Sether, Part 3: Night
Night: Act 1

An hour later:

It was huge. It had four legs, a hard back, and a mean look about it as it raced towards Katai.

She shrieked.

Sether ran as fast as he could back to the camp.

Upon reaching it, he saw Katai standing on a rock and screaming.

"Please… Tell me that's not why you are screaming…" He pointed down.

"EEEkk! Kill it! Kill it! It's icky!"

Sether took a deep breath and forced himself to stop panting,

"That is an Iguana."

"It's huge! Kill it!"

Sether placed his palm on his face. His already unstable nerves straining him.

"I thought you were a pacifist?"

"I am, baka! I just don't like bugs!"

Sether didn't move from his despaired position,

"It is a lizard."

The Iguana, bothered by the shrieking human, went away into the darkness.

Katai followed it with her eyes as it left, and once it did so, hopped down the rock. She looked behind Sether and blinked a couple of times.

"Wow." Was all she said.

Sether tiredly glanced back.

There was a clear trail in the grass, leading to Sether's legs. He had run so fast, the grass nearly burned.

He looked at it with apathy for a while, and then returned to Katai.

She was siting in front of the fire and poking at the firewood.

"I'm hungry." She stated.

"Your problem." Sether answered, turning around. He searched the horizon with his eyes, but did not see Sephiroth anywhere. Did it really happen? Was Sephiroth actually there, asking Sether to help him? It seemed so confused… The whole conversation…

'Can't a brother materialize to say 'hi' without being accused?'

Sether couldn't have imagined such a pointless sentence… Right?

With all the weird things that were happening to him lately, he wasn't sure of his abilities anymore.

Sephiroth was dead. Dead people don't talk. That's one of the things that separate dead people from living people. Dead people don't call you 'Otouto' or ask for help.

If they're dead, it's a bit too late to ask for help.

"Where's your staff?" Katai asked from behind him. Her voice sounded like she was chewing.

Sether's expression quickly changed to a pained one.

Sephiroth really was there. And Sether would have to meet him again if he wanted to ever see his staff again.

"Baka- you forgot it there??"

He didn't answer.

"You ran all the way here without your weapon? How were you planning on killing that thing?"

"That was an iguana." He stated flatly again, he was very tired and very bothered. On top of all things, he had a headache.

He sighed tiredly and turned around, sitting across from Katai by the fire.

"Aren't you going to go fetch your stick?" She teased, her mouth full of travel food.

"It is not there anymore," He said, wondering what made him so certain that Sephiroth left, "Do not annoy me."

He took out some of his food and started eating.

Act 2

After a while of silence, Katai lowered her tin plate and asked,

"What happens now?"

Sether detached his eyes from his food, collecting his thoughts again. He did his best to hide his fears and concerns. The rising pain in his head and body didn't help.

"What should happen?"

She swallowed hard,

"Well… Where do we go tomorrow?"

Sether bent a knee and leaned his elbow on it,

"What do you want to do? Do you want to go home?"

She lowered her eyes, thinking,

"I am willing to escort you back if you want. I might just get to taste your Mother's cooking again." He tried to smile through the steadily rising pain. He closed his eyes tightly and reopened them.

Katai was still looking at her plate, her cute face wrinkled with a thoughtful frown.

Sether tried to get up, but the pain intensified tenfold, bringing him to his knees with a grunt.

Katai looked up. She saw Sether with one hand on the ground for support, the other one on his face. He was visibly shaking. His teeth were clenched and his eyes closed tightly.

She blinked a few times before coming warily to his side.

"Are… you okey?"

His heavy, pained breaths stopped for a moment before he fell unconscious. Katai, scared and concerned, tried to support him from falling to the ground, she grabbed his shoulders, keeping him sitting.

She was something of a physician, but she had no idea what was the matter with him.

"Sether! Sether, say something!"

His eyes twitched open.

"…It's okey…" he whispered, "It happened to me before… It's… nothing."

