Risorgimento

Act 1

Aeris was smiling at him. That's the first thing his mind registered after blinking away from the Planet room.

She was beautiful, and looked surprisingly like all the stories he had heard about her. She was wearing white robes similar to Sether's.

"Hello, Sether." She greeted him with a nod of her head. He nodded back, not certain if he should bow or not.

"I'm here to listen to your wish." She said, her voice soft and comforting.

"Planet said that anything could come true…" Sether said, "Even coming back to life? Even making those who are still alive forget about me?"

Aeris nodded, and then added,

"But that's not what you are going to wish for." Her tone was somewhat sad.

Sether could not help but agree.

"Ms. Aeris, ma'am." He said with a resolute tone, getting down to his knees in a traditional Wutian seiza bow and bringing his forehead to the non-existent floor they were standing on, "I… I wish the release of Sephiroth's soul. So he might be able to choose for himself what will become of his spirit." He announced. His voice trembled only slightly in spite of the internal turmoil.

This was part of his insane plan.

Aeris watched him with compassionate eyes.

"That was very brave of you, Sether. I know your feelings for those who are still alive. You could have easily wished for your return back up, yet you are willing to give all that up for your brother…"

"I do not deserve to live." Sether shook his head, still bowing.

"Ya, you do." A familiar voice said. Sether gave a start at this and straightened. Ryuto was there.

"Hey." Ryuto said rather shyly. Waving his hand to Sether.

"R… Ryu…" Sether's eyes widened, and he bowed his head to the floor, "I'm so sorry Ryu… I'm… I'm so… You wouldn't believe… I'm…"

Both Ryuto and Aeris looked down at Sether with warm eyes. Then Ryu bent down before Sether and placed a hand on his shoulder,

"It's not your fault." He said.

Sether lifted his head with shock and blinked at the ghost in front of him, "But…!"

"It was an accident." Ryuto said with a smile, "I've been trying to tell this to you for years! But you would always continue to blame yourself…!" He laughed, and Sether's heart melted- how he missed Ryuto's laughter!

"Sether," Ryuto said, brown eyes twinkling gently, "It was an accident. You should never forget, but also never hit yourself on the head with it, if you do, you might loose sight of yourself; like I did when I gave in to jealousy."

Sether threw his hands around Ryuto's neck and hugged him tightly.

Ryuto soon disappeared from Sether's grip, and Sether's arms dropped.

"This is… Like a conclusion…? Of my life…?" He asked Aeris weakly. She nodded, and he got up, "…All this is just one big 'deus ex machina'…" He tried to regain his composure, "What about Sephiroth?" He half asked, half demanded.

Sephiroth appeared out of clear nothingness, plopping down hard on his behind.

"Aa!" He seemed surprised with his current location. He rubbed his behind vigorously and got up, cursing under his breath, "…When I get my hands on the Jenova I'll…-" That's when he noticed Aeris and Sether.

"Huh?" He blinked at them several times. Then he blinked at the white robes he was wearing, "What's going on here?"

"You're free." Aeris said.

He stared at her.

"Wha-wha-what?!" He rubbed his ears and took a few steps towards the Planet's representative and assistant in the snowflake department, "Did you say I was free? As in, liberated? released? democratic? Free to come and go as I please? Free as the wind? Free as a-"

"You heard the lady." Sether smiled, "I'm glad I got to see you again, oniichan."

Sephiroth then noticed his little brother. He noticed that Sether was wearing the same type of clothes like himself. He noticed that he was with Aeris as well.

He noticed, with much horror, that his little brother was dead.

Act 2

"Sether! You can't do this to me! You can't die!" Sephiroth was shaking his brother's shoulders hysterically, "You're supposed to live! You're supposed to be with Katai! You aren't dead! You…" He hugged Sether. "I thank you. …But… Eternity? It's a small price to pay for my brother to be alive."

Aeris cleared her throat,

"It's been sealed, there're no ways to change it."

Sephiroth let go of Sether to pounce in Aeris' direction, "No! There must be something! There's always something! I won't let it!" He was hysterical.

A gentle hand was placed on his shoulder, and he turned to see Sether's calm, sad eyes.

"Oniichan," Sether said, "I did what I thought was right. That's how we Valentines work, right? We do what we believe is true, and then beat ourselves on the head with it. But… This time…" He looked up, "This time I'm not going to regret it."

"Don't you want to be with Katai?!" Sephiroth accused, teary-eyed and grief-stricken.

"Yes," Sether nodded, "I do. But no one deserves to be alone forever, Seph, not even murderers."

With that statement, he also forgave himself.

Sephiroth was speechless. He looked at Aeris with venom, as if it was her fault, but she only smiled gently at him in return.

"Hey… Seph?" Sether drew his brother's attention. He then raised one finger up and closed his eyes lightly.

"The time is now." He said.

Then he started to glow a bright green, and from the glow small glowing particles started to part and swirled around.

He was returning to the lifestream.

"No…!" Sephiroth shook his head, "No, no, no, no…!" He then extended his arm and released his will. The second most powerful will in existence. The will that could summon Meteor, the will that killed countless women and men…

He said, though his voice actually bellowed,

"No."

Act 3

The green orbs wavered and halted.

