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

Old Memories

Cody yawned as he stirred, raising a hand up to hold against his mask, though he had never really understood why he did it, since he didn't need to cover his mouth anyway. He let his hands drop back to the side, then paused, noticing a distinct lack of naked women lying next to him. He opened his eyes and looked around. Jessie's clothes still decorated the floor, along with his suit, but she was gone. He frowned, sitting up and stretching, just as the door opened and she walked in wearing a suit with her hair down and still slightly wet. She smiled and walked over, bending down and tugging down his mask, kissing him. He smiled, kissing her back before she pulled away, picking up a towel and beginning to dry her hair.

"You should get a shower before the others wake up and use the hot water," Jessie said.

"And you should have woken me up and invited me," Cody said.

Jessie smiled knowingly. "I'm still sore from last night, so this morning's training is going to be bad enough as it is. Now go get cleaned up."

Cody smiled and stood, pulling on his underwear and pants before walking out of the room to the bathroom, getting cleaned up and ready for the day quickly before walking back into the room in his last clean suit, sealing his dirty clothes into the materia just before Jessie's arms looped around his neck, her hair now in its usual ponytail, though it still fit her suit.

"So," she said. "I'm feeling like a romantic dinner while we're here, if there's time."

"Sounds like a plan," Cody smiled, tugging his mask down and kissing her. "Now, let's go see about that training."

Jessie smiled and nodded and they made sure they had everything before heading for the door. As they walked outside, there was music echoing through the air from the upper level of the city. If Cody remembered from all he'd heard about Junon, it had once been a fishing village before Shinra took over, built an upper level for their Mako reactor, and then allowed the reactor to pollute the water, leaving it almost devoid of its normal marine life, only monsters and a few types of extremely brave larger fish and aquatic mammals remaining, like Priscilla's pet dolphin. Knowing Shinra, the upper level would be beautiful and clean, much like Midgar's upper level. However, getting up to it was a problem.

"How do you think we're getting up there?" Jessie asked.

"Well, I still have our grappling gun," Cody said. "Plus my gunblade. The others will probably have to find another way up."

Jessie nodded as they walked to the beach, both summoning their swords and beginning to train, both with sparring using wooden swords, and Jessie practicing her basic technique and form. She was improving well, though it was still a long way from being skilled. She knew it, too, but she remained positive and upbeat about it.

"Hey, there's something I've been meaning to ask," Jessie said. "Well, a lot of things, actually, but this one's more recent."

"Go ahead," Cody said.

"Back at the mine, Tseng said Cissnei chose you as her partner," Jessie said. "Was that common? And why did him saying he didn't understand why make you so mad?"

Cody paused during a strike, and Jessie stopped, deciding not to take advantage of his momentary distraction. Finally, Cody sighed, moving back to his beginning stance, Jessie doing the same. "No, it wasn't common. Actually, I'm pretty sure that Cissnei was the only one who wasn't the leader of the Turks, meaning Tseng, or before him Veld, who got to choose her partner. A few of the others who didn't like Cissnei as much called her Shinra's Turk Princess, since Cissnei always seemed to get special treatment. At least, to them. As her partner, I saw how hard she had to work to get everything she did, and I knew that the money they thought Shinra was giving her as an allowance, which she used to pay for my gunblade and watch, among other things, was actually just money she saved from working. She was allowed to choose her partner because she was always sent on the hardest jobs since she was one of the most skilled, so she needed a partner who could keep up with her, but also who she trusted and worked well with."

"And since you were one of the best, you got picked, right?" Jessie asked.

"No," Cody said, spinning out of the way of a strike and sweeping her legs out from under her, holding his wooden sword to her throat. "This was when I first joined. I was good with a sword, but compared to the Turks, I was pathetic." He helped her to her feet and they began again. "The worst fighter, I couldn't lie to save my life, I couldn't sneak past a sleeping blind, deaf man to save my life, and I was only there because it was Cissnei who convinced the Turks' last leader to let me join. I squeaked by the auditing process by the skin of my teeth, and I was about one mistake away from being kicked out again."

"So, why did she choose you?" Jessie asked. "Was it because she was the one that recruited you?"

"No," Cody said. "Well...I guess maybe it was for the same reason. Maybe. I don't really know. The process for her to choose wasn't exactly a normal one, either. And all of the rules she set for it, I failed."

"What do you mean?" Jessie asked, just before he swept her blade out to the side and held his own to her throat.

Cody sighed, helping her up again, both once again beginning to spar again as he delved into the story.

"It looks like everyone's finally here," Veld said. "Thank you all for coming in on your off day on such short notice. There's a relatively small matter to attend to. Since the casualties we took on the last mission, it seems we're in need of a partner shuffle. Seeing as Cissnei's partner was among that number after failing to cooperate with her, she'll be testing anyone who wants to be her partner."

