Disclaimer: Mine? I wish!
AN: Based of the combined effect of reading Robin McKinley's _Beauty_ (great author), the legend of Psyche, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and the episode of 'Giselle' from "Princess Tutu"
(Stop snickering all of you.)
Oh, and Cloud fans, I wouldn't read this if I were you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The fact that the normally observant Tifa Lockheart didn't realize that her new home in Nibelheim was right across from a huge mansion speaks of the enormous amount of shrubbery in it's lawn and the almost supernatural decay of the manse itself. It wasn't until six months after her family moved in that she noticed and finally asked her new friend Aeris Gainsbourough about the abandoned mansion.
"The haunted house?" Aeris Gainsbourough was 5'5", delicate-boned, rosy-cheeked and the favorite of the local boys. She had long chestnut-colored hair pulled back in a high ponytail that fell past her hips, amazing green eyes and a flowerlike heart shaped face. She was open, warm and friendly, and even if Tifa thought her a bit too fond of the color pink, she had been her first and best friend here. Aeris had a talented green thumb and at 22, wanted to take over her mother Elmyra's flower shop at the end of college, where she was an undergraduate in pre-med. Tifa had a sneaking suspicion it was to give her mother more free time to see one of the local mechanics, Barret Wallace. Barret had adopted a war orphan named Marlene and Aeris, who had been adopted by Elmyra herself at age six, was almost giddy with the thought of having a younger sister all to herself.
"You're joking?" Tifa Lockheart was quite similar, in nature if not appearance. Both were kind people, always wanting to help others. Tifa, though was almost forcefully optimistic and cheerful, while Aeris seemed more sedate, if more naive. Tifa also was two inches taller than Aeris, and had studied martial arts from a young age, giving her a more developed build. Her hair was equally long, but tied back at her waist and darker, almost ebony in shade. Her skin had an almost unnatural pallor, she neither tanned nor freckled nor burned in the sun. Her eyes were even more startling than Aeris, being a deep red that were either the color of old blood or fine burgundy, depending on if the speaker was an enemy or a friend. Despite her rapidly gaining popularity with the young male population, neither she nor Aeris were jealous of each other. Aeris was quite devoted to her fiancee Zack Gato and Tifa, although two years younger than Aeris, was too streetwise from helping at her father's bar to have her head turned by the attention. Plus, she had a crush on a young man, Cloud Strife, the local . . . Aeris would have called him a ne'er-do-well if Tifa hadn't been so attached to him.
Currently the two were sitting in a cafe, the Turtle's Paradise, around the center of Nibelheim. To the south, near the entrance of Nibelheim was the Gainsbourough house, just across from the Tiny Bronco, the station where Barret worked. In the other direction, towards Mt. Nibel, was the Seventh Heaven, the bar that Tifa and her father owned and lived above. Next to them, towards the town, were the Highwinds, Cid and Shera who owned the Tiny Bronco. The Seventh Heaven marked the boundary of Nibelheim, but just beyond them was the blot that made up the Valentine property. A small tan road skirted the edge of the blot and wound its way to and up Mt. Nibel, to the Mako powerplant.
"Not at all. Didn't the real estate agent tell your father the story about the people who used to live there?"
"Do you honestly believe a salesman would jeapardize his commission?"
"Ah, well, for the sake of safety?" Tifa arched her eyebrow in response to that. "But really, you don't know?"
"Would I have asked if I did?"
"Guess not. Okay, it goes like this. A long time ago, a really long time ago there was this assassin who lived in that house-"
"How did people know he was an assassin?"
"What?"
"How did people know he was an assassin. Isn't it unusual for stuff like that to be known by everybody?"
"Oh, well, perhaps assassin is too strong a word. Maybe enforcer would be a better term. Anyway this was a long time ago, and he worked for that old geezer, Shinra-"
"Rufus or Ivan?"
"Do you want to hear this or not?"
"Sorry, I'll stop interrupting."
"Good. Anyway, it doesn't matter. He was a Turk, and you know what that means. He must have been very good at it, because he made enough money to build that house. His name was Vincent Valentine. Anyway, at some point in his career, he fell in love with Lucrecia Olsen, who was one of Shinra's top scientists. Being a Turk, no matter how skilled he was or how wealthy it made him, obviously isn't in the same class as a Mako researcher. The two of them made a suicide pact to be together, but after Vincent killed himself, Lucrecia married one of the head scientists of the Jenova project, Simon Hojo. Vincent's ghost is supposed to still be there, waiting for his lover to join him."
Tifa was skeptical. "That doesn't sound very scary at all."
"That's not all of it. The anniversary of his death falls on Holloween. It's said that each year, on the anniversary, the souls of the other Turks wander looking for a substitute to take Lucrecia's place with Vincent. Because of the oaths they swore while living, they cannot leave this world without him, and he will not leave without someone to replace Lucrecia in his heart."
"I still don't see-"
"On Holloween night, no girl between the ages of sixteen to twenty-five will go out or answer the door, just in case it might be the Turks to take them away for an undead bridegroom. I wouldn't live anywhere near the Valentine mansion, not for twice his wealth."
"Surely you don't believe this junk!"
"It's not junk!" Aeris leaned forward, as if imparting a secret. "Do you know Ruu, the protege of the Drosselmeyer Academy?" Tifa nodded. "Well, she's only seventeen now, right? Last year, before you moved here, she made the mistake of opening the door Holloween night. She thought it was just some trick-or-treaters. Instead there was this red haired man, dressed in a messy navy suit, who introduced himself as Reno of the Turks. She tried to shut the door in his face and he kicked it open. He knocked her out and when she woke up she was in the mansion itself, surrounded by these people in navy suits. She met Vincent Valentine, but he took one look at her and said she wasn't it and then they all disappeared. She tried to get out, but the doors were all locked and she couldn't break open the window. Then when the sun came up, a door opened from the outside. The thing is, she said, when she went back there were several doors there, but the only footsteps she saw in the dust were the ones she took when she left."
