A heart as hard as gold

Prologue;

The first time he saw her, Cid didn't really bother to make up an opinion about Shera, but when they started working together; he quickly realised she was probably the smartest person he'd met! Sure, her fanatic perfectionism made her an insanely slow worker, but it was something the pilot decided he could forgive her. Sheras never-ending patience made her an ideal assistant to the short-tempered and foul-mouthed Cid Highwind. Her humble and stoic nature even had a calming influence on the pilot, and a fragile symbiosis grew between them. Unlike him, Shera took very much notice of her co-worker. How could she not?! His incredible blue eyes, his crooked grin; always with a cigarette hanging from the corner of his lips and how everything about him beamed with self-confidence. Shera was positive Cid was the most handsome man she'd ever met! Then came the day of the launch, the day when Cid was supposed to bring ShinRa no.26 into space, and when everything went horribly, horribly wrong...

1. "Sure, count me in, numbskulls!"

Shera still remembered when the door to the engine room opened and Cid gazed at her with a look that made her wish he really had let the rocket kill her.

"How could you...?" He'd said to her in a intense whisper, "you knew how much this meant to me, and yet you ruined everything."

Shera trembled under his ice stare and desperately held her hands out; "b-but, Captain! I told you to..."

Cid's eyes narrowed and he interrupted her apologies; "you put me in a situation where I had to chose between the only thing I've ever dreamed about or become a murderer! How DARE you do that to me?!" He took a step towards her and Shera's heart pounded with fear as she heard the words that she would never forget and would forever haunt her; "I will never forgive you."

Words uttered with such an intense cutting edge of hatred and terrible disappointment that killed her more painfully then any death she would have received in the engine room. Maybe it was the light, or maybe the fumes from the gasoline, but Shera saw the Captains eyes suspiciously blank as he jerked around to tramp out; blank with restrained tears for broken dreams.

After that, Shera existed in a futile attempt to make amends to a man that despised her with everything in him. And it probably would have stayed that way until her dying day if a blonde-haired man named Cloud and his friends hadn't one day entered Rocket Town.

Her heart trembled with fear as the ShinRa soldiers shot after the Tiny Bronco, causing a tail of smoke to follow the plane from the damage they caused. The ShinRa president gazed coolly after them, barely ducking as the plane flew over him and his soldiers, before turning his gaze to Shera. Unknowingly, she raised a hand to her heart as she saw the plane go down and forced herself not to scream with horror and meet the young man's ice stare.

"I take it you have no idea how Strife and his gang got to the Tiny Bronco, do you?" Rufus ShinRa's voice were as cold as his eyes and Shera stuck her chin stubbornly forward;

"It's no less of a mystery to me, Mr President. Perhaps you should ask your co-worker, Mr Palmer, who were indeed trying to steal the Bronco first?"

A few seconds passed before Rufus ShinRa turned on his heel and signaled for the soldiers to follow him, it was nothing more for him here. With any luck was Strife dead anyway. Shera watched the vehicles drive away before turning her eyes to the ocean; worrying sick if the Captain had been injured. She wasn't too sure how long she stood there, gazing numbly after where she'd seen the Tiny Bronco go down; praying to whatever divinity that took pity on her to keep Cid Highwind safe.

Time had passed since Cid decided to join the numbskulls in an futile attempt to fight against the ShinRa, and though he said nothing; he really wanted to hurt that company back for taking away his dream. Sitting in a chair placed in the corner of the inn at the Gold Saucer, Cid pulled forward a cigarette. It wasn't bad enough that the damn Shera had ruined everything, now this boy barely out of diapers were to take away his final chance of ever reaching space! A cruel smile appeared on the pilot's lips as he secretly vowed; oh, he would get his revenge.

