A few notes before you read:
1. This is an AU
2. This is loosely based off of the play Twelfth Night or What You Will by Shakespeare. Not all characters are limited to the roles they are in, though. If one character seems to be different from the one I'm having them portray, it is intentional. However, if the canon characters are OOC, that's my bad and I'm deeply sorry.
3. Not all events are exactly like Twelfth Night and not all settings and such are like it. This is pretty much a story of its own.
4. It's pretty much safe for those who aren't acquainted with Shakespeare's Twelfth Night to read this. I suggest googling it, though, to get the full story on what it is.
5. This is not a yuri or yaoi fic. Sorry for you folks who were hoping it would be :( Mostly a story involving gender confusion XD
Seventh Night
Chapter 1 About Strange Lands and People
The tears were dry, but the pain was still there. Tragedy was something she was acquainted with, seeming how she had lost both of her parents, but the sudden loss of her brother left a fresh wound in the chambers of her heart. With a sigh, Tifa pulled off the gloves that her sibling had left her and threw them to the ground, blocked from anyone's view by just one of the many rocks that rested amongst the strange country they had found themselves in. A small dust cloud rose from the piece of desert-like terrain the leather gloves had landed on while Tifa's crimson eyes gazed out towards the horizon.
Brown was the impression she had of the land that looked back to her. The ground seemed to be completely barren of any plants or even weeds, making it seem as desolate as Tifa was feeling. Tan dirt stretched around them for miles and she ventured to look for any piece of color on the rocky landscape that could be any sign of life. Nothing but stone hills interrupted the color scheme that was scrutinized by her vision.
"Tifa," someone called out to her. She was startled by the words that were spoken to her and had forced her to surface from all of her thoughts. "You know it's not safe to be out here on your own like this."
"Sorry, Cid," Tifa answered the captain of the aircraft that had crashed maybe a day earlier. She looked at the fellow survivor of an unpredictable disaster who had managed to get her and few others off safely. It wasn't soon until Tifa turned her eyes back out towards the horizon, searching first the ground, than the sky.
"It's getting dark, about time to head back," the grizzled man grunted from where he stood beside the young woman, "what're you doin' out here, anyways?"
Tifa was often steeped into her thoughts and she was still hoping in vain that what had been happening lately was just a dream. Cid rubbed the stubble on his chin and surveyed the girl whose mind was off somewhere else.
"Do you think he could be alive?" Tifa asked, suddenly, searching the landscape once more.
"What?" Cid replied with some confusion. He was beginning to wonder if her mind was fully intact. Losing loved ones could do that to a person. Normally, Tifa never let on to her emotions in front of anyone.
"Zack," Tifa answered, turning her strangely colored eyes on Cid. Sometimes they were red, sometimes brown. The sadness in her that was so obvious had muddied their usual beautiful rouge.
Cid didn't have the heart to tell her that he was most likely gone. However, even his own mind wondered if there was a possibility that the girl's twin brother might be alive, somehow. The experienced pilot had heard stories of miraculous survivals by those who had been perceived doom. Maybe all hope wasn't lost after all.
"He could be, I guess. I don't know why you're asking me." Cid shrugged, only fueling her hopes, "I think I can say that it wouldn't be the first time someone came out of a wreck like that, but I still doubt anyone's alive."
"Then we should go look for him!" Tifa exclaimed instantly, eager to see if Zack was truly alive, or not.
"Hold up!" he tried to counter, "Haven't I already told you what kind of place we're in?"
"It shouldn't matter; we can bring the rest of the crew and see if anyone else made it." Tifa said, and then realized that she had been too distracted to ever hear the whereabouts of the place they had managed to escape from the crashing aircraft to. "Where are we, anyway?"
"I thought I already told you," Cid grumbled, crossing his arms, then decided that it wouldn't hurt to repeat himself, "I had a buddy who came from around here. They call it Midgar and lately it's not the best place to be."
"How come?"
"It's at war. Outsiders like us probably aren't very welcome, at the moment." Cid explained. "Not to mention what other things might be crawling around here."
Tifa was able to comprehend how dire their situation was. Although she wasn't aware of whether the locals were barbaric enough to do away with innocent travelers, she wasn't willing to find out. Wars weren't anything for civilians to be in the midst of and being from a different land, it made things that much more risky for the small band of survivors. Cid was probably the only one with a slight geographical idea of the place, so they were as good as lost. Also, she had been hearing the people of the land weren't entirely friendly.
"Now let's get back. I don't know how safe it is around here at dark." Cid urged, turning to walk away. Tifa followed him with one last glance over her shoulder.