Tifa looked mildly intrigued. "You said she saw Vincent Valentine himself, what did he look like?"
"That's the most horrifying part of all! He wasn't human any more-he was a gigantic beast! He had fangs, pointed ears, batwings and claws, both scales and feathers! His eyes glowed red! Imagine spending forever with that!" Aeris shivered.
And Tifa went back to looking skeptical. "It sounds more as if someone was playing a practical joke on her."
"It's true!"
"Yeah right. Come on, if we don't hurry there won't be any seats left at the Anonymous 4 concert." Tifa stood up and brushed off her black skirt. Aeris followed, shaking her head and sighing. "Still, come Holloween, if you want to stay over at my house you're welcome to."
Several months past, and it was Holloween. Zack and Aeris had finally set a date for the wedding, at the end of May, and Cloud and Tifa been dating for a month. On Holloween both sets were left to the house by themselves, Tifa's father was visiting some relatives in Kalm and Elmyra and Barret were finally going out on a date. Marlene was at a slumber party hosted by her friend Yuffie Kisaragi, which left the couples to pass out candy to the kids of Nibelheim.
"There probably won't be too many now, it's getting too late." Tifa said, closing the door on Little Red Riding Hood and her twin brother the Wolf. It was already nine and the stream had slowed down to a trickle over the last half hour.
"Man, I never realized how many kids lived here. When I was little, it was like I was the only kid on the street."
"Really? This reminds me of Kalm, except it's warmer here. Back there, only teenagers would be out past 7:30, it's simply too cold for little kids this late in the year."
"So you're going to turn off the front light now?"
"I'll wait for one more. I'm glad we don't need to man the bar tonight, I'd hate to see something happen to the kids out there."
"That's great." Cloud stretched out on the couch, watching a kiddy cartoon special. "Out of curiosity, what are you supposed to be anyhow?"
Tifa placed the bowl of candy on the dresser and her hand on her hip. "Why, I'm a flapper, of course." She twirled around, allowing the short, thin black skirt to swirl around. She also had a white long-sleeved button up with black embroidery, a heavy pewter chain for a necklace and a beret perched jauntily atop her head. "It's certainly more imaginative than you, mummyman."
Cloud just grinned. "Nothing wrong with my outfit. It's cheap, it's traditional and it didn't take much work."
Tifa was about to respond when the doorbell rang. "Last one" she told Cloud while opening the door. But instead of being another little kid there was a bald man, about 6'6", dressed in a dark suit and glasses. "Are you Tifa Lockheart?"
Tifa's heart jumped to her throat, remembering the story Aeris had retold her yesterday. Then she shook of her apprehension, sure it was some traveler interested in a drink. "Yes. I'm afraid the bar is closed tonight, so . . . "
"I'm Rude of the Turks. I'm here to escort you to the Valentine mansion."
"Wha-what? Oh I get it, this is some sort of joke, isn't it? How much did Cloud and Zack pay you to do this?"
"This is no joke. Please come with me." He stepped forward, just outside the doorway and clasped her hand. She jerked away and turned to run, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her out. She cried out "Cloud!" once before something cool and round touched her neck. A tingle then a feeling of sleepiness overcame her. She just had time to think 'Materia' before darkness swallowed everything.
When she woke up again, she was in a large parlor. There were doors to the side and one to the back of her, and in front was a large staircase that split off to the sides. Above her was a cobwebbed chandelier, which glowed a dim pale blue. Directly in front of her was a stain glass window which the moon was shining through. Five highly stylized figures were represented therein. The top left had black hair, the top right was bald and had a black band across the eyes, the lower left red hair and carried something long and black and the last pale blonde with sapphire colored bits for eyes. All four on the edge were in navy blue, but the central figure was all black and red, except for a white face and something gold in the right hand.
Tifa stood up shakily and looked around. The stairs looked rather frail and rickety, she wouldn't use them except as a last option. The two doors directly to the side of her were guarded. On her left was a young woman, with pale blonde hair and sky-blue eyes. Tifa dismissed getting by her; although she was unarmed, she carried herself the same way Tifa did, with the easy assurance of a lifelong martial artist. Shaky as she was, Tifa didn't think she'd be able to pass her easily. On the right a slightly taller young man, with messy red hair and a really messy navy suit, who must have been the Reno of Ruu's story, looked more promising. He appeared either half-asleep or slightly drunk, but then he opened his eyes and grinned at her. Then he raised the black stick in his hand and pointed it at her. A spark of electricity shot out and Tifa changed her mind. One good hit from that, and she might be out for hours. That left the door behind her.
Before she could try anything, however the door opened and two-no three, figures entered. The first was Rude, and she gave up any hope of getting through that way. The second was shorter, a Wutain with shoulder-length straight black hair and a black bidi in the center of his forehead. Over the second's shoulder was Aeris, dressed in a frilly white and pink dress. The Wutain set Aeris next to Tifa, then the two Turks stepped back to stand guard at the door.
Tifa hugged Aeris to support the crying girl. "What happened?" she whispered.
"I-I d-don't know. W-we opened the d-door and that-t g-guy knocked Zack-k out-t with a m-mar-" Aeris drew in a deep hiccuping breath.
"Materia?" Aeris nodded. "Same thing happened to me."
"Oh Tifa, what if we have-"
"Don't think about it." Tifa considered her options, then came to a grim decision. "He let Ruu go, didn't he? Worst comes to worst, I'll go."
"Tifa, you can't!"
"Oh yes I can. You have a fiancee to get back to. I-"
"A fiancee?" A smooth, deep voice cut off her speech. "Which of you brought her here?"
