Sether, Part 5: Identity
Identity:

Act 1

Half way there Katai woke up.

Obviously, the first thing she did was to start kicking Sether's stomach and punching his back, screaming for him to put her down.

He dropped her from his shoulder very ungracefully and received a slap in the face the moment she was on her feet again.

"What the ^%&!# happened back there?!" She shouted, shock and fear causing her voice to tremble.

"You have fainted." He evaded the question as he shrugged.

"You know what I mean, you *%@#$!! There was something there… Something…"

"Oh, you mean Sephiroth." His voice was casual, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"&*@$^!! You're damn right I mean Sephiroth!!! What the &*!@ was he… Doing there??"

Sether blinked at her, pretending not to understand the question. He really wasn't in the mood to start explaining what he himself didn't understand, to this hysterical, annoying girl.

"Don't give that innocent look!" She yelled, "I demand an explanation."

Sether took a step forward and held his finger in front of her face. His face was very calm as he hissed,

"I owe you no explanations, missy. In fact, I don't remember owing you anything. You are an annoying person."

Her face quickly flushed and she stepped forward as well, holding her finger up. Her voice, as her expression, was enraged. Sether wondered that she did not have a heart attack by now with her volatile temper.

"Listen, ya big &$@& log! My life was endangered and I have every right to know ^%& why!!"

Sether withdrew his finger and stepped back.

"Fine." He said, then turned around without a word and began to walk again.

Katai was quick to start skipping by his side, keeping up with his steps.

"Well?" She demanded.

"Well what?" Sether looked at her as if he had never seen her in his life.

Angry as she was, she ran ahead of him and stopped, spread her arms wide and blocking the path.

"Stop it." She said, her eyes were slightly moist.

Sether gave her a long look. She was very emotional- the tiniest thing made her angry or made her cry. He wondered if she laughed as often as she got angry.

His expression softened with slight amusement. This was ridiculous. His life was, currently, a living nightmare, and she was standing there, blocking his path when they were standing in great grass plains.

He poked he in her stomach, she winced and covered her belly with her hands. Sether kept walking.

"If you want, I'll tell you." Why was he agreeing? Because he understood that she was going to be a lot more annoying if he didn't. "But only if we keep a pace that will take us to South Corel before nightfall."

She cursed and started to skip by his side again, listening intensely.

"Sephiroth came." He concluded. But after a moment he added with his crocked grin, "You fainted."

Her face flaring again, she asked with venom,

"I hope you're not planning to tell me that's it."

"What more is there to say?" He shrugged.

"Baka! I want to know why the ^&@$% enemy of the *&#@ planet would &#%! Talk to us!!!"

Sether smiled again,

"He talked to me- you fainted."

Her face got redder, yet she controlled her anger,

"I $^%# know I #(!# fainted, OKAY?? WHY. DID. SEPHIROTH. ^&*!$%. COME."

"He wanted my help. I agreed."

"He-- YOU WHAT???" She shrieked, stopping in her tracks.

"He is my brother…" Sether said weakly, a flash of his true concerns and emotions surfacing for an instant and gone before someone might notice, "I.."

He noticed Katai was not walking, but standing a few steps back, mouth ajar, eyes wide with shock.

"…Your… Brother?"

Sether face faulted,

"Like, you did not NOTICE??" He pointed at his face angrily, "You think I look like him by CHANCE?"

She turned around in her spot and mumbled,

"I had no idea…"

"…And you call me 'baka'…?"

Katai was too absorbed in her pondering to hear Sether.

"Sephiroth's brother… Sephiroth…"

"I am his lesser brother." He confirmed icily.

Not noticing his strange choice of words, Katai spun around, scaring Sether with a BIG grin on her face.

Sether raised an eyebrow.

"Sethy!" She exclaimed happily. Sether took a step back.

"Seth!" She took a step forward, her hands clasped in front of her and wiggling mischievously, "Does that mean you have some Jenova cells in you, by any chance?"

Her voice was dripping so much honey, she could probably feed an anthill for years.

Sether nodded once,

"So what if I do?"

"Oh! Look at the time!" she exclaimed, "We better get moving before we'll be late!"

Sether grumbled something and started again towards Corel.

"What can you do, then?" Katai asked after a silence. Too brief for Sether's opinion.

"What do you mean?" He asked, vexed. She was looking at him in a totally different manner now, and it bothered him. There was a sparkle in her eye that scared him, and another sparkle…

Fear.

Deep inside, she was afraid of him.

Because of Sephiroth.

For a brief moment, he realized, someone treated him like a person on his own, and not as 'Sephiroth's lesser brother'.

"Weeeellll…" She intoned, "I mean, what can you do like Sephiroth? Can you summon Meteor again if you really wanted? Are you powerful as he was? Are-"

She gagged herself the moment she reverted her eyes to Sether's expression.

There was true anger there. Not the annoyence he shortly showed before, anger at something real.

He looked down. His whole presence seemed to darken as he said very, very quietly,

"I am nothing like him."

Katai cowered and opened a slight distance between them as they walked,

"You say it like it's bad."

"It is." He hissed, "He was a great man."