Anything would stop at the command of this voice. Even life, and as it now seemed, even death.

However, it was taking the complete unleashing of Sephiroth's will power to keep Sether's spirit in its place. His teeth were clenched tight with strain, but still the glow would not return Sether.

Sephiroth growled a deep, angry growl and tried to squeeze his mind, tried to make the glowing green light retract and create the whole image of Sether once again.

"It won't work." Aeris said, her voice neutral.

"It will!" Sephiroth barked through his teeth, "It will!"

Aeris seemed compassionate, and did not try to stop Sephiroth's doing. She said,

"Your will is indeed powerful, Sephiroth. However, it is much easier to destroy than to create." She smiled, "One will can destroy the world, but one will can not return a single life."

Sephiroth would not give up. Without looking away from the glow, he hissed,

"What do you want me to do?! Give up?! Give up and let my brother die?!"

She smiled wider,

"Don't you feel it?" She asked, looking up, "All I'm asking you to do is let all the other people, all the other wills of the people join yours."

"Huh?" Sephiroth released his will's grip a little to discover that there was, in fact, more than his will at work.

"The combined wills of those who love him, and who want him back…" Aeris lowered her head, "The combined will power of all those people… It is stronger even than death."

Sephiroth smiled with rekindled hope and threw all his will back into the effort, this time with the rest of the souls that wanted Sether's return.

The orbs wavered again, and began a slow way back.

Vincent, Lucrecia, Sephiroth, Cid, Shera, Sakura-chan… Even Marlene and Barrett…

The orbs slowly returned to complete Sether's spirit once more.

Now, though Sether's image was filled, and he was not returning to the lifestream, he was not waking up either. He wasn't living.

"What's… What's wrong?" Sephiroth was beginning to tire, and Sether's spirit was still blissfully asleep.

"He doesn't think he deserves to live again…" Aeris whispered before taking a few steps towards the floating spirit.

"Why don't you want to return?" She asked, her voice calm and peaceful.

There was silence, and then Aeris tilted her head,

"But you do deserve to live, Sether, if only for the one you love."

Sether's eyes flashed open and he stared at Aeris. She smiled her ageless smile at him,

"She's waiting… Can't you hear her crying?"

As if on cue, two drops of water landed softly of Sether's cheek from no apparent source. Where the drops hit, the green glow faded.

Those were Katai's tears.

She was shedding them back in the physical world.

He smiled at Aeris and Sephiroth one last time before shooting up, back into Katai's arms and the real world.

"Sether…?" The voice sounded miles away, but Sether was almost certain it was pretty close.

"You're… You're breathing?! Sether! Sether! Sether!"

He was being stared at.

He hated that.

"I…" His voice sounded hoarse and rough, his throat dry and stiff. His breathing was heavy; his lunges didn't really expect to start doing that again. Moving his limbs was totally out of the question. He tried again,

"I… Really…" He took in a ragged breath, "Cannot be dead… while you are staring at me… like that."

He opened his eyes and saw the most beautiful person in the world right above him.

Saying he felt like he had died and was seeing an angel would be totally incorrect in more than one way, but the relief that washed over his face at the sight of her made his heart soar higher than the heavens themselves.

He was in her arms, and she was looking at him with eyes red from crying. She was holding him closely to her, and he could feel her warmth spreading through his cold body.

His stomach was hurting, but Katai could testify that the wound that was only moment before fatal, was now nothing more than blood on his shirt.

It was no more.

The expression on her face could only be described as extreme relief, but there was so much more to that expression that words cannot come to define.

She hugged him again tightly, letting whatever tears remained in her to fall as tears of joy onto his chest. He didn't care, really; it's not like his shirt was dry before.

She raised her head after some while and looked at him, happiness clear on her face.

A miracle.

He still couldn't move, so he made no attempt to get up from her hold. His limbs were tired and numb, and every part of his body was either hurting, bleeding, or about to give him hell in the morning. He knew he could only stay awake for a few more moments before he'll have to get some sleep.

Not eternal sleep, he was quick to add to himself, just a little nap.

"…Happy birthday." She sniffed; smiling, and her lower lip trembled with contained emotion.

He blinked at her several times.

He… Completely forgot… That it was his birthday.

Really! Now he had to live! You can't go and die on your birthday, now can you?!

It was 5:11 in the afternoon when Sether Valentine was brought back to life with the will power of love and friendship.

He liked that.

Lucrecia's tears stopped just as abruptly as they started, and she continued her sentence from two minutes ago, much to her husband's and his friends' shock.

Weapon gave the impression of sighing with content from the bottom of the sea.

It saw a little submarine pass by. The submarine had tiny things in it that waved at it.

It waved back.

With a great sense of relief, a great swell of happiness and a great warmth spreading through his tired limbs, Sether closed his eyes and fell asleep.

_________________________________________
See? death isn't all that final. As The Tick once said: "Death is nature's way of saying 'try again'." @_@
It's not over yet, though! There's still the epilogue to deal with, and of course, Sether and Katai need to be together, don't they? ^_^
Oh, by the way; according to the Merriam-Webster dictonary 'Risorgimento' means 'to rise again'. What would you have done if this chapter was called 'staying dead'? ^_^;