Part I: Obligatory Returning Evil

Goku Tonberry was meditating on top of Mt. Nibel when he sensed something behind him. "What is it you want, master?" he said without turning around. It said nothing, but communicated through telepathy. "He did? And you want me to ‘join’ you? How?" Goku finally turned around and saw his ‘master’ staring at him. A blue flash was expelled from the yellow rodent, and Maijn Tonberry was reborn in a new body.

Gatoris sat upright in his bed, waking up his wife. "Oh, no... He’s back..." was all he said. Aerith looked at him. "Who? Who is back?" Gatoris looked her in the eyes and said in a trembling voice. "Maijn’s back. He’s found a new host." Aerith was puzzled. "How? I thought Pikachu died." Gatoris tried to explain it. "Pikachu’s spirit still exists. while that is around, Maijn can be spawned. And it just happened to Goku Tonberry." Aerith panicked as well. Gatoris looked at the clock. It was six in the morning: too late to try to go back to sleep. "I’ve got to find him, and end this crap. He will not cause havoc like he did the last time." he stated. Aerith’s eyes welled up with tears. She was afraid that she was going to lose him again. Gatoris kissed her on the forehead, and walked to the door. "Don’t worry. Hojo didn’t kill me, so I am not worried. You must understand that I must finish him myself. I shall return." With that, he teleported away. Aerith began to sob quietly. Sephiroth had heard the whole conversation, so he followed Gatoris. Ifalna started to pray.

"Ah, the baka’s coming..." Maijn said to himself. "Excellent. I shall have revenge for the last time." Suddenly, he heard another voice. "Talk to yourself much, Pikachu?" Gatoris had teleported behind him. "Heh. It’s a shame that you have to die so soon after being married..." Maijn seemed confident. "Who said anything about him dying?" shouted a third voice. Sephiroth joined the fray. "It must be the day they let out all the nuts..." the beast muttered. "Sephiroth! This is not your fight! I must finish him!" Gatoris screamed at his comrade. Maijn took advantage of this, and attacked. Gatoris never saw it coming. He was hit by a barrage of punches and kicks. It stung a little, but Gatoris was overall unfazed. He gripped his sword tightly and went to slice Maijn in half. He was shocked when Maijn grabbed the blade and threw him the other way. Gatoris landed on his feet, shook up. Gatoris gave the sword to Sephy to see if he could do better. Same result. Gatoris decided to put away the sword and fight hand-to-hand. Barrages of punches and kicks were exchanged. Gatoris was taking a beating, while Maijn seemed to dodge everything. Then Maijn connected with a kick to the mouth that stunned Gatoris. He was unable to recover from it. If he had recovered, he would have been able to dodge the Kamehameha from Maijn. Gatoris fell to the ground, unconscious.

Aerith stopped crying for a second. Angie then emerged suddenly. "No... not again. He’s... he’s..." she began to cry uncontrollably.

Part II: Trials and Hardships

Jason looked at his fallen comrade. He became filled with rage. Enough to exit Sephiroth and enter Gatoris in an attempt to retrieve Garrett’s soul. Sephiroth stood up, and began to attack Maijn in a rage. Both fighters exchanged equal blows. While that was going on...

...Jason was within Gatoris. He had to find Garrett. For without him, Gatoris was nothing. He found him on his way to the a portal that led to the Snake Way. "Wait!!!" Jason ran to Garrett. He did not look up. "Snap out of it! You got to get back there and fight him!" Jason pleaded with him. He finally looked up. "Tell her goodbye for me..." Jason did not want to do that, so he punched Garrett in the face. "You giving up? Running away from your problems again?" Jason yelled. "No, this is just the way it was meant to be. We will never be together for more than a day..." Jason said something that spooked him: "You fool! Quit being so stubborn! She loves you, and you’re pushing her away again? Just because you think it’ll never work?" Garrett froze. Jason was the one trying to keep him with her. He was the other voice in the Tirey Hall breakdown. Garrett had returned to his former ways. "I have a feeling that in our last life the love for her shifted to you. If we were meant to be, I wouldn’t have died so soon after the wedding..." Jason was fed up. "Dammit, Garrett! It’s not over yet! If you love her, you’ll live!" Garrett began to walk away from the portal, but not back to Gatoris. He began to walk to what seemed to be the place where there was no return. He had given up on himself.

Almathea arrived on the scene of the fight, and tried to heal Gatoris. "No use." She proclaimed. "Why?" Sephy asked. "He has lost the will to live... he’s got it in his mind that this is the end." Sephiroth and Maijn kept fighting. Almathea then proceeded to enter Gatoris’ already full mind.

She wound up in front of him, barring the path to the end. "You are doing it again..." Almathea said, holding back tears. "You are giving up on her. He’s right. If you even remotely cared for her, you will get back there and fight with all your heart..." She broke down in tears. Her pleas were falling on deaf ears. Until Garrett had a vision. He saw Aerith on the balcony, with Ifalna trying to restrain her. He could see that Angie was coming through. She muttered a sentence: "I’m coming with you, Garrett." She then jumped off the balcony. He began to cry. Halfway through the fall, the vision switched to Angie back in Deadwood. She took the two rings off the chain and put them on her finger. She then proceeded to place the chain around her neck. Garrett was about to break down. But it got worse. Angie fastened the chain to a pipe situated above her head. She looked at the stool under her feet, and said a few words to herself. "I can’t take it anymore. I’m sorry Garrett, but I feel that I have to join you..." She then began to kick the stool. Garrett closed his eyes. When he opened them, he saw Angie’s lifeless body hanging from the pipe. He screamed out in agony. "NO! Angie... Why?" He then looked around him again. Angie was not there, only Jason and Almathea. "Now, do you understand? If you give up now, It’s all over with no chance to be with each other... EVER." Almathea said, between the tears. Garrett was still speechless and crying. Instead of falling in a heap and crying though, he ran back to Gatoris. "We did it." Jason decreed. Almathea sighed. "That was close..." Both returned to their respective bodies, while Gatoris returned full-strength.