The slamming of a door made Cid return to the present and he gazed with half-hearted interest over as Cloud, Tifa, Barret and that moogle called Cait Sith entered the hotel. It was truly an odd bunch he'd joined up with; a SOLDIER, two members of a terrorist group called AVALANCE, a flower-girl from the slums, a juvenile ninja that had stolen their materia and still insisted on comming with them, a huge cat-looking thing that could talk, a ghost of a man nobody knew anything about and this... Cid wasn't too sure what to make out of Cait Sith. The pilot sighed and lighted the cigarette despite Yuffies objections and leaned back in the chair, still very much annoyed at the fact that they were captured here until the rope-way was fixed. Something inside him told Cid that their troubles were far from over, yet he settled calmly with that feeling. Whatever it was, it was damn little he could do about it right now.

At that moment it was suggested that Cloud would sum up what had happened and the pilot nodded with sudden interest; "Yeah, I wasn't here from the beginning so I'm not quite sure what is going on."

With a heavy sigh, the spikey haired man agreed to try. And Cid tried too. He tried so hard! But everything was so far-fetched and damn boring... The pilot fought against his heavy eyelids, but it seemed like Mr Sandman had declared a personal war with him, and Clouds monotonous voice soon became distant... and replaced with dreams that involved fame, fortune and a rocket that actually made it into space!

That was the last calm evening they had, after that everything exploded. That Cait Sith proved to be a traitor, and stole the key they'd just won at the Gold Saucer, leaving them no option but to travel to the Temple of the Ancients with a bad feeling that something was going to happen that they couldn't prevent. The death of the turk seemed no less of a bad omen, only to be overcome by how that Sephiroth manipulated Cloud into attacking Aeris and steal the black materia before disappearing.

It wasn't until they'd been in Gongana for several hours that Cid noticed that Aeris had disappeared. Her kind eyes and gentle nature had even grown on the harsh pilot, so it was with a heavy heart that he agreed to wait for Cloud to wake up before going in search of her. And just as Cid were beginning on his second pack of cigarettes, the door to the tiny house opened and Cloud exited, followed by Tifa and Barret.

"We're heading north." The SOLDIER declared cryptically, but Cid merely nodded;

"the Tiny Bronco is ready. I parked her by the coast of this island."

He'd learned to trust the other man's intuitions, even if they strode against his own and left him a little uneasy. There was something strange about this Cloud. And after what had happened with Sephiroth... Cid had decided to keep a little more on watch. Letting the trio go first, the pilot lifted his spear and leaned it carelessly over his shoulder as he sauntered after them. Time to kick Sephiroths ass!

Only once again nothing went like they'd planned! Young Aeris was killed by Sephiroth in front of their very eyes and they nearly froze their butts off crossing the snow-mountains. At the point where Cid found that his lighter didn't work anymore, he was convinced things couldn't get worse! Of course Sephiroth showed up to prove him wrong. They lost the Black Materia... and Cloud.

The pilot hardly said a word on their way to Junon, even riding the great airship failed to wake any feeling in him. Cid merely sat staring emptily ahed with a barely lit cigarette between his lips.

He didn't even notice Vincent sitting down beside him before the question was asked; "are you ok?"

Tipping the ashes of the cigarette, Cid nodded slowly. "Yeah... yeah, I'm ok. Just a bit stunned. That's all."

The former Turk gazed worried over at Tifa and sighed; "I fear what the loss of Cloud will do to her..."

Knowing too much of loss himself, Vincent couldn't help but to feel concerned for the young woman that had shown him nothing but kindness since the day he'd joined their team.

Cid gazed over at Tifa as well and straightened slightly; "I guess we just have'ta be strong for her then."

Vincent nodded and his gaze of concern turned to a slight frown at the sight of Rufus ShinRa talking with Hojo.

Cid raised his eyebrows and nodded discreetly towards the scientist. "You don't like him, huh? Who's he anyhow?"

Vincent closed his eyes and bent his head. "That is Hojo, a... scientist working for ShinRa."

Cid bit thoughtfully down on his cigarette and blinked as the wheels of his mind finally turned; "Hojo? Isn't he to blame fer a whole bunch'o crap in all of this mess?"

