I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters.
Framed
Cody smirked as Boco streaked past the rest of the chocobos, taking the winding track's turns at a slant to keep from falling off of them. He was running even faster than he'd been running when they fought the Midgar Zolom. He smiled, stroking the side of his neck proudly and Boco cooed, speeding up a bit more. Within a few more minutes, they streaked across the finish line, Jessie cheering as they slowed to a stop and Cody dropped off, he and Boco walking back over to her.
"Well, shoot," the woman in charge of entering racers, Ester, said. "That's the fastest Chocobo I've ever seen. Where'd you find him?"
"He found us," Cody said. "And he's been one of my most loyal friends ever since."
Ester nodded. "It seems it. It's not often you find a Chocobo in the wild who willingly travels with someone."
"No kidding," Cody smiled.
"How was the track?" Jessie asked as Ester walked away.
"Ridiculously disorienting," Cody said. "It started out with a rainbow tunnel, then had things like an underwater section, a dozen paths that looked like wood railways, a torch-lit cave, and even an invisible path that wound and wove through the air, at least, that's the way it looked."
"Awesome!" Jessie grinned.
Just then, Roche shot out of the tube leading to the Battle Square, a serious expression on his face. Cody's smile dropped instantly.
"What happened?" Cody asked.
"Come with me," Roche said, turning and dropping back into the tunnel.
Cody, Boco, and Jessie followed instantly, coming out at the foot of a long staircase leading up to the arena, except that there was a Shinra troop's corpse at the bottom. Cody walked over instantly and knelt, checking for a pulse and checking the blood to make sure it was real. The corpse was legitimate and riddled with bullet holes.
Cody sighed heavily. "Terrific. I didn't realize deaths were allowed here."
"They're not," Jessie said. "No lethal force is allowed."
Cody glanced at her, then stood, summoning his gunblade as Jessie drew her submachine gun, and Roche drew his sword. They climbed the stairs quickly, Roche staying at the back, Boco just ahead of him, then Jessie ahead of him, behind Cody. As they walked into the entry area of the arena, they stopped, looking around at the corpses. A dozen or so Shinra troops and two receptionists. Cloud was standing by one of the reception desk on the right side with Tifa, Aerith, and a small black and white cat with a gold crown and a red cape sitting on top of a fat, white, creature with large tusks jutting up from his lower jaw, and a pair of purple wings. The thing looked like a fat Moogle.
"Cloud?" Cody asked, walking over to them.
"We have a problem," Tifa said. "The receptionist was alive when we got here. He said this was all done by someone with a gun for an arm."
Cody looked around. "No. The shots are too precise for a Gatling Gun. It wasn't Barret. Plus, he's not the type to massacre everyone."
"These are Shinra troops," Roche said.
"He's not the type to slaughter everyone, even if he was mad," Jessie said. "This was someone else."
"There's someone else with a gun for an arm?" Roche asked.
"Apparently so," Cody said.
"Hold it right there!" a security guard shouted, running into the room with several more and a man with a bodybuilder physique. "And stay quiet!"
"Did you guys do this!?" the bodybuilder demanded.
"No," Cody said. "The bullet wounds they have are a higher caliber than hers, and the rest of us don't use guns."
"Oh, well, I guess it must be the other guy with a gun that's here," the bodybuilder said sarcastically.
"Better run," the cat said in a high voice. "It's going to get ugly."
Then, his Moogle began to hop toward the arena, clearing nearly ten feet per hop. Cody groaned, then grabbed Jessie and hurled her onto Boco's back, the chocobo taking off after the cat. The others all began to run as well, leaving Cody and Roche behind.
"Another fine mess," Cody sighed.
"You guys are fun," Roche said.
"Don't move!" one of the security guards said, aiming at them with a pistol.
"Yeah, that's not happening," Cody said, casting Manawall on them both, both of them running after the others, who should be long gone by now, only to find them struggling to open the door on the opposite side of the arena.
Cody and Roche joined them in the arena, which was a square of stone with a red circle in it, then a mote around it, and the stone walls of the arena around it.
"That's as far as you go!" the bodybuilder shouted as he and the guards ran through the door and lined up before the bridge to the arena square.
"Wait!" Cloud said. "Listen to-"
"Cloud!" Tifa gasped, facing the closed door, which was opening slowly.
As it did, a pair of war machines like Sweepers began to roll toward them, except that they were silver and had the guns replaced by massive claws. Cody sealed his gunblade back in its materia just as three more leapt from the top of the arena onto the battle square.
"We can beat them," Roche said.
"No," Cody said. "We're innocent. We're not going to turn ourselves into criminals now."
"Cody's right," Jessie said. "We should surrender for now."
"Agreed," Tifa said.
"We'll be alright," Aerith nodded.
"Fun sucker," Roche said.
The robots quickly restrained them all and left the Battle Square, Boco being muzzled and led after them by the bodybuilder. After a few minutes, they reached a pipe in the floor and were thrown in one by one, the only weapon being taken being Jessie's gun. After several very long minutes of sliding down the tunnel, it suddenly curved back upward and their momentum hurled them out of it. Cody landed on his feet and turned, catching Jessie, then set her off to the side, catching Aerith next, then Tifa. After another minute, the others had all arrived as well, except for Boco.