"Testing us?" Reno asked. "What, is she the boss now? I mean, I get that she's one of the top members, but come on! Why does she get to be picky about choosing her partners?"

"It's because Cissnei's missions are generally more dangerous than all of yours, due to her higher skill level and her aptitude for her work," Veld said. "Additionally, the range of her missions is more extensive than most of yours. As such, any of you may volunteer to be her partner, however, Cissnei is the one that will be setting the standards for the test. If you cannot meet them, you will fail. She may also test someone who does not volunteer, if she believes they will make a good partner."

Reno grinned. "I'll give it a go. It'll be fun to get to show Miss Perfect that she's not nearly as good as she thinks."

"Alright Reno," Cissnei said. "I'll test you first then. However, you should probably hear the rules of the test first, don't you think?"

"Sure," Reno smirked.

"Firstly, you can use your weapon to its full extend, since I'll be doing the same," Cissnei listed. "Materia is also allowed. All of it. Feel free to go all out. Secondly, The fight will be tournament rules. It will continue until one side is either rendered unable to continue or yields. Try to avoid death or lasting injuries, though."

"Sounds like fun," Reno said. "Shall we begin?"

"One last thing," Cissnei said. "Even if you win, you might not pass. The test isn't just to find someone skilled, it's to find someone I can work well with."

"What the hell does that mean?" Reno asked. "How can you have the test be a fight against you to find some you work with well? And how can I fail if I beat you?"

"As I said, it's not just about skill," Cissnei said, turning and walking through the door beside the observation window they were standing in front of, walking into the training room, Reno following.

Everyone stepped forward to watch, Cody having to peek between two of the others' shoulders. He wanted to be Cissnei's partner, but he was barely able to function as a Turk on a basic level. By the sound of it, if he went with Cissnei, he'd only get her killed.

Reno started the fight even before Cissnei had her shuriken out, swiping at her rapidly. However, after several minutes, she caught his wrist, twisting his arm sharply before slamming a roundhouse kick into his gut before shoving him away. A moment later, her shuriken appeared in her hand in a flash of light. Reno spun, firing a bolt of lightning at her, only for her to flip out of the way, hurling her shuriken. Reno deflected the weapon and shot forward, swiping at her rapidly, Cissnei constantly ducking and stepping out of the way. Finally, she flipped, catching her shuriken and landed on her feet, slashing downward with it and using the blade opposite her hand to knock his baton downward, making the swipe miss her. Then, she hurled the shuriken at him, only for him to lean out of the way and grin, moving to stab her. However, she turned profile to him and knocked his hand to the side just in time for the shuriken to hit his baton, knocking it out of his hand and deflecting upward. It bounced off the wall behind Cissnei and she spun, catching it in reverse grip before finishing her spin and stopping with the point of a blade held to his neck beside his carotid artery, Reno's eyes wide. Cody smiled behind his mask as Reno swallowed hard, then yielded.

She was amazing. He had seen Reno fight. He had fought Reno. Reno was amazing. Fast and skilled, with no hesitation. For her beat him so thoroughly, she must be amazing. Reno returned to the room and Tseng walked into the training room, his pistol loaded with rubber bullets. Within seconds, the fight had begun and was fairly even. Tseng used his pistol as a melee weapon almost more than actually shooting it, and any time Cissnei hurled her Shuriken at him, he would shoot it and alter its course, making her retrieve it and continue to fight. But he also burned through his mags quickly. Finally, as he was down to his last two shots in his eighth mag, Cissnei hurled her shuriken at him, only for him to fire both shots, his slide locking back to the rear. The first bullet deflected off the shuriken, knocking it to the ground harmlessly, before both bullets slammed into Cissnei's torso, Cissnei grunting and staggering backward.

"And that's my victory," Tseng said. "And not a moment too soon. I'm out of bullets."

Cissnei sighed, shaking her head. "I almost had you that time, Tseng."

"More than once," Tseng said. "But you've still got a ways to go yet."

"Yeah, yeah," Cissnei sighed. "Unfortunately, I don't think it would work on missions if you were my partner. Our philosophies differ too much."

"I see," Tseng said. "Very well."

He collected his magazines and left the room. As he did returned into the observation room, Cissnei stepped into the doorway, looking around at the rest of them.

"Anyone else?" Cissnei asked, looking around at them.

Most of the other members were leaning against the wall and made no move to walk toward the room. Cody glanced around at them, trying to decide if it was worth the humiliation of being slaughtered by here, and probably hospitalized, just to fail the test anyway.

"Alright, fine," Cissnei said. "I'll just choose one to test, then." Her eyes moved from one face to the next, her gaze calculating. She paused on several of them before finally stopping on Cody, who swallowed hard and quickly looked away from her. "Cody. You're next."

