The end of the world wasn't as nearly as fun as Rick would imagined it to be. He always saw it as something wild and something like the walking dead where he could hang out with a cool school of kids and be a total badass. The actual end of the world wasn't really anything like that. Instead, people had simply...disappeared. No one knew where they had gone, the only thing of those people being empty shells, like the types butterflies left.
It was during this time that it happened to him and Skaar, large welts appearing on their arms as they were overtaken by rocks and his own shelling. The team had almost gone crazy with worry over them, trying anything to get it all to stop. Rick remembered holding onto hands, knowing that tears were falling onto his skin yet he couldn't feel it. He could only imagine how it must have felt for Skaar and Mattie.
But he knew it wasn't the end for them and of course, Leader wasn't the only one who could be right about stuff. He and Skaar came back a year after their deaths, perfectly intact and fine. Originally they were going to try and go back to the family, let them know that everything was fine. But then Skaar found out that Mattie had moved on and the family had their own deals going.
It hurt. A lot. But they could understand, they could deal. He and Skaar ended up getting a place together in Japan, even learning how to switch back into humans to fit in better. Everything had been fine for another year until Mattie had, for some reason, decided to come to Japan and now Rick was awkwardly staring at Mattie as he sta down in his usual booth at the monster cafe he visited every week.