Vincent gave a wry smile that sent a start through Cid before answering; "Indeed. He is to blame for many things."

With that the former Turk got up and walked away, clearly showing that the conversation on that area was over. Leaning back against the wall, Cid sighed again as he began wondering about the problems ahed; was Cloud even alive? How would Tifa handle everything? What would happen now that they were in the hands of ShinRa inc? What would be Sephiroths next move? And most importantly, would he be able to get a new lighter?! It was getting damn tiresome and slightly nerve wrecking having to use Fire-materia every time!

They could all hardly belive their eyes the morning they got up and saw it in the sky; Meteor. Cid actually felt a jolt of fear as he saw the huge burning ball cutting against the blue sky he loved so much. And things weren't improved by the WEAPONS running around and blowing up things! Two days later Cid, Vincent and Red were drowsing in front of the TV in the living room combined for their quarters at Junon after another useless mission against a huge WEAPON that had threatened Costa del Sol. At least Cid was lounging on the sofa, staring mindlessly at the TV at some show he'd never heard of, while Red was fast asleep on the floor, leaving Vincent to pace the floor restlessly.

Just as Cid were about to suggest Vincent quit the damn wandering before he made sure he couldn't use his legs for at least a weak when the former Turk halted right in front of him; "we're leaving."

Blinking surprised, Cid shook his head slightly; "what? What the $%$ are you on about? Leaving? Leaving for where?!"

Vincent grabbed a hold of his wrist and easily jerked the surprised pilot up on his feet; "something's wrong. We need to get away before they come to get us. Red?"

The giant animal stood yawning by the door and nodded affably; "I'm awake Vincent."

Vincent nodded and dragged the protesting Cid with him; "good. Good."

A few meters down the hall, Cid managed to pull free and halted; "Just wait a &%#/&% minute! What about Tifa and the others? I'm not leaving them!"

The pilot stared furiously at the eternally calm Vincent who answered in his neutral voice; "neither would I. That is why we were going to get them as well, before you started your shouting."

Inhaling slowly, Cid fought to regain some of his dignity as he walked stiffly pass Vincent and Red XIII. "I was just letting you know. Now, why are you just standing there?!"

It didn't take long before Cid actually began to agree with Vincent; something was wrong. The halls were empty and everything were just too quiet. With a quick signal to the others, Cid pressed against the wall as two ShinRa soldiers passed them in the dark and wide hallway. "So what'cha think?"

The first soldier asked his companion; "is the AVALANCHE gang to blame fer this?"

The second soldier shrugged and waved his gun; "dunnow. But orders are orders; they're all to be executed and I don't feel that close to them that I wanna follow them into kingdom come, because that's what's gonna happen if we don't catch'em!"

Their voices faded as they turned a corner and Cid leaned heavily against the wall as he fought with his disbelief. ShinRa was going to execute them all? Why?! He turned towards the other two and Red waved his tail uneasily; "Cid, what are we going to do? We have to help them!"

The pilot nodded silently and saw how the former Turk calmly waited for him to take control.

"Alright..." Cid cleared his throat, "Red, you go warn the others; the ones not already captured and tell them to meet us by the Highwind."

The giant animal nodded and ran off, while Vincent barely raised an eyebrow; "the Highwind?"

A wicked smile played upon Cid's lips and his blue eyes sparkled; "yes, the Highwind!"

Getting to the Highwind was no problem, neither was actually taking control over it as just about then a WEAPON decided it would be a good idea to attack Junon and all the ShinRa soldiers were called upon to deal with that. This time Cid actually stepped with joy as he started the huge airship; "hey, baby. Did you miss me? Work with me and I promise that I'll treat ya like a queen all yer days!"

He'd noticed how the ride back with the ShinRas had been everything but smooth as the pilot had obvious problems controlling the Highwind, and for some reason Cid knew what the problem was. The Highwind was just as moody as any woman, and needed her share of sweet-talking and gentle mechanising to grant her services. "C'mon, baby..." Cid muttered softly as she shuddered to life, and merely nodded a greeting as Barret, Cait Sith, Red and Yuffie came running in.