He swallowed hard again, but nodded, picking up his sword. It was nothing fancy. Just a fairly basic falchion. However, he had been refused when he requested a SOLDIER sword, and he didn't have any way of getting anything better. He had found this sword at a pawn shop, so it was what he had.

He followed her into the training room and swallowed hard, readying himself with the sword in front of himself. Cissnei raised an eyebrow at him.

"Defensive?" Cissnei asked. "You're not going to try and get in close?"

"You'd destroy me in a second," Cody said. "Not that you won't anyway, but at least I'll last longer since it'll take time for your shuriken to reach me."

Cissnei smirked, holding her shuriken in front of her left shoulder with her right hand. Then, she hurled it, instantly chasing it. Cody slashed upward, deflecting it before diving out of the way of a punch, escaping just as she caught the shuriken and slashed with it, barely missing him. He swore internally as he scrambled to his feet facing her. She was faster than he realized. Had he blocked the punch, she'd have beaten him. She hurled the shuriken again and he deflected it aside, then launched an Aero into the ground at his feet as he jumped, allowing the blast of pressurized air to hurl him over her as well as slowing her just enough for her to miss her shuriken as she reached for it. He landed in a roll and spun as she reached him, kicking. He yelped in surprise, ducking and spinning outward, her kick passing over him before he stood behind her, facing away. Huge mistake. Her right elbow drilled into his left kidney and sent him crashing to the ground, clutching at his side. She kicked his sword away and held her hand out, a materia in her shuriken glowing as it spun back to her hand. Then, she moved to place it to his throat, only for him to twist, desperation flooding him. He didn't want to lose from making such an obvious mistake. Because she was better, sure, but not because he messed up and gave her a free kidney shot. His foot slammed into her forearm, knocking her arm out to the side and sending the shuriken spinning away before he rolled to his left, getting his left foot out from under him in time to slam a kick into her gut, making her stagger backward a whopping two steps. Disappointment flooded him, but he scrambled across the room for his sword anyway.

Just as he grabbed it, she grabbed the back of his jacket and turned, hurling him across the room. Embarrassment flooded him. She was literally toying with him. Also, she was far stronger than she looked, and far stronger than him. He hit hard and rolled backward to his feet only for his mask to fall away, the strap broken at the back. He sucked in a breath, then held it as Cissnei lunged. He slashed at her, but apparently she'd decided the fight was over. She caught his wrist and drilled two punches into his solar plexus in a second, then twisted his arm outward, making him drop the sword before she caught it in reverse grip, then twisted further, bending him backward almost in half before holding his own sword to his throat.

"Yield?" Cissnei asked.

Cody nodded, lungs burning from not exhaling even when she'd punched him, though he was still seeing stars from it, and she released him, picking up his mask and setting it in his hand. He pressed it to his face and set out a high, pained groan, falling to his knees and his free hand pressing against his ribs.

"What a wimp," Reno snorted. "Loser can't even take a punch. So, who are you testing next?"

"No one," Cissnei said. "He's my new partner."

"What!?" Reno gaped, several of the others staring at her like she was crazy as well.

"Wow," Jessie said, she and Cody sitting on a rock by the water to rest. "So, she kicked your ass and still accepted you? Why?"

"She said she saw potential in me, and said that I was more resourceful and creative than anyone she'd worked with, so she had faith I'd be able to adapt to anything we came across and cover her perfectly no matter the situation," Cody said. "I didn't really understand what she meant, but I was really happy she chose me. And once I was her partner, she started training me personally, too. She taught me everything I know. Martial arts, how to use a Shuriken in case a situation arose in which I had to use her shuriken in a fight for some reason, which it actually did later, and sparring with her endlessly improved my sword skills. She taught me how to be stealthy, how to lie so well that I'd make a good actor now, and she gave me lessons in driving cars, motorcycle, and even helicopters. Eventually, she told me I was allowed to requisition a better weapon, or to design one and put in a development request with Research and Development, so I came up with the idea to use my gunblade. When that was rejected, she used her own money to get it made for me as a surprise."

"She sounds like the best partner in the world," Jessie said.

"She was," Cody said. "Well, one of two, anyway. You're pretty great."

Jessie snorted and shoved him lightly. "I don't compare to that, though. You just think I'm a great partner because I'm your girlfriend."

Cody chuckled. "You really would be an amazing partner though. And you'd make a good Turk, if you could put stand to do the jobs. You're good with your gun, and you're getting better with a sword. You're an amazing actress, which would make you a good spy, and you look damn-good in a suit."

Jessie laughed, again shoving him playfully. "Want to spar some more?"

"Sure," Cody laughed, standing and dusting his backside off before they both walked away from the water a little ways before readying themselves again. Then, they continued sparring.

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