Aeris and Tifa looked up, towards the staircase where the voice had come from. 'Ruu hadn't been lying' thought Tifa and had a hysterical urge to laugh. What was standing there fitted the description perfectly. It was tall, a head taller than Rude, and stood on two feet, but no one would have mistaken it for a human. It's scales were deep purple in color, and black claws replaced fingers and toes. It had black bat wings, but also flame colored feathers. It's mouth was filled with fangs and it's ears ended in tapered red tufts. Most horrifying was it's eyes. Like Tifa's, they were red, but a brighter, like fresh blood. Looking at it, Tifa couldn't believe that this thing was ever supposed to be human. Oddly enough, in one hand it carried a small bouquet of flowers, a single red rose among the bundle of rosemary if her guess was in any way accurate.
The Wutain stepped forward from behind them. "I brought her, Valentine. There was a boy with her, but I didn't realize they were affianced."
"You should be more careful Tseng. I have no desire to break up two people with a chance at happiness." It turned towards Tifa. Something flickered across its eyes and it moved towards her. Tifa backed up, but then Rude reached out and held her in place. The claw that was free reached out and cupped her chin, forcing her to look directly into the eyes of the demon. To her surprise, the inhuman eyes radiated great pain and loneliness. Could Aeris's story possibly be true? "And are you bonded to some young man?" It rumbled at her.
"No." Tifa wasn't sure if she was more surprised by her answer or the clear, confident way that she said it. What of Cloud? He already said he'd let Aeris go, why was she trying to sacrifice herself now?
"Yes" the other almost whispered. To her surprise the demon got down on one knee and extended the bouquet to her. Almost hypnotized by the glowing red eyes, her hand seemed to reach out to it without her conscious control. "NO! TIFA! Don't take it!" Aeris tried to rush in to stop her, but the blonde woman held her back.
We'll never know if Tifa would have taken the fatal bouquet or might have managed to rouse herself from that trance, because at that moment a large rent was torn through the old door by a humongous sword. "Zack!" sobbed Aeris with relief. The hole was widened until both Zack Gato and Cloud Strife could be seen.
The Turks prepared themselves for battle. The blonde woman thrust Aeris towards the would-be saviors and she and Rude took a fighting stance. Tseng stepped back behind him, then drew a gun and pointed it straight at Cloud. Reno, on the other hand, merely stepped away from the wall. He might have been loosening up for the fight, but Tifa couldn't be sure because when Zack and Cloud had broken in she had immediately been swept behind a large black wing, almost as if she was being protected by her captors, rather than being rescued from them.
"Let them go!" snarled Cloud. While Zack carried the large sword so characteristic of the SOLDIERs, Cloud had to make do with the semi-automatic passed around to the second class.
"Her" Tseng replied smoothly, gesturing to Aeris. "You may take. She is free to leave and live out her life. But this one is the one we've been searching for all this time. You cannot have her."
"B&))@^*t!!!" Yelled Cloud. "I'm not leaving Tifa to be eaten and killed by some monster!"
"I assure you, despite whatever rumors you may have heard, I am not cannibalistic." The low rumble of the demon's voice might have been intended to be placating, but had rather the opposite effect. "Besides, she may be here of her own free will."
"I find that difficult to believe." Zack replied dryly. He took an exploratory swing at Reno, who blocked it with his nightstick.
"Leave" Valentine ordered quietly. "I don't want to hurt you." From some nowhere he withdrew a black gun. For an ordinary man it would have been quite large and heavy, but in that clawed hand it looked as small as a Derringer. He fired over their heads, and a large purple spider-like monster fell from behind them. Cloud opened fire in return.
"NNNOOO!!!" Tifa didn't know where that scream came from or how she got past the monster in front of her or even why she did it, but suddenly she was darting in front of Valentine as if to protect him. The bullets stitched a dotted red line across her shirt, before everything fell silent. And she nearly fell to, before being caught by a muscled and scaled arm.
Vincent leveled the Death Penalty at Cloud. "I think you've done enough." he said, then fired straight at him. Too shocked to move, Cloud only had time to gape before being hit. Not by an ordinary bullet, indeed, there was physical mark at all, but suddenly his breath caught and his limbs lost all their strength and trembled. He turned rapidly fading eyesight to his friends and saw their horrified faces before darkness swept up.
Aeris and Zack backed away from the crumbling skeleton that once was their friend. Then Zack grimly pushed Aeris behind him with a set expression on his face. He raised his sword-"Don't" came the low thunder. "Just go. There's nothing you can do now. She's dying." Zack dropped his eyes to the still white figure cradled in the demon's arms. There was still a slight rise and fall of her chest, but blood had rapidly turned the white shirt deep red. There was no way Tifa could survive that. Zack took a step forward. Even if he couldn't save his friends, he would at least avenge them.
"Don't bother, kiddo." Reno spoke up. "At best, your sword would pass right through us. At worst, you might end up like your friend on the floor here."
"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." The blonde woman intoned. The Turks all took a step away from the living couple and vanished, taking Tifa with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tifa returned to consciousness slowly. She was lying on something soft and-velvet, her mind suddenly kicked in. But the only velvet they had in the house had been her mother's wedding dress. Besides, what would she be doing lying on her mother's wedding dress during Holloween? With that reference, her memory came flooding back to her. She opened her eyes and gasped.
She was lying in a coffin lined with red velvet and above her hovered those glowing red eyes. But this time they were set in a more human face. Vincent Valentine was as pale as she, and his black lashes and brows drew attention to his inhuman eyes. He had finely carved features, high cheekbones and thin lips. His long black hair fell like silk past his shoulders, some of it pooling beside her neck. "Why did you do it?"
"D-do what?"