Someone had started a fire on top of a small overhang that was maybe just three yards above the ground. The side was concave, so it formed somewhat of a shelter where those who were invalid were resting under. Tifa observed the ten or eleven who had escaped from the ship that had been hurtling to the earth fourteen hours earlier. Most were the crew and few were passengers, but still managed to make up the majority of the invalid.
Many passengers weren't so lucky to even be wounded. Tifa felt like she should have been one of the unlucky people to stay on the ship, too. The event of their crashing had been mayhem that started as an attack from a plane that belonged to one of the local warring unions. No one was sure why the hostile aircraft had attacked the one they were on, which was a trade ship that was also carrying passengers as a favor. Chaos had broken out as soon as the passengers learned that the ship was going down and Tifa was almost steadily swallowed into the small panicking crowd.
Zack and Tifa knew Cid through their parents who had been friends of the aircraft's captain. The two twins made money doing odd jobs, after their father had joined the Lifestream two years earlier, and were originally returning to Nibelheim where the trade ship was also returning to. Both Zack and Tifa were extremely strong and could find a way to be useful in many places, so they managed to make their selves useful by blending in with the lower-ranking crew members who did odd-jobs. Unlike them, a few other passengers had paid to get on, either not being able to afford the fare of public transportation or not being able to make it on time.
When the ship had been attacked, only the crew and the twins had enough coherence or training to make a break for the emergency parachutes. Even after the passengers were urged to use them, someone had broken into panic that had lead the others to do so, also. Inevitably, Tifa was caught in the raving mass, separated from and searching for her brother. People who were in the right mind to escape took the limited amount of emergency stock of parachutes, and Zack had broken away from the others and managed to grab a hold of the last one.
They had happened to meet each other at the open hatch. Zack realized that he had snatched the last of the parachutes and tried to give it to Tifa, instead. At first, she refused, wanting him to save himself. Knowing that it wouldn't be long, Zack was able to overpower the girl and strapped the backpack to her and pushed her out of the open hatch. Tifa wasn't aware of what had happened, at first, and was almost too late in activating the parachute. She landed safely, although her heart had been torn in half. Not much time had passed before she heard a resonating crash that echoed for maybe miles, signaling the fallen ship. Cid had found her and brought her to the remaining survivors who had also been found by some of his crew.
On their return to the campsite, the captain pilot let loose a string of quiet curse words. Cid calmed himself before commenting "I don't know about this fire."
"How come?" Tifa asked, not sure how a fire could be a bad idea, at all. Fire would most likely keep the local animals away, provide something to cook over, and keep warm. She had heard desert nights could get cold.
"We might get spotted." He replied ominously. Tifa didn't have to ask to know who Cid was possibly talking about. "Who knows," he sighed heavily, "we may be far out enough to be ignored."
Food was mainly what some of the crew had thought to grab before jumping the plane. There were mostly only packaged and canned foods left in the emergency packs that came with the parachutes. What they had was severely rationed in order to save some for however many days they might be lost. Tifa ate her share and convinced herself that things would get better. Eventually, someone from Nibelheim would come looking for them as soon as they figured out that the ship was missing and it wasn't like no one in the crew hadn't thought to send a distress signal.
"So, what exactly is this war over?" Tifa casually asked Cid while sitting around the campfire. She was still trying to get her mind off of her own problems.
"Gimme a second to remember," Cid replied, scratching the back of his neck, "it's been awhile since someone's told me, myself."
Tifa nodded and sighed quietly. The land was so strange, especially for a local airship to take down another, for unknown reason. The idea to cut through had been a risky decision one of the crew members talked Cid into doing. He had consented only to the fact that it would save many days to the trip. No one knew that this would be the outcome.
"Isn't it over that big Shinra Company?" someone offered.
"That's right!" Cid boomed, "Some big shot power company was screwing up the city. Turns out a bunch of people didn't like that and decided to rebel and that's how the other union, AVALANCHE came about."
"So, those two are the ones at war?" Tifa asked and shook her head woefully. "Can't they go about it any other way?"
A couple of men laughed to themselves, thinking that it was just like a woman. Cid had to curse them back to silence for him to speak. Tifa didn't give them the satisfaction of seeing her crestfallen.
"Well, there's not much to talk out." Cid tried to get across, "All the talking that was there to do was done and so AVALANCHE was pretty much formed as plan B."
Tifa reflected on this as she watched the fire send up a ball of sparks into the sky. The warm glow kept out the chill of the night and everyone had gathered around it. Not much firewood was found in the rocky turf and was mainly kept lit by the lighter fluid in a few cigarette lighters some of the men found on their person. Cid had refused to lend his own lighter to the cause. This was a sign of hope for Tifa, because she knew Cid would only give up his cigarette lighter when all else was lost. However, the flames would only gulp any fuel down in a flurry and beg for more as some gave up articles of clothing. A pile of jackets that the crew members had given up lay beside the fire where they were either tossed onto it or given to anyone who was possibly in need of it.