She slowly released his shoulders, being certain he was capable of supporting himself.

"What happened to you? Are you okey?" She remained by him as he wiped his mouth and tried to wake up.

"Yes." He shook his head to clear up, "It happened to me before… I did not pass out last time… but it was the same."

"What is it? What's wrong? Are you ill?"

She looked intently into his face, checking him,

He looked at her with pained eyes. His expression, though, was neutral.

"I do not know. The last time it happened was not this strong. It was about a week ago." And as a response to Katai's intent examination of his face, "I am fine now, thank you."

Her cheeks flushed, looking into his face, and she forced herself to scuff,

"Well, if something happened to you, who would protect me?"

Sether smiled,

"Ah, it is nice to know I am useful. Not like someone else here." He poked her forehead.

"Baka." Here she didn't have to force anything.

"Brat." He was teasing her more than anything else. He was too tired and weak to really argue with her.

She returned to her place by the fire. Sether mumbled something and retreated to his tent, leaving Katai to eat alone. She followed him with her eyes as he stumbled into his tent with a perplexed expression on her face.

Act 3

The next morning, Katai woke up right after dawn.

She was surprised to see that Sether was not yet awake.

Without thinking twice, she entered his tent. She found him soundly asleep. He was cuddled on his side and, surprisingly enough, was hugging his pillow close to his chest, both legs near his stomach.

He wore a slight frown, but other then that, looked incredibly innocent.

She sat on her knees and shook his shoulders gently.

"Sether…" She whispered, "…wake up…"

Nothing.

"Sether, Hey, Sether, wake up."

Silence. He didn't even seemed bothered by her shaking his shoulder slowly harder.

"GET THE &@^* UP YOU SLEEPY %&@!*!"

To her amazement, he was still soundly asleep.

Katai kicked him in the ribs.

He frowned slightly and leisurely woke up. He reached to his chest and mumbled,

"Oooooww…."

He opened one eye… Slowly… and looked up.

"…What time is it?" He groggily asked.

"Just about five." She answered, placing her hands on her hips.

"A.M.?" There was disbelief in his voice.

"Ya."

Sether grabbed his pillow again and buried his face in it,
"Wake me up before eight and bare the consequences." He used a very deep, menacing tone.

If she were in an Anime, she would have had a big sweatdrop on her head right now.

She left the tent soundlessly and did not wake him before 8:30.

Just in case.

They ate breakfast silently. Sether still could not shake last night from his mind.

It was decided to reach South Corel, and from there, Katai could decide either to continue with Sether, or to grab a ride to the Golden Saucer- from there to contact her parents and go back.

Sether and Katai started towards South Corel near noon.

After a while his train of thought brought him to address Katai,

"Why do you call me 'baka'? You aren't the born Wutain of the two of us…"

It was the first they've spoken since morning.

Before she could answer, he smiled,

"Don't tell me…That's the only word you know, right?"

She gave him an annoyed glare,

"I… I know 'gohan' too…"

Sether chuckled,

"So… You know all the important words in Wutain- 'Idiot' and 'food'."

She raised her shoulders with anger,

An ominous feeling unexpectedly gripped Katai's heart, causing her to gasp softly as she felt someone drilling into the back of her neck.

Sether seemed to notice this as well and turned around. His expression was somewhat surprised at first, but then it changed into a very, very tired one, yet somewhat amused.

"You." He spoke to someone behind Katai.

She scuttled behind Sether's back. Looking up from over his shoulder, she gave a lungful scream.

Both amusing the bright, emerald colored, mako illuminated eyes that were hovering in mid air before her and practically tearing the eardrum out of Sether's right ear.

"Katai, meet Sephiroth." He smiled faintly, gesturing towards the flying eyes.

"Sephiroth, meet Katai. I told you not to show up naked like that in front of her, haven't I?"

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Next chapter will explain this remark... ^_^
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