Warnings: Character death and spoilers.
My notes: No pairings in this one. A happy kind of deathfic.
The pure white light was painful to his modified and very light sensitive eyes. He tried to lift his arm to shield them, but his whole body felt heavy and numb. But he did his best to stay alert; he could not afford to not stay vigilant, at all times. Not that many creatures or people dared to sneak up on the former general of Shinra, but you never know the foolishness of some people. It's surprising sometimes how people run to their own demise. Sephiroth tried to remember just what had happened before the numbness and the blinding light had appeared. That boy… Cloud Strife and his little team of rejects had attacked him, in one last desperate struggle for survival. How utterly pitiful.
Sephiroth tried to reach for Mother, and felt nothing. Only then did a small hint of panic start to enter his mind. Why couldn't he feel her inside of his head anymore? Where was she? As he started to prod at his mind, he found all those feelings she had brought with her missing as well. The hatred for the Cetra and the humans of the Planet. Gone. The need to kill, burn and destroy. Gone. All gone. He felt empty, like before he had found Mother. And that scared him, more than anything.
"Sephiroth?" a soft and distant female voice could be heard. "Come here."
Sephiroth finally overcame his numbness, even if he still felt heavy. He tried to reach for Masamune. It wasn't on his back anymore, and wouldn't appear even when he tried to summon it. He had no Materia on him either, it seemed. His body tensed up, ready for an attack. That voice… It must be a trap. Let them come, he thought with a low growl, he could take them on with or without the use of weapon or Materia. But he couldn't help feeling strangely naked without his usual katana with him.
"Sephiroth…" the voice could be heard saying again.
The warrior in Sephiroth weighted the pros and cons of going and staying, and decided that nothing would be won by standing still like this. He started walking against the voice of the woman he heard, tense and ready for a sneak attack. He walked for just a few meters before the white fog like light dispersed and he could see clearly again. He was currently on some kind of field, or so it looked, surrounded by that thick fog. The grass was deep green, and filled with flowers of all colors of the rainbow. And in the middle of the field stood a young woman.
The wonder Sephiroth had felt seeing the field all disappeared as he recognized the woman in mere seconds. It was the Cetra. The one that he had slain weeks ago. He still remembered it, how Mother had whispered in his mind about the Cetra, the hate he felt at the sight of her. And the strange sickness that had spread through his whole body as he drove Masamune through her young body because he had never slain a woman before, but had been quickly clouded by Mother's hate. He remembered it all. And now that he gazed at the woman that should be dead he knew that this was some kind of trick.
The young woman gazed back at him with eternally calm eyes. Too calm, Sephiroth thought briefly, and too old and wise to suit such a young woman. As if she knew more things that any human, no matter their age, should know. This made him uneasy, and he crouched a bit, ready for an attack. She merely smiled in response.
"So you have finally come." she said to him.
"What is this place?" he asked, his voice laced with suspicion.
She laughed softly, slightly amused but without any hint of malice. "Don't you know that?" she asked. "Don't you remember?"
"No." he hissed. He was starting to consider attacking the woman before him, because being alive when she was clearly supposed to be dead must be some hint that she was some kind of mind controlling monster. But now that Jenova was silent he had no real urge to be violent, not even to a Cetra lookalike.
"You're dead, Sephiroth." she said in a kind but still very blunt voice.
Sephiroth simply scoffed in reply. He couldn't figure out what this creature before him wanted. Probably it wanted him to lower his guard so that it could attack. She continued to gaze at him with kind eyes.
"Cloud and the rest defeated you in the Northern Crater. You are dead, Sephiroth. Just like me." she stated.
He felt cold sweat beginning to break out. It all started to come back. The final confrontation. His fight with Strife. His loss. He was dead. And now the ghost of the Cetra had come for revenge.
"This, Sephiroth." she said, still with that everlasting calmness. "This is what you so desperately pursued with Jenova. The Promised Land."