Katai gave a scoff at that,

"You mean before or after he killed countless people and tried to become a g-"

Again her throat choked up when Sether gave her a piercing glare, he shouted

"That is not--!!" He watched as Katai visibly cowered, afraid of him as she was previously of the Rockadillo, or the Iguana.

"Look at yourself!" He shouted, frustrated, "You are scared of me because of my brother!! He was a good man who simply went mad!! I- Am- Not- Sephiroth! My name is Sether C. Valentine, for Holy's sake!" He pointed at the ground, his shoulders visibly shaking.

Katai by now, was scared speechless by his outburst.

Sether looked in her eyes, realizing she was seeing only Sephiroth's brother, not himself anymore.

It angered him without end.

He breathed hard a long moment, glaring at her intensely; Red eyes so big and angry.

He turned away abruptly, massaging his shoulder.

"I am sorry…" He mumbled pitifully, full of self loathing. Bursting out like that… He should have learned to control his temper by now. Unless he wanted to repeat the Ryotu incident.

Katai was reminding Sether of what Ryotu did before he died, and Sether was deeply scared by that.

There was awkward silence between them.

Her eyes reverted to his pale hand on his shoulder, and she only now noticed the blood on his black shirt.

Her curiosity taking over, she closed the distance between them and gingerly touched the area around the wound. Sether gave a start at the touch, but Katai was too engrossed to even notice.

"What happened to you? You didn't have this a while back…"

He regarded it, expressionless returning to his face,

"Sephiroth did it. It's nothing."

She grabbed his shoulders and turned him around,

"Nothing?! It goes all the way through your shoulder!! It must hurt as hell!"

"It is nothing." he insisted firmly, than added, "You are a strange one."

"Huh?" She looked up into his face. His previous emotions gone from his face, nestling now only in his almond shaped, blood red eyes.

"One moment you are afraid of me, the next you step close. One moment you are afraid of blood, the next you tend my wounds."

She smiled. Sether thought she looked much better smiling than when she was angry and red like a tomato.

"That's how humans are, Seth. You're like that too, didn't you notice?"

He raised his brows,

"Well, when you first came to our house, you were a smug idiot (Not that you are any less of one now…), then you were an annoying jerk, and then you started to tease and mock me. Now you're a…" She visibly chose different words, remembering who his brother was, "A different person… And I meant those other things in the nicest way…" She gave him a frightened little smile and stepped back, starting to walk towards Corel again.

Only a few hours away.

Act 2

The rest of the walk was made in total silence. Sether walking ahead, Katai trailing a step behind. She did not complain a whisper.

Sether was deep in thoughts.

Some concerned the pain in his head, then his shoulder. Some were about Sephiroth, some were about his Dad, some for his Mom.

Then Sephiroth again.

He was in turmoil, and in total contrast to his determined expression with only a slight frown.

He didn't have a clue what was he supposed to do now. How was he planning to find those bastards?

And with Ms. Pacifistic here?

What was going on with him? Why did Sephiroth choose to come now? How will he be able to heal Dad? How will Sether be able to help Sephiroth? Did he really mean it? Will Sether's help destroy the world, or something crazy like that? Why was his head throbbing like nobody's business?

Damnit.

As if to spite him, Katai started to talk again,

"…Huh… How's your shoulder…?"

Her meek little tone angered him, and he replied icily,

"Fine. I thank you for asking."

What annoyed him even more was that he knew that this wasn't the real Katai. If from the instant they met she was this coy little thing, it wouldn't have of bothered him so much.

Silence again. But this time it was very strained and heavy.

"What's the difference…?" He asked tiredly.

"Huh?"

He kept looking ahead as he spoke. Neither his tone nor his expression revealed what was he truly feeling. Not even the horrid headache.

"…If I'm Sephiroth's brother or not."

Katai scoffed. Sether liked it when she scoffed, it amused him.

"It makes a world of difference! I mean… Sephiroth! Just the name…!"

The pain in his voice was evident when he asked,

"You hate him?"

"Of course!" Katai exclaimed, as if Sether asked her if the sun was bright, "I was raised and taught to hate him. To hate what he did and the way he wanted to do it. To hate what he stood for-"

Here Sether intervened, suddenly stopping and turning to Katai to glare at her viciously,

"What does he stand for??"

Katai cowered back,

"…Everything that's evil…?"

Sether's breath was heavy through his tightly clenched teeth. He couldn't tell if it was his headache or his anger.

"If you could see what I saw, you would never think so."

"I can't be blame for being raised this way."

Sether turned and started walking again, not bothering to look that Katai was following,

"You are to blame for believing it without… Without checking… Without knowing…"

Katai dared to catch up with Sether. She looked timidly into his stern face,

"'Know' what?"

Sether hastened his step,

"It does not matter. When we will reach South Corel City, you will call your parents and you could forget all about this 'Sephiroth Clone' you knew."

…Third rate Sephiroth clone…

…It was an accident…!

 
Act 3

She gave him a perplexed look, but said nothing.

Then she yelled out in pain as she tripped.

Sether stopped in annoyence and turned his head to her.

She sitting on the grass, tears of pain in her eyes and rubbing her ankle.

