His senses overflowing under this sudden chaos, Bagheera bounded a few feet from the other animals down the hill and scanned the blazing jungle with a heavy yet pounding heart.

And then he froze. Eyes narrowing as he pin-pointed the orange and black pelt of Shere Khan streaking towards the trees, the panther broke into a sprint and raced after the tiger.

'You'll not have him. You'll not have my cub.'

Adrenaline coursing through him, Bagheera waited as he would with any prey; once close enough, he lunged at the tiger, sinking his claws into his back and throwing all his weight into bringing the larger cat to the ground.

Khan bellowed in rage, almost immediately turning on the panther with such savagery that Bagheera was certain he would have been torn to pieces within a heart's beat had he not leapt back from the flaying claws.

Hissing out his own fury, the black cat swiped back at the larger, rearing onto his back legs to whack Khan's head and tear his claws through the tiger's face. But he knew that he was only stalling- defeat was inevitable.

His brutal roar echoing, Shere Khan landed a heavy blow to the panther's jaw that sent him sprawling onto the grass.

Panting heavily and doing all he could to block out the pain, Bagheera snarled and hauled himself to his paws, once again hurling himself at Khan as the tiger turned to head back after Mowgli, tearing his claws down the larger cat's flank and shoulder.

Fuelled by shere pain and frustration, Khan whirled around and threw himself at the panther, flaying his claws and striking out with his large and powerful paws, jaws slamming shut a mere grass blade's distance from the smaller cat's eye.

The sudden, brute force of Khan's blow to his chest saw Bagheera skid to the ground limply. Breath shaking, he pressed his weight onto one painful foot to stand, only to be shoved back to the ground by the heavy paw of Shere Khan pressed to his neck.
"This ends now." the tiger's deep, rasping voice growled in his ear, and he felt the pressure increase and claws dig into his throat. Struggling for breath, Bagheera found that while he did not feel ready to die, maybe, just maybe, he had bought Mowgli enough time to escape.

'Then' he thought, 'It will all have been worth it.'

"No!"

Raksha's howl echoed in his already ringing ears, and Bagheera scarcely felt the weight lift from his body as the pack slammed against Shere Khan, throwing themselves at him together.

The times following Shere Khan's defeat were full of only peace and prosper. Though the jungle had not yet recovered from the wild flower, life returned to how it had once been. Mowgli had adamantly decided to remain with the pack as opposed to travelling to the man-village, and Bagheera held his tongue, for the panther found himself selfishly relieved.

Raksha immediately proved herself to be a worthy alpha, though her divided duties between the pack and her own cubs meant that Bagheera found himself as watchful over Mowgli as he had been when Shere Khan prowled the jungle. Whether Baloo's added 'guidance' was a benefit or a burden he had yet to decide, though the panther found himself becoming regretfully fond of the lazy bear.

However, it did not take long for him to realise that his rest would be short-lived. After a few days, he found that every one of the young wolves could outrun him no matter how far they strayed from the designated path. His lungs burned to even climb to a low branch; in fact when he considered it, his lungs burnt all the time.

It was six days after Khan's death that the panther admitted to himself that something was very wrong. Baloo must have noticed the coughing fits and wheezing breaths as well, for the bear grasped him gently by his black scruff and dragged him just beyond the trees, away from the pack.

"Baloo! I am more than capable of walking!" Bagheera snapped, disguising the pained wince as a glare as he shook out his coat.

Baloo merely tilted his head; small dark eyes staring down at the cat, "Are you so sure about that, Baggy?"
Grumbling slightly at the childish nickname, Bagheera sat down on his haunches and twitched his tail impatiently, "What are you talking about?"
The bear puffed out a loud breath through his nose, "Come on, Bagheera, something's up! You don't run with the young wolves any more, you don't catch anything when you hunt- I climb more than you do right now!"
Bagheera huffed, averting his pale green eyes to watch Mowgli playing with Raksha's littlest pup, Grey, away from the rest of the pack, "I have other priorities."
Baloo sat back on his hind legs, back propped against a tree as he looked at the panther incredulously, "Sure." there was a brief pause. Bagheera flattened his ears uncomfortably as another fit of coughs threatened to fight their way up from his seemingly crushed lungs, but the effort to force it back down only caused his breaths to quiver loudly and his shoulders to jolt a little.

Baloo remained quiet for a heartbeat, then sighed, "Look, Bagheera, you're in pain. Why don't you just tell somebody?"
The cat closed his eyes briefly, then swallowed hard and feeling a small sense of relief as a bit of the pressure lifted, "What could anybody do? What will be, will be."
"Yeah well if what will be is you dying then I don't think anybody's gonna take that too well." Baloo muttered.

"Nobody is dying, Baloo." Bagheera sighed in exasperation, though inwardly a stab of uncertainty pricked his gut, "I'm just...tired. Very tired."
He glanced at the man-cub again, eyes softening and ears perking forwards.

"You're sure about that?"

"...No." the panther heaved a long breath, "But I must be. I saw how losing Akela affected Mowgli, and he wasn't even present to witness it."

Baloo twitched his large nose sympathetically, "Well, if you were to be dying, the kid couldn't blame himself- Akela was murdered to get to him."
Bagheera hummed softly to himself, smiling slightly as the rest of Raksha's litter bounced over to Mowgli and Grey, their excited little giggles and yaps rising into the evening as the man-cub lifted them one by one up into the air, "Forgive me Baloo, but you don't know that boy as well as I do. His heart is too big for his little body."
Baloo chuckled with a nod, "He's something special, for sure."
"Indeed." the panther mused, only to be cut off by a sharp pain in his chest as he coughed painfully.

It took some time for this bout to die down, but when it did the cat shook his head slightly to clear it, looking up to see Mowgli's large, concerned brown eyes looking back at him. The other cubs had remained on the rocks, tumbling on the stones.

"Are you okay, Bagheera?" the man-cub asked, his young voice laced with fear as he glanced between the panther and Baloo, who looked equally worried.

Swallowing the stinging sensation in his throat, Bagheera nodded, "I'm fine, just-"
"Tired." Baloo interrupted, "Very tired."
Something in Mowgli's dark eyes told Bagheera that the boy didn't entirely believe them, but he simply flicked his ear in confirmation to Baloo's statement, and the man-cub nodded slowly and wrapped his arms around the panther's neck gently. Warily almost, as though he thought he might break the jungle cat.

Bagheera locked eyes with Baloo from over the child's shoulder, and saw his own guilt reflected.
However, the panther inwardly shook it off, simply resting his chin on Mowgli's shoulder contently.

'Whatever will be, will be'.

A/N: This is based on the events of the 2016 live-action movie. Could be considered a sequel to my other fic 'Promise' but works as an independent as well.

I'm not hugely pleased with this one; it dragged on longer than I would have liked it to, and it didn't feel as emotional as 'Promise' did, I just felt like I didn't know what I was really doing for a lot of it, and I am so bad at getting Baloo's character right!

Not to mention I had no idea how to end it. But hopefully you enjoyed it!