"Where is Tifa?" Vincent asked with a frown

and Cait Sith wobbled over to Cid. "She's still in there."

Barret waved his arms frustrated; "we gotta ¤#/(/&%! help her!"

They all nearly lost balance as WEAPON attacked and Cid cursed under his breath and grabbed the stearingwheel to regain his balance. "Come on!"

At that moment the airship actually lifted from the ground to the relived cheering of her passengers, and Cid turned to the others. "Can anyone see Tifa?"

Cait Sith and Yuffie headed for the door; "we'll check!"

The constant firing of weapons and the screaming alarms were almost too loud for Cid to even think, but suddenly an explosion unlike anyone he'd ever heard silenced everything. With disbelief, the pilot saw WEAPON sink into the sea and couldn't help but to feel a little sorry for the giant monster that only tried to protect it's creator; the planet, from a species that was slowly killing her. Torturing her to death by draining her life force.

Cid started as the door slammed and Cait Sith came jumping over to him; "to the cannon, Cid! Head towards the end of the cannon!"

Gazing slightly suspiciously at the toy cat, the pilot decided to do as it said and turned the airship around, and blinked surprised as he saw Tifa running along the barrel. Barret turned to run outside, explaining over his shoulder, "I'm gonna throw down da ladder!"

When finally all of them, minus Cloud, were gathered in the Highwind the question was raised; what to do now? When it was carefully suggested that Cloud might be alive, it was decided they should at least try and look.

"It'll go faster if we split up in teams," Cid declared as he stood with his back towards them, gazing at Meteor.

Tifa walked over and placed a light hand on his shoulder; "something wrong, Cid?"

He shook his head and gave her a weak smile; "Noah. I just want to get things to speed along a little."

She nodded, clearly not quite believing him; "Ok... so, who should go where?"

Cid turned to gaze at the others. "I dunnow. But I know my way around this continent, so I can start here."

Tifa shrugged; "true, and we keep in touch over the PHS. Right?"

Cid nodded; "right."

Barret scowled at the two, then waved his arms; "I'm going with you, Tifa."

The dark haired woman smiled softly, knowing him too well to argue. "Alright. It's me, Barret and... ?"

Red XIII sat up; "I'll go."

Yuffie crossed her arms with a loud 'hmpf'. "And who am I supposed to go with? As if I need someone to watch my back!"

Tifa gave her a levelly look before gesticulating faintly; "you'll go with Cait Sith. Vincent, you know the Nibel-areas pretty well, don't you?"

The former Turk merely nodded without looking up as he was polishing his shotgun. Cid cleared his throat with a grin and pulled forward his pack of cigarettes; "so it's me and Vinnie then?"

Tifa gazed down at the silent figure; "if it's ok?"

Putting the gun back in it's holster, Vincent got up. "Of course."

Deciding they'd drop off Cid and Vincent, the others would keep the airship to reach the other continents and no sooner had they reached ground, before the pilot began to march rather determinedly east-wards. The former Turk raised his eyebrows barely noticeable and followed; "you have a specific destination?"

Cid shrugged and lit up his cigarette. "Just thought that now we were in the neighbourhood, I'd drop by Rocket Town. Them folks always were the jumpy kind, and now that damn &%#&/%¤ Meteor is hangin' in the sky; they're probably runnin'round in circles. I AM the chief of that town, y'now!"

He stared challenging over at Vincent, who merely shrugged.

They walked in silence for a while, then, maybe it was the shining bright weather or the need to take their thoughts of the gloomy future that made Vincent feel the urge to poke at Cid's weak point, he cleared his throat innocently before asking; "it's not... Shera you are worried about, by any chance?"

The words had barely been uttered before the pilot halted abruptly and puffed angrily at his cigarette; "hell no! As the chief of that town I have a certain responsibility for the "/%#(/& people living there! It's just an unfortunate coincidence that Shera lives there, but then she always goes out of her way to &(%/& annoy me!"