Angie stopped crying. She realized that Garrett had not given up. He was alive again. She smiled and prayed for him.

Part III: Judgment Day

Maijn glanced at Gatoris’ once-lifeless body, and saw it move. Damn, he thought. He just won’t go away! Gatoris hopped up, full of rage. "So that’s your plan..." he said in a duo-toned voice. "You want all that oppose you dead. If I am dead, you know that Angelina will lose it and kill herself. Then Jason, and perhaps Almathea." Gatoris’ hair was also duo-toned: Black spikes were interwoven with his blonde hair. As for his eyes, they now lacked pupils. Garrett and Zack had fully fused. And Garrett’s anger fueled their fire. "You catch on, fool. Now it’s time to die again." Maijn was incensed. He blasted Gatoris with the same shot, but this one caused no damage. Instead of retaliating, Gatoris began to chant a spell. Sephy kept whooping up on Maijn. Then from nowhere, a Kamehameha pierced Maijn’s stomach. Aerith landed on the mountaintop. Pikachu began to split from Goku Tonberry. Gatoris finished his spell, and the spirit of Pikachu vanished in a flash of white. He had sent him to the sun, as well. "You came back..." Angie spoke through tears. Garrett began to cry too. "I just couldn’t bear to leave you again. I saw what would happen if I did, and I did not want that." They hugged each other again. "You know, Garrett," Almathea said while drying her eyes, "I could never get paid enough to do this against my will. Just be glad you have friends that care." "I am. Thank you again for taking time away from your life to save mine." Gatoris said. Almathea smiled. "Let’s get home." Sephiroth proclaimed. "Wait..." Gatoris said unexpectedly. "I want to give Aerith something I wish I could have. I’ll be back in an hour or so." With that, he left again for Junon. The three knew what he wanted to do: give Aerith back her father.

Part IV: Acts of Charity

Being through this before, Gatoris went to where he had found Ifalna in Shinra’s storage locker. His logic was that the two would have been put next to each other. He was right. Prof. Gast was next to where Ifalna had been. He thawed out the body, and proceeded to revive him. A few minutes later, he started to stir. A family reunited, Gatoris thought. "Thank you Gatoris..." he said. "Don’t mention it, Professor Gast." Gatoris was modest. "Please, call me by my first name: Albert." he requested. "I know the decision you had to make. You could have tried to bring your father back in this realm. But you chose the path that was more feasible: you revived me for Aerith." "Yeah." Gatoris replied, "I wanted your daughter to be happy at all costs." Prof. Gast looked at his son-in-law. "She married a good man." Gatoris looked at him. "Let’s get out of here. This place creeps me out." The two men left, and returned to Castle Tonberry.

With the family reunited, dinner was a happy time. Then the phone rang. Darien was actually calling for Almathea, but Gatoris picked it up. Seemed that Serena had come down with the flu. He was wondering if she could come heal her. Gatoris said he’d do it. After dinner, he wound up at Serena’s door again. He went in and saw her in bed, sniffling and sneezing. She looked miserable. "Gatoris, why are you here?" she asked. "I heard that you were sick, and I felt that I should take it upon myself to heal you." Serena smiled. "I thought you didn’t like me..." "I just don’t want anyone to be miserable." He healed her without saying another word. When he was done, he staggered out the door.

When he went to bed that night, Garrett reflected on his past. He couldn’t give up on Angie... ever. He did not want her to give up on life, like he nearly had. The picture of Angelina hanging herself was too disturbing. It still sent chills down his spine. He had no idea what he would do if it had happened. With these thoughts in his head, he could not sleep. He knew the only thing that could make him feel better.

Angie was in her room, watching television. She had asked Jared if she could keep the tape. He saw no reason why he needed to keep it. That, and Garrett said if anything happened to him to give it to her. She kept watching him sing "Lightning Crashes" over and over. She felt as if Garrett was singing directly to her. She then watched Jason singing his song. It touched her deeply. Then came the final song. It was Garrett singing. He had no alternate lyrics for this one. He sang "November Rain", straight up. It again seemed like he was singing to her. The end of the tape made her cry. Garrett added a few words to her. After the song was over, he abruptly said "Love you, Angie..." and that was the end of the tape. It was as if he knew he was going to die, and this was his final farewell to her. She clutched the picture of her, Jason and Garrett and cried. "Garrett..." she rarely called him by his real name. No one did, for he preferred to be called Gator. "Garrett, I miss you. I hope Jason isn’t causing you problems." She could just see the two sitting at a table, discussing her. She envisioned them both missing her, but neither argued about who loved her more. This thought comforted her. She suddenly heard a knock on her door. Who would come visit me at this time of night, she thought. She opened the door, and no one was there. There was only a handful of white roses with a note attached. The note was in Garrett’s writing:

Angelina;

We know you are thinking of us. And no, Jason isn’t causing problems. We both miss you, and we will always be watching you...

G + J

Instead of being creeped out, she felt comforted. They were watching her, she could feel it. She felt blessed to have friends that cared so much for her.

Gatoris could finally sleep. His conscious was clear, and the one he loved still knew he cared. At that time, Aerith rolled over. "That was nice of you. I think she’ll like them." She then kissed him. Good, he thought, Angelina is happy in both of her existences. Gatoris finally went to sleep.