Behind Black Curtains
An AU, Sephiroth and Tifa fanfiction
-by Amaranthos-
Chapter 2: Raging Symphonies
Another harvest and another dead body lie labeled in the earth; their names of their children and families all spelt in the crumble of the soil.
Of all the million moments in my drab life lost and expensed, this moment of glowing fires, burnt human flesh and brawling screams of the midnight hour awakes in me a horrid realization. Through gritted teeth and shining red eyes, I learnt that my people - the ones who help build our kingdom are now dead. Cast off away from the eternal splendors of this world.
I laugh to myself as tears fall down my cheeks, and soon a dark bitterness hits me. I grabbed at the rails of my caravan.
"Live! Live! LIVE!" is all I could shout. I was locked up in a dark caravan to witness my people dying but how I wish to trade places now.
I slid down the metal rail. 'I'm so sorry, my friends.' I placed a hand endearingly over my heart in memory of my people and shed a single tear of sorrow and apology.
As I lump myself against the windowsill and travel to lands unknown, I numbed myself into a devoid state, realizing I'd been a royal pain in the ass deceived of reality. The horrible truth was simple to see: I was living in a fallacy.
This is the world around me, which I have lived and lived in. It is as if fate wanted me to see the sensual side of war between my warlord father and his enemies. Because of my father's war, his own people are involved and now…
"Dead" I shuddered. I didn't deserve life, when people - good people were dying for my father's kingdom.
I slammed my fists into the metal caravan knowing even through my petty scrambling it would not bring back the dead.
It is aggrieving to know that the bitter politics of war, corrupted leaders often run their fancy parades on innocent people's doorsteps. Dragging young boys and girls into the mayhem, ripping families and domesticating the violence like an epidemic to suffer. No one pays the bigger price than the innocents, and here now scattered throughout this pasture are thousands of my people asleep, dreaming of phantom murderers in the soil where their blood runs deeply into the roots and stains the world.
How can I ever be my father's child, if I am not aware of the pains of my own people?
Now the collateral damage is accosted for in the primitive notes of blood and death. The irony is… I find myself driven in bitterness to ask, who is the tyrant responsible for the death of all these people?
"Father…" I whispered under my breath. 'Forgive me…for my stupidity. I only wish now, that you could tell me a clever word of advice to save myself."
'Otu-san (Father)'
A guard slams his hand against a prisoner caravan announcing that they're approaching 'Black Crescents'
Tifa - who had fallen in a daze, had been startled by the baritone voice of the man.
That name – Black Crescents, stirs a familiarity in her mind. She had known about them, they had been an infamous nemesis of her father and peace in many distant villages.
Tifa took a breath. 'Of all the people I could have been captured by it had to have been Black Crescents'
She drew a sigh of displeasure.
Tifa looked out her window and was amazed at the structure before her eyes. 'Gah!'
The horses kept bellowing towards the monstrous structure dead ahead, only a few kilometers in the distance. The empiric structure was of a fortress design of some 50 feet or so. It was gray, weathered, and dingy almost, yet it was spectacularly robust looking. It almost appeared to have looked like it had survived hundreds of wars. To the top of the fortress, were hundreds of soldiers all clad with various weapons and artillery – bows, swords, and guns.
Perched high on the security tower was a black crescent moon flag that flapped vigorously in the windy night.
Tifa swallowed deeply in awe, looking on at the mightiness of the front doors. They were bolted from top to bottom in metal, with a fierce protection of textured spikes and knobs that brought a feeling of shivers to anyone who looked at them for too long.
Suddenly, the carriages made an abrupt stop. Tifa grabbed a heap of her dress in a wrench. 'Oh damn…we've arrived'.
The prisoners within the carriages aware of the sudden stop began screaming and bawling in fear. The anxiety in the air was thick and Tifa swore she couldn't breathe by the maelstrom of events plagued on her. Increasingly agitated she tapped her foot nervously awaiting the opening of her carriage door.
"Get up you scumbags!" shouts an uncouth soldier.
The sound of screaming fills the air as people within the caravans rattle on nonstop. Tifa holds her breath and readies herself.
"Shut your oh's you bloody maggots" the same uncouth soldier bellows. "Bloody fools are getting on like we've began executing yuh' oh som'en"
The soldiers began unloading each person from the caravan hurrying them to stand in a group. They move in a haste trying to waste as little time per caravan. A fairly large squadron of soldiers keeps the already large group of prisoners contained. The sight of sobbing mothers and children does not flinch the outer skin of these men. Tifa's caravan is opened and she is ordered by a man in dark glasses with a shiny bald-head to join the ranks. She silently obliges and is reunited with her people.
