Its considered to be a person's duty to do their very best in life, so that they might have the chance to pass on to something greater. Still, there is always the lone soul who has to stop and wonder, is it worth of it?

Chapter Two

Ric sat up slowly, blinking into the fading sunlight overhead, and grimaced. He'd slept a /long/ time, far more than he should have.

The Captain still sat in the grass at his feet, back turned to him, eyes fixed on the fading bellow of smoke that marked where the Highwind had struck the planet. He gave no signal in movement nor sound that he was aware of Ric's awakening, and the young man took the moment to watch Cid in profile.

Cid Highwind, the world's finest pilot, master of the fallen airship, the skies, and Ric's own dreams.

Ric was a full two inches taller than Cid, but he still looked up to the older man. Cid Highwind was his hero, his idol. He held in his heart a strange fixation to his Captain, one that left him with strange dreams in the night, or long moments where he couldn't take his eyes off of him. Ric spent his days positioned carefully so that he could watch Cid move about the bridge, hear every word he said. He had learned to read his superior in a way that only came with the deepest familiarity. He had discovered that Cid wasn't the cold, angry man he made himself out to be, but a vibrant, expressive person, sharp as a razor. It was the young, inexperienced people like Ric himself, that led Cid to cursing and yelling and screaming. Ric imagined that if Cid were to find someone to match his own intelligence, that he could be an incredibly amiable person.

Now, Ric watched as Cid lifted his chin, turning his eyes skyward again. The creepy orange glow left over from Meteor had faded, and the sky held a more acceptable hue of dark purple as the sun set. He smiled. The stars would come out soon. He knew as well as anyone how much Cid loved the stars.

As if sensing his eyes on him, Cid turned to look back at Ric.

"Oh, yer awake…" He commented, turning in his seat to face Ric more completely. Ric gave him a shy smile.

"Yeah… Sorry I slept so long, Sir." Cid frowned. The way this kid talked to him, he'd be changing his first name to "Sir" and his middle to "Cid" at this rate.

"'S fine, Kid. If ya slept that long, its 'cause you needed it." Cid answered. "The world's holdin' its breath right now. This might be the last chance we get fer a little rest fer a while…" He added, noting inwardly how those eerily piercing eyes were fixed on him again.

"Thank you, Captain." Cid snorted.

" Name's Cid. My ship's dead, I ain't a captain anymore. Jus' Cid, now, got it?"

"Mr. Highwind?" Ric asked. He couldn't perceive something as close as being on a first-name basis with the Captain. Cid laughed.

"Do I look /that/ old to ya, Kid?" He growled, tilting his head to give Ric a sideways look. Ric blanched.

"No!"

"Then just call me Cid. Just Cid!" Cid couldn't help but smile a little as he saw Ric visibly struggle with the concept. He chuckled softly. "Oh, c'mon, Kid, I ain't that fucking special." He added. Ric's unusual eyes widened for a moment.

"Aah--!" Ric began to flounder, and Cid decided to spare him.

"Where ya from, Ric?" Cid asked suddenly. Ric's mouth snapped shut and he thought on that. He knows my name…

"Uh… Junon, Si--aah… Sorry."

"No sweat. Junon, huh? Not too far from home then. Can probably get there in a few days if yer leg's alright." Cid glanced back at the boy at his side, but Ric had gone strangely silent. "You okay?" He added after a moment. Ric looked up, eyes suddenly pale.

"I can't go back there…" Cid raised an eyebrow in silent questioning. "I haven't been able to get a hold of anyone in my family… I think they all died when that Sea-Weapon attacked…" Cid nodded solemnly.

"I'm sorry to hear that…" He paused, thinking. "Look, I gotta head towards Junon to get my sorry ass overseas anyway…if we get there 'n you can't find yer family, you're welcome ta tag along 's far as you want, alright?" Cid watched in amusement as Ric's eyes widened with restrained excitement.