Tifa frowned, her gloves could have gone into the fire and prolonged its warmth, but she abandoned the little guilt she felt. They symbolized a part of her life she wouldn't get back, now. Someone would have asked her if they really needed them. They were best where they were at where no one would find them.
"Do you see that?" a crew member asked aloud. The abrupt inquiry silenced the party and only the pops and crackles of the fire could be heard. Cid and the other crewmen looked the direction the rookie had pointed out. For a moment, Tifa thought she saw something move.
"Get over the side." Cid ordered suddenly as he threw the pile of jackets over the fire, suffocating it and putting it out.
Tifa found herself in complete darkness and her eyes were refusing to adjust. She could hear the others making their way over the short cliff side and hear their feet crunching the dirt as they landed on the other side. She glanced around her and saw a light in the distance before someone grabbed her arm.
"Stay as close to the side as you can," Cid said to all of them as he dragged Tifa over the side with him. "We've been spotted."
Tifa's heart was pounding as she looked up above her. The edge of the precipice was outlined as a beam of light swept over the top of it. Soft footsteps were scuffling all over the campsite that they had just abandoned. At first, she thought there couldn't be a whole lot of people searching around for how soft the footsteps were, but when Tifa listened harder she could tell there were enough people to outnumber them.
Sweat was rolling down her neck, by then, even though the temperature was drastically colder than that of the day. She held her breath when she saw multiple flashlight beams sweeping around above them. Tifa's fingers grasped at the rocks buried into the side of the rock face as she anticipated the worst. The tension of the situation was almost drowning them and it wasn't broken until there was a strange electronic jingle.
Almost immediately it stopped as one of the intruders began to speak. Tifa closed her eyes as she figured out that they had just answered their cell phone. She opened her eyes to see Cid at her left, staring above them, open mouthed. Already, yet another phrase of profanity was forming on his thing lips.
"Hello," the man said softly, pausing to listen to the other end, "Yeah, we saw a campfire out here. Someone put it out before we could get here… No, they don't seem to be around here, right now, but we haven't been searching for long… Fine, we'll head back here, tomorrow, they won't get far, whoever they are."
Tifa almost felt her heart fly out of her mouth when she saw the flashlight beams disappear and the footsteps grew weaker in sound as they distanced theirselves. She counted to a hundred before anyone ever dared to move, again.
"Pack up." Cid said quietly to the people, "We're leaving here, now,"
No one bothered to disobey and they all hesitantly crept atop the overhang and gathered the few possessions they had left to them. Tifa sighed and helped those who needed assistance. The close encounter had left her dizzy with relief but she was still able to make herself useful.
"Who's side were they on?" a passenger asked as they trudged with the rest of the crowd.
"Probably Shinra's," Cid answered, "From what I know, one of AVALANCHE's leaders were injured from the last battle they were caught in and is still trying to recover. They've been falling back on their job."
"Poor guy," a woman murmured, "He's probably getting a lot of blame right now."
The group had walked maybe a mile before they began to feel the exhaustion of the night and events weigh down on their shoulders. Tifa's hands ached against the rough strap of the duffel bag she was carrying. She wasn't used to being without the gloves that she had rid herself of and her hands looked unusually pale in the night. Not much time had passed before her feet began to ache in her boots. She was cold in the skimpy clothing she wore, not meant for going out into the cold in.
"When are we going to stop?" she finally mustered up to ask Cid, who was the automatic leader of the assembly.
"Until we're well away," he answered gruffly, "You heard 'em. They'll be back tomorrow and probably track us down a whole lot easier in the daylight."
Tifa suppressed the urge to groan in distaste. She knew that there were others who were worse off than her. Cid's stubbornness and self-preservation, however, was outdoing all of their ailments and complaints. Tifa just knew that there had to be some other way that didn't involve running every time there was a brush with danger, especially if it meant walking their feet off.
"Hey," Tifa spoke up as a plan struck her. She didn't know if she was going to regret voicing it, or not, but her weariness rendered her just a little more careless than usual. "Why don't we just go to the city and find AVALANCHE? Maybe they'll help us, since they're the good guys."
"Tifa, are you crazy?" Cid turned on her. She hadn't expected the sudden outburst, at all, and thought her plan was a good one. "We'll get caught by Shinra, most likely. He's got these SOLDIERS crawling all around the city."
