"Lack of follow-through is a serious flaw for a civic leader. Some might say a fatal flaw."
- Mr. Townsend, Viper episode 1
"I'm sorry, sir. He was dead before we got there."
Cissnei hung her head in professional humility and personal sorrow. The mission had been a failure. Zack was dead. After everything he had done to save her life, she couldn't even repay the favor.
"And the other one?" Rufus asked from his desk. His hands formed a steeple over his mouth.
"We couldn't find Cloud, sir." Cissnei raised her head so she could be at eye level with her clandestine employer. She was flanked on either side by two stoic-looking men dressed in the same dark business attire as her. "We think he managed regain consciousness and enter the city on his own."
"In other words, your people have no idea where he is, and now you've let a simple retrieval mission turn into a wild chocobo chase." Rufus let out a loud and aggravated sigh. Cissnei had to bite her lip to hide her sudden panic attack.
"Mr. Shinra," she replied once she collected herself. "If you give me more time, I already have a few leads…"
Rufus raised his palm to cut her off.
"The train station, the Sector 1 slums, and the Avalanche headquarters," he said in a disinterested voice. "I've been monitoring your information gathering and I've already sent some of the other Turks to look into it. There's nothing you can tell me I don't already know."
Cissnei lowered her head again, silently wallowing in how pathetic she felt. For a moment, the only noise in the Shinra Vice President's office was the sound of a ticking clock on the wall. Finally, Rufus broke the silence.
"I'm given you plenty of opportunities to prove your value as an agent, Cissnei, but I'm afraid there's only way I can reprimand this kind of failure."
Two pairs of feet shuffled closer toward Cissnei. She glanced to her sides in surprise as the two agents accompanying her grabbed her by the wrists. When she started to struggle, one of them kicked the backs of her legs and forced her to her knees. Rufus opened the top drawer on his desk and picked up something just out of Cissnei's view.
"Wait!" she cried out in desperation. "I can still save Cloud!"
Rufus didn't acknowledge her as he calmly got up from his desk and walked toward her. One of the agents pulled on her sleeve with such force that her black jacket and white dress shirt were both completely ripped, exposing part of her bare shoulder underneath.
Rufus stopped just in front of her. He was holding an alcohol swab in one hand and a needle filled with a glowing blueish-green fluid.
"You can't do this!" Cissnei pleaded.
"Actually, I'm perfectly capable of doing this." Rufus leaned in front of her and brushed the swab against her shoulder with the help of the other agents. "Did you forget the part of your contract that mentions 'Possible ramifications for poor performance?'"
"I thought you were just going to reassign me!"
"But I am, Cissnei," he said coldly. He squirted the needle upward to clear it of any air bubbles. "Consider this to be your evaluation."
Cissnei winced as the needle slipped into her shoulder. Her eyes slowly widened in terror as she watched the contents leave the syringe and flow into her veins.
"That takes care of the administrative work." Rufus removed the empty needle from Cissnei's arm. "All we have to do now is wait for your immune system to sort everything out."
Cissnei was still frozen in shock when the two agents let her go. She watched as the tiny pin prick on her shoulder grew into a dark green spot. She started to whimper as it moved upward through the arteries in her shoulder, turned sharply at her collarbone, and disappeared somewhere underneath her suit. A strange numb feeling took over her arm and moved across her chest.
"The worst is almost over, my dear," Rufus said. "Jenova cells take an average of 10 seconds to travel from the injection site to the host's heart. The first phase of symbiosis is never pleasant, but a small percentage of subjects do manage to survive."
A few seconds later, Cissnei violently lurched forward and clutched her chest. Her whimpering turned into painful groaning, then the groaning died down and turned into rapid breathing. Staring at her hands, she gasped as each of her fingers grew outward and her polished nails became like claws. Emerald-colored veins flared in her cheeks and grew over her face like invasive weeds. Her eyes turned white and lit up like twin supernovas. Her hair began to pulsate in curled waves of fire. When she threw her head back to scream, what came out was a distorted fusion of her own voice and a monster's attack cry.
Rufus calmly moved toward his desk with a confident look on his face. Then everything happened in a flash.
Cissnei sprang straight to her feet and killed the agent on her left, impaling him through the chest with her bare hand. Then she thrust her claws toward the agent on her right, decapitating him in one clean swing. As both bodies dropped to the floor, Rufus watched with his arms crossed and his mouth twisted in an approving smirk.
What he didn't expect was the Cissnei-creature turning her attention directly toward him. The split second he met the gaze of those rageful, beautiful eyes was one of the only times in his life his calculating demeanor was shattered and he truly felt afraid.
Cissnei sprang across the length of the office and landed on the desk with alien agility. She hissed like a feral animal and swung her claws, causing Rufus to frantically stumble backwards. One of her nails managed to graze him under the chin, leaving a small white scratch and drawing just a couple drops of blood. Cornered and desperate, he reached into his desk just as she raised her other set of claws for the kill.
Cissnei suddenly flinched. The tranquilizer dart had hit its target squarely in her neck. She drowsily reached toward her throat before toppling to the office carpet.
Rufus called in more of his subordinates to clean the room. As the bodies of the two dead agents were being removed, he inspected the tiny streak under his chin. The bleeding had already stopped, and he chuckled at the apparent harmlessness of Cissnei's last great stand.
"I'm fine," he told the workers. "It's just a scratch."
Little did he know, that scratch was already slowly killing him. An undetectable portion of Cissnei's mutant cells had seeped through his skin and were now moving through his bloodstream. Over time, they would replicate and gradually deteriorate his body. It would be a matter of years before he noticed the first symptoms of the disease, and by that point it would be far too late.
Rufus approached where Cissnei was sprawled on her side on the floor. Even when she was in a deeply medicated sleep, her hair continued to pulsate in small fiery ripples. After a moment of consideration, he motioned toward the other agents.
"Show her her new home in the research lab. I'm sure we'll learn plenty of fascinating things about Jenova physiology once Hojo has some fun with her."
He watched with a scheming grin as they hauled her away.
And then Cissnei escaped the lab, avenged Zack, killed everyone who had betrayed her, and accepted her new life as a mutant by using her Jenova powers to secretly help Cloud's party from behind the scenes. The End.