"Y-you don't mind?" Cid smiled weakly.

"I don't mind…. So long as you don't fucking try to pull any more crazy shit like ya did on the ship and with yer goddamned broken leg!" Ric's face lit up.

"Thank you Sir!" Cid gasped as Ric leapt foreword, throwing his arms around Cid's shoulders in an awkward bear hug. Cid wasn't exactly the type of person many people hugged. Most people took him as rather prickly, but here was this kid, who obviously should had known better, with his face buried against Cid's collarbone. Stiffly, feeling incredibly awkward, Cid raised a hand to pat the boy's back.

Ric pulled back suddenly, face red, eyes wide.

"Aah--S-sorry!" He stammered, for the first time, not willing to meet Cid's eyes. Cid sighed, reaching foreword to give the kid's hand a squeeze before waving it off.

"Yeah, yeah. Just quit callin' me 'Sir'."

Ric sat staring wide-eyed as Cid shrugged off his slip of composure. It had felt wonderful to hug the pilot, if only to feel that /yes/, Cid Highwind was /real/. Ric swore he wasn't gay. The attraction he had for Cid wasn't that sort of thing, but more of maybe a close uncle or father figure.

And Cid seemed to realize that, even if it /did/ obviously freak him out. Ric felt all the fear he'd held bottled up for days since before Avalanche's showdown with Sephiroth, drain away as Cid gave his hand a small, reinforcing squeeze. He smiled gratefully at Cid, but mentally swore he wouldn't hug the man again. Ric was as startled by his own actions as Cid was.

"You alright to walk?" Cid asked suddenly into the silence that had begun to stretch between them. Ric paused, honestly thinking on this. He shifted.

"I think so… My leg feels fine…" He carefully crawled to his feet, shifting his weight carefully onto what had been his injured leg. He bounced on it lightly, then grinned down at Cid who was still sitting there, watching him. "Yeah, I think I'm fine…" Ric concluded after a moment. Cid nodded, grunting as he climbed to his feet.

"Good…I don't want to be around here any longer…" Cid admitted. A strange feeling had begun to crawl up the back of his spine in the time between his last burst of broken conversation, and he had the weirdest urge to get the hell away from where he was now.

If Cid hadn't learned to trust those weird gut feelings, he would have been dead a good decade ago.

"Yeah…" Ric agreed, stepping a little closer to Cid. He watched the young man absently brush his hip, perhaps looking for a gun or some other hidden weapon. Apparently it wasn't there, because he saw Ric's eyes dart in the fading light for a moment.

"Come on, this way…" Cid headed off at a quick pace, heading away from Midgar. That feeling was getting stronger, and he realized with no small amount of alarm that he too was without any more of a weapon except for a small hand knife he kept in his boot. Cid shifted his ankle as he walked, checking to make sure the thing was still there. He felt a hard lump bite against his ankle, and he gave a mental sigh. Good, well, at least that's okay…

Beside him, Ric seemed like he might be struggling slightly to keep up with Cid's quick pace, but Cid held strong, and Ric didn't complain.

They walked the entirety of the night, and well into the morning before both had finally slowed to a stop, needing rest.

Ric flopped to the ground as soon as Cid had conceded to stop, sitting cross-legged and glancing around. Cid remained standing for a moment, assessing their location. They had made good time in their hurry, and if they kept up their pace, the could make it to Junon by as early as dawn the next day.

Still, Cid shifted nervously. That eerie feeling had not faded, and he'd already concluded that it wasn't coming from Ric again. The boy had relaxed around Cid suddenly, and Cid no longer felt the piercing long stares that he had at first. They had occasionally talked in low whispers throughout the night, and Cid had found an admirable amount of intelligence in the kid, and was now developing loose plans to take him back to Rocket Town with him, Ric as his protégé.

Cid let out a low growl.