"Were you trying to save him?" Him. Cloud. She shook her head. "It just wasn't fair."
"What wasn't fair?"
"I don't know. You. Life. Dying like that."
"Would you accept my offer?"
"NO!" She hadn't meant to be so vehement about it. "Why do you need a replacement anyway?"
He leaned back so that she could sit up. Even as a human, he was still quite tall she noticed. The coffin was placed atop a table and somewhat raised above that and he could still peer in easily. "It was her idea originally. If we couldn't be together in life, then she'd join me in death. I waited so long. Then Tseng died, slashed across the gut, and told me she had married Hojo. That's when I became Chaos, that demon. Tseng stayed with me, and slowly brought me back to sanity. Also, he was waiting for someone himself." He noticed that she was gaping. "Tseng called me an Oni; my hate and anger at my betrayal changed me into Chaos as a form of revenge. It took me several years to gain control of my form."
"Rude was the next to die, a freak aneurysm. It was around that time that I started hunting for someone to take Lucrecia's place with me, a sort of revenge for her betrayal. Tseng and Rude kept me here, away from harming the living. Then Reno arrived, having took on one too many in one of the jobs for Rufus. But he tried to leave. That's when we discovered we were trapped here."
"Go on."
"For some reason none of us could move on. When Elena, the final Turk died, she was the one who finally figured it out. How our oaths bound us together and while one couldn't pass on, none of the others could either. And how I needed someone else to fulfill the pact with me." He sat back and raised a hand to run through his hair. Tifa realized then that while his right hand, the one he was resting on the side of the coffin was normal, the left that he had just raised had been replaced with a golden claw. He caught her glance and grimaced. "A hazard of being a Turk." He then took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "If it was just me, it wouldn't be so bad. But the others are so tired of this twilight existence. I can't bind them here for eternity just to be my companions."
Tifa was indeed sympathetic and somehow he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. A low rumble wound it's way out of his throat and she realized he was laughing. There was a slight bitter tinge to his voice when he said, "I doubt you would feel the same way if you realized I had killed your lover."
"What?" Tifa's voice came out in a whisper.
"That young man, with the strange blonde hair. He shot you." He waved an arm across her once-white, now-red shirt. She reached up with one hand and felt the trail of holes across it's surface. "How did I-"
"Materia. This mansion was built near one of the few natural mako springs in the world and was a storehouse for many of Shinra's top materia orbs. And materia is one of the few things we can still use normally, perhaps even better than we could alive. We cast a mastered Cure on you."
He continued with his story. "I shot him after that." A pause. "Things aren't quite the same when you're dead. Nothing can touch you, and you can only touch something else if you concentrate on them. Weapons don't quite work in the same way. Reno's nightstick used to be an ordinary blackjack, but now not only is it solid, it acts as a taser. The Death Penalty" He reached past her and lifted the black gun she had seen before. "And Tseng's pistols don't have any bullets in them, but they can still hit. Once, Tseng escorted a girl home and her father was there, drunk. He tried to hit her and Tseng shot him in the knee. The flesh began to decay and by the end of the week they had to amputate his leg off. Last night when I shot him he began to age at an incredibly fast rate, then he began to shrivel up like a mummy. When he hit the ground he was nothing more than a skeleton crumbling to dust."
Tifa raised her hands to her face. "Oh no" she whispered. "This can't be."
"I'm sorry." He whispered and held his hands out to her. "I can't bring him back. He didn't stay and I don't know what happens after you leave."
"The Lifestream. Aeris always said you became part of the Lifestream when you died." She took a deep shaky breath. "It's okay. I always knew . . . always knew he was only using me to get to Aeris. Every time we were together I could see it in his eyes."
"Why did you stay with him then?" She flashed a shaky, tear-filled smile up at him. "Because I loved him. And even if he didn't want me I still wanted him to be happy. I was the closest he could get to that."
"A woman worth more than rubies." He seemed to be quoting to himself. "He was a fool not to appreciate you more."
"And Lucrecia was a fool to give up a man who would give his life for her." She responded
"I guess we're just two of a kind then." He looked up past the stone walls. "It's dawn. You're free to go. And again, words cannot express my regret about what happened tonight."
She clung to the arm that had the claw. "No, please, don't leave me alone. I'm so tired of being alone."
He had picked up both the Death Penalty and the bouquet again. The single white rose in the center was withering already. "But-"
She reached out and plucked the bouquet from his hands. "You're not at all like him. And I don't know if I'm anything like her, though I hope not."
"You're not."
"We're not who we'd choose for each other. I can't say we're meant to be, given the circumstances." She tugged him down into the coffin with her. "But too many people go into the dark alone. So let's take this chance that's offered to us."
As the first rays of light touched the ruined mansion, the withered white rose burst into full bloom, with deep scarlet blood red petals. He lay down with her and pulled the lid of the coffin shut. Embracing, he whispered, "Tseng and Elena will be glad to finally be able to rest."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Zack and Aeris returned with the search parties the next day, no one was found. However, some odd relics were discovered, that couldn't possibly have survived all that time in the mansion. In the parlor there was a painting, a man in traditional Wutai dress and a smiling, blonde, blue-eyed woman in clothes that dated back a century or more, in such vibrant colors you would think it was new. In the kitchen there was a half-full bottle of whiskey with a wrinkled navy tie wrapped around the neck. On top of the piano was a small cache of Materia orbs, including a mastered Cure and Sleep. And in the depths of the basement, where no light ever reached, a rose bush bloomed, with roses of every shade between the lightest cream and the deepest burgundy.
~~~~~~~~~~OWARI~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whoohoo! It's done! And it only took me a week of not doing any homework at all!
(See kids, this is why pennames were invented. So that any web-addicted professor can't connect deed to person.)
