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

Partners

"Happy birthday Cody!"

Cody smiled at the beautiful redhead beaming at him as she held out a small cubic box. Knowing her, it could be anything from a stink bomb to a rare and priceless materia depending on her mood. She was a fun partner like that. She could joke around and play pranks, or she could make his entire existence worth while with a short sentence and a smile. Not that she had to try for the second one. She did it every time she smiled at him. And it made him happy beyond belief that he was the only person alive that knew she had a playful, pranking side.

He accepted the box, glancing at her and trying to decide if he'd need to wash the smell of a stink bomb off. After a moment, he pulled the bow off and lifted the top of the box. His eyes widened as he lifted out a shiny silver chronograph watch. His eyes flicked to his partner, who smiled proudly, then back to the watch.

"Cissnei..." he trailed off, putting the watch on. "How much did this cost?"

"Hey, you know it's bad luck to tell the price of a present," Cissnei chided. "Press the crown inward."

He glanced at her before doing as instructed. Instantly, the center of the watch where the hands were connected lit up, a horizontal line of lights sweeping down his face once before the watch beeped and a small turquoise holographic screen appeared over the watch, displaying a GPS, a box with an EKG readout with Cissnei's name above it, and a digitally rendered map of everything around him in perfect detail, though all of it the same turquoise color as the rest of the display, a color that reminded him of mako.

"How did you..." he stared at it before looking up at her just as she slid her sleeve up, revealing a similar, though slimmer, watch, that also created a display when she pressed the crown, on which he instantly noticed his own name over the EKG readout.

"Do you like it?" Cissnei asked.

"I love it!" he smiled, then winced, grimacing and pulling the altitude mask around his neck up over his nose and mouth, taking several breaths before the burning in his lungs settled. "Thank you so much, Cissnei."

She smiled sympathetically. "I can't imagine how awful it must be for you. Of all the things to be allergic to, to think you'd have the bad luck to be allergic to oxygen."

"It's not so bad," Cody said. "It's mild enough that a simple altitude mask lets me breathe. And now if I ever need a boost in a fight, I can just take the mask off."

"Yeah, for all of, what, three minutes?" Cissnei asked. "That's terrible."

Cody shrugged. "I try to look at the silver lining in it. Otherwise, I'd probably be clinically depressed."

"I suppose," Cissnei said. "So, what do you want to do?"

Cody thought for a few seconds. "Movie night."

Cissnei smiled and nodded and they headed for his room, putting in their favorite and sitting on the couch together to watch it. As always, Cody felt his chest start to ache. He wished they could be more than partners. He really did. But this was how his life was. Her heart belonged elsewhere. Even now, he could see her thinking about him. The man she'd fallen for. The man who'd been reported to have died three years ago. Even now, her heart remained with him, forever out of Cody's reach. Cody sighed internally, eyes shifting back to the movie, left thumb brushing over the two silver bracelets on his right wrist. One was an inch-and-a-half wide band with two rows of materia slots running the entire way around it, allowing him to place two dozen materia in it at once. He had been very picky in choosing them, too, and had made sure they were all fully levelled up. Healing materia, fire materia, Wind materia, Ice materia, Lightning materia, Barrier materia, Revival materia, Time materia, Cleansing materia, several linked Chakra materia, several linked Prayer materia, an Assess materia, an Elemental materia linked to each of the elemental spell materia, an HP Up materia, an MP Up materia, a Steadfast Blocking materia, and a summoning materia that conjured a chocobo chick that could cast powerful elemental spells of its own, and one that had such a low drain on Cody's magic energy, that he could stay with Cody for about an hour without being forced to leave.

The other band on Cody's right wrist was a thin metal strip about half an inch wide with a sealing materia on the inside of the wrist that contained his personal weapon. Probably the only good thing about being a Turk, besides Cissnei, was that he was funded enough to make whatever weapon he wanted, and was also allowed to use it, so long as he was proficient with it. Thanks to Cissnei, he had done both. He only needed one last piece to be satisfied with his weapon. He had a basic Fire materia installed for one of its functions. He needed one that was fully powered up.

"Oh, by the way," Cissnei said, sitting up suddenly. "I totally forgot about my second gift."

"Second?" Cody asked. "Cissnei, you know the rule. One gift per celebration. You do remember what happened the last time we gave more than one gift, right?"

"Yes, I remember," Cissnei said, rolling her eyes. "Relax, I'm not going to end up having to bum money for meals off of you this time."

"After the watch, I'm not so sure," Cody said.

Cissnei rolled her eyes, then held up a glowing green materia. Cody's eyes widened. It couldn't be what he thought it was. Right?

"I got it fully upgraded," Cissnei said. "It's the last part you needed, right?"

"Are you serious?" Cody asked, looking up at her, receiving a smile and a nod.

Cody hugged her tightly, and Cissnei laughed and hugged him back. After a moment, he sat back, accepting the materia from her, holding out his right hand. The sealing materia shone, and in the blink of an eye, he was suddenly holding his sword. It was a single-edged weapon with the edge reaching up to the point, a small notch missing from the back edge at the end, a black two handed grip that was angled slightly so that if he held the grip vertically the blade would be leaned forward just slightly, with the top of the grip contoured to his right hand perfectly and the lower half smooth, then a revolver between the grip and blade, complete with a trigger and fingerguard over where his index finger would fit. It was a replica of the weapon used by the main character of one of his all-time favorite video games that he played through a million times as a child until he could complete the game to one hundred percent completion, including all of the hidden second objectives and missions, by memory alone.

He rested the tip of his gunblade, as the weapon was called, on the floor and swung the fire materia out of a small depression in the center of the revolver, replacing it with the fully upgraded materia Cissnei had given him, then closed it again. He let the weapon return to his sealing materia and smiled. "Thank you so much, Cissnei."

"You're welcome," Cissnei smiled, turning back to the movie, Cody settling back in beside her.

Cody set the helicopter down and stared out the window in silence as Cissnei moved to engage their target. Even from this distance, Cody could see who it was. It was him. The man who held Cissnei's heart. He was alive. She was keeping herself in control perfectly now, but Cody knew that wouldn't last. The man she loved, Zack, was an escaped experiment of Professor Hojo's, and the orders were to either capture him and bring him back, or terminate him. Him and another, but Cody could only see Zack right now. Which meant that Cissnei would have to betray him, or else betray Shinra, the company they worked for who had raised Cissnei since she was a child, and to whom she was unquestioningly loyal.

After a couple of minutes, Cissnei walked over to the helicopter as Zack sped away on the motorbike Cissnei had been driving earlier, a someone with short, messy blonde hair sitting in the sidecar. She got in and put on the headset and Cody stared out at the ocean ahead of them in silence.

"Monsters trashed your bike?" Cody asked, Cissnei staring at him.

"That's right," Cissnei nodded. "We've lost the target."

Cody nodded slowly before closing his eyes for a moment, forcing his emotions to settle before his eyes could betray him. After a moment, he opened his eyes again, taking off and turning to head back toward Midgar. So that was the choice she had made, then. In the end, she couldn't do it. She couldn't betray him, even for Shinra, or the Turks.

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