"Come on, Ric… Shit, I think something's stalking us… We gotta make tracks, Kid." Ric let out a small sound of complaint, but crawled back to his feet, nodding. "If we hurry, we can probably make it to safety in Junon…" Ric was at his side, matching his even faster pace, in a heartbeat, and neither said a word as they hurried on, both men looking about as they walked, searching for the invisible force that had left them both so nervous.

By nightfall, both were running. The entity that had followed them all this distance had revealed itself as a hulking shadow of a monster at least twice Cid's height, and just as wide, with spines, and lots of them. It moved relatively slowly, but still quicker than their actual walking pace. It had apparently spent the whole days' time before sizing them up, and had picked up speed once the sun had set, moving in for the kill.

Cid swore under his breath as he picked up speed, now holding onto Ric's arm as he dragged the boy with him. Ahead, he could see the city gates to Junon, only a few hundred meters off. Behind them, the beast was gaining on them, only a few dozen meters away. It was as if it had been able to sense when they had both crossed that vital point of exhaustion, and had doubled its speed. What had been a relatively light jog had turned into a mad dash for life. Cid felt his knife clunk lightly in his boot, but he knew that that little four-inch blade would do jack shit to something twelve feet tall and snarling.

Beside him, Ric stumbled, gasping. Cid grunted, yanking him back to his feet before he had a chance to fall, and with a pained sound, Ric staggered on, still running, occasionally glancing behind them.

It was as Ric chanced a look over his shoulder for the fifth time that Cid heard the thundering footfalls behind them cease, and looked over his own shoulder to see the monster not running on the ground behind them, but in mid-leap /over them/.

With a violent curse, he threw Ric to the ground, and then followed, throwing himself over the younger, wincing for impact.

The monster managed to overshoot them, and it had to run several dozen yards just to turn its hulking self around again to return its charge.

Still, now Cid and Ric were cut off from their destination. Both men climbed to their feet, stances low and wary. The monster turned, snarling, and crouched to pounce again. Cid snatched the knife out of his boot, a rather desperate plan working through his head. Ric shifted beside him.

"Cid, what are you doing?"

"Gunna try somethin', Kid." Cid growled, crouching even as the monster lunged foreword. "Stay back!" He added before leaping into the air.

Ric watched in awe as Cid practically took flight, soaring over the monster's head, and twisting his body into a dive, the tiny knife poised in a shot clean over the monster's head plate. The blow struck, and the monster screamed, batting violently at Cid with one giant paw as the pilot leapt away. A row of sharp talons caught Cid's back, felling him in mid leap. Cid dropped to the ground heavily in a heap and the monster turned, growling.

"CID!" Ric screamed, dashing foreword even as the monster loomed over Cid's now shifting body. Cid was getting up, but not quick enough. The monster raised it's paw again, and Ric dove, covering Cid's body with his own at the last moment.

Ric took the full brunt of the blow as it shattered his spine, ripping his back open raw to the world, but he swallowed his scream.

Cid did scream, though. The rough cry of Ric's name, sharp and hurt in the night, filling Cid with enough fury to lunge up into the air again, retrieving his knife and making another slash from eye to ear in the monster's head. It screamed again, thrashing, but fell this time. Cid crouched on its shoulder, panting, an dropped his shoulders as it began to rain, smearing the grime he'd collected from his battle with Sephiroth, the death of the Highwind, and now this… Slowly, as the monster wheezed its last breath, Cid climbed down to the muddy ground below, crawling back to Ric.

Cid swore softly as he tried to help the young man sit up. Ric was shivering harshly, his teeth chattering, eyes unfocused. Cid pushed his hair back out of his face. If Cloud's hair didn't stick straight up in the air, and was a darker, richer shade of chocolate brown, it would be just like Ric's. Everywhere. Ric twisted, wincing, and tried to look up at Cid.

"Y-you o-okay…?" He managed softly, coughing. Cid clamped his eyes shut again for a moment.