(Can you tell it's 1 AM?)
AN: Based of the combined effect of reading Robin McKinley's _Beauty_ (great author), the legend of Psyche, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and the episode of 'Giselle' from "Princess Tutu"
(Stop snickering all of you.)
Oh, and Cloud fans, I wouldn't read this if I were you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The fact that the normally observant Tifa Lockheart didn't realize that her new home in Nibelheim was right across from a huge mansion speaks of the enormous amount of shrubbery in it's lawn and the almost supernatural decay of the manse itself. It wasn't until six months after her family moved in that she noticed and finally asked her new friend Aeris Gainsbourough about the abandoned mansion.
"The haunted house?" Aeris Gainsbourough was 5'5", delicate-boned, rosy-cheeked and the favorite of the local boys. She had long chestnut-colored hair pulled back in a high ponytail that fell past her hips, amazing green eyes and a flowerlike heart shaped face. She was open, warm and friendly, and even if Tifa thought her a bit too fond of the color pink, she had been her first and best friend here. Aeris had a talented green thumb and at 22, wanted to take over her mother Elmyra's flower shop at the end of college, where she was an undergraduate in pre-med. Tifa had a sneaking suspicion it was to give her mother more free time to see one of the local mechanics, Barret Wallace. Barret had adopted a war orphan named Marlene and Aeris, who had been adopted by Elmyra herself at age six, was almost giddy with the thought of having a younger sister all to herself.
"You're joking?" Tifa Lockheart was quite similar, in nature if not appearance. Both were kind people, always wanting to help others. Tifa, though was almost forcefully optimistic and cheerful, while Aeris seemed more sedate, if more naive. Tifa also was two inches taller than Aeris, and had studied martial arts from a young age, giving her a more developed build. Her hair was equally long, but tied back at her waist and darker, almost ebony in shade. Her skin had an almost unnatural pallor, she neither tanned nor freckled nor burned in the sun. Her eyes were even more startling than Aeris, being a deep red that were either the color of old blood or fine burgundy, depending on if the speaker was an enemy or a friend. Despite her rapidly gaining popularity with the young male population, neither she nor Aeris were jealous of each other. Aeris was quite devoted to her fiancee Zack Gato and Tifa, although two years younger than Aeris, was too streetwise from helping at her father's bar to have her head turned by the attention. Plus, she had a crush on a young man, Cloud Strife, the local . . . Aeris would have called him a ne'er-do-well if Tifa hadn't been so attached to him.
Currently the two were sitting in a cafe, the Turtle's Paradise, around the center of Nibelheim. To the south, near the entrance of Nibelheim was the Gainsbourough house, just across from the Tiny Bronco, the station where Barret worked. In the other direction, towards Mt. Nibel, was the Seventh Heaven, the bar that Tifa and her father owned and lived above. Next to them, towards the town, were the Highwinds, Cid and Shera who owned the Tiny Bronco. The Seventh Heaven marked the boundary of Nibelheim, but just beyond them was the blot that made up the Valentine property. A small tan road skirted the edge of the blot and wound its way to and up Mt. Nibel, to the Mako powerplant.
"Not at all. Didn't the real estate agent tell your father the story about the people who used to live there?"
"Do you honestly believe a salesman would jeapardize his commission?"
"Ah, well, for the sake of safety?" Tifa arched her eyebrow in response to that. "But really, you don't know?"
"Would I have asked if I did?"
"Guess not. Okay, it goes like this. A long time ago, a really long time ago there was this assassin who lived in that house-"
"How did people know he was an assassin?"
"What?"
"How did people know he was an assassin. Isn't it unusual for stuff like that to be known by everybody?"
"Oh, well, perhaps assassin is too strong a word. Maybe enforcer would be a better term. Anyway this was a long time ago, and he worked for that old geezer, Shinra-"
"Rufus or Ivan?"
"Do you want to hear this or not?"
"Sorry, I'll stop interrupting."
"Good. Anyway, it doesn't matter. He was a Turk, and you know what that means. He must have been very good at it, because he made enough money to build that house. His name was Vincent Valentine. Anyway, at some point in his career, he fell in love with Lucrecia Olsen, who was one of Shinra's top scientists. Being a Turk, no matter how skilled he was or how wealthy it made him, obviously isn't in the same class as a Mako researcher. The two of them made a suicide pact to be together, but after Vincent killed himself, Lucrecia married one of the head scientists of the Jenova project, Simon Hojo. Vincent's ghost is supposed to still be there, waiting for his lover to join him."
Tifa was skeptical. "That doesn't sound very scary at all."
"That's not all of it. The anniversary of his death falls on Holloween. It's said that each year, on the anniversary, the souls of the other Turks wander looking for a substitute to take Lucrecia's place with Vincent. Because of the oaths they swore while living, they cannot leave this world without him, and he will not leave without someone to replace Lucrecia in his heart."
"I still don't see-"
"On Holloween night, no girl between the ages of sixteen to twenty-five will go out or answer the door, just in case it might be the Turks to take them away for an undead bridegroom. I wouldn't live anywhere near the Valentine mansion, not for twice his wealth."
"Surely you don't believe this junk!"
"It's not junk!" Aeris leaned forward, as if imparting a secret. "Do you know Ruu, the protege of the Drosselmeyer Academy?" Tifa nodded. "Well, she's only seventeen now, right? Last year, before you moved here, she made the mistake of opening the door Holloween night. She thought it was just some trick-or-treaters. Instead there was this red haired man, dressed in a messy navy suit, who introduced himself as Reno of the Turks. She tried to shut the door in his face and he kicked it open. He knocked her out and when she woke up she was in the mansion itself, surrounded by these people in navy suits. She met Vincent Valentine, but he took one look at her and said she wasn't it and then they all disappeared. She tried to get out, but the doors were all locked and she couldn't break open the window. Then when the sun came up, a door opened from the outside. The thing is, she said, when she went back there were several doors there, but the only footsteps she saw in the dust were the ones she took when she left."
