I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters.
Preparing
Cody sat down at the bar and Tifa reached for a bottle of liquor, as usual. "Just water, for now."
Tifa glanced at him and nodded, getting him a glass of water. He took a sip of it just as Jessie sat beside him, smiling.
"Good morning Cody," she greeted him.
He grunted, sipping his water again and glancing at his watch, sliding his arm backward into his sleeve more to hide it.
"Was that from her?" Jessie asked.
Cody nodded. "It cost her a small fortune, but she wouldn't tell me exactly how much."
"It looks nice," Jessie said.
"Looks better with a suit," Cody said.
Jessie smiled. "I bet. I bet you clean up well."
Cody smirked. "The mask kind of ruins it."
Jessie shrugged. "So, we're supposed to start getting ready for a big job, but it'll take a while to get the plan and everything ready. In the mean time, Barret agreed to have you help me with my part of the job so that I can keep an eye on you and make sure you're not ratting us out to Shinra."
"You told him who I was?" Cody asked quietly, Jessie shaking her head.
"He thinks everyone's a Shinra spy," Jessie said. "I won't tell anyone what you told me. That's your choice. I just need an extra set of hands to help me build this toy."
Cody raised an eyebrow. "How big a toy are we building?"
"Not too big," she said. "Honestly, I just gave him that excuse so that he'd let you stick around instead of telling you to go away until we're ready to move."
Cody shook his head, sighing. "Fine."
"Oh, and you got signed up for the neighborhood watch," Jessie said. "Specifically monster duty."
Cody sighed. "Was that also your idea?"
"Actually, this one was Biggs and Wedge," she nodded toward the other two white men in AVALANCHE.
"Of course it was," Cody sighed. "Fine. Any other new jobs I should know about?"
"Not unless you want to work at the weapon shop cleaning weapons," Jessie said.
He gave her a blank stare, and she simply laughed. He sighed, finishing his water. "Let's go deal with whatever."
She smiled and nodded, leading him out of the bar and away from town into Scrap Boulevard. As they walked, Cody summoned his gunblade from its materia and Jessi's eyes widened, staring at the band.
"So that's where you keep it," she said. "Neat!"
He nodded, lifting his sleeve up a little higher and she gasped, seeing the other arm band.
"That's so cool!" she gasped. "What do you have?"
"Basaically everything I could need in a fight," Cody said just as two of the six-legged bug monsters from the cave, ringmaws, burst out of the ground on her other side from him, only for him to pivot, stepping around behind her, then slash both of them out of the air.
Jessie stared at them then grinned. "You really are good at fighting. Think you could handle a SOLDIER?"
"Depends on the situation, terrain, and individual," Cody said. "Probably not if they're a First Class. By default, those are probably all stronger than me."
Jessie nodded as they reached an open area and she led him over to a metal box, opening it and pulling out metal wires, timers, circuit boards, and what looked like clay. He sat on the box, watching her work and watching for monsters, since she clearly didn't actually need him. It wasn't the most entertaining job, but she convinced him to tell her stories from his time with the Turks, anything funny or not related to something that could be viewed as criminal. There was one time where a Reno got sick in the middle of a mission and was stuck on a toilet with explosive diarrhea to he, Cissnei, and Rude left him there and made him hitchhike back to Midgar. There was a particular fight against a group of extremely powerful, dangerous, and unbearably annoying monsters that broke Rude's sunglasses, as well as both of his spares. Jessie began to laugh from the moment Cody explained that Rude, a very kind man in spite of his name, was so obsessed with wearing sunglasses to look cool that he actually always has three sets on him, laughed harder when Cody told her the monsters that broke the glasses were monster sheep that spat exploding balls of wool, and then keeled over when he described Rude, now with all his glasses broken, going on a rampage and using one sheep monster as a blunt object to kill the other four, none of which they'd been able to hurt. Most of that story had been made up, of course, but he enjoyed hearing her laugh. It cheered him up a little. In truth, they'd been fighting AVALANCHE, the first incarnation, not Barret's. The first had been terrorists through and through, and had been eventually taken over by a man named Fuhito, who turned almost every member of that incarnation of AVALANCHE, as well as dozens of SOLDIERS they had captured, into mindless zombies to fight for him. It had been a nightmare to fight them, and the fight had still been going on when Cody had left the Turks. He couldn't tell Jessie that, however. Even she would decide he was a traitor.
"Do you miss them?" Jessie asked after a couple minutes of silence. "The other Turks?"
"Not really," Cody said. "Cissnei was the only one I actually cared about. The others were all assholes in their own ways."
Jessie nodded, placing a metal box with a digital clock display on the front against the rest of her bomb. "There. Time to test it."
"Really?" Cody asked. "All of this just to blow it up?"
"We have to know what kind of blasting agent we got," Jessie said. "If it's not enough, I might need to make some adjustments."
Cody nodded. "Alright. Where do you want me to put it?"
Jessie smiled and pointed to a clear spot a ways away. He walked over to it, setting the timer for thirty seconds, then turned, walking calmly back over to where Jessie had taken cover in a cave. Cody cast Manawall on both of them, and stabbed his sword into the ground, covering his ears just as Jessie stepped out to watch the explosion, also covering her ears. Less than a second later, it exploded into a fireball the size of a car. jessie frowned.
"Well that's definitely not enough," Jessie said. "What a disappointment."
Cody hummed thoughtfully, picking up his sword and walking back over tot he box with her. She picked up her notes, humming thoughfully.
