Aerith knew Tifa was planning something tonight. The Cetra could tell. They were back in the Gold Saucer, and Tifa had been giving Cloud looks as if looking forward to a scheme. And heading straight for the shower upon arrival at the hotel? She was up to something all right.

But Aerith had her own plan, and all she had to do was wait...

A shriek from the bathroom was all she needed, rushing in. She found Tifa, in the shower cubicle, with her lower legs turned to stone below the knee, and the petrification spreading.

"Aerith! I'm petrifying!" Tifa said as the other woman entered.

"Oh, uh... sorry, but I caught Yuffie tampering with some of my shampoo, I thought she'd snuck some dye in it, so I, er... swapped it around with yours. Didn't realise this was her plan, I figured maybe it'd not affect your hair since it's darker...." she lied.

Tifa blinked at this explanation, but rerouted her thoughts to 

"Well, however it's happening, get a soft!"

"...We're all out," she lied again.

Tifa sighed.

"Then get me a towel to at least cover up a little until you can find one or this wears off."

Aerith complied, allowing Tifa to wrap up a little as her upper thighs began turning to stone.

"So, were you gonna be going somewhere?" 

"Well,um... I was gonna see if Cloud wanted to hang out," the petrifying Nibelheim native muttered.

"Ah. Well, that's a shame," Aerith once again lied.

Tifa frowned.

"Wait. What did Yuffie even put in your shampoo to do this? If it was ground-up basilisk claw it should have petrified me instantly."

"...Is there something else?"

"Gagighandi Blood can cause slow petrification, but only mixed with water and drank. Or if it's breathed in with vapour like... steam from a shower," Tifa realised.

Aerith also realised the flaw.

Ah crap, I petrified myself too, didn't I?

Glancing down, she realised her own legs were slowly petrifying above the line of her boots.

"Well, this isn't good."

"It'll wear off in a few hours, though, at least," Tifa tried to look on the bright side.

***

Tifa was more fuming than alarmed. She'd had a plan, a perfect plan! A slightly evil plan, but still, a plan!

Step one: Get as pretty as she could with the basic cleaning supplies they carried.
Step two: Slip some Basilisk Claw in Aerith's drink and petrify her for a few hours.
Step three: Be alarmed, dismayed they were out of softs.
Step four: 'Go for help', or rather, secretly ask Cloud out and have Yuffie watch guard.

Okay, it was maybe a dangerous betrayal of trust, but Tifa was 99% sure Aerith would do it to her! Plus, Aerith seemed to be practically addicted to those bottles of green tea! And then somehow YUFFIE of all people had got them both accidentally?

Wait... She wouldn't, would she? 

"So how do you know all about this kind of stuff?" Aerith made small talk.

"It was... part of my training under Zangan," she half-lied.

"Oh. And I guess Yuffie learned it all from being a ninja. Sorry for swapping the bottle, didn't think she'd do this..."

"Well, guess there's a lot of things we wouldn't expect of her," Tifa replied, thoughts heading down a dark road.

If Yuffie did this on purpose to get Cloud for herself...

***

A few minutes later, Yuffie entered the room, a little baffled to hear no reply with the bathroom door open.

"Aerith? Tifa? You guys..." 

She walked in on the two statues. Tifa looking grumpy wearing only a towel, and Aerith facepalming in stone.

"Oh, jeez. What happened here? And we're all out of softs too.... Maybe I should fetch some?" The Ninja smirked.

No reply came.

"Orrr.... I could go do something else right now, huh?" She giggled, racing away.

Tifa assumed she meant 'go date Cloud' and swore a storm in her head. Aerith had not gone to that assumption, so merely assumed the Ninja girl was going to play an actual prank.

In fact, what she had done, was first steal Aerith's green tea.

***

And so it was, that Barret, confused as to the lack of reply from the ladies, assumed they'd gone out somewhere themselves.

"Figures. And we had all this GP to spend too. Hell, Cloud, you wanna go hang out?" Barret asked the Blond.

"Yeah, all right. I think Red, Vincent, and Cid went down to the Chocobo Tracks."

"Oh. What about Cait Sith?"

"Probably fortune telling somewhere, we'll run into him," Cloud shrugged.

The two walked off, unaware they were leaving three petrified women behind. Three women,who, upon reverting, opted to never speak of the whole mess again rather than bother figuring out what had happened.