Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy IX

This is the penultimate oneshot! There will be goodbyes to come yet, so I hope you like this chapter for the meantime. Enjoy!

050. Flower

Red Rose

I heard the gentle flapping of wings first. Then I heard her voice, clear and trembling of the soft wind, singing a melody that seemed so old, and warm. It was so elegant, and just like her. It was just like her to surrounded by flowers. But of course, when I finally made it to the terrace, she stopped singing and the birds flurried away. I knew I wasn't as elegant as she was, but I didn't think I was that scary.
She looked at me, serenely, the soft blue sky of midday and the clouds hovering on it floating calmly behind her, her eyes widened and doe like. And all around the grey marbled columns and further along on the terrace were flowers - red roses. So red, and full, that they looked fit to drop blood. I'd always thought that was more Beatrix's territory - she was the one with the haunted past and scars adorning her body and blood dripping from her hands (not that I could talk) - but they looked strangely good behind Dagger. The harsh, deep, red contrasted against her unmarked creamy skin, and settled against her glossy black hair. But of course - she was just too shy to know that.
I realised why the flowers looked so right next to her later. They looked so right, because the blood filled petals were just a mirror of her past and a portent of her future. She was the last survivor of an entire race, and her future was full of more blood, and more pain. Her Eidolons - her life blood, the only reminder of her past - were taken from her, the strongest of which was thrown back to her by Beatrix, contained in a blood red Garnet, just like her namesake. On her mothers grave, she lay a wreath of the blood red roses, bursting with moisture, and something that looked more sinister. She didn't whimper, or cry - she was stronger than that now. She just lay the wreath down, and looked up to the sky.
When she asked for my dagger, I worried - I panicked that soon, I may see her crimson blood dotted on the flowers and she'd be no more. Bit she coaxed me into it, and eventually I have her my dagger, throwing it loosely to where she was standing on the end of the pier. She told me to remember her as she was, and I worried internally, but I trusted the smile on her face. She looked up to Alexandria, the city of cranes that it was now, and she hacked through her beautiful ebony hair. I watched as the strands twisted and twirled in the air past me, and she smiled, as though a great weight had been removed from her shoulders. I could have sworn I saw a strand or two of her black hair lace their way around the blooms of the red roses standing on the grave behind us.

But it wasn't to last. I can remember exactly, in my last moments, how she looked. Behind her, lay a vast expanse of yellowish, orange sky, dead upon arrival. The hulking great airship was a mesh of umber wood and steely grey plating - but it was just a blur to me, a gateway to a future I'd stopped considering. I was kneeling on on knee, and I can remember how the ground felt dead beneath me - the dry, dead plants cracked beneath my knee and foot, and the soil was equally as dry, rock hard, and as infertile as possible. Nothing was green there, everything was grey. Dead, or dying, and a the colour of regret - of years of glory gone past and waned. She looked tired too, swaying slightly on her feet but grounded by how earnestly and confusedly and worriedly her wide, red-rimmed, sparkling dark brown eyes looked into my far less impressive blue ones. She was biting her bitten lip to keep it from trembling, and her eyebrows were pinched. With a few words, we parted, and as I felt her eyes on me as the airship flew up as away, I didn't look back. I couldn't look back. I didn't want to remember her crying at me. I did love her - I think it may have been true love - I was not cruel enough to keep the ending long and messy. I wanted to remember her as I first truly saw her: singing a warm melody from a life gone past, the white doves surrounding her, and the red roses, filled to the brim with moisture, framing her.
Those red roses were the last thing I knew.

For reference, the Red Rose symbolises True Love in plant symbolism.

So I hope that you liked this chapter! Please, review if you liked it and follow for more. Thanks!