Tifa looked mildly intrigued. "You said she saw Vincent Valentine himself, what did he look like?"
"That's the most horrifying part of all! He wasn't human any more-he was a gigantic beast! He had fangs, pointed ears, batwings and claws, both scales and feathers! His eyes glowed red! Imagine spending forever with that!" Aeris shivered.
And Tifa went back to looking skeptical. "It sounds more as if someone was playing a practical joke on her."
"It's true!"
"Yeah right. Come on, if we don't hurry there won't be any seats left at the Anonymous 4 concert." Tifa stood up and brushed off her black skirt. Aeris followed, shaking her head and sighing. "Still, come Holloween, if you want to stay over at my house you're welcome to."
Several months past, and it was Holloween. Zack and Aeris had finally set a date for the wedding, at the end of May, and Cloud and Tifa been dating for a month. On Holloween both sets were left to the house by themselves, Tifa's father was visiting some relatives in Kalm and Elmyra and Barret were finally going out on a date. Marlene was at a slumber party hosted by her friend Yuffie Kisaragi, which left the couples to pass out candy to the kids of Nibelheim.
"There probably won't be too many now, it's getting too late." Tifa said, closing the door on Little Red Riding Hood and her twin brother the Wolf. It was already nine and the stream had slowed down to a trickle over the last half hour.
"Man, I never realized how many kids lived here. When I was little, it was like I was the only kid on the street."
"Really? This reminds me of Kalm, except it's warmer here. Back there, only teenagers would be out past 7:30, it's simply too cold for little kids this late in the year."
"So you're going to turn off the front light now?"
"I'll wait for one more. I'm glad we don't need to man the bar tonight, I'd hate to see something happen to the kids out there."
"That's great." Cloud stretched out on the couch, watching a kiddy cartoon special. "Out of curiosity, what are you supposed to be anyhow?"
Tifa placed the bowl of candy on the dresser and her hand on her hip. "Why, I'm a flapper, of course." She twirled around, allowing the short, thin black skirt to swirl around. She also had a white long-sleeved button up with black embroidery, a heavy pewter chain for a necklace and a beret perched jauntily atop her head. "It's certainly more imaginative than you, mummyman."
Cloud just grinned. "Nothing wrong with my outfit. It's cheap, it's traditional and it didn't take much work."
Tifa was about to respond when the doorbell rang. "Last one" she told Cloud while opening the door. But instead of being another little kid there was a bald man, about 6'6", dressed in a dark suit and glasses. "Are you Tifa Lockheart?"
Tifa's heart jumped to her throat, remembering the story Aeris had retold her yesterday. Then she shook of her apprehension, sure it was some traveler interested in a drink. "Yes. I'm afraid the bar is closed tonight, so . . . "
"I'm Rude of the Turks. I'm here to escort you to the Valentine mansion."
"Wha-what? Oh I get it, this is some sort of joke, isn't it? How much did Cloud and Zack pay you to do this?"
"This is no joke. Please come with me." He stepped forward, just outside the doorway and clasped her hand. She jerked away and turned to run, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her out. She cried out "Cloud!" once before something cool and round touched her neck. A tingle then a feeling of sleepiness overcame her. She just had time to think 'Materia' before darkness swallowed everything.
When she woke up again, she was in a large parlor. There were doors to the side and one to the back of her, and in front was a large staircase that split off to the sides. Above her was a cobwebbed chandelier, which glowed a dim pale blue. Directly in front of her was a stain glass window which the moon was shining through. Five highly stylized figures were represented therein. The top left had black hair, the top right was bald and had a black band across the eyes, the lower left red hair and carried something long and black and the last pale blonde with sapphire colored bits for eyes. All four on the edge were in navy blue, but the central figure was all black and red, except for a white face and something gold in the right hand.
Tifa stood up shakily and looked around. The stairs looked rather frail and rickety, she wouldn't use them except as a last option. The two doors directly to the side of her were guarded. On her left was a young woman, with pale blonde hair and sky-blue eyes. Tifa dismissed getting by her; although she was unarmed, she carried herself the same way Tifa did, with the easy assurance of a lifelong martial artist. Shaky as she was, Tifa didn't think she'd be able to pass her easily. On the right a slightly taller young man, with messy red hair and a really messy navy suit, who must have been the Reno of Ruu's story, looked more promising. He appeared either half-asleep or slightly drunk, but then he opened his eyes and grinned at her. Then he raised the black stick in his hand and pointed it at her. A spark of electricity shot out and Tifa changed her mind. One good hit from that, and she might be out for hours. That left the door behind her.
Before she could try anything, however the door opened and two-no three, figures entered. The first was Rude, and she gave up any hope of getting through that way. The second was shorter, a Wutain with shoulder-length straight black hair and a black bidi in the center of his forehead. Over the second's shoulder was Aeris, dressed in a frilly white and pink dress. The Wutain set Aeris next to Tifa, then the two Turks stepped back to stand guard at the door.
Tifa hugged Aeris to support the crying girl. "What happened?" she whispered.
"I-I d-don't know. W-we opened the d-door and that-t g-guy knocked Zack-k out-t with a m-mar-" Aeris drew in a deep hiccuping breath.
"Materia?" Aeris nodded. "Same thing happened to me."
"Oh Tifa, what if we have-"
"Don't think about it." Tifa considered her options, then came to a grim decision. "He let Ruu go, didn't he? Worst comes to worst, I'll go."
"Tifa, you can't!"
"Oh yes I can. You have a fiancee to get back to. I-"
"A fiancee?" A smooth, deep voice cut off her speech. "Which of you brought her here?"
