Author's Note: Hello! Well, I've gotten one review so far! cheers Certainly nothing to sniff at. Hopefully there'll be more to come, after I post a few chapters. Well, as always, I own none of these characters except the original ones, i.e. the ones you don't recognize. FF7 and all characters, settings and plot devices are the property of Square Enix and I'm not making a red cent off of this. Otherwise I'd have my own apartment off campus with my fiancée already. Enjoy!

This Was NOT Part of the Job Description…

To say Aislinn Shaunessy was happy about the way things went at her interview was an understatement. Overjoyed was more like it, and she could barely contain her happiness until she made it back to her apartment in the not nearly so ostentatious portion of the upper plate. Her small, rent controlled apartment was the only place that she felt safe and secluded enough to loosen her tie, kick off her shoes, shrug off her suit coat, collapse onto her ragged second hand couch with the faded floral print and drum her heels on the cushions as she squealed in abject ecstasy. Personal assistant to the General! There was no telling what sort of doors this would open for her! If she did her job well enough and impressed him, his recommendation could skyrocket her to the upper echelon of ShinRa.

She felt vindicated in a way, as if all of her long years of paying dues and busting her ass to get where she was had finally paid off. Personal assistant to one of the most powerful men in the world, there was only one way to go and that was up. She refused to squander her intelligence, strength and cunning like her father did, working all those years in the ShinRa army, only to be sent out as cannon fodder with an infantry unit in Wutai and cut down by one of those damned slanty eyed bastards' blades. No, she would rise to power and prestige that he had never dreamed of in his monochromatic world. Pull his shift, come home, drink himself into oblivion, wake up and do it all over again, that was the pattern she watched from the time she was a little girl until she left for university. Her mother died before she was ten years old, victim of one of the many diseases that ran rampant in the slums. If her father had ever even noticed the woman who bore his child was gone, he never mentioned it.

All of that had only made her more determined that she would one day be more than her father ever dreamed of being, ever dreamed of her being. And the fastest way to do that was through ShinRa. So she had worked. She studied finance and business, she trained hard, honing what skills her father had managed to teach her while drifting in and out of a whiskey soaked haze and, while not being dishonest, being ruthlessly efficient. In fact, most of those in her military class were sure that she would have been recruited by the Turks. However, for whatever reasons she either wasn't recruited or turned them down, and as she wasn't telling, no one knew for sure. The truth of the matter was that the mention of her joining that particular organization was mentioned but her very polite, very cool and very non-negotiable refusal of that suggestion had closed that line of speculation and she had risen quickly in the ranks of the military. Lieutenant colonel, highly commended for acts of heroism during the Wutai affair and honorably discharged after her five year tour of duty, working with a couple of different companies and staffing agencies to build experience…all of it part of her plan. The Plan, as she referred to it. The Plan was her roadmap, her guideline, her Bible for attaining the heights of power and prestige and respect that she had dreamed of. And now, she had taken a huge leap in that direction.

It was not much of a leap to say Lynn was ambitious. Some less kind individuals had been slightly less kind and called her a ruthless, social climbing, power hungry bitch. Lynn preferred the term "upwardly mobile." More than anything else on earth, she wanted power. Sure it made her sound like a villain in a bad novel, but she didn't care particularly. People could say what they wanted about her but one day when she was pulling the strings and making the world dance to her tune, what would all those fine, nasty words be worth then? It would still be her who had control over their lives. That thought had sustained her through the years of university, through the rigors of the military, through pointless job after pointless job for fat, worthless, stupid men in the upper echelon of ShinRa management and military. But soon…so soon…it would be hers for the taking. She would use the General. She would use him to gain what she wanted, and she would have the pride of doing all this without having to resort to the typical means left to women of bartering her body for power. And one day, when she looked back on this from the pinnacle of her prestige and honor, she would laugh at the things she had been forced to endure to make it to this point. All the lowlife jobs to make ends meet, as a bouncer in a bar, a dockhand in Costa del Sol, a hired thug for the head of a criminal syndicate, all sorts of jobs she would never write on that resume she gave the General.