"Milady, milady are your alright?" asks one of her young maids.
Tifa smiled. She was so happy to see her maids alright, that it in fact had brought some cheer in this despairing place.
"Hai (Yes) I'm fine, how about you?" Tifa asks, inspecting the minor wound on the woman's cheek.
"This" the woman touches, "I'm fine milady, and it's you who I am worried about"
Tifa spares a small smile.
The darkening surroundings make it poor for soldiers to see. These beasts call men, are quick and slippery like serpents. They do not speak unless it is to insult, and they do plenty of that. With a casual flicker of the soldier's torchlight he aims it into the sky, covertly flicking the light on and off, and in response, huge flood lights from the top of the fortress, beams down on the prisoners. Tifa looks away from the bright light and finds herself inspecting the immediate family units, she even takes time to notice her surroundings. The place is barren with weeds and burnt trees. Not even a flower or fruit seems to blossom in this parched, wasted land.
'What kind of place is this?' Tifa asked herself.
Meanwhile, the Black Crescents army comes marching in in perfect rows of unison, one after the other, rank behind rank, in a perfect movement they all display their weapons at the prisoners. Then a soldier joins the uncouth soldier and whispers something in his ear. A surprised reaction comes over his face.
"What do you think they're saying milady?" the young maid asks her.
The man turned to the crowd with a somewhat smug expression. She figured she had an idea.
"Tifa Lockhart, step forward now!" her name seem to jerk her.
A fear began walloping through her stomach.
The maids all hold their lady back, "oh milady, please don't go, let me". Tifa's old childhood maid pleaded, Isadora. She had vouched for her so many times as a child growing up without her mother, it is shame to know, even in a situation like this, she still chooses to surrender herself on her behalf.
Tifa marveled at people's unnatural love and kindness. But she couldn't allow Isadora to do such a thing, not now and here at least. Tifa didn't want that, she had to be like her father and lead the flock. She might as well make the first move.
She stiffened, clenching her fist knowing what she had to do. She steps out of the crowd, with a face of proud defiance.
"Yes, what is it does Rufus Shin-Ra wants with me?" her voice was deep and matter-of-factly.
The uncouth soldier enlarged his eyes dramatically with anger. He approached Tifa and awarded her a mighty fiery slap.
"The names Lord Shin-Ra" he flatly adds.
Tifa stumbles to the floor, holding her cheek at the stinging sensation. A couple of maids try to help her, but the guards aim ward them off. A guard of tall stature picks her up gruffly, "come on your majesty, someone wants to meet you" the soldier mocked.
"Stand here onna (woman)" She was ordered by the red headed man to patiently stand in one place.
She was ordered to stand in a great mighty looking hall. It was like nothing like she had ever seen. The floor was tiled in a gold marble with grey and black tiles circling her. If Tifa didn't know any better, she would infer she was standing on the tiled Black crescents insignia. Tifa shook her head. The appearance of the fortress externally lacked every curb appeal in the book, but she had to say the inside Palestine structure was honestly most beautiful. And this coming from the enemy was a hard one to believe.
All around her were golden framed pictures of what seem to be the ancestral line of the Shinra family. She could see so many different faces of men, who by default seem to all look like tyrants. The walls were golden yellow with mirrors every foot away almost to make the room look larger than it already was. Tifa took in the sight of a deep red carpet that led to stairs; at the top are two seats that were made for kings. She assumed one would be for the ruler of Black Crescents: Rufus Shinra, but who was the other?
Tifa continues to inspect her surroundings, amazed at its colossal size. Back at home they had themselves a great hall, but it was nothing as big as this in magnitude. It even made the question she was about to ask more obvious, 'who wastes such money on such exuberant luxuries?'. Tifa had heard of great warlords who wasted their time and money on magnificent cenotaphs of their lost ones and beautiful monstrosities, but she had never seen anything like this.
Caught in the distraction of her surroundings, Tifa suddenly notices a faint white light beaming on her skin.
Looking around her, she notices its everywhere. She looks up.