"If AVALANCHE is getting in and out, there's got to be a way around them, then." Tifa countered in just a slightly calmer voice, she could feel the eyes of the others looking at her and their ears straining to catch every word. She was feeling the regret, now.
"Alright! Go get yourself killed!" Cid said, stopping in his tracks. He held his hands out for Tifa to go on. "We're better off wandering around here where we at least have a chance than going to the city where we will get caught!"
Tifa felt the spotlight as strong on her as ever, while Cid stood waiting for her to go on. Everyone was looking at her warily as if she had done something terribly wrong. They were all with staying out in the wilderness and finding shelter instead of slipping around in the city, where they would most likely be split up.
She was unknowingly standing by herself before she squinted in the dark to see the party going on without her, only meters away. Running to catch up, Tifa hung out at the back of the crowd, contemplating her options. The embarrassment at being confronted by all of the people still burned at her blushing cheeks.
The skies were beginning to stain grey as dawn approached. The caravan had been traveling all night, not sure if they were walking in circles, or not. Eventually, they found themselves trying to all cram into a crevice of a cave in a rock face that was three times as tall as the concave overhang they had last settled into.
Tifa chose to be one of the ones to sleep outside. She knew she was a lot stronger than the three other women who were with them and could fight for herself if worst came to worst. She was settling her head on the duffel bag she had hauled when Cid sat down beside her. Although she still felt a little conflicted about talking to him, she forced herself to greet him.
"Hey," she said. Sometimes she could be too forgiving, and she wondered if this might be one of those times. Cid ran a hand through his short, blonde hair before speaking.
"Hey," he said before forcing himself to go on with a deep breath, "I guess I oughta be sorry about that."
Tifa smiled a little to herself. Zack had taught her that Cid didn't apologize easily during the time they were still together. She had seen so, firsthand, now. His words were obviously hesitant, but the guilt still showed on his face.
"It's fine, Cid," Tifa said, taking notice of his relieved expression. It was probably relief on the part he got the apology out of the way more than Tifa accepting it.
She bit her lip before willing herself to go on. Somehow, she would end up regretting things more if she didn't say what was on her mind. "It's…just that I don't care to know I'll be going from place to place, now on. I guess I'm a little stubborn for it."
"I think I can understand," Cid replied before a small silence filled where there was no conversation between them.
"Do you think…?" Tifa began before trailing off. She didn't know if she wanted to go on, accounting for what had happened earlier.
"No, I don't," Cid responded brusquely. Tifa thought that she should have been mad, but she found herself laughing, even if it was just a little bit. "I guess you can tell me." He said, prepping himself for whatever crazy idea the girl would have.
"Do you think one of us could join up with AVALANCHE and get the rest of us in the city?" Tifa said, feeling like she was repeating herself.
"Probably not," Cid sighed. "They'll recognize the crew and me. I doubt any of these other people have the guts enough to walk up to them."
"I'll do it," Tifa shrugged. She could be a shy mouse sometimes, but when it came down to it, she was willing to do the job.
"You can't," Cid answered bluntly. Tifa was slightly taken aback about how promptly he had answered her.
"Why not?" she inquired a little aggressively.
"They wouldn't let a girl into this. I know that much."
"Oh," Tifa said, seeing a flaw, "that's not fair."
Then, that's when her grand plan was fabricated.
Okay, so the story behind the making of this fic was that in my absence, I have been writing numerous things. They range from fanfiction material to original stories, but none of them really made me feel like they were able to share. This story idea came about after seeing the movie version of Twelfth Night, with the wondrous Helena Bonham Carter and other brilliant actors. I decided that it would be flippin awesome to apply a strange and humorous situation to our beloved FF7 characters :) originally, I wanted to finish the entire story before posting, but it was taking a long time. LONG TIME. Try maybe a year and a half, or longer. I would get lazy, stumble into writer's block, or get wrapped up in my offline life. And to be honest, a lot of fanfiction stories lately just haven't been ringing my bell. I found that I enjoy writing more than I do reading fanfiction. This story has up to eight and a half chapters ready to go, and I feel maybe if I actually publish them and receive feedback, any problems with writer's block and procrastination would greatly lessen.
So, in order to encourage my happy, typing fingers please review :) I enjoy positive and constructive feedback of all times, because I want to know what all of you think. And I promise you, I never ramble this much in my story notes. Expect less chit-chat in the next chapters.
This story will be updated every Thursday, starting this week ;)
...O yeah, before I shut my mouth and let you readers go in peace:
DISCLAIMER: I do not own neither Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and its franchise, or the Final Fantasy franchise. Nor do I own the songs used as my chapter titles (Schumann for this chapter; I'm a piano geek)