It had been a hard life, her father's paycheck barely enough to keep them fed and certainly not enough to give her the kind of life she longed for, a life where she didn't wonder where the next meal was coming from, or if her father would drink and whore all the money away before he remembered he had a scrawny daughter at home growing too fast to keep shoes and clothes to fit her. He forgot that while he sat in bars and drowned himself in whiskey, she was roaming the streets, using cunning and budding strength to earn enough money to feed herself another night. While he sat at home and stared blank eyed at a television screen, she was studying, trying to get high enough marks in school to assure herself entrance into the best universities, where she could travel with the best crowds and make the right sort of friends. And while he got himself killed in a pointless infantry charge on a bloodsoaked field in Wutai, she was commanding soldiers to fire heavy artillery to break the ranks of the shinobi who kept throwing wave after wave of themselves at the ShinRa soldiers. And while he was being buried in a forgotten churchyard in Kalm, she was being awarded a medal for honorable service and promoted to rank of lieutenant corporal. The taste of success was sweet on her tongue, and she wanted more. She was addicted to power as much as any crack addict or heroin fiend in the bowels of Sector Seven was to their drug of choice.

And now, as she woke up and got ready to head to her first day of work at ShinRa headquarters as personal assistant to the General himself, she found herself at the next level, ready to embark on the next step in her master plan. No, she wouldn't work for Sephiroth long. As powerful and prestigious as he was, she had higher ambitions. Working for Palmer, Heidegger, possibly Rufus, or even Shinra himself was her most direct way to the top. After all, wasn't the best way to take over the reins of power to make the proper friends in high places? And if she proved herself competent to the right people, proved that she was willing and able to do what she had to do to get the job done properly, people would be more likely to give her more responsibility and more power. And that was what she wanted. She wanted to wield power behind the scene, to be the hidden power. The problem with President Shinra and Rufus Shinra was simple; too many people knew their power, which limited their effectiveness considerably when it came to more stealthy gestures. Their lack of anonymity was their weakness, and one that she had every intention of exploiting.

She found herself on the fifty fifth floor of the Shinra Building at half past six, half an hour before she was supposed to be there, a state of affairs that she was rather accustomed to finding herself in. After all, the early bird did indeed catch the worm on more occasions than not, and never let it be said that Aislinn Mairead Shaunessy had ever let an opportunity pass her by. Today was the first day of her new life, and she had every intention of making a fabulous impression and secure a very good foothold for herself in the ShinRa hierarchy. As she made her way out of the elevator and towards the heavy steel door of the General's office, made to look like mahogany, she steeled herself for whatever eccentricities she might have to put up with. After all, she was in the homestretch of her plan. She could put up with anything at this point, if it got her closer to her ultimate goal.

However, she was not expecting there to be a light on under the door.

Curious, she opened the door slowly, peeking her head inside and looking around before she stepped inside, closing the door behind her. There were a lot of boxes in here now, boxes that had not been here when she had been here for her interview a scant five days ago. Now they were all over the office, labeled with letters and numbers. She picked her way past them, going to the door that led to the General's office and placing her hand on the doorknob, raising her fist and tapping lightly at the door. She heard the shuffle of papers and an irritated grunt commanding her to "Come in!" Bristling slightly at the curt command, she opened the door and stepped inside, immediately wishing that she had not.

It was obvious that he had not slept in several days from the disarray his silver hair was in and if his eyes were bloodshot from anything other than lack of sleep, she would go back to working as a dockhand in Costa del Sol right then. His uniform was rumpled, and his forehead was lined with creases of worry and stress. All in all, he looked like Hell frozen over and thawed. Had he been here all weekend working? It certainly would appear so. "Good morning sir. You asked me to come at 7. I am a bit early; is there anything I can get you?" Like a bed, a shower and a change of clothes, she thought to herself, inwardly cringing at the haggard look in those aqua green eyes as he raised his head from his papers.

