Hiya, I know, it's a real short chappie compared to the last one, but I prefer good chapter endings to having a set length to 'em. Plus, it's not like ya have ta wait fer months to read the next bit, as it was all finished (well, almost) by the time I started to put up Part two. Hee hee. 

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The next morning, Cid woke up and immediately went over to Vincent, still asleep in his bed.

He smiled faintly and brushed a strand of ebony hair away from his closed eyes. He frowned when he felt the damp on Vincent's forehead. He was sweating...

"Vince..." Cid said gently, shaking Vincent's shoulder slightly. "Vince, are you okay?"

Vincent's crimson eyes opened slowly, and there was a faint shadow around them. "Mm.. Cid?" He whispered as he came to. He made a low sound in his throat and groaned, turning his head to the side.

"My head... hurts..." He muttered.

"Hey, you'll be okay once you're up. Come on, lets get some breakfast in you then we can get the test results from the doc."

Vincent felt ill at the thought of food, but sat up, holding his head. "Okay."

Cid made sure Vincent was okay before pulling on his jacket, pants and boots then going into reception to wait for him.

Vincent dressed slowly, the headache slowly wearing off. It seemed to be worse in the mornings for some reason. After he was ready, he made his way to Cid in the reception, and they left the inn.

"Cid, do you mind if I skip breakfast?" Vincent murmured.

They stopped and Cid reached out and squeezed Vincent's arm. "I know, you want the results, huh? Let's go there first, then." He said quietly, with a kind face.

Vincent nodded. It was the easy option, rather than worrying Cid unnecessarily.

They approached the clinic. Upon entering the small building, they found the doctor at his desk, the nurse perusing through files in a cabinet behind the desk.

The doctor looked up at them, removing his glasses.

"Ah, there you are. Please, take a seat." He looked at the nurse. "Sister, would you mind taking care of some business in the next room, please?"

The nurse nodded. "Of course, doctor." She smiled softly at Cid and Vincent before exiting the room.

The doctor sighed, looking at his hands, clasped upon his desk. He chewed his lip slightly under his grey moustache. "I have the results of the blood test I conducted yesterday on Mr Valentine." He said after a moment, followed by a pause long enough to make Cid speak out.

"Well?" Cid leaned forward.

Vincent lowered his head and sighed quietly.

"It was a result I had not encountered before, though it was clear what some of the problems were. Anaemia, anoxaemia, and hypoglycaemia amongst other lesser conditions were present in the sample, which is highly irregular... I couldn't understand why all of these things had begun to happen at once, and there was an abnormally low level of  erythrocyte red blood cells. I took the sample immediately to the microbiologist." He paused, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

Vincent felt Cid's grip on his arm tighten.

"And?" Cid managed quietly from his tightened throat.

"I'm sorry." Said the doctor quietly, looking at Vincent. "You have advanced multi-cellular apoptosis..."

"And what the @#$% is that?!" Cid yelled. "Speak English! What does it mean?"

"I'm sorry. I'll explain. Living organisms expend large amounts of energy preventing their complex molecules from breaking up; cellular repair and replacement are vital processes in multicellular organisms. When Mr Valentine was injected with cells from the Jenova organism he was clinically dead, and the cells reanimated his own cells, falsely rejuvenating them with Jenova's alien circulatory haemoglobin. This is why he "came back to life" in his altered form, for the alien cells altered his DNA pattern." He paused, to let Cid soak in what he was being told. "Jenova cells are what we call parent-dependant cells, which means that they maintain a connection to the main organism from which they originate, even if they have been introduced to a foreign circulatory system. If the mother-organism dies, the daughter-cells cannot survive, and apoptosis occurs. Apoptosis is cell-suicide, the cells self-destruct."

Vincent looked thoughtfully at the doctor, somewhere in him appreciating an explanation of what had been happening to his poor body for all of these years.

Cid shook his head. "But why has it made him ill? He should get better without those bastard Jenova cells infecting him!"

"You don't understand..." The doctor was distressed at having to spell it out so plainly to Cid. It wasn't that Cid really didn't understand; he didn't want to understand. It was denial. "Mr Valentine was dead when the cells were injected into him. The cells were responsible for making his own cells continue to function. Without them..."

"I will die." Vincent finished.

Cid spun in his seat and stared at Vincent's turned away face, his face a portrait of hurt and disbelief.

"No!"

"I told you already, Cid." Vincent said.  

He'd had hope, even until then. Poor Cid. There was nothing to be done, no doctor or microbiologist in the world could stop it.

"But you could have a huge blood transfusion! Replace the dying cells with new ones!" Cid cried desperately.

"No, Mr Highwind..." The doctor said, sadly. "You must understand, cell-production has irreversibly ceased. The new blood cells would begin to decompose and remain un-replaced as soon as they entered his body. Not just his blood cells are affected, but every single cell in his body is going to fail!"

Cid, who had stood up from his chair, stood stock-still for a moment before collapsing heavily back into it again, his eyes glazed over as his resistance finally gave in to the truth. Bitter reality flooded his heart and he could not move. 

Vincent closed his eyes and laid his hand on Cid's arm. Strange, he was the one who was dying and he was comforting Cid.

******

"I thought he could save you..." Cid whispered later, sitting in his armchair back in the house at rocket town. He had been quiet and despondent ever since he had realised that Vincent really was going to die.

Silence, apart from the ticking of the clock.

"I know." Vincent replied, sighing. "I... don't know what to say to you..."

"How long?" Cid asked quietly, his voice stiff.

"What?" Vincent asked.

"How long have we got?"

Vincent stood and knelt beside Cid's chair, clasping his hand in his own. "I don't know. But we should make the best of what we have, shouldn't we?" He stroked Cid's hand.

Cid slowly looked at Vincent's hand caressing his own, comforting. Why? Why?

"Why aren't you angry? Why aren't you afraid?" Cid whispered, tears forming in his eyes. He looked at Vincent with such pain in his eyes that Vincent felt like he'd hurt him merely by speaking soft words of comfort.

"I... " He smiled. "Since you taught me love, you've never taught me those other things. I can't be afraid because I have you."

A tear rolled down Cid's face, it crumpled as he spoke. "But soon, I won't have you... you're leaving me..."

"Cid..." Vincent pulled the pilot into a tight embrace. "You will always have me. I will always be with you, no matter what happens... remember that! I love you so much,...  you'll never be alone."

The words were sweet and they cut Cid like silver-gilded knives.

Because alone was exactly what he was going to be.