SHADOW OF OBLIVION

III. AVALANCHE Reunited

(a week later)

Cursing and giving a tug to the flight goggles sitting snugly atop his head, Cid Highwind took a long draft of his cigarette. It was the third one in the course of a few hours, despite the fact that he'd supposedly quit over a year ago.

Got a damn good reason t'pick it up again, he muttered to himself, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms. It was amazing to see how the town of Gongaga had grown, particularly after the reactor exploded two years past. The survivors had banded together and, with the help of the new ShinRa (partially because they, too, needed a place to recuperate), rebuilt their home just outside the old city limits. He stood now in the new ShinRa headquarters; so new, in fact, that he could still smell wet paint and see his own face in the floor tiles. Numerous people filed by, filtering past him in the hallway, but the grizzled pilot didn't notice any of them, letting out a cloud of smoke as he recalled what he'd learned a little while ago.

One hand clenched into an involuntary fist, and he started a bit at the twinge on one finger. Shaking off the leather work glove, the tiniest smile graced his features for the first time that day. A rather nondescript brushed-gold band lay on his ring finger, with a brilliant blue stone set into it. To match your eyes, she'd said, with that shy smile of hers. He remembered that day as vividly as if it were yesterday, and wonderful as the memory was, it soured in comparison to the things now resting heavily upon his mind…

"Shit…" he muttered, raising that hand to his eyes.

.o.o.o.

(sometime earlier)

"Sorry m'late," he announced as he entered the room, pulling his goggles to sit atop mussed and dirty blond hair. The others were already there, it seemed, but Cloud seemed to be lingering in a corner, his face darkened with worry. That in itself was a bad sign to Cid – the kid had rarely been known to express any strong emotion. Even Vincent, the prince of stoicism itself, seemed edgy, right hand resting on the shotgun against his hip.

Red XIII paced the floor near the doorway like a caged cat (the accuracy of the metaphor made him grin to himself), with Tifa looking on in silence. Only Barrett seemed to be missing; he'd supposedly had some urgent business to take care of back in Corel.

A thin man looked up to greet the pilot, his chin length black hair having grown a few inches, pulled back, and already streaked with grey. The time after Meteor had certainly not been kind to him; in the absence of the ShinRa company leaders, he had slowly placed himself in the position of President (with the help of old comrades, including Cid himself), and was working to rebuild what parts of the Planet had been destroyed. Mako refineries as a whole had been shut down in favor of the much cleaner resources of coal, and he had pushed greatly for research seeking new forms of energy that wouldn't harm the Lifestream.

Cid took one look at his friend, and let out a bark of laughter. "Reeve, you look older than I do!"

Reeve gave him a nervous sort of smile; he'd never been comfortable with the pilot, let alone anyone currently in the room. He'd worked as a double agent during the Sephiroth days, helping both AVALANCHE and ShinRa using a robotic, stuffed mog and a slender cat named Cait Sith sitting on its head. In the end, of course, he'd realized the corruption of the company, and at last finally sided with Cloud and his party.

"Mm, well, I've been busy," he replied at last, laughing a bit. "Rebuilding the company from the ground up hasn't been all that easy." He clasped his hands behind his back, trying to hide his apprehension. "Have you been told anything?"

"Doubt I'd be here if I had, eh?" the pilot quipped, raising an eyebrow. "Seems everyone else has, though. What're all th' dark looks about?"

"Prolly 'cuz you just showed up here, gramps!"

Cid whirled, about to let whoever-it-was have it with a string of choice words that would likely make Don Corneo blush – and immediately rolled his eyes upon recognizing who insisted on ruining his mood today. Standing bent over with a childish grin and a mischievous glint in her eyes, Yuffie waggled a finger at the pilot in warning.

"Ah, ah, watch the language! I'm still a minor!"

"Damn ninja… you're still a major pain in the—"

"Ahem." Someone coughed, and Cid fell silent, realizing that everyone was suddenly looking at him. He straightened, still glaring at Yuffie, and cleared his own throat awkwardly to excuse himself, deciding to chew her out later.

Surprisingly, it was Vincent who stepped forward, glancing around the room silently. Red padded along behind him, his claws clicking on the floor slightly with each step. The gunman seemed pensive, but his crimson eyes were narrowed with distinct worry; it was somewhat out of character, and thus disconcerting to see.

"Over the past few weeks, the stars have been disappearing."

Cid felt compelled to laugh, but stifled it quickly when the others sent him disdainful glares. He looked away quickly, nonplussed that he'd made a fool out of himself twice in five minutes.

