Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 2: Aftermath

TWENTY-SIX

Barret looked at her. "Don't go bein' so hard on yourself, Jessie. We all got fooled by them assholes. Even me."

She gave him a grateful smile. "Thanks, Barret."

"You were so determined to hunt them down back when you were still living here with me and Mom," Aerith said. "I think I see now why it was so important to you. And why you went off alone to save Maddy from one of them, even if it killed you."

Jessie sighed. "Yeah. I felt it was my responsibility, you know? Since I'd created them. I wanted to make up for what I'd done, for all the pain and grief they'd brought about. I still do."

"Ain't your fault, Jessie," Barret assured her. "You didn't make those things to hurt anyone. That's on Shinra. An' we took some of 'em down for ya when we was rescuin' Aerith. That Valkyrie was a pain in the ass, but I torched it on our way outta there."

"And when we were in the museum, Cloud accidentally trashed the prototype for you, too," Tifa chuckled.

Jessie laughed. "I appreciate it, guys. I really do."

I shrugged. "My sword slipped."

"I'll bet," she smirked.

Barret went on. "You also oughta know there was an evacuation up top. Kinda done on the sly, if ya know what I mean. As if somebody up there had been warned 'bout what Shinra was gonna do. You wouldn't know anythin' 'bout that, would ya, Jessie?"

She smiled. "Oh, I might. I was hoping Reeve would be able to find a way to get people outta there in time."

"I think he did, girl," Barret said. "We overheard some folks talkin' 'bout it while we was in there rescuin' Aerith. You saved a helluva lotta lives that night. Knew I was right to trust ya."

Jessie beamed. "Means a lot to me to hear that. And to know that I was able to make a difference. Even though we couldn't save Sector 7, it helps that so many people still made it out."

"An' all the ones up top've got you to thank for it," he reminded her. "So don't you ever forget that, Jessie."

"I won't," she promised.

Jessie straightened up and sat a little taller, as if a heavy weight had rolled off her shoulders. I knew, probably better than anyone here, how hard it had been for her, struggling with the guilt she felt over how her creations had been misused to cause so much pain and death. And also how she blamed herself for the devastation from the reactor bombings. I still had to tell her the truth, that it had been Shinra and not her who had caused it all, but I wanted to do it when we were alone. The others didn't know just how badly it had affected her.

I still vividly remembered Jessie's suicide attempt in the underplate when we'd gone there to hide the second bomb, how heavily her shame and guilt had crushed her and pushed her to that point of desperation. How she'd just broken down in my arms and questioned her worth as a person. I knew how much it would mean to her to hear the truth, and I was gonna share it with her before I left.

"There's something else I wanna tell you," I said, gazing at her. "It's important, but... private. So we'll talk later."

Jessie smiled. "Alright. I hope it's something good."

I nodded. "It is. But anyway, about those monsters... the only way we'd really know for sure if Shinra's involved would be to check out one of those storehouses ourselves. But I dunno if we've got time to do that since half of us are leaving in a few days."

"We might," Lena said. "I know where to go, Cloud. My friend, the one who secured the first bomb chip for me, told me about it—he's got contacts in Shinra who leak information to him from time to time. It's in the outskirts of Sector 3. Supposedly just someplace they store spare parts and other equipment, but that may only be for show. A few of us could sneak over there and take a look."