"Oh my…" she faded off by the ceiling. She had never seen an observatory or was it a sunroof? Above her, was a huge glassed ceiling cut in the shape of an elliptical crescent circle. The black night and bright moon contrasted each other and there twinkling in the heavens, were stars. Tifa couldn't comprehend why stars would shine on such a cruel place?
"Spectacular" a face jerks her from her thoughts and she inhales the sight of a man in his late twenties, early thirties.
Shinra, Tifa thinks.
Much of what she's remembered from eavesdropped conversations was Shinra was no eye-looker. But the young man before her wore a certain easy charm. He was polished in a sharp uniform of white, with golden buttons and badges of every kind of honour adorned on him. She drew an amused brow startled by his bleach blonde hair and those eyes. Tifa shivered. They were the most penetrating, vulgar blue eyes she had ever seen. They was caustic, sardonic and invading as they pried into her being. Tifa turned away, absolutely amazed and flustered.
"You are quite spectacular" he affirms
Tifa stiffens, grossed out by his rude salutations.
"Allow me my dear, to introduce myself. I am Rufus Shin-
"-What do you want me, why am I here?" Tifa suddenly snaps, interjecting his introduction.
Shinra lightly touches his brow somewhat expecting their greetings to be failed. 'Pity, they did fail.'
He looked up and stared her straight in the eye. He slowly advances towards her, his eyes intense, and full of unholy things. He prodded passed her to a large table adorn with a large bowl of finely arranged fruits.
"You know, I love fruits…" he picked up an apple.
He smirks to himself at his absolute audacity and cynicism. He turned back to her leaning against the wall. "I especially love red apples, do you like apples Tifa?" he seems so tenacious in shining his apple.
Tifa blinked back, confused and stunned by his strange character.
"So round..." He passes his index finger over its surface, "so red and swollen..and certainly" he averted his eyes to her in a curt movement, "..so succulent." this time she knew he wasn't talking about the apple. Tifa felt the wind kicked out of her. With narrowed eyes, and salacious thoughts filled in them, he approaches her quietly in her daze.
'The bastard has the right to kidnap me, torture and kill my people, and now fancies himself lewdly with young women?'
Honestly, it pissed Tifa off. This man was absolutely 'rude and forward and... an asshole'.
Ire fills her body and without her knowing, she bawls her fist discharging a blow to his face. Curtly he grabs a hold of her wrists in a firm lock. Tifa tries to reverse her grip, squirming beneath his powerful hands yet her attempts spark a certain devious smirk over his face. To no avail could she break free, that in a second he locked her hands behind her back, jerking her into his firm body.
Tifa tried to wiggle her way out his grasp, but instead her frisky attitude excites him even more. He leered at her, enthralled every bit by the smell of her hair and skin, the way her lips formed to take deep breaths, even the way her chest rose aggressively for air.
"Are you succulent, Tifa?" he whispers slowly in her ear. Like dread it pours his effrontery filthy and fowl.
Suddenly, she feels something on her neck. At first Tifa's body is too slow to comprehend the exact 'thing' against her skin. But then she feels it again. He breathes heatedly into the crook of her neck. Tifa had never felt such sensations on her neck. She momentarily closes her eyes to blot out his ill ministrations.
"I have heard stories about how beautiful Lockhart's daughter truly is, but hell" He grunted, smelling her skin in a single breath. He gritted his teeth holding himself back from biting her neck.
"Look how beautiful you are under me" Shinra darkly whispers in her right ear. Tifa's eyes follow his trail to a mirror in front of her and the sight was amazing. She could see him nuzzled in her neck, breathing in her aura (be it) and there she was, a damsel in distress, thorn and broken...being taken advantage of.
His eyes joined hers in the mirror. Her eyes of coldness and hate fed him with reason to stop.
He sneered. Letting her go, he studied her unresponsive expression.
"You don't like me very much, do you Tifa?" he asked interested at her answer.
"I don't like you at all, Mr. Shinra" she blatantly added.
He spared her a look of amusement and irony.
"Any particular reason, or does my title of hate and blood precede me in your judgement?" he asks.
"I owe you no answers"
"You don't have to always believe what people think and say about me. You'll find I'm a much, much different man if you just..." he smiled with perfect teeth in a triangular shape of deception, "...open up."
"You ask me such audacious questions, Mr. Shinra. I don't have to always believe the influences of what people say about you when, no Mr. Shinra, your title does not precede you, it is your actions that precede you"
"Since you're so clever and well elucidated about me, be a dear and don't force me to exercise my duty" Tifa read his eyes and could tell, the motion and rhythm in them had changed. It wasn't a threat he was bestowing; more likely it was simple advice.