Cid trampled on and Vincent sighed as he followed again. "I'm quite sure that isn't true." Shera seemed to him like someone completely incapable of doing anyone harm intentionally.

Cid glared irritated over at him and snorted; "well, you haven't been living with her for years now, have you?!"

Vincent nodded slowly; "which brings me to my second question: why is she living in your house?"

Staring intensely at the horizon, Cid shrugged. "When we were assigned to Rocket Town, we decided it would save us time and money as we were working on the space-program. And after that %(&%$ Shera messed up everything... I don't know. I was too angry to talk to her, and she just... stayed."

Deciding he'd interfered too much with other peoples business, Vincent let the silence fall again, but not without a slight admiration for the woman that had endured Cid's wrath for so long.

Their thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of gun-fire. The two gazed quickly at each other, but at the sound of a woman screaming, both darted towards the sound with weapons ready. By a tiny forrest, four ShinRa soldiers were surrounding a dark haired woman who held a tiny gun in front of her with shivering hands.

"Hey!" Cid called out, "don't they teach you any manners in ShinRa? Be nice to the ladies, fellas!"

Vincent merely pulled forward his shotgun and got ready for trouble.

The soldiers spun around and at the sight of the intruders, the captain paled. "It's AVALANCHE! Fight them, you idiots! Kill them!"

Cid and Vincent barely managed to jump away to avoid the grenade thrown at them, and the pilot ran in for the kill while the former Turk kept his distance and let the ShinRa soldiers do the running from the bullets he sent their way.

As Cid swept the feet beneath a ShinRa soldier with the spear and quickly knocked him unconscious, he could have sworn there was nothing greater in life then a good fight; when an exploding pain rushed through him. By supporting himself with the spear, Cid managed to throw a Earth2 and knock out the final soldier and discover that the insane pain came from a bullet wound in his leg. "Damn..." he muttered as he saw the blood running, and didn't dare to hope; "hey, Vinnie? You don't have any Restore materia, huh?"

Cid heard Vincent moving and as he glanced up he saw him carrying the woman, who'd obviously fainted. "No," was the calm answer and Cid bent his head with a sigh. "Me neither... /&"#$%!!! Just my luck!"

He forced himself to loosen his white scarf and managed to tie it tightly around his leg, wry relived over that the bullet hadn't hit a few inches higher; damaging his knee. "That oughta hold it together until we get to Rocket Town..."

Cid gazed over at Vincent, who was gazing slightly uncomfortably at the woman in his arms. "How is she?"

Vincent quickly looked over at Cid and shrugged; "I think she'll be ok. Just frightened and a light cut above her eyebrow; probably from the fall of her chocobo, but I don't think it's any cause to worry."

Cid shook his head confused; "wait a (%&$# minute! Chocobo? Why do you...?"

His question faded out as Vincents gaze lowered explanatory towards the ground: covered in chocobo tracks. Cid snorted embarrassed and tested how much weight he could put on his wounded leg; "Alright! Fine! So... what are we gonna do'bout her?"

Once again the attention was brought to the limp woman in Vincents arms and there was a short silence that the former Turk broke;

"what is there to... do? We cannot leave her here!"

Cid sighed resigned and got ready for a long, painful trip to Rocket Town; "alright. Alright. Come on then."

Vincent kneeled down and placed the woman gently on the ground; "in a few seconds. I just want to make sure she wont get cold."

Cid raised his eyebrows surprised as Vincent took of his cape and placed it around the woman before lifting her up again; "my, my, Vince. Didn't know you were such a gentleman!"

The smirk on Cid's face died when he saw the ice-cold look in Vincents eerie eyes and for the first time could the pilot see traces of... anger in his face?

"I assure you, Mr Highwind, that I am nothing like a gentleman. And it would be very foolish of you to think so."

Vincents voice were as cold as his eyes, and Cid merely stood staring after him as he strode off, several seconds passed before the pilot managed to gather himself enough to limp in the same direction.