I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters.
Confrontation
Cody deflected Jessie's blade again and again, Jessie striking, pivoting, and moving much more skillfully and precisely than when they began. She was actually picking it up rather fast now that she'd gotten a feel for it, enough that Cody had switched from them using wooden training swords to their real weapons, though with a protective barrier to keep from hurting each other. However, she still left openings, and after a couple of minutes, he spun around her slash, sweeping her legs out from under her then placed the tip of his gunblade to her throat. She sighed, letting her head fall back and nodding.
"I let you lead me into a trap again," she said.
"Correct," he nodded, helping her stand. "But you have improved immensely. You're picking it up faster than I expected."
"Not fast enough," Jessie said. "I doubt my little toy machine gun will do anything against whoever it is trying to summon the Harbinger."
"And what, a sword's going to do more?" Cody asked.
"Uh, yeah," Jessie said. "In case you haven't noticed, all the best fighters in the world use swords. Sephiroth, Cloud, you, that old war hero Genesis."
"That's fair," Cody said. "Come on. Let's get back to camp before the others go to sleep."
Jessie nodded and they turned, heading toward where they'd set up camp for the night. They were about half a day's walk away from Mt. Corel, where Hojo had apparently gone, following Sephiroth toward the Golden Saucer. Once there, they'd be searching for any kind of clues as to where Sephiroth went. Which meant that Cody would be spending a few days enjoying the Golden Saucer with Jessie, and would be helping the others get Cloud to take Tifa on a date while they were there.
"Do you think we'll be able to help the others stop Sephiroth and the other guy both?" Jessie asked. "Or...do you think we'll have to go after the other guy ourselves?"
"I don't know," Cody said. "So far, we've only been able to find him by following Sephiroth, and one of them was only a passing glance after he'd already gotten what he wanted. But we have no idea where he's going, or what he'll do next."
"I could tell you," a voice said behind them, both spinning and staring at the man they were talking about.
His brown hair was slicked back, he had the gunblade he'd stolen in his right hand, resting on his shoulder, and he wore an all white tuxedo with white leather shoes, and a shiny gold watch on his left wrist, a pair of silver materia bands on his right, both filled with materia to give him as many as Cody, which Cody suspected probably matched his own list. He stared at the gunblade. It had a rounded, curved, black grip, a thin silver finger guard running from the end of the grip to the revolver section, which was substantially wider than Cody's in order to incorporate its six Fire materia into the cone-shaped chamber in front of the cylinder, then a barrel running along the blade, thinning as it went to the notch where the heat would vent, then a thick single-edged blade similar in shape to Cody's but much, much larger, along with a half foot longer.
"You," Cody growled, summoning his gunblade as he stepped in front of Jessie. "Who are you?"
"Come now, is that any way to greet your brother?" the man grinned wickedly.
"My what?" Cody asked, eyes widening.
"Brother," the man smirked. "It means that you are the other child of my parents. Though, I understand why you'd doubt that, considering our mother was-"
"A whore," Cody interrupted. "Yes, I know. And thanks for the vocabulary lesson, you smartass prick. What do you want?"
"Well, maybe I want to kill you for killing our mother," the man said. "Maybe I want to kill you to prove that father chose his favorite child wrong. Or maybe I want to tell you why I fooled our father into stealing Shinra secrets for me."
"Excuse me?" Cody growled.
"Oh, have I piqued your interest?" he smirked.
"No," Cody said. "But you've begun to try my patience. Just tell me who you are and what you want."
"My name is Levi, brother," the man said. "And I'm actually a man of very simple tastes. I just want to gloat about how I outsmarted our father, who was so desperate to save his favorite child, the person who murdered our mother, that he'd believe his eldest son's lies enough to do whatever his eldest son said. I want to gloat about the fact that I've finally learned how to summon the Harbinger, and that you can't stop me. And I want to kill the person who murdered my mother, then take those three very beautiful women you're traveling with and enjoy myself."
Cody's hand gripped his gunblade so hard it trembled.
"I think I'll start with this beauty right here," Levi said, lowering his gunblade from his shoulder to hold it at his side. "I'll show her that she chose the wrong brother, and then I'll make her mine."
"That will never happen," Jessie said flatly.
"And neither will the rest of it," Cody snarled. "I'll give you a chance to explain about my father, since you're set on gloating."