In the distance muffled footsteps could be heard coming from the hall.
"How about we continue this another time, my dear"
Entering the room were officials. All kinds of people her father had been tracking down for years. Boy, would he enjoy killing them now.
They looked at Tifa, whispering amongst themselves. Uneasily she shifted her eyes from official to official, noting something was about to happen.
"Why have we been called, Master Shinra?"
Rufus turns to them and smile. "My friends, I've called each and every one of you to tell you that today we've had a fine day at sea. In fact, it's been so good, five hundred of Red Hearts soldiers are dead, 3 cities are burnt, but best of all we've captured a fine thing today" he cheerfully expressed. His personality was so schizophrenic thought Tifa.
"This fine pretty lady you see before me, is Tifa Lockhart, daughter of Arthur Lockhart" Rufus explained to the officials, "I would commend the works of Sephiroth, but as usual he does not celebrate with us."
Rufus returns his gaze to Tifa, "you would remember him wouldn't you? Tall guy, silver hair, long sword" he paused, "might have been the one responsible for your sad beatings I read about"
Tifa grimaces, she remembers that man.
FLASHBACK ["As of now you're in my custody and a token of keeps in my war-"]
Tifa shivers, a familiar fear surging through her body. She remembered.
Silver hair... Long sword... Blood…
"Aww, you pretty thing, you're all shaken up" he smirked "look she's all shaken up" he pointed to her.
"What are you going to do with her, Rufus?" an old man asked inquisitively.
"Well..." he turned to her, "the options are endless really" he answered almost in a delightful manner. Tifa swallowed the lump.
"For now, she is my captive and she will be a bargaining chip with old Arthur, and a most pivotal one in this war, especially when her father realizes that this war is no longer a symmetrical one" he laughs.
"After all I harbor his world in my hands." He paused, glancing back at Tifa, "so your father, Tifa, better make a good pick…because I'd hate to do the things I'd love to do." He gives a condescending smile.
"Massaging your ego again, Shinra" A voice boomed above Rufus'.
Shinra scowls. Well if it wasn't the devil himself.
"General Sephiroth, I was wondering where you were…" they exchange disgusted expressions.
"You've captured quite a trinket here. It still startles me someone of your brute had the grace to keep her alive" he paused to mock Sephiroth's infamous handiwork.
"With you Tifa, captured and on our side, I'm going to use you to start wars like never before, bring bloodshed everywhere, the smell of death infamous. The worlds and winds will call my name, Rufus Shinra. With you my dear, there is nothing I can not have, I cannot do; and most definitely, cannot destroy."
"Go to hell!" she shouted back.
He smirks, "feisty, I like them feisty"
"Tsung, have some maids clean her off and admit her to the royal sleep chamber"
Immediately the environment stirs to muttering with everyone looking on in disbelief at Rufus' decision. Tifa didn't understand what he was talking about nor did she understand the confused expressions and strange muttering. Did he say something that was…against their rules?
"My son..." an old man steps out from the crowd.
"This is breaking tradition, only our former alliances and people are welcomed in that chamber, this has been a centuries old tradition. You just c-cant give it to this...enemy of ours. She is not allowed"
"Father… come now is this any way we treat our guests, our new friend? She is after all our negotiating ticket. She will help us carve this war into our game. Surely father, we shouldn't treat our new friends this way. After all, I am a bit tired of all the stereotypical tradition we run here at Black Crescents"
"You have quite an ego going today, don't you Shinra? Are you on a role of breaking all the rules today, or is it you're just naturally…peculiar" Sephiroth voiced "the girl should be thrown in a prison with the other dogs"
There is mutterings of approval from everyone.
Shinra looks down and then piercingly looks at Sephiroth, "Perhaps General, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you have an interest in something that doesn't concern you..." heated eyes exchange,
"Is it" he pauses to smirk just so lightly, "that war dogs like you are not admitted to the royal chamber that you're all in a rut?"
"Best you watch that tongue of yours Rufus Shinra, for my Masamune has tasted blood not so different from yours."
Rufus lets out a buoyant laugh, mocking the threat issued by the General.
Sephiroth turns and makes his leave.
"Get her cleaned up, I have much planned for her." a smug smile imprinted on his face as he looks at Sephiroth's back in hate.
To be continued…