"A-a-a-ACHOOOO!"

Zen ducked as a glob of projectile phlegm narrowly missed hitting her face. "Geez, Rude, you've gotta do something about that cold!" she said, spinning around in her blue office chair to face her co-worker.

The big man blew his nose into a large spotted handkerchief. "I'b fine, Zeb. Jubst a bittle stubbfy." He sneezed again.

Zen shot a worried look at Rude. He'd had this cold all week, and it wasn't getting any better. She was worried he might have the flu, but the big guy was so fixed on having no sick days to mar his spotless record that he refused to take a day off.

She stood up. "I'm going to get some coffee. You want anything?"

"Could you grab be an absprib?"

"A WHAT?"

An ASPRIBN."

She shook her head. "Oh. An aspirin. Yeah, sure."

She left the room, but didn't go to the employee lounge. Instead, she headed straight to Tseng's office. She was going to ask him to give Rude a few days off.

She was about to knock on the door, when she heard someone speaking inside. The voices were muffled, but she could understand what they were saying if she leaned in close enough.

"-as I have said before, she must be kept under strict surveillance. She doesn't know about her condition, and-"

"How could she not know about it? She turns into that…. that THING that you showed me a picture of?"

"After she transforms back, she has no memory of her change. She will think that she as just passed out."

Zen leaned closer. Oh no. She thought. Did something happen to Elena on her last mission?

"Sir, I don't understand. If she's this much of a security risk, then why did you hire her?"

Suddenly, Zen realized who the voices were. It was Tseng and Rufus.

"She's not a risk. If she can be controlled until Hojo finishes the experiment that he's working on right now, then maybe we can develop a cure."

"But Sir, this is so unprecedented! What if she transforms in the middle of a mission and kills innocent people? We can't risk that happening!"

She heard someone walking across the room, and she flattened herself against the wall, becoming invisible as the door opened and out walked President Shinra.

'Let me assure you, Tseng," he said. "As long as we keep Zen Fellows under surveillance and away from anything that could trigger her change, we will be fine."

He closed the door behind him and scanned the hallway with his eyes. It was a habit of his, to check that he wasn't being followed. Suddenly, he heard the sound of breathing coming from a shadowed wall. He could see the vague shape of a figure there.

Drawing his gun, he aimed at the figure and said, in a calm voice, "Come out from where you're hiding or I'll blow a hole in your chest."

Zen melted out from the shadows. Her face was stony, and her eyes had changed from their usual serene sea green to a fiery, blazing red. She did not have her weapon drawn, and her hands were at her sides, fists clenched.

Rufus lowered his gun. "Zen. I thought you were working."

Zen was standing behind him before he could blink.

"I heard everything." She said in a low, sultry voice.

The blonde was at a loss for words. "Oh. Are you…uh…upset?"

"That you didn't tell me?" she stroked his back, tracing the creases in the suit and slowly moving her hands under to touch his bare back. "A little."

She whispered in his ear, and he felt a chill roll down his spine. He knew he was in trouble. Zen didn't usually act like this. He thought about calling for help from Tseng, but decided to try to reason with her.

"Look, Zen, there's a good reason that I didn't tell you. If you had known about the-"

She leaned up against him, pressing her thin hands harder into his back. "Shhh." She crooned. "Be a good boy. If you calm down, I'll make it fast. You won't feel a thing. Except maybe excruciating pain."

She smiled coldly. "Tell me. What do you think about dying a slow and agonizing death in the arms of a beautiful woman?"

"Sorry. That's not my cup of tea." He said.

"Well, that's just too bad. We're all out of everything else." She sighed. "You'll just have to grin and bear it."

And then ten devilishly sharp, three-foot-long talons shot out of her fingertips.

Rufus gasped as they pierced his flesh, sliding into him like butter on a hot knife. He could only gape at the curved, razor-sharp blades that stuck out of his chest and stomach, covered with his own, scarlet blood.

"Wh-why?" he managed to choke out, as red spots danced in front of his eyes and blood trickled from the edge of his mouth. Just above the sound of his slowing heartbeat, he could hear her answer.

"Naughty boys have to be punished."

And then, as the president of Shinra Electric Power Company collapsed, sliding further back on the talons as his body crumpled to it's knees, still grossly suspended above the floor by the fingers holding him, as his head lolled, Zen Fellows, or the creature that had once been Zen Fellows, laughed.

Loudly.