Elena lifted her head, finally coming out of her groggy, drug-induced slumber. She went to brush some loose strands of hair out of her face, but couldn't raise her hands. Looking down, she found her arms handcuffed behind her, and her ankles tied to the legs of the chair.

 'What happened? Where's Rude? Please let him be alright...' she wearily thought.

The door to the small room opened, and Roth entered, holding a piece of paper in his hands.

"You must have thought we were a bunch of idiots." He stopped right in front of Elena and unfolded the note.

"Did you miss 'Undercover 101' when you went through your Turk training?"

"Turk training?"

"Please. I'm not stupid. I know who you are, and I know who your 'friend' is, so don't think for a minute you can bluff your way out of this one."

"...Where is he?"

"I really don't think you're in any position to be asking me questions. But he is alive - for now. We'll interrogate him later. But right now, it's your turn." Roth grinned evilly at Elena.

"I'm sure you know all about 'interrogating'. There's an easy way, and a hard way. If you're smart, you'll choose the former. Now, is Shinra going to take down the reactor or not?"

Elena stared at her lap. 'Ugg, Tseng...what do I do?' she thought.

"Elena," called Roth in a sing-song voice "It's a 'yes' or 'no' question."

"...Just give Rene back. You have two Turks now. You can negotiate with the president using us instead of her."

Roth laughed. "I don't think so! She's worth more to us than ten Turks! You guys are expendable to Shinra."

Elena hung her head in silence.

"Tch, Elena...you really did have me fooled. I think I almost had feelings for you, so you can imagine how hard this will be for me." Roth pulled out a taser and flicked it on. Two bright bolts of blue electricity danced on the tips of the metal probes. Elena's eyes widened as she watched Roth hold the device dangerously close to her neck.

"Elena, I'm not going to ask again...I want a straight answer from you. What does Shinra plan to do with the reactors?"

"..."

"Sorry Elena. Wrong answer." He pressed the taser to her neck, and winced as Elena's painful cry filled the room.

Reno had been pacing the office for close to twenty minutes. Tseng set down his pen and looked up.

"What's wrong, Reno?"

Reno stopped and walked over to Tseng's desk, half sitting on the edge of it. "I dunno, I just have this...this..."

Tseng cocked his head as he searched for a word. "Feeling? Intuition? Hunch? Inkling? Suspicion? Notio-"

"Whoa, whoa...thank you, Mr. Thesaurus...yeah, I guess it's a hunch. I just...I mean...oh screw this! I need a drink."

Tseng grabbed Reno's arm, stopping him. "I told Rude to call me tonight. Unless we don't get a page, there's no cause to worry."

Reno scowled as he nodded. How Tseng was always so calm was beyond him. Especially considering the amount of caffeine he pumped into his system.

"...Please stop crying..." Rude begged. Rene had been wailing for some time. Rene looked up at him, sniffling. "I just want to go home..."

Rude felt a slight twinge of compassion for her...very slight. He hadn't forgotten the torture she had put him through back in the slums. Even though he really wasn't one to hold a grudge, he honestly thought Rene Shinra to be one of the most unpleasant people he knew.

Rene continued to stare at Rude. "You...you picked me up at the train station, didn't you?"

'Great, now all I'll hear about is how one of her uncle's Turks got caught...' thought Rude. "Yeah, it was me."

Rene looked down at her bare feet. "...You guys all hate me, huh?"

Her last question threw Rude for a loop. Unsure how to deal with an emotionally-wrought, unstable, pain-in-the-butt teenage girl, he went with what he thought was the best course of action: lying through his teeth.

"We don't hate you. We barely even know you."

Rene got up and plopped down next to Rude. She could read people in the business–like way just as well as her uncle or Rufus could. "It's okay. Everyone hates me. I deserve this..."

Rude tried to scoot away from her inconspicuously. "Don't worry...just try to save your strength."

Rude wondered what time it was. '...My pager, do I still have it?' he thought as he searched the numerous pockets on his cargo shorts. No luck. Anything he had in his pockets when he arrived had been confiscated.

Sighing, he leaned back against the wall and tried to think of a way to escape.

Reno had his feet propped up on the desk as he added on to his paperclip chain. Tseng sat at his desk, typing up another report for President Shinra. The two sat in silence until Tseng looked up at the clock.

'Hmm, Rude should be paging me any minute now,' Tseng thought. He looked at Reno, who was still carefully stringing paperclips to one another.

"You know, if you keep that up, the supplies department is going to start charging you for paperclips."

Reno looked up from the chain. "Huh? Nah, I get these from Heidegger's desk," he grinned.

"You don't have to wait here, Reno. You can go home if you want."

Reno shook his head. "As soon as you get that page, I'm outta here."

Rene had been squirming next to Rude for a while now.

"...Are you okay?" he asked.

Rene blushed as she stood up and walked to the bars. Cleaning her throat, she began to yell for a guard at the top of her lungs. Rude propped an elbow on his knee and rested his chin in his hand, waiting for her to stop.

A few minutes later, a man opened the outside door and walked up to the bars in front of Rene. "Hey, shut up in there, will 'ya?"

Rene glared at him. "Can you take him out of here?" She nodded over to Rude.

The guard looked at Rude and laughed. "I don't think so! Not unless I had five other guys with me..."

Suddenly he remembered who she was, and that Roth had specifically told everyone that he didn't want Rene Shinra hurt. "Wait, why do you want him out? "

Rene dropped her voice so low that Rude couldn't make it out. When she finished talking, the guard let out a hearty laugh.

"If you'll direct your attention over there," he pointed "you will find the lovely bathroom we have so graciously provided you with." With that, he turned on his heel and left the room.

Rene dropped her hands to her sides. She was miserable and desperate. "Turn around...please!"

Rude stood up and pressed his head in the corner of the wall, waiting for her to finish. 'Does this count as torture? Maybe I'll get a Workman's Comp out of this,' Rude thought.

Reno could see Tseng was getting a little more anxious. He had run out of paperclips long ago. "Tseng, man, I don't like this."

Tseng looked up from the pager sitting on his desk. "I don't like it either. I think we should start packing."

Reno jumped up and grabbed his electo-mag rod and flipped it up in the air, catching it behind his back. "This is all the Reno-man needs...let's go whoop some environmentalist butt, Tseng!"

"Reno, go pack some clothes. Preferably clean ones, this time."