Levi smirked. "Well, it's quite simple. He was absolutely desperate to save his beloved favorite child who fate had decided to kill. That is, until some drunken fool who happened to be passing by when the child's breathing apparatus was broken thought that simply breathing in less air each time would help and gave the child his altitude mask. And low and behold, it worked. But the allergy remained. So our father was desperate. He began to pour through Shinra's research into mako, and all of its effect. And yet, there was nothing. Not that there ever would have been if he'd continued, Shinra never cared about things like helping repair the damage they did. However, as a young man interning under Hojo and Scarlet, I found some very...interesting legends and research regarding a force known only as the Harbinger. And so, I searched. I mined every archive of data I could access as an intern, I read every book I was allowed. I even seduced Scarlet for extra permission, not an easy task, mind you, and yet still there was nothing. Then, I had a thought. Why not use the greatest tool I knew. Our father, who rarely cast so much as a sideways glance at his first child, but who was so devoted to his second. So, I fed him a lie about a specific summoning creature that could save his beloved son. And he took my words as gospel. All I had to do was wait. And he succeeded. He found exactly what I would need. But, of course, I couldn't have Shinra knowing what I was going to do, so when I had what I needed, I staged the meeting between him and the soldiers who executed him."
"You son of a bitch!" Cody snarled.
"Hey, now," Levi said, fury burning in his eyes. "Is that really any way to talk about our mother? Especially when you didn't even know her!?"
He shot forward and Cody moved to meet him, squeezing his trigger at the same time as Levi. Their blades crashed into each other's, and Cody's was instantly knocked aside, Cody barely managing to spin under Levi's blade. He spun, squeezing his trigger and slashing at Levi, only for Levi to leap backward, narrowly avoiding the blade.
"You're weak, brother," Levi said. "Your gunblade is pathetic. It packs no true punch."
"But yours is slow and unwieldy," Cody said. "If your opponent is able to avoid your strikes, it leaves you open and vulnerable. That's why I altered my original design away from what yours is and into this."
Levi glared at him. "You can't fool me! Your blade is a half-baked, inferior version of my own!"
"That's not your own blade!" Cody snapped. "You stole it from Shinra, who stole the designs from me! I designed my gunblade, and Shinra bastardized it to make that pathetic thing!"
"And now I'm going to kill you with this pathetic thing!" Levi seethed, charging again, Cody moving to meet him.
As they met, Levi slashed at Cody, who spun around it, slashing diagonally upward from his left, now standing to Levi's side. Levi stepped forward, allowing his sword to throw him in a circle and squeezing the trigger again. Cody pivoted, bringing his sword back down and angling it to allow Levi's blade to glance off of it and deflect over Cody. Then, Cody stepped forward, slashing at Levi. Levi again let his sword's momentum and weight pull him to the side, narrowly avoiding Cody's blade. He spun, slashing back downward and squeezed his trigger, his blade flashing down at Cody, and this time, as Cody spun out of the way, there was a tugging sensation at the side of his jacket before he leapt away. He glanced down at his side, seeing his suit jacket had been split open across his left side. He hummed thoughtfully, then turned back to Levi, pulling his blade back on his left side, holding it horizontal to the ground, the blade pointing backward. Levi grinned, pulling his sword back across his chest with his right hand, turning profile. Then, Levi stabbed at Cody as he pulled the trigger, the force of the blast hurling him forward in a stab at the same time as Cody used a blast to launch himself at Levi. Both moved in a blur, but Cody tilted his gunblade carefully, deflecting Levi's blade off of it before using a second blast to bring his sword, which had been deflected downward, back up, slashing his side, an arc of blood splattering across the ground as he skidded to a stop, Levi skidding to a stop as well. Cody turned to look back at Levi as Levi shone green, his wound healing, leaving a split on the left side of his tux stained with blood.
"You ruined my suit," Levi said.
"Fair's fair," Cody said. "You ruined mine first."
Levi chuckled. "I suppose I did."
Just then, an engine roared and they both turned, Cody seeing a massive dust cloud heading directly for them with a small red speck at the base.
"I don't fucking believe it," Cody said. "Of all times."
They waited in silence as Roche sped over to them before he skidded to a stop, the dust blowing past him, then settling.
"Well look at this," Roche said. "My favorite dance partner's in the middle of having fun without me. I'm a bit offended."
"What the hell are you doing here Roche?" Cody asked.
"I was assigned the task of tracking you down," Roche said. "Who's your dance partner?"
"Dance partner?" Levi asked.