"Coffee." The word was not spoken; it was growled before his gaze dropped back down to the papers he held in his hand. Immediately her temper flared as she turned on her heel, heading out to the main office and to the coffee maker, setting on a pot to brew. Well, someone was certainly grouchy today. But she had made her reputation by dealing with the hardest to handle bosses, and earning glowing references from the same men who made her wish to whatever deities were listening that she had access to nuclear weaponry most of the time. If she could handle idiots like that, she could handle a grumpy General.

Ohh how naïve she was…

This day had just gone from bad to worse. She had never gotten the tour of the office, and had to figure out most things for herself. The computer was an absolute mess, the files in utter disarray, not a single appointment written down and there were several that day, phone calls asking questions of the General that she didn't know the answer to and that the General in question was not answering. He was busy catching up on paperwork, mainly because ShinRa wanted an accurate account of all equipment the army currently had and wanted it three days ago, regardless of the fact that they had only dropped the request on him Friday. Naturally, he hadn't told her this; she'd managed to glean it from papers lying about. However, any sympathy she might have had for the man fled quickly in view of what he had put her through that day.

She arrived with his coffee; it was too weak. She went to remake it; it was too strong. After the sixth pot and three times of being reminded that she was certainly no Myrtle, she could make coffee right, and she would have known about this and a thousand other saintly attributes of the dearly departed woman, Lynn had had just about enough and was deeply wishing that she could beat the silver haired man to death with his dearly departed secretary's corpse if it would just shut him up for five damned minutes. The phone had rung off the hook, and everyone had to ask about her, if she was the new secretary, to wish her luck and offer their condolences. By the time she had fielded the tenth call, she knew why they were offering their condolences. The General was quite possibly the most difficult man to work with on the planet! Knowing that if she were to chuck that coffee pot at him, no matter how much she wanted to, would end up with her dead, impaled on that massive sword of his, which she was confident was just his way of compensating for a smaller sword elsewhere, certainly did nothing at all to improve her mood. To be honest, at that moment she had never been so close in her life to quitting a job and saying to hell with the entire situation.

Just when Lynn thought that the day couldn't get any worse, between her snappish boss and his coffee obsession, he walked in. He was something else entirely. SOLDIER First Class, as his badge had proclaimed, with a sword of absolutely ridiculous proportions strapped to his back, with hair that looked like his mother had partaken in an illicit affair with a black Chocobo and a thousand watt smile, he was the very sort of person that set Lynn's teeth on edge. That scene had been particularly interesting…

"Sir? I'm afraid the General is very busy and can't see you right now." She glanced up from her attempted reorganization of the files on the computer and the cleaning of the system; honest to God, was it part of the Old Woman's Code to download as many Mah Jong games as possible? The man, irritatingly enough, just smiled and leaned over on her desk, turning on what she was sure other people found to be "the charm". It made Lynn itch to punch him right in that smile, and knock a few of those blinding teeth right down his throat. Probably an uncharitable thought, considering she just met him but at the same time, her day til this point had been stressful enough as it was without this grinning ponce showing up and making her day any worse.

"Aww now doll…no need to be like that. Seph and I have a standing policy; I show up whenever I want and annoy the hell out of him, and he pretends to be angry with me. Don't you worry your cute little head about that. I'll just walk right in…" He started towards the door when Lynn stood up, folding her arms and stepping in front of him, barring his entrance into the room. The fact that she was unimpressed with his boyish charm was surprising enough; her being just half an inch shy of a full six feet and the air that she managed to project of "I've tossed tougher guys than you out of rougher places than this; please, give me a reason to pick you up by your pants and toss you out a window" made even his smile falter a bit. "Now now, no need to be like that, sweetheart. Just let me in to see Seph. I'm sure he'll explain everything; it must be your first day, you don't know any different yet..." The fact that her expression only got darker made him sigh. He wasn't feeling like fighting this battle today to see Sephiroth. "So…I'll just wait over here…" He went and took a seat, watching the woman as she made her way back to her desk. If he didn't know better, he'd wonder why Seph had tapped a Turk to be his secretary. Then he realized that the suit was black, not dark blue, and the tie was blood red, not the crimson that members of that particular organization preferred. Suddenly the spiky haired man missed Myrtle more than words could express.