Aeris and Tifa looked up, towards the staircase where the voice had come from. 'Ruu hadn't been lying' thought Tifa and had a hysterical urge to laugh. What was standing there fitted the description perfectly. It was tall, a head taller than Rude, and stood on two feet, but no one would have mistaken it for a human. It's scales were deep purple in color, and black claws replaced fingers and toes. It had black bat wings, but also flame colored feathers. It's mouth was filled with fangs and it's ears ended in tapered red tufts. Most horrifying was it's eyes. Like Tifa's, they were red, but a brighter, like fresh blood. Looking at it, Tifa couldn't believe that this thing was ever supposed to be human. Oddly enough, in one hand it carried a small bouquet of flowers, a single red rose among the bundle of rosemary if her guess was in any way accurate.
The Wutain stepped forward from behind them. "I brought her, Valentine. There was a boy with her, but I didn't realize they were affianced."
"You should be more careful Tseng. I have no desire to break up two people with a chance at happiness." It turned towards Tifa. Something flickered across its eyes and it moved towards her. Tifa backed up, but then Rude reached out and held her in place. The claw that was free reached out and cupped her chin, forcing her to look directly into the eyes of the demon. To her surprise, the inhuman eyes radiated great pain and loneliness. Could Aeris's story possibly be true? "And are you bonded to some young man?" It rumbled at her.
"No." Tifa wasn't sure if she was more surprised by her answer or the clear, confident way that she said it. What of Cloud? He already said he'd let Aeris go, why was she trying to sacrifice herself now?
"Yes" the other almost whispered. To her surprise the demon got down on one knee and extended the bouquet to her. Almost hypnotized by the glowing red eyes, her hand seemed to reach out to it without her conscious control. "NO! TIFA! Don't take it!" Aeris tried to rush in to stop her, but the blonde woman held her back.
We'll never know if Tifa would have taken the fatal bouquet or might have managed to rouse herself from that trance, because at that moment a large rent was torn through the old door by a humongous sword. "Zack!" sobbed Aeris with relief. The hole was widened until both Zack Gato and Cloud Strife could be seen.
The Turks prepared themselves for battle. The blonde woman thrust Aeris towards the would-be saviors and she and Rude took a fighting stance. Tseng stepped back behind him, then drew a gun and pointed it straight at Cloud. Reno, on the other hand, merely stepped away from the wall. He might have been loosening up for the fight, but Tifa couldn't be sure because when Zack and Cloud had broken in she had immediately been swept behind a large black wing, almost as if she was being protected by her captors, rather than being rescued from them.
"Let them go!" snarled Cloud. While Zack carried the large sword so characteristic of the SOLDIERs, Cloud had to make do with the semi-automatic passed around to the second class.
"Her" Tseng replied smoothly, gesturing to Aeris. "You may take. She is free to leave and live out her life. But this one is the one we've been searching for all this time. You cannot have her."
"B&))@^*t!!!" Yelled Cloud. "I'm not leaving Tifa to be eaten and killed by some monster!"
"I assure you, despite whatever rumors you may have heard, I am not cannibalistic." The low rumble of the demon's voice might have been intended to be placating, but had rather the opposite effect. "Besides, she may be here of her own free will."
"I find that difficult to believe." Zack replied dryly. He took an exploratory swing at Reno, who blocked it with his nightstick.
"Leave" Valentine ordered quietly. "I don't want to hurt you." From some nowhere he withdrew a black gun. For an ordinary man it would have been quite large and heavy, but in that clawed hand it looked as small as a Derringer. He fired over their heads, and a large purple spider-like monster fell from behind them. Cloud opened fire in return.
"NNNOOO!!!" Tifa didn't know where that scream came from or how she got past the monster in front of her or even why she did it, but suddenly she was darting in front of Valentine as if to protect him. The bullets stitched a dotted red line across her shirt, before everything fell silent. And she nearly fell to, before being caught by a muscled and scaled arm.
Vincent leveled the Death Penalty at Cloud. "I think you've done enough." he said, then fired straight at him. Too shocked to move, Cloud only had time to gape before being hit. Not by an ordinary bullet, indeed, there was physical mark at all, but suddenly his breath caught and his limbs lost all their strength and trembled. He turned rapidly fading eyesight to his friends and saw their horrified faces before darkness swept up.
Aeris and Zack backed away from the crumbling skeleton that once was their friend. Then Zack grimly pushed Aeris behind him with a set expression on his face. He raised his sword-"Don't" came the low thunder. "Just go. There's nothing you can do now. She's dying." Zack dropped his eyes to the still white figure cradled in the demon's arms. There was still a slight rise and fall of her chest, but blood had rapidly turned the white shirt deep red. There was no way Tifa could survive that. Zack took a step forward. Even if he couldn't save his friends, he would at least avenge them.
"Don't bother, kiddo." Reno spoke up. "At best, your sword would pass right through us. At worst, you might end up like your friend on the floor here."
"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." The blonde woman intoned. The Turks all took a step away from the living couple and vanished, taking Tifa with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tifa returned to consciousness slowly. She was lying on something soft and-velvet, her mind suddenly kicked in. But the only velvet they had in the house had been her mother's wedding dress. Besides, what would she be doing lying on her mother's wedding dress during Holloween? With that reference, her memory came flooding back to her. She opened her eyes and gasped.
She was lying in a coffin lined with red velvet and above her hovered those glowing red eyes. But this time they were set in a more human face. Vincent Valentine was as pale as she, and his black lashes and brows drew attention to his inhuman eyes. He had finely carved features, high cheekbones and thin lips. His long black hair fell like silk past his shoulders, some of it pooling beside her neck. "Why did you do it?"
"D-do what?"