"Red," Vincent continued, and motioned to the scarlet feline sitting at his feet now, "do you want to explain?"

"Mm." Red XIII raised his muzzle, giving a bit of a growl and shaking his dark mane. "According to the instruments back in Cosmo Canyon, Vincent worded the situation perfectly." A glance was sent Cid's direction, which made him shift uncomfortably. "There was no supernova, or a problem with the star charts; they have simply vanished, as if they were never there at all. Furthermore, our calculations indicate that a total of ten stars have shared this fate within nine months."

"Soo, what's that got to do with us?" The ninja girl, now seated in a chair with her feet set upon the conference table, spread her arms into a wide shrug. "I mean, they're just stars, right? Too far away to mean anything."

"You're wrong."

All attention turned to the darker corner of the room, where Cloud stood isolated from the rest. He raised his head at last, regarding each of his friends in turn with serious gaze.

"There's more to it than that." With careful steps he circled the conference table, mako-blue eyes literally glowing with intensity. "Last week, a strange meteor landed in the center of Midgar." Pause, and an almost haunting expression that Vincent seemed to mirror. "Strange creatures seem to have come from it. I can't even put a name to them – I've never seen them before."

Wait, so we're dealing with space aliens here? This time Cid didn't laugh; maybe it was due to the solemn nods of acknowledgement coming from Tifa and Reeve. Or maybe it was the memory of the twisted figure of JENOVA… Damned creepy…

"… since then, there have been reports of these 'black, shadowy shapes' appearing all over the Planet. Red has also pointed out that each of these occurrences coincided with a minor ground quake in that area." Reeve finished the explanation succinctly, taking a seat at last at the head of the table and resting his chin on one hand. "The question is, what are these creatures, and what are they doing to the Planet?"

"It's still recovering from Meteor and JENOVA's poisons," Tifa pointed out, biting her lip. "Could the quakes simply be coincidence?"

The new ShinRa leader shook his head. "It lines up too perfectly, so we ruled that one out after several incidents. No, there's something going on in the Planet again, and these things are the cause of it." He reached into a folder, pulling out a few scattered and unorganized notes, maps, and field paperwork. "I should also add that around the time the shooting star hit, there's been a drastic rise in the missing persons count."

Thinking on that a moment, Cid frowned. He eyed one of the maps that Reeve was laying out, noting that as yet, the attacks weren't too near Rocket Town. No red X's, arrows or bright circles – so things at home were safe so far. Ground quakes, missing people and erased stars? Things were going over his head faster than he could spit out a curse.

"Can we fight back?" he spoke up, fidgeting again. His hand wormed its way into the pocket of his jacket, and he noted to himself offhandedly that there was still a pack of his old smokes in there. "I mean, we've pretty much figured out that they're violent, so why don't we just wipe 'em off the map?"

"It's not as easy as it sounds, Cid," Cloud replied. "They'll die pretty easily, but then three or four more pop up in their place. It's like they're made of shadows, and there's no end to them."

.o.o.o.

No end to them. The words echoed in his mind again – the rest of the briefing had gone by as a complete blur. The last thing he remembered consciously doing was pulling out a cigarette and lighting up, the habit resurfacing as the stress of things began to sink in.

He'd finished the one currently in his mouth, and let it drop, stamping out the ashes with his boot. An odd urge filled him to call home, and he resolved to do it later, once he got back to the Highwind, his prized airship.

"Oi, gramps!"

Not this again… "What!" he shouted back, turning to face the girl running towards him from the conference room, and watching as she darted through small groups of passers-by to reach him. Skidding to a halt, she gave him a mocking salute, panting a bit to catch her breath.

"I've got orders from Reeve!"

"Yeah right. Now whaddya want, already?"

She stuck out her tongue at him, her hands on her hips defiantly. "We're supposed to head for Nibelheim and check out some people there. I've got a message to deliver, too." She held out a folder with Reeve's handwriting on it, sealed shut.

"Nibelheim? Nothin' important is ever there anymore," he grunted. There was nothing he hated more than playing post boy, and furthermore being sent off on some useless side-mission.

"There is now!" the ninja chirped, brushing past him. "Now let's get going!"

"Now, you wait just a minute, you little brat! Who said you were setting foot in my ship again!"

.o.o.o.

Notes: Looks like I'll be posting these once a week, due to my hectic schedule. I'm kind of playing around with the points of view, and thus far I've had the most fun digging into Cid's mind. Let me know what you think!

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