"'m fine, Kid. Hang on." He pulled out his restore materia again, focused all his energy into the spell. Green light flared in the dark. Ric gave a small cry, gasping, hand coming up to grip Cid's coat and sitting up partially, before collapsing back into the mud. Cid swore. "Shit, Ric… Ric?"

Ric gave Cid that same brave smile yet again, then coughed.

"Didn't…work…"

"The hell, it didn't! Hang on, Ric." Cid said again. He knew he risked burning himself out, casting the same powerful spell so many times, but at this point, Cid frankly didn't give a shit. Green light flared again, and he felt his energy drain away as if a plug had been pulled. Gasping, Cid had to drop the spell, but only moved to try it again, maybe at a lower level…

"Cid, don't." Ric caught his hand, pushing it away.

"Ric, yer gunna di-"

"I know, Cid. It's alright." Cid's face drew itself up in emotional pain.

"NO! No, its NOT alright, damn it! Yer not gunna fucking die on /my/ watch!" Ric chuckled softly, then coughed again. Cid had some pretty crappy night vision, but he could still see the blood trickling from the boy's lips.

"You know-" Ric began, and Cid held back a miserable groan. No. Not this. No confessions…please, Kid… don't…"ShinRa only hired me because I wouldn't leave them alone. Said I was too wet behind the ears to work on something as special as the Highwind but I wouldn't give up… The other guys, they used to talk about ya… a lot of times in some sort of fear, but always good things. …Never thought I'd actually get to meet you, though… Not in person…" Cid looked away, felt his chest pinching down to what felt like half its natural size. He could hardly breathe, and he had to swallow a choked sound of his own. Stop… please, Kid…"I know the days have been..well…shit, recently, but you made it worth it for me…" Another, violent cough. "..Thanks…Captain…High…wind…" Ric sat back, going quiet. Cid gasped, lunging foreword to shake the boy.

"Ric? Kid? /Kid/?!?" Cid shook him by the shoulders again, slapped his face lightly, cast Restore until he nearly passed out, but nothing worked. Ric McNeilian had just died at his feet, eighteen and too consumed by hero worship to even have the brains to save his own ass. Cid choked. Damn it… You said you weren't gunna pull anymore crazy-ass stunts…Had this boy really just died saving Cid's life? Cid wasn't even sure of that. Had he been on his own, he might have done things differently, or he may have died just as horribly- body torn and broken in two, with only the stars as witnesses. Cid sat back in the mud, burying his face in his hands, ignoring the gore and filth coating them, giving a low, mournful moan. I told you… you wouldn't be able to keep taggin' along if you did somethin' crazy… I…..told…Cid's thoughts faded away to sheer thoughtless grief as the intensity of the rain falling all around him grew steadily.

Beside him, Ric lay forever staring up to the stars, a faint, starry half-smile gracing his lips, even in death.

OoOoO

AN: Okay, so I usually wouldn't update this fast, I felt just one chapter wasn't enough to get this bird in the air, you might say, so, here's another one. Yeah, I'm still just warmin' up my angst skills here. Bear with me, and hopefully, it'll turn out okay...

1)World's shortest lifespan of an OC. . Another title for this story might have been "Cid and Ric's Bogus Adventure"

But then again, Ric's dead, so there's not much of an 'and Ric' part to this story, is there? Maybe instead, "Cid's Shitty Day"? But those almost sound funnny, don't they?

2) This wasn't supposed to be Shonen-ai. Ric was compared to Cloud for a reason - another victim of Hero Worship. That and someone has to have the balls to give our poor prickley Captain a hug... He's gunna need it. .

3) Oh yeah, was that a cliche' enough death for everybody? lol. Yay, officially, as a writier, I'm a murderer now. Yep, that's the first one I whacked. I didn't even ever get around to killing off that nasty old InnKeeper from New Life .

4) And to think I haven't managed to get myself depressed yet... (its the prozac )