---Happy Ending---
Ric walks the wasteland of the battlefield. Bodies lay piled against one another, unmoved from where they have been cut down.
Each and everyone of them were the people this fight had been fought for. Slaves, bio-warriors, puppets to the last, unwilling or unable to break away from their Master.
He finally sees where the last of the Alliance members stand. In the middle of their circle he sees a mound of yellow and red...
Mojo. Mojo was dead.
He starts running without realising it. Jumping and tripping and scrambling over the dead to reach those few tall, proud warriors that stood around their defeated foe.
He has to know. Has to know if Star has paid the final price for these hoards of dead slaves.
He skids to a halt outside the circle, throat dry and mouth bitter. So much red, so bright against the pale clothes, pale skin, pale blades.
If not for the familiar clothes, he never would have recognised his dearest friend.
"Star...?"
His head lifts, shorts curls brushing his cheeks. He rises to his feet, turns slowly, painfully slowly, lacking the innate grace Ric has always associated with him.
Pale eyes, so cold and dead, latch on him. His blades left deep in Mojo's chest, pinning the cut braid of hair to the carcass.
"Your hair..."
"Shatterstar cut the braid himself when the Spineless One attempted to restrain him by it." One of the other warriors, and he'll been damned if he can remember the name off hand, a tall green skinned humanoid with a white line down the middle of his face.
"Star?"
A slow shake of his head, curls bouncing with the movement.
"Gaveedra?"
Again a slow shake of the head and he starts walking, away from the corpse of his nemesis, away from the Cadre.
Away from Ric.
"Star!" He races after him, but hands catch his shoulders and hold him. "Hey! Let go of me! Star!"
"No, Rictor. Not Shatterstar. Not Gaveedra Seven. Not anyone. His cause has ended."
"What? Star!"
He never looks back as he steps towards the dimension gate and gently, obscenely gently, pulls the safety limiters off the control panel.
"Our Messiah has defeated the Spineless One. He has earned his end. To end his run undefeated by any, our ultimate victor."
Cold, cold realisation running through him and he's screaming his defiance, the earth ripping asunder to tear his captors from him. He's running as the gate activates without destination, screaming Star's name so loud his throat burns.
Star looks up at him, and he looks so much older than a mere twenty two. He's the eldest of the Cadre still standing.
"Star..."
A slow blink.
"I love you, Star."
A pause during which Ric can't even hear his heartbeat.
"I know, Julio."
And he steps into the portal, shattering into a million pieces before Ric's eyes.