Final Fantasy VII: Reflections - Book 1: Descent

SIX

About nine months after the Reactor 3 incident, I found Marissa in her office. I was nineteen, well into my third year at Shinra, and not all that surprised to see her packing her things. Ever since returning from her leave of absence to see to her husband's affairs, she'd been teaching me more and more about her work and what it involved, what she did. Some of it I'd already known, being her assistant, but a lot of it was new stuff, so I took it all in, learning all she had to teach me. I knew why, of course, and I could tell where it was going.

Marissa was leaving.

I couldn't say as I blamed her. My investigations into the Reactor 3 and Corel incidents had slowed down over the past year, both because of my steadily increasing workload in Systems Operation and Weapons Development as well as the walls I kept running into. Again and again, I had tried to get access to the schematics for the roboguards, and still I couldn't find a way in. I'd asked Scarlet about it once, as innocently as I could in order to avoid making her suspicious, and she'd told me it was a systems glitch they hadn't managed to fix yet.

I hadn't believed her lame excuse for a second, but I had nodded as if I did so she wouldn't realize I was on to her. I hated that I'd gotten so stuck, but Marissa had never blamed me. She knew I was trying, but it was still hard for me to know I hadn't been able to find the truth about her husband's death yet. She was my friend, and I felt I owed it to her. I owed to everyone who had died in that horrible nightmare. Aria, too. I hadn't forgotten the reporter who had told me the real story. She'd been killed not long afterward, but I hadn't been able to find out yet who she had sent her copy of the camera footage to.

"Hi, Jessica," Marissa said, closing up the cardboard box.

I sighed. "It's that time?"

She nodded. "Yes. I... I put in my resignation two weeks ago. I just can't keep on working here as if... nothing happened."

"You don't have to explain," I said.

"I thought about leaving not long after Mark died, but... I couldn't leave you high and dry like that. I had to make sure you'd be alright. So that's why I stayed on for a while, having you do more and more in the division and teaching you what I knew."

I blinked. "I wondered about that. Are you saying...?"

"Yes, Jessica. That's right. Effective immediately, you're going to be the new Director of Systems Operation."

"Me?" I stared at her.

Marissa smiled. "Congratulations. I know you'll do well."

I had figured something like this had been coming, but it still felt a little overwhelming. "Thanks, Marissa. I've got to admit, though, I'm a little surprised. I just thought, even though I'm your assistant, that you would have picked someone who's been here longer. Maybe older, too. But I do appreciate your confidence in me."

"The recommendation came straight from Director Tuesti, and it's one I very much agree with. There are other people who've been in the division longer than you have, that's true enough. But Jessica... no one knows these systems as well as you do. You have a real gift, a talent for computers and technology like I've never seen."

"I guess you're right," I laughed. "Now I know why you had me and Garrett working together so much lately. You were prepping him to be my assistant, weren't you?"

She chuckled. "Yes. He'll be a good help to you."

"It won't be the same without you, though," I told her.

"I've got to admit, a part of me is going to miss this place," Marissa said. "But at least I'm leaving it in good hands."

I straightened. "I'll do my best."