'I will kill your partner now,' she informed Ziva coolly.

'Aali, do you remember what we shared?' Ziva asked calmly. Tony's eyes widened in fear, shock and anger as he witnessed his partner be so blasé about his imminent death.

Aali paused and her gun hovered in mid air, still pointing, cocked, at Tony. 'I do,' she replied cautiously. 'What of it?'

'Don't do this.' Ziva spoke with unhesitating authority and her decisive words made the possible killer stop and turn to her.

'Why?' she spat. 'What do I owe you? You killed Ari.'

'He was a traitor,' Ziva shot back. 'I had to.'

'You did not have to do anything. You were his sister. You should have accepted him.' The previously collected assassin had fired up and was directing her white hot passion at Ziva, Tony stood forgotten.

'I cannot accept a terrorist,' Ziva returned.

'You are no better than he was. He killed in cold blood and so did you.' Her argument was scathing and her words sliced through Ziva like a sharpened blade, sliding through her body and damaging her core but without instant, noticeable pain.

'He killed innocent people, just like you are about to.'

'If this man is your friend he is not innocent.'

Ziva finally turned to Tony and focused her spicy eyes on his trembling face. 'He is a good man.' All the fury had dissipated from her voice and all that was left was a tender affection.

'Collateral damage,' Aali dismissed.

Her attitude riled Ziva back up and she squared up for a fight. 'There is no such thing,' she hissed.

'Is that another American idea you have lapped up?' she asked contemptuously.

'I am American,' Ziva yelled, trying to convince herself as well as her former partner.

'You will never escape Mossad.' A sinister glint flickered through her eyes. Ziva shuddered, not able to contemplate what would come next. 'It is in your blood.' She paused and smirked devilishly. 'Literally.' At this, Ziva paled and her exotic became ashen grey.

'Don't,' she pleaded hoarsely.

'Don't what?' Aali asked innocently. 'Tell your partner about our extracurricular activities?' She lowered her gun and turned to face Tony. 'They went way beyond sexual.'

Tony sensed an imminent fight to the death so he smiled blandly and moved protectively towards Ziva. 'Uh huh,' he replied anxiously. 'It really is time for us to be leaving now,' he whispered.

Aali shook her head and raised her arm, now without a gun in its grasp. Her other hand slowly began to slide up, tracing a dry scar, not recently created. Ziva gasped and stumbled backwards, all her strength gone.

'Please,' she begged. Her ex-friend cackled harshly and held out her arm to Tony. It hovered in front of his eye line for a second before it darted forward to grab Ziva's wrist. Ziva cried out in pain as Aali twisted it until it was also in Tony's sight. Ziva struggled but the other girl was too powerful and Ziva soon submitted to Tony's scrutiny. Tony frowned. He had never seen Ziva's arm up so close before and he had never realised that she too had a long, ancient scar running the length of her arm from her wrist to her shoulder blade. It was artfully disguised with make up but it was still recognisable as identical to her old friend's.

'What is this, Ziva?' he questioned.

'Please,' Ziva repeated pathetically.

'What is this scar?' Tony was angry now and didn't plan on giving up until he got an answer. Ziva understood his determination but was unable to reply.

'Brings back memories.' Aali's voice slashed through the heavy silence. 'We used to hold out our arms while we slept, didn't we Ziva?' She paused to allow the words to sink in. 'Our bloody knives still stuck in the gash.'

Ziva let out a pitiful whimper which lengthened into a wail as she saw Tony's horrified face.

'Ziva?' he accused.

'Tony,' she beseeched. 'You don't know...' she trailed off.

'I don't know what?' he asked, his voice a mixture of sympathy and hardness.

'What it was like,' she explained mournfully. 'My father, her father, our job, what we did...' she looked up at him through moist eyelashes. 'It was too much.' Her voice broke and tears began to stream down her flushed cheeks.

Aali snorted derisively. 'Americans,' she spat scornfully.

'Get out,' Tony commanded. She raised her eyebrows challengingly. 'Get out!' he repeated before yelling the order once more. 'Get out!'

She chuckled. 'This isn't the last time you will hear from me,' she informed them. 'Ziva has other secrets to reveal.' The malice in her tone was undisguised and Tony felt a wave of revulsion for the sadistic creature. 'I'll leave you to write the report,' she added conversationally.

Once she had left the room, Ziva sank down in the corner, staring transfixed on the chains and instruments of torture. Tony joined her on the floor, his eyes desperately trying not to look at the scar. The simple cut was laden with so much hatred and self-loathing that the sight of it made him nauseous. 'Ziva was strong, she wouldn't do that to herself,' he told himself.

'Ziva?' he ventured carefully.

'What?' she snapped, suddenly reverting to her usual self.

'Ziva, look at me,' he ordered. She refused and kept her eyes firmly on the knife which was lying dangerously within arm's reach. He took both her shaking hands in his strong, large ones and looked her directly in the eye. Normally her eyes were confident and striking but now they were twitchy and watery. He felt tremendously uncomfortable staring at her like that but he held his gaze. 'Talk to me, Ziva. You can't keep it all in.' She lowered her head, preparing to break the bond between them. 'I thought we were done with the secrets.'

'Tony,' Ziva whispered, her weak voice barely audible. 'I didn't know what to say.' She rested her head on his shoulder. 'I am sorry,' she breathed.

'It's ok, Ziva. You're safe now,' Tony soothed his distressed partner. 'We all love you here.' She pulled away at the last part. 'I love you.' A smile faltered on her tear stained face. 'As a partner,' he added quickly.

'Of course,' she answered.

Tony's ringtone filled the room with its coarse, unsympathetic tune and the affectionate moment was broken. 'DiNozzo,' Tony snapped. 'Oh, hi Boss.' He grimaced and Ziva giggled. 'We, uh, hit a glitch but...' he waited for Gibbs to finish before continuing. 'We took care of it. We are coming back now.' He snapped the phone shut without waiting for his formidable boss's reply. He stood up and offered Ziva a hand. She grasped it and was pulled up and into his warm body. 'We are going home,' he repeated softly. He felt her head nod on his chest and he smiled sadly.

They left the room. Tony shivered as he passed back through the doorway, recalling his entrance which preceded the rest of the chilling events. He hoped that the room would be like Las Vegas and what had happened there would stay there forever. Somehow, he doubted this, but it was a reassuring thought. Ziva cast one last lingering look at each of the tools used to torture her old self-torturing companion before leaving. Tony know knew too much about her and she hated him for it but she also felt safer with him now as she had one less secret to hide from him. Of course, there were many more.

Neither of them ever returned to the room but the revelations from it were never forgotten, never spoken about and never let slip to anyone else.