I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters.

Telling the Truth

Cody held his apartment door open for Jessie, who walked through with a small smirk. He pulled a bottle of liquor out of the small cabinet off to one side, along with a single glass, then sat on the bed, pouring some of the alcohol into the glass and offering it to Jessie, who smiled playfully.

"Trying to get me drunk already?" Jessie asked. "Someone doesn't like to play the game for very long," Jessie grinned.

"Don't get your hopes up," Cody said, pulling his mask down and taking a long gulp before pulling it back up and letting out a breath.

"I have a question," Jessie said, watching him carefully.

"You want to know why I don't want my face to end up on camera," Cody said.

"That too," Jessie said. "But this question's not related to that. I don't think."

"Go ahead," Cody said, taking another drink.

"When I talked about your eyes being expressive, you started to cry," Jessie said, Cody freezing with the bottle to his lips, then sighed, taking a drink and pulling the mask up to breathe again. "Why?"

"What you said," Cody said. "'Even with a mask on, your eyes speak loud enough for your entire expression.' Those were...some of the last words my partner ever said to me."

"Partner as in..." she trailed off, but he knew what she was saying.

"We worked together," Cody said. "For Shinra."

Her eyes widened slightly.

"I was never loyal to them," Cody said. "I hated Shinra. But she was loyal. And I was in love with her. So I stayed."

"You worked for Shinra?" she asked. "What were you? Infantry? Scientist?"

"We were Turks," Cody said. "Shinra's Department of Administrative Research. Research was probably the last thing we did, and administration never had anything to do with it. We were spies, assassins, bodyguards, or special ops. Basically anything Shinra needed for their dirty work to be done. We knew more of the dirty secrets than any other group, and we did all of the dirtiest work. Cissnei and I hated it, but I was loyal to her, and she put up with it because she was loyal to them."

"And you two were together?" Jessie asked.

"No," Cody said. "I loved her, like I said, but her heart belonged to someone else. With me..." he raised a hand to his mask. "I never stood a chance." He took a drink. "Instead, she fell in love with someone else. He pissed off one of Shinra's higher-ups, though, and proved himself a threat, so the Shinra army was sent to kill him. We received orders to capture them first, that way they would be spared. But Cissnei...she chose him over Shinra. She meant to betray them, to leave Shinra, for him. And she was planning to kill me in the process to cover her tracks. But I reminded her that I wasn't loyal to Shinra, I was loyal to her. She had always known how I felt, and I had already known she'd choose him over Shinra, because she'd betrayed Shinra before when we found him before the army was ordered to kill him, and she let him go. I didn't turn her in then, and I had no intention of it now. So she let me live. Except, we were too late to save him. By the time we found him, he was already dead. She...She blamed herself. She thought he would still be alive if she'd captured him before instead of letting him go, and she couldn't live with that guilt. So she poisoned herself. She died in my arms, apologizing for not loving me back, telling me that she loved my eyes because they were expressive enough for my entire expression despite my mask, and asking me to find a better path in life to walk than the one I was on while working for Shinra."

"Oh my God!" Jessie breathed, covering her mouth. "I'm so sorry! I had no idea! I didn't mean to make you remember her."

Cody shook his head. "It's alright. Eventually I have to move on and be able to think about her without wanting to drink myself to death, or use the poison capsule I still have from my time as a Turk. We were given one each as a way to stop other countries, like Wutai, from interrogating us. Cissnei used hers to follow the love of her life, and I've had to work hard not to use mine to follow her."

"That's not the path she'd want you to walk," Jessie said.

"Right now I don't have a path. I'm lost in the middle of a jungle at night with no flashlight or machete," Cody said, then sighed. "Hopefully working for AVALANCHE will help."

Jessie's eyes widened. "Oh my God! You joined because of the poster, didn't you? The one I made that said AVALANCHE was walking a better path than Shinra's?"

"You made that, huh?" Cody asked, chuckling. "I guess you really are determined to make me face her death, then."

"I'm sorry!" Jessie said.

Cody shook his head again. "I'm not mad. Honestly, part of me thinks she's trying to help me find a better path. Part of me hopes. Part of me...just wants to believe she's still here."

"And, you think AVALANCHE is that path?" Jessie asked.

"No," Cody said. "But I do want to tear Shinra an entire army's worth of new assholes. If joining AVALANCHE lets me do that, I'm all for it."

Jessie nodded. "So, it's revenge, then."

"Revenge, venting, pushing my feelings of guilt onto them," Cody said. "Whatever works." He took a long drink from the bottle, Jessie sipping from her glass. "After Shinra's gone, I think I'll join her."

"You'll just kill yourself?" Jessie asked. "You won't try to move on? Or find a better path?"

"I don't really believe in a better path," Cody said. "I've always believed that the best path to follow is that of protecting the people you love. I failed at that. And without her, I no longer have a path to follow."

"But...you could find someone else, right?" Jessie asked. "I know it hurts now, but eventually, there could be someone else that you love, couldn't there?"

"Maybe," Cody admitted. "But I don't want there to be. I don't want to fall for someone else, because I love Cissnei. I promised I would always love her, and if I fall for someone else...I'd be betraying her."

Jessie nodded. "I suppose I can...understand that." She finished her drink and sighed, standing. "I'll see you at the bar tomorrow. And...maybe, try not to drink as much? You might be happier if you cut back. Drinking while you're unhappy makes you feel worse."

"Alright Mom, I'll think about it," Cody said, flashing her a tired grin.

Jessie rolled her eyes. "And don't forget to brush your teeth before bed." She walked to the door and paused, looking back at him as he was putting the bottle away. "Good night."

"Good night," Cody replied.

She left, and Cody sighed, beginning to get ready for bed.

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