinra and AVALANCHE fighters worked together with remarkable fluidity and cohesion, even Cloud and his nemesis temporarily set aside their rivalry to fight for not freedom, but survival. There was a time, a brief shining moment, when Tifa had entertained the notion that they could actually defeat the invader, but that was cut short on the Day of Shadows.

The leader of the invading army, a woman that Tifa guessed may have actually been a little younger than she, went out to confront the small strike team of superbly-trained warriors. She remembered that she, Aerith, Cloud, Yuffie, Barret...even Sephiroth...they all stood and watched as the young woman came forth from the black belly of the demon host. She didn't look all that imposing, at first. Black hair, cut short but with some length left in front to drape over the right side of her face. Reddish-purple eyes that seemed dead inside. She stood silently, for several tense minutes, merely looking at the fighters that opposed her. Unmoving, like a statue, or a corpse.

And then, she idly raised her hand, and the world began to fall apart.

Cracks opened in the ground, swallowing some of Tifa's comrades straight away. Then, as if guided, geysers of magma burst forth and incinerated others. Within a few seconds, everyone except for Tifa, Aerith, Cloud and Sephiroth were no more. Tifa had been stunned; her world had been obliterated before her eyes and she couldn't so much as move. Aerith was crushed under the weight of the Planet's cries of agony, so she was no help. A wicked battle of magic pitted against weapon skill ensued, but even the strongest of all, Cloud and his eternal nemesis, met their end together as the monster literally tore them apart with but a glance. The fight was merely entertainment. She only killed them when they ceased to amuse her.

Those chilling, dead purple eyes turned to bore right into Tifa's soul. The monster looked at her, smiled and laughed. "Remember my name, mortal."

"Remember it was Laylah who stole everything from you."

Laylah. The name made Tifa physically ill.

Laylah turned away from them without another word, as if they were of no consequence to her. Perhaps they weren't. Tifa didn't think even she, with all her martial arts training and skill as a fighter, had a chance against Laylah. Laylah's power defied everything Tifa knew and understood. Her magic didn't even seem to need, much less originate from, Materia. She just simply willed it to be, and it was. How could a simple girl from Nibelheim hope to stand up against someone who was, for all intents and purposes, a god?

No, thought Tifa. Fuck that. She's not a god. I can't accept that a god could be that callous towards life. It changed little what you called her, though. She was destroying the Planet. There was no rhyme or reason to it, she just wanted to destroy.

"Tifa..."

Aerith stirred, breaking Tifa out of her reverie. Her eyes just barely opened, but there were those deep, infinite pools of emerald. Tifa tried not to look her in the eye directly, though she couldn't understand why she would avoid Aerith's gaze. There was just something about the former flower girl's eyes that made Tifa feel...uncomfortable. They got along fine, they'd been friends since they'd met, but there was something in Aerith's eyes that just stripped the safety out of the situation, and right now, Tifa didn't need to deal with that.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Tifa asked, head still propped up on her knees.

"No...I just felt...something...in the air. Like birds, that aren't birds...watching." Aerith shrugged. "Everything's suspect anymore, with Laylah making the rules..."

"DON'T say her name..." Tifa caught herself after the first word, bringing the volume down several levels. Tifa knew it was silly, for Laylah wasn't omnipresent, but she still feared drawing the monster's attention nonetheless.

Aerith managed a wan grin, and sat up. She nudged over next to Tifa and rested her head on Tifa's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I know she hurt you, all of us, so much. But living in fear like this, it's not right, Tifa. It's killing us faster than Laylah ever could."

Tifa sighed; Aerith was right, of course.