"Let's head back," she said. "I'll have to redo all the math before I can build a bigger one."
Cody nodded and they turned, starting to head back to the bar. "So, aside from this, what do you do?"
"I work as a stage hand," Jessie said. "I want to be an actress someday, but for now being a stage hand is safer."
"I see," Cody said. "I suppose that's true."
"What about you?" she asked. "Aren't there any jobs you could want to do?"
Cody was silent for a few moments. "I already told you what I'll be doing after we've dealt with Shinra."
Jessie's gaze fell to the ground. "Right. Sorry. Well, before that, you need to come see one of my shows."
Cody sighed, but stopped as she stepped in front of him, glaring up at him sternly.
"Promise!" she said, jabbing a finger into his chest.
"Alright, fine," Cody said. "I'll come see one of your plays after this is all over."
She smiled and nodded, turning and continuing to walk. He walked after, catching up to her at the gate before they headed to the bar again. The bar was empty, and as soon as they arrived, Barret called Jessie into a meeting, to which Cody was not invited, and they walked over to one of the pinball machines off to the side, which sank into the floor when Barret pulled the ball launcher and let it go. Cody sat at the bar, seeing a liquor bottle with a piece of paper with his name written on it waiting for him. He smiled, shaking his head. Tifa was a good bar tender. He reached walked around the bar and got himself a glass, pouring some into it before taking a sip.
Cody sighed as he leaned back against the gate, Biggs leaning on it beside him.
"So," Biggs said. "You're clearly an experienced fighter. I'd wager military."
"No," Cody said.
"Former merc?" Biggs asked.
"No," Cody said.
"Assassin?" Biggs joked.
"Bingo," Cody said.
"Wait, really?" Biggs asked.
"No," Cody smirked behind his mask, and Biggs rolled his eyes.
"I'm going to figure it out," Biggs said.
"We'll see," Cody said. "I doubt you will, but you're welcome to try."
"Will you tell me if I guess it?" Biggs asked.
"No," Cody said.
Biggs rolled his eyes just as a pair of feral dogs walked into view, growling. Cody sighed, pushing off the fence and going to deal with them.
Cody looked up as Tifa walked into the bar supporting a half-conscious blonde in a SOLDIER uniform on her shoulder. He swore, darting over and taking the man's other arm over his own shoulders, carrying him to the back room with Tifa.
"His sword's outside," Tifa said. "Would you mind grabbing it?"
Cody nodded and headed outside, only to stop, staring at the gigantic sword. It was a massive weapon with a five foot blade, a two foot handle, and the blade was single-edged, a full inch thick, had a tanto point, was black with a shiny silver edge, and weight about a hundred pounds, probably more. It also belonged to Zack originally. he took the handle, grunting as he lifted the weapon by the handle with one hand and the back edge with the other and quickly shuffled into the bar and to the back room, setting it against the wall and sighing.
"That man was a fucking monster," Cody said, shaking his head. "You sure knew how to pick 'em, Cissnei."
"Who?" Tifa asked, looking up from where she was kneeling beside the blonde, who was sitting slumped against the wall, muttering to himself.
"Doesn't matter," Cody said. "Who's the SOLDIER? And is it smart to have him here?"
"He's my childhood friend, Cloud," Tifa said. "It's been years since I've seen him, but he's..."
Cody walked over and knelt, lifting Cloud's head and humming thoughtfully. "Can you hear me?"
"Yeah," Cloud said.
"Name, class, and previous mission," Cody said, Tifa looking at him in confusion.
"Cloud Strife," Cloud said. "First Class. I was in Nibelheim. Tifa fell off a mountain. Then I had to fight Sephiroth. And Genesis."
Cody frowned. Sephiroth and Genesis were both former SOLDIER heroes from the Wutai war, except Genesis deserted during it and later attacked Shinra, and Sephiroth went crazy, apparently, at Nibelheim and destroyed everything before fighting Zack, winning, and then being killed somehow, though Cody never found out how.
"Is that right?" Cody asked.
"I...Cloud, when I fell off the mountain, was I hurt?" Tifa asked.
"Yeah," Cloud said. "You were hurt really bad. It was Sephiroth's fault. You told me you hated Shinra. But I beat him."
Tifa looked troubled. "You rest here, alright? I have to go check on some things."
Cloud nodded tiredly, and Tifa led Cody out of the room.
"His memories are all mixed up, and...they're not right," Tifa said quietly. "I fell off a cliff on Mt. Nibel when we were children. He tried to save me but ended up falling too, though I was the only one hurt. Then when Sephiroth destroyed our village, I told Zack, the other SOLDIER who was there, that I hated Shinra. Zack fought Sephiroth first and lost. Cloud was there but...he was an infantryman, not a SOLDIER. He did fight Sephiroth, but..."
"And I don't think he ever fought Genesis either," Cody said. "Call me crazy but a normal Infantryman wouldn't fight a SOLDIER First Class and live to tell about it. And Genesis died within a couple years after the war, right?"
"I think so," Tifa nodded. "So...what happened to him?"
"It looks like mako poisoning," Cody said. "He might be fine whenever he recovers."
Tifa nodded. "I suppose I'll have to look after him, then. He saved me from Sephiroth, so now it's my turn. Thanks for your help with him, by the way."
"No problem," Cody said. "I'm going to head home for the night."
Tifa nodded and headed back into the back room as Cody headed for his apartment.
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