"This is Levi," Cody said. "My brother."
Roche's grin grew instantly. "Oh this is perfect! My engine's running hot now! Allow me a dance with both brothers!"
"No," Cody said. "I need to deal with this myself, Roche. After I've dealt with him, I'll fight you, but I need you to stay out of this. It's a family matter."
Roche regarded him for a moment before nodding. "Alright, but I'm going to hold you to your promise of a dance."
Cody nodded, then turned back to Levi. "In the mean time, Roche, would you mind keeping my girlfriend out of harm's way?"
"Happy to," Roche said, walking over to stand beside Jessie.
Cody turned back to Levi, both readying themselves again. Then, both charged. When they reached each other, their blades began to clash rapidly, neither pulling the trigger for the moment. Cody slashed at Levi's head, deflected a stab to his gut. As his sword was off to his left, he switched his hands to reverse grip ad slashed upward at Levi, who spun around it, Cody switched his grip again and squeezed the trigger at the same time as Levi did. His gunblade's blast launched him away from Levi, only for Levi's blade to split his side open deeply. He landed in a roll, healing his side as he turned back toward Levi just as Levi slashed. Cody moved to block it, but at the last second, Levi squeezed his trigger, his blade knocking Cody's out of the way effortlessly and splitting Cody down across the torso. Cody staggered away as Jessie shrieked in fear. However, Cody again managed to heal himself, gritting his teeth as he felt fatigue beginning to set in.
Levi grinned, turning profile again, holding his sword across his chest with one hand again, Cody adopting his similar two-handed stance. Then, they charged. Levi moved to slash, his finger moving to his gunblade's trigger, but before he could slash, Cody squeezed his own gunblade's trigger, flipping forward into a buzz-saw and splitting Levi's torso several times before landing and spinning clockwise, using another blast to split him horizontally several times.
He leapt backward as Levi slashed and healed at the same time. However, Levi's blade missed Cody by an inch, and Cody launched himself forward again, splitting Levi across the right side. Levi healed himself again, panting, and turned back to Cody, then grit his teeth.
"I see," Levi said. "You're good. You may have had a point about your gunblade being better than mine. Oh well. This fight's over now."
Cody raised an eyebrow just before a wall of suffocating heat slammed into him from behind. He cast Manawall on himself less than a second before a fist the size of his entire torso exploded into his back, slamming him to the ground and shattering his protection spells. Then, before he could even consider standing, the hand slammed into him in a backhanded slap, sending him bouncing across the ground.
He flipped, driving his gunblade into the ground and skidding to a stop, looking up at Ifrit just as Levi took off on Roche's bike.
"Hey, that's mine!" Roche shouted.
Cody charged, launching himself into the air at Ifrit, then used a second blast to flip over his fist before launching himself downward at Ifrit, preparing to buzz-saw himself, only for Ifrit's other fist to crash into him, sending him crashing along the ground again, his gunblade stabbing into the ground on the opposite side of Ifrit from him.
Ifrit roared, raising his hands, flames beginning to gather between them, only for Roche to streak past Ifrit, his sword splitting him across the chest, then immediately leapt past Ifrit, slashing him diagonally back up across the chest, then flip and slash him down the front as he landed. Ifrit's fireball dispersed, and Ifrit staggered backward before erupting into flames and fading. Cody sighed, allowing himself to slump back to the ground. Roche walked over, squatting down in front of him, stabbing his sword into the ground.
"You alive?" Roche asked.
"Yeah," Cody said, struggling to stand, only to stagger backward several steps before stopping himself, swaying. "I guess I...owe you a dance."
"Not right now," Roche said. "You're too tired to be able to dance well. Tell you what, I'm going to come with you, that way you can rest and recover, then once you're back to full strength, we can have our dance."
"I'm not sure the others will agree, but sure," Cody said. "We could probably use the help."
Roche nodded and Cody walked over to Jessie, who had retrieved his gunblade for him. He smiled, tugging his mask down and kissing her as he sealed his gunblade.
"You scared me," Jessie said.
"Sorry," Cody sighed, tugging his mask up. "I underestimated him."
Jessie nodded. "Come on. Let's get back to camp to let the others know about our new temporary companion and so you can change your clothes."
Cody nodded and they walked to camp with Roche. The others were less than pleased, but after a half hour of arguing against Roche, they eventually gave up, since he was still showing no signs of caring what they thought about his presence.
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