Of course, once Sephiroth realized that she had made Zach sit and wait instead of sending him in, the man exploded. Unfortunately for him, she did not react quite the way most people did when he lost his temper. Mainly, she didn't collapse into a sobbing heap. What had happened was altogether quite different. The more he raged at her, the stiffer she became, her body becoming rigid and hard as steel, her eyes behind her glasses like chips of granite as he let loose his fury on her. "My subordinate officer is NOT to be sat outside like some disobedient puppy who had piddled on the carpet! If he's here, it's most likely something quite important!" he roared at her. Quietly he was impressed that she had not broken down into tears yet, and instead if the look of barely contained fury on her face was anything to go by, she was doing a remarkable job of not snapping back at him. However, his bad weekend had made him rather oblivious to the fact that he was being an utter ass, and even as Zach considered stepping in on the woman's behalf, what happened next was almost impossible to believe.

There was only so much that Lynn could take. There came a point where she could stand no more of this abuse. She was good at dealing with the most difficult people imaginable but never… NEVER had she had to deal with someone like this! She listened to his tirade as he lectured her about everything she had done wrong that day, from the way she made her coffee to the way she wrote down appointments, to the way she answered the phone. All of that she could take, all of that she could stand. But then…then he did something unforgivable.

"If you were a man I would punch you for abject stupidity! I can see now that I would have been better off with one of those simpering bimbos! At least they could have made a decent cup of coffee and I might have enjoyed having to see their face poking through the door every five minutes to ask me one idiotic question after another!" Even as he said it, he knew he had possibly overstepped the boundaries. And as he watched her face, he knew he had. Her eyes, once cold and hard as stone, flared to life with a burning hatred of him. Zach was on his feet, eyes wide in disbelief at what Sephiroth had just said and was coming to step between the two and apologize for what the stressed out man had said when it happened.

Never in her life had she been so angry. Never had she been so insulted. This man had brought her into work and dumped her into a situation that he had given her no preparation for and she had been nothing but patient for the last seven and a half hours. She had taken every insult, demand and irritation in stride and what had it given her? Her fists balled up and she drew back, feeling as though she were in slow motion. Surely he would stop her before she could actually connect but perhaps time was moving just as slowly for him as it was for her. There was the sudden burst of pain in her knuckles from the impact, the sickening crunch of bone under her fist and the wet feeling of blood begin to leak down across her fingers. Withdrawing her hand she looked up at him, his aqua eyes wide in disbelief as blood began to ooze from his broken nose, his mouth partially open in shock. Zach's expression was similar as she stepped back, schooling her features into a cold mask of disinterest. "I appreciate the job opportunity you offered me; however I must respectfully decline. I am sure you will have no problem finding someone with the qualifications you express such a desire for." And with that she turned, gathered her briefcase and walked out the door, shutting it quietly behind her.

The two men stood in silence after the woman had left, both staring in disbelief, one dripping blood from his nose. The dark haired man glanced over at his silver haired companion and shook his head. "Obviously you've got no people skills at all. I'm surprised they ever made you a General." Zach frowned in disgust and headed towards Sephiroth's office. A moment later he came back, a wastepaper basket in hand, filled with the resumes the General had tossed out after hiring Lynn. "So, should we start going through the other applicants now or do you want to wait til everyone in Midgar finds out what a bastard you are to work for?" He smiled cheerfully. Sephiroth sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and just as quickly taking his hand away. He had to go get patched up, check over this paperwork and take care of the requisition requests that resulted from that paperwork.

And he had a secretary to rehire.

He hoped.