"Were you trying to save him?" Him. Cloud. She shook her head. "It just wasn't fair."
"What wasn't fair?"
"I don't know. You. Life. Dying like that."
"Would you accept my offer?"
"NO!" She hadn't meant to be so vehement about it. "Why do you need a replacement anyway?"
He leaned back so that she could sit up. Even as a human, he was still quite tall she noticed. The coffin was placed atop a table and somewhat raised above that and he could still peer in easily. "It was her idea originally. If we couldn't be together in life, then she'd join me in death. I waited so long. Then Tseng died, slashed across the gut, and told me she had married Hojo. That's when I became Chaos, that demon. Tseng stayed with me, and slowly brought me back to sanity. Also, he was waiting for someone himself." He noticed that she was gaping. "Tseng called me an Oni; my hate and anger at my betrayal changed me into Chaos as a form of revenge. It took me several years to gain control of my form."
"Rude was the next to die, a freak aneurysm. It was around that time that I started hunting for someone to take Lucrecia's place with me, a sort of revenge for her betrayal. Tseng and Rude kept me here, away from harming the living. Then Reno arrived, having took on one too many in one of the jobs for Rufus. But he tried to leave. That's when we discovered we were trapped here."
"Go on."
"For some reason none of us could move on. When Elena, the final Turk died, she was the one who finally figured it out. How our oaths bound us together and while one couldn't pass on, none of the others could either. And how I needed someone else to fulfill the pact with me." He sat back and raised a hand to run through his hair. Tifa realized then that while his right hand, the one he was resting on the side of the coffin was normal, the left that he had just raised had been replaced with a golden claw. He caught her glance and grimaced. "A hazard of being a Turk." He then took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "If it was just me, it wouldn't be so bad. But the others are so tired of this twilight existence. I can't bind them here for eternity just to be my companions."
Tifa was indeed sympathetic and somehow he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. A low rumble wound it's way out of his throat and she realized he was laughing. There was a slight bitter tinge to his voice when he said, "I doubt you would feel the same way if you realized I had killed your lover."
"What?" Tifa's voice came out in a whisper.
"That young man, with the strange blonde hair. He shot you." He waved an arm across her once-white, now-red shirt. She reached up with one hand and felt the trail of holes across it's surface. "How did I-"
"Materia. This mansion was built near one of the few natural mako springs in the world and was a storehouse for many of Shinra's top materia orbs. And materia is one of the few things we can still use normally, perhaps even better than we could alive. We cast a mastered Cure on you."
He continued with his story. "I shot him after that." A pause. "Things aren't quite the same when you're dead. Nothing can touch you, and you can only touch something else if you concentrate on them. Weapons don't quite work in the same way. Reno's nightstick used to be an ordinary blackjack, but now not only is it solid, it acts as a taser. The Death Penalty" He reached past her and lifted the black gun she had seen before. "And Tseng's pistols don't have any bullets in them, but they can still hit. Once, Tseng escorted a girl home and her father was there, drunk. He tried to hit her and Tseng shot him in the knee. The flesh began to decay and by the end of the week they had to amputate his leg off. Last night when I shot him he began to age at an incredibly fast rate, then he began to shrivel up like a mummy. When he hit the ground he was nothing more than a skeleton crumbling to dust."
Tifa raised her hands to her face. "Oh no" she whispered. "This can't be."
"I'm sorry." He whispered and held his hands out to her. "I can't bring him back. He didn't stay and I don't know what happens after you leave."
"The Lifestream. Aeris always said you became part of the Lifestream when you died." She took a deep shaky breath. "It's okay. I always knew . . . always knew he was only using me to get to Aeris. Every time we were together I could see it in his eyes."
"Why did you stay with him then?" She flashed a shaky, tear-filled smile up at him. "Because I loved him. And even if he didn't want me I still wanted him to be happy. I was the closest he could get to that."
"A woman worth more than rubies." He seemed to be quoting to himself. "He was a fool not to appreciate you more."
"And Lucrecia was a fool to give up a man who would give his life for her." She responded
"I guess we're just two of a kind then." He looked up past the stone walls. "It's dawn. You're free to go. And again, words cannot express my regret about what happened tonight."
She clung to the arm that had the claw. "No, please, don't leave me alone. I'm so tired of being alone."
He had picked up both the Death Penalty and the bouquet again. The single white rose in the center was withering already. "But-"
She reached out and plucked the bouquet from his hands. "You're not at all like him. And I don't know if I'm anything like her, though I hope not."
"You're not."
"We're not who we'd choose for each other. I can't say we're meant to be, given the circumstances." She tugged him down into the coffin with her. "But too many people go into the dark alone. So let's take this chance that's offered to us."
As the first rays of light touched the ruined mansion, the withered white rose burst into full bloom, with deep scarlet blood red petals. He lay down with her and pulled the lid of the coffin shut. Embracing, he whispered, "Tseng and Elena will be glad to finally be able to rest."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Zack and Aeris returned with the search parties the next day, no one was found. However, some odd relics were discovered, that couldn't possibly have survived all that time in the mansion. In the parlor there was a painting, a man in traditional Wutai dress and a smiling, blonde, blue-eyed woman in clothes that dated back a century or more, in such vibrant colors you would think it was new. In the kitchen there was a half-full bottle of whiskey with a wrinkled navy tie wrapped around the neck. On top of the piano was a small cache of Materia orbs, including a mastered Cure and Sleep. And in the depths of the basement, where no light ever reached, a rose bush bloomed, with roses of every shade between the lightest cream and the deepest burgundy.
~~~~~~~~~~OWARI~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whoohoo! It's done! And it only took me a week of not doing any homework at all!
(See kids, this is why pennames were invented. So that any web-addicted professor can't connect deed to person.)
(Can you tell it's 1 AM?)