Sephiroth simply stared at her, his eyes for once showing emotion. Confusion… And just a hint of fear.
"You are forgiven, Sephiroth." she said, as if reading his mind. "In the Promised Land, everyone and everything is forgiven. Even you. Especially you. Everything that happened… It is not your fault. You may call Jenova "Mother", but she never was. She manipulated you."
"But she is my Mother." he said.
"She's not." Aerith replied kindly. "You were birthed by a human mother, and then infused with Jenova cells."
"I… was?" he asked, hesitant. "But the files…"
"I was all a… big and cruel puzzle, so to say. They put the pieces together, and made up some, to drive you over the edge. To make you lose your grip of sanity and embrace Jenova's manipulation."
Despite his normally distrusting ways, Sephiroth couldn't help but believe what the Cetra told him. He had always been good at knowing when people lied, and she sounded so honest. He was dead. And in the Promised Land, it seemed if the words of the woman could be trusted. He supposed that this is the life stream then. The final rest… And then it hit him, like a slap in the face.
"Hojo." he hissed, like an irritated and quite deadly snake. "Hojo lied to me. It was all lies. He is dead as well, so he must be here. Where is he?"
Aerith gazed at him. "Sephiroth." she said with a suddenly serious tone. "You will gain nothing, absolutely nothing, by going after Hojo. As I said, everyone here is forgiven. Even him."
"What?" he roared. "Hojo, forgiven? By whom? For I, who he hurt the most, have certainly not forgiven him!"
The small woman in front of the enraged man simply laughed kindly and gazed at him with a knowing look. "You will." she said. "One day it will all become clear to you, the full extent of Jenova's manipulation. And you will understand… And forgive, eventually. But do not go after him. It will only bring you grief."
He scoffed in an irritated manner at her words and the knowing glint in her eyes. "I doubt it." he snapped just to shut her up. He realized that his tactic failed as she started to softly laugh again, before becoming serious once more.
"Sephiroth. You must go now." she said.
"Where?" he replied, suddenly feeling emotionless and tired again.
"You must find your own Promised Land. This field is my Promised Land; my sanctuary, my final rest. Where I can be with my loved ones." And as she said so Sephiroth suddenly noticed two other people on the edge of the field. A middle-aged woman standing in the arms of a slightly older male. "My parents." Aerith filled in when she saw his wandering gaze. "Here, I can finally be with them. In your Promised Land you too will be reunited with those lost. Go, Sephiroth."
Sephiroth started at her for a few moments, before shifting his eyes from her and gazing into the white, blinding fog. He took a few tentative steps towards it, and Aerith nodded in approval.
"Go." she said. "They are waiting for you."
He didn't ask who she was talking about, he had a feeling he already knew. He walked closer to the thick fog. "How will I find my Promised Land?" he asked her.
"You will know which way to walk." she said in a cryptic manner as he took a few more steps. Then he stopped. And without turning around to face her, he asked;
"And I am forgiven?"
"Of course."
"By you as well?"
"Sephiroth, I forgive you."
Sephiroth did his best not to show the shudder of emotions that went through him at those words and simply nodded. Then he walked into the fog.
He walked for what felt like forever. Or he had simply lost his internal clock, which used to serve him as an excellent measure of time. But he didn't stop. And just as he was starting to give up he heard it. Voices. He heard voices.
First Sephiroth could hear a deep, manly voice. "Puppy, calm down."
"I can't! It's so boring! I hate when he insists on educating us on the "finer arts" as he calls it." A more teenage voice replied in a whining tone.
"Oh, really? We can't tell." This voice was more sardonic and more mature than the second voice, but not as deep as the first one.
"Be nice you two." the first voice replied, his voice stern and affectionate at the same time.
"Humph." The third voice said. "Where was I? Oh, right. There is no hate, only joy. For you are beloved by the goddess…"
Sephiroth smiled, for the first time in ages, at those voices. Those familiar voices. He started walking towards them. Towards his Promised Land.
"She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting…"