"Those assholes stole my chocobo," Cody said as the pipe closed.
"We'll get him back," Jessie said.
"Where are we?" Cloud asked.
"Corel Prison," Cody said. "A section of the desert used as a natural prison because it's completely surrounded by quicksand. Once you're put in, you never leave, except by dying."
"I heard there was one special exception," the cat said.
"Who are you?" Cody asked.
"My name's Cait Sith," the cat said. "I'm a fortune teller."
"You suck at your job," Cody said. "If you didn't, we wouldn't be here."
"That's not nice," Jessie said.
"He's right, though," Cloud said. "He's really bad at telling fortunes."
"I'm just having a bad day," Cait Sith said. "At least they didn't take your weapons."
"That's true," Cody said, summoning his gunblade. "I could probably pry the hatch open."
"You'd never make it to the top," Roche said. "Even me and blondie couldn't climb all the way there."
"My name's not blondie," Cloud said moodily.
"Hey, Aerith said, looking off to the side. "Isn't that Barret?"
They all turned to look, and sure enough, there was Barret, standing off to the side by a rusty metal pillar leading up to the Gold Saucer. They all walked over to him together and found him staring at a dead man who was riddled with bullet holes.
"Barret?" Tifa asked.
"Did you..." Cloud trailed off, gesturing to the corpse.
Barret drew himself up and turned away. "Stay away from me. This is something I gotta deal with myself."
"Barret!" Aerith said, walking over to stand in front of him. "You don't need to deal with things on your own. We can help."
"Just leave me alone!" Barret said, running past her and through a gate behind her.
"Whew!" Cait Sith said. "That's one of your friends? He looks dangerous!"
Cody shot the cat a glare. "You shut the fuck up. You don't know anything about him. He's not a murderer."
"That's right," Tifa said. "Barret didn't do it."
"There must be something really wrong for him to push us away," Jessie said. "We need to go after him."
Cody nodded in agreement, and they all ran after Barret. However, he was already gone. Cody sighed, looking around at the dirty, rundown shacks before them and the equally dirty men sitting or standing scattered around the makeshift village.
"We'll have to split up to find him," Cody said.
The others nodded in agreement and began to scatter, but as Cody turned to follow Jessie, Roche caught his arm.
"Not so fast," Roche said. "You still owe me a dance. You're recovered now, and there's plenty of room to really get moving."
"Roche, now's not a good time," Cody said, then smirked. "Besides, if I kill you dancing now, I'll have to look for a new dancing partner, won't I?"
Roche grinned. "Who said anything about you killing me?"
"Well, if you do kill me, then you'll be the one needing the new dancing partner," Cody said.
Roche frowned. "That's true. And you are a fun dance partner." He considered for a moment before nodding. "Alright. I'll make you a deal. When we dance, I won't actually kill you if you don't actually kill me. Just make it fun, then any injuries we get, the winner will heal the other as soon as they have the strength."
"Deal," Cody nodded.
However, just as Roche reached for his sword and Cody summoned his gunblade, Jessie's voice suddenly screamed. Cody spun just as an explosion went off on the far side of the town, and he took off at a sprint, launching himself forward in huge leaps using his gunblade. Finally, he skidded around the corner of the last building to find four men standing around Jessie, two of them holding her down, a third holding her own sword to her throat, and the fourth grinning wickedly as he struggled to pry her legs open. Before he could, Cody split him in half, then pulled the trigger, his sword flashing around and removing all three of the others' heads. Jessie sighed, lying on the ground for a moment before standing and holding her arms out to her sides, allowing Cody to use a Water materia then a Wind materia to clean and dry her. Then, she threw her arms around him, tucking her face tight into him and trembling but not crying.
"Thank you," she said in a frail voice.
"From now on, you stay with me," Cody said, holding her tightly.
Jessie nodded and Cody sighed, pressing his mask to her shoulder.
"What happened?" Aerith asked.
"These four thought they'd have a bit of fun," Cody growled before turning and leading Jessie away from the corpses, Aerith following.
"Are you okay?" Tifa asked.
"I'm fine," Jessie said.
"Barret told us what's going on," Aerith said. "There's another guy with a gun for an arm. His old friend, Dyne. Dyne's the one that killed everyone."
"He and Cloud have gone on ahead to find him," Tifa said.
"Then let's go," Cody said. "They won't need our help, but better safe than sorry."
The three girls nodded and Aerith and Tifa began to lead them after Cloud and Barret, only to stop as Yuffie rode over on Boco, Red XIII and Roche just behind her.
"We brought you some company," Yuffie smiled proudly. "We figured you wouldn't want those bastards in charge of rigging the races to do anything to him."
"Thank you, Yuffie," Cody smiled, stroking Boco's neck. "We need to catch up to Cloud and Barret. They're going to find the person responsible for us being thrown here, so we're going to go back them up if they need it."
Yuffie nodded and they quickly began to follow Aerith and Tifa again, Jessie climbing up to ride on Boco's back with her.
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