He fully turned to her.

"Are you alright?" There was hardly little more than politeness in his voice.

"I think I sprained my ankle…" She sniffed.

Without a word, he approached her and lifted her in his arms. She was too surprised to say anything at first.

He started walking to Corel City again with her in his arms.

She stared into his face a long while, still shocked. All he really wanted at the moment was to get to Corel to get rid of her.

Uncomfortable with her examination, Sether said, not looking down at her,

"It's my fault you fell. I walk too fast."

She was still staring at him.

"Will you cut that out…!"

She blinked several times.

After a short while of silence, she asked,

"May I check something? I want to know if… What you said is true…"

Not understanding completely what she wanted to do, he nodded once.

Very, very gently, Katai reached up from her nestling place in his arms and touched the black lock. For a warrior and a traveler, he had surprisingly soft and well kept hair.

With her other hand she grabbed the tip of the silver one.

There was no difference in the feel between the silver bang and the black one.

Then she yanked both as hard as she could.

The result was a surprised Sether inbound downwards. By instinct, and since both his arms were busy holding Katai, he lifted her up as his face went down and hitting the ground, yet taking the fall flat in the face while leaving Katai unharmed. He cursed his overly heroic reflexes.

And as long as he was holding Katai, he couldn't lift himself.

Katai laughed her head off a while before gracefully getting down from his arms.

Sether then lifted himself on both elbows and spat out some grass.

"What was the point in that??" He demanded, tapping his fingers irritably.

The roots of his bangs hurt.

She bent down by his side and smiled,

"Now I can trust you." She announced, "No one half as dangerous as Sephiroth would have been able to fall so ungracefully on his face."

Sether got up painfully,

"At least that settles that issue." He said it with annoyence, but he was actually a bit relieved.

Maybe she meant it. And she would maybe, just maybe treat him like a normal person for the rest of the day.

And Sether could maybe go on knowing that someone out there, besides his parents, saw him for something else but a 'Third rate Sephiroth clone'.

Katai's ankle was miraculously fine after Sether growled at her when she seemed ready to go again.

However, after falling with a cry of pain after the first step, Sether picked her up again, ignored her cries of protest, and continued to South Corel.

"What, are ya going to %^@ carry me all the way to &^*@^ Corel?!" She squirmed in his grip.

"Yes." He answered plainly.

She crossed her hands over her chest and scoffed. His lopsided grin flashed momentarily across his lips.

"What's so funny?" She demanded.

"Your pride."

Her little face went red again,

"My pride amuses you?!"

He nodded, not looking down at her flushed face,

"You squeal, faint and whine, yet you keep your face to the sky. That's good."

"I do not squeal." Then she added less harshly, "Why do you sound so sad…?"

The corner of his lip tilted again,

"I've no pride but the fact that I keep on fighting, that I am still a warrior."

"I know that S… Sephiroth's name meant something in some language. Is that true?"

He seemed thoughtful, and Katai's stutter in the name of his older brother did not go unnoticed.

"Sephiroth's name means Spheres or Countings in the native language of those who live in The Promised Land.

The spheres, six of them, I think, each hold a godly virtue; Wisdom, intelligence, compassion, valor, eternity and grace. I do not know whether that is indeed what my mother meant when she had named him, but that is what is assumed."

Katai was visibly impressed,

"You sure know a lot about all this stuff."

His eyes darkened as he spoke,

"I have checked into it."

"How?"

"I read the Shinra mansion's library. I knew most of the material there somehow- Probably because of Sephiroth- but I have read the books that I knew less about."

"Y… You read the Forbidden Books?" She gasped.

He looked down at her with his brows raised, but said nothing.

After a short silence she asked,

"What does your name mean?"

He chuckled bitterly, for he was no in a good mood,

"My name is much simpler; it means Hidden or Unseen. Actually pronounced Seter. It is also in the language of The Promised Land."

"That's soooo cool!" Katai exclaimed, earning herself an odd look, "Mine just means Stubborn or Firm."

"Very suiting." Sether teased. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Why did your parents call you a Wutian name?" He tilted his head,

Here Katai was filled with pride, she jerked her head up (As much as she could in her position),

"In honor of the admirable Mr. Valentine, who, according to my parents was extremely stubborn and firm."

Sether's face expressed some sort of soft emotion as he shyly murmured,

"My thanks to your parents."

"I don't really need to talk to your Dad now, since you will seem to do much better for my research! I don't need him healed—"

Sether's expression reverted quickly, now angry and pained.

"—I didn't mean it like that!" Katai quickly exclaimed, slightly panicky "That's not what I meant to say! I…"

"It matters not!" Sether barked angrily, suddenly remembering his comatosed Father, his worried Mother, his dead-yet-ignoring-it brother and his oh-so-present headache.

From this point on, a cold distance fell between the two, no matter how much Katai apologized.

------------------------------------------------

*Sigh*, poor Seth just can't have it easy, huh?
Oh, all the part about the name is totally true! As Sether said, we're not sure if Sephiroth's name really came from Hebrew (The promised land-- get it?), but it's a possible interpetation. Sether's name really came from the Hebrew word 'Seter'.