I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters.
Waiting
Cody watched as Cloud leapt off of the Dolphin, which had managed to jump nearly twenty feet out of shallow water with Cloud on his back in order to sent Cloud up onto a corss section of an energy tower that was high enough for him to use it to get up to the upper level. It had been decided he'd go alone, since President Shinra was showing up today and too many people showing up at once would be more likely to cause confusion. Cody was going to go, but had decided against it since him having a mask with a materia stuck in it on at all times would probably raise questions.
"So, dinner?" Jessie asked.
Cody smiled and nodded and they walked into town, heading for the only restaurant in town, which, understandably, only sold fish. However, the waiter was very polite and friendly, and the fish was good, so they didn't mind.
"So, what kinds of missions have you done?" Jessie asked.
"Pretty much everything," Damian said. "Except infiltration. For obvious reasons, I stick out a little too much for that."
Jessie nodded. "Anything in particular stand out?"
"Well, there were the missions fighting against the original AVALANCHE," Cody said. "The leader of that one captured SOLDIERs and corrupted them into monsters that he called Ravens. Then he used the data he had on SOLDIER to create more Ravens from normal people. Of course, I say monsters, but really they were just mindless super soldiers. like a SOLDIER without free will."
Jessie nodded. "Sounds dangerous."
"It was," Cody said. "But it was the job."
Jessie nodded, glancing out the door. She frowned, brows furrowing, and Cody twisted around to look. Just as he got twisted around, someone wearing a SOLDIER Third Class uniform, though without his sword, glanced into the shop as he was walking past, then continued to walk.
"Don't they always have a sword when they're in uniform?" Jessie asked.
"Yeah," Cody said.
"Hold on," Jessie frowned even more as the guy glanced back again, seeing them both still watching him and turning back to the front. "Haven't we seen that guy before."
Cody's frown deepened as well. "Yeah. He was that Shinra troop on the elevator. The one without his gun or helmet."
"What's he doing here?" Jessie asked. "And in a SOLDIER uniform."
"Let's go ask," Cody said, standing and glancing at the shop's owner. "Excuse me, sir? We have to step out for a moment. We'll be right back."
The man smiled and nodded and Cody and Jessie turned, hurrying out of the shop and after the man they'd seen. He glanced back at them and cut left into a side street and they followed quickly, but as they rounded the corner, he was gone, and there was a door with a security pad ahead of them. Cody frowned, looking around. The guy was good. He'd completely disappeared in about four seconds.
"Where'd he go?" Jessie asked. "Inside?"
"I doubt it," Cody said, summoning one of the key cards he'd kept from Midgar, which had been stored in his gunblade's sealing materia with his weapon and spare clothes. "But we're about to."
"Where does this lead?" Jessie asked.
"I don't know" Cody said. "Let's find out."
He swiped the card and entered the pin number he'd assigned to all of the cards, which was simply four ones, and the pad beeped as the door slid open. Cody and Jessie walked inside, both glancing at each other, happy Jessie had had on a suit today. The door closed and locked behind them and Cody slipped the card into his pocket, the two of them walking up the stairway they were at the bottom of. After a few minutes, they exited it into a back street on the upper level and Cody snorted.
"And Cloud had to take a dolphin up," Cody smirked.
Jessie laughed softly, and they walked to the edge of the street, only for Cody to swear and back away. "What is it?"
"Rude," Cody said, peeking out carefully, making sure to stay in the shadows.
He watched as Rude headed into one of the buildings, appearing to be a store that sold potions and such, then quickly led Cissnei out of the alley and into the weapons' store beside the one Rude was in.
"Hello!" the owner greeted them happily. "How can I help?"
"I have a question," Cody said. "Have you had any SOLDIERs as customers today?"
"One, yes," the owner said. "He said he was a First Class and wanted parts for a better sword. He bought all the offensive magic materia I had, and left."
"He payed, right?" Cody asked.
"Of course," the owner said.
"Did he give his name?" Cody asked.
"No," the owner said. "He was rather average-looking too. Brown hair slicked back, really dark brown eyes, SOLDIER uniform. Nothing really stood out about him besides the uniform."
"I see," Cody nodded. "Alright. While I'm here, I have a couple of special requests for a project of my own. You wouldn't happen to have any of these things, would you?" He handed the man a list.
"Sure do," the man nodded. "We do custom orders sometimes."
"Oh really?" Cody asked. "Anything interesting?"
"Well," the man hummed thoughtfully. "We once made a rapier with the blade infused with mako stones and red steel, and it was wielded by that old war hero Genesis."
"Impressive," Cody nodded.
The weapon store's owner walked into the back and returned with most of Cody's list, though a couple small items were missing. He thanked him and slipped the tied bundle of small odds and ends into his pocket before paying the man and carefully checking outside the store for Rude before he and Jessie left again. They headed along the street to the main Shinra facility, Cody once again using his keycard to get in. They made their way quietly through the facility, keeping their distance from everyone, until they reached Research and Development. As Cody had suspected, they found everyone present dead, the wounds matching the ones from the Midgar Shinra HQ's Advanced Weaponry.
"How did you know we'd find everyone like this?" Jessie asked, picking up a Shinra troop's sword, which had been smashed in the middle.
"Just a hunch," Cody said, logging into the computer. "Let's see. What was our mystery man looking for?" He pulled up the files most recently accessed and frowned. "What is..."
"What is it?" Jessie asked, stepping up beside him and looking at the screen.
"This is...This is the list of files that my father stole," Cody said. "I think. List of known Summoning Materia, theories on how to make new ones, research about their origins. What the hell were you looking for?"
"Why would your father be looking at all of this?" Jessie asked. "It's like he was..."
"Looking for something specific," Cody finished, beginning to rapidly scan through the rest of the files. "I don't understand. What was he..." he stopped on the last file, an ancient drawing of some form of cloaked figure hovering over a battle where it looked like both sides were being wiped out, judging by the equal number of dead on both sides, and the cities behind both armies burning.
"What is that?" Jessie asked.
"I think...it's some ancient culture's deity," Cody said. "The Harbinger?"
"Looks like he's a God of Destruction, or maybe war," Jessie said.
"Looks like it," Cody nodded. "But why would my father be researching a God of Destruction? What was he trying to destroy?"
"Shinra, maybe?" Jessie suggested.
"This is..." Cody shook his head. "I don't understand."
"Hey, didn't whoever did this steal a summoning materia from Midgar?" Jessie asked.
Cody's eyes widened and he began to type rapidly. The computer began to cycle through files rapidly before finally stopping on one, an inventory of experimental weapons in Junon. The weapons were scattered around the room they were in, as they had been in Midgar, so Cody did a quick survey of the room before turning back to the inventory.
"Two experimental absorption materia," Cody said, then frowned. "And another Summoning Materia."
"Does it say what for?" Jessie asked.
"No," Cody said. "Just like the last one. I have no idea."
Jessie nodded. "We should leave before we get caught in here."
Cody nodded and closed out of the computer, scrubbing his history before they quickly left, getting back outside and heading back down to the lower level, then to the hotel to warn the others about the possibility of a separate threat besides Sephiroth, though Cody decided he should probably keep quiet about his father's research for now.
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