"I have something for you." Tseng was facing the window in his office, hands clasped behind his back.

Reno perked up. "Outside Edge?" he asked hopefully.

"No," Tseng said immediately, and Reno wilted a little. "Remember Reiss Leventhal?"

"Oh yeah…whatever happened to him?" Reno asked, furrowing his brows.

"He's still here," Tseng said mildly. "Down in the basement holding cells."

Reno and Rude listened to his instructions and in a few minutes Reno was jabbing the B2 button on the elevator. The doors closed and he immediately latched onto Rude, nuzzling his neck roughly.

"Reno," Rude growled, his voice irritated. "We're at work. You didn't get enough last night?"

Reno pulled back and grinned at him. "You're seriously asking me that?"

"Good point," Rude grumbled. "Still. Get your paws off of me."

"Aww, but you like my paws."

Rude pushed him away gently, straightening his tie. "I'm still not getting it on in an elevator, especially right before we beat the hell out of this guy."

"You're no fuckin' fun, partner," Reno sighed, but he backed off, leaning against the wall of the elevator during the long ride down. "I hate it down here," he muttered as they descended. "Feels like the whole damn building's 'bout to fall on my head."

"So you'd rather be out among nature, with trees, open skies, and bugs?" Only the amused tilt of Rude's mouth betrayed his teasing, and Reno glared. Growing up in Midgar below the plate meant that he hadn't even seen a tree until he'd joined the Turks, and the countryside still made him weirdly nervous.

"Give me the city, all dirty and grimy and familiar," he sighed. "Just not the parts underground."

"You might like the outdoors if you gave it a chance," Rude pointed out, still amused at Reno's discomfort. He could still remember the first time a mosquito had bitten Reno, and the redhead had thrown a fit, insisting he was dying. The pollution had been so thick in Midgar that for miles around there was a dead zone that the bugs and animals knew to stay out of.

"Yuck," Reno said with a dismissive shudder. "I'll go where Tseng and Rufus send me, but that don't mean I enjoy it."

"Except the beach?"

"Except the beach." Reno raked his eyes over Rude's clothed body with a smirk.

The elevator doors dinged and their conversation petered out as they stepped into the gloomy basement. Shabby doors lined the hallway, giving the impression of some type of dormitory, but the Turks knew better. These were holding cells, which more often than not became tombs. They reached Leventhal's cell and Reno flashed his ID at the guard, who nodded and moved to unlock the door.

Reiss Leventhal had mostly recovered from his last bout of torture under the hands of Reno and Rude. His bruises had faded and Tseng had allowed a doctor to set his fingers, though there wasn't anything they could do about the eye Reno had ruined. The ragged eyelid covered the damaged orb, giving Leventhal a crazed, creepy look.

He was still a far cry from the slick, well-dressed man at the charity gala. Now, his skin was pale from lack of sunlight and a dark beard shadowed his face.

"Hey," Reno cried, greeting him like an old friend, and the man looked up. His wrists were cuffed, attached to chains that were bolted into the wall, so he had some freedom of movement, but not much.

"You," Leventhal groaned out, flinching away like he'd seen a ghost.

"Aww, that ain't no way to greet a friend," Reno said with a grin, crouching in front of him. He gripped the trembling chin in one hand, grimacing at the feel of greasy facial hair. "Look at me," he said, voice dangerously soft. Leventhal obeyed, his eye wide and panicked, and Reno patted his face with his free hand firmly. "Good boy," the redhead purred. "Now, let's get down to business, yeah?"

"What do you want?" Leventhal croaked. "I told you everything I know!"

Reno sat back on his heels. "You never told us how you're connected, bud. Your ex-SOLDIERs are dead, and we need to know if someone else was pulling the strings."

Leventhal's head jerked up. "That's impossible!"

"Oh, it's possible, all right," Reno shot back. "And it happened. Now sing, canary, or I'll make you sorry." His voice had deepened to a growl.

The man in front of him was quivering a little, and Rude was a little startled to see a tear work its way down his cheek from his good eye. "They're all dead?" he asked, sounding choked.

"Dead as doornails," Reno said without expression, studying his face. His right hand was twitching a little. "Now tell me."

Now Leventhal's shoulders were shaking harder with sobs, and he looked so pathetic that Rude almost felt sorry for him, but he still hung back, waiting for any signals from Reno.

Reno's eyes flashed with anger and his fist shot out, bloodying Leventhal's nose. "Quit blubbering and talk," he snarled, and the pain seemed to snap the other man out of his crying fit.

"H-how do I know you're not lying?" Leventhal asked, his voice still tight with sorrow.

Reno flashed him a sharp smile, all white teeth and fury. "You know, you're not really in a position to make demands, but I'm feeling…charitable today." He beckoned to Rude, who reached into his blazer and withdrew the photos that Tseng had given him, handing them over. Reno spread them on the ground one by one, watching closely for a reaction.

Some of the figures in the photographs were burned beyond facial recognition—the product of Reno's incendiary grenade—but the deformities were still clear, and the Turks glimpsed a flash of panic in Leventhal's remaining eye as he studied the pictures.

"Believe me now?" Reno asked sharply, and the man swallowed, nodding. More tears streaked his face.

"That was my son," Leventhal croaked out, motioning with his manacled hands at one of the burned ex-SOLDIERs.

Reno felt Rude shift a little behind him, and guessed the admission struck a bit close to home for his quiet partner, but when he looked back, Rude's face was expressionless, like always. The redhead turned back to Leventhal.

"You were tryin' to avenge your son's treatment by Shinra?" he confirmed. "And so you bankrolled a terrorist organization?" The tone of his voice was almost disbelieving.

"I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand," the chained man spit back.

Reno leaned in, a cruel smile tilting his lips. "Maybe not," he said, voice low and deadly. "After all, I was the one who did your boy in."

Leventhal looked up at him, warring expressions of sorrow and fury on his face.

Reno grinned even more wickedly. "Oh, yeah, it was me. I remember that one pretty clearly." He nodded at the photo. "I dug a buck knife into his throat and cut it wide open, and ya know why?" The redhead leaned closer, his smile turning into a snarl. "Because your boy fucked with my bosses, and he fucked with my partner, and if you fuck with my partner, you fuck with me. And no one fucks with me!" His voice rose steadily in volume and the last part was shouted into Leventhal's face as the man slowly seemed to collapse in on himself.

Reno stepped back with a little snort. "You're fucking pathetic. No wonder your son went down so easily, choking on coward's blood."

Leventhal's head snapped up and he launched himself at Reno with a yell, reaching for him with his chained hands. Taken by surprise, both Reno and Rude were slow to react, and the redhead stumbled back as Reiss Leventhal's cuffed hands closed tight around his throat. Reno's vision flashed white, then red, then black as the other man squeezed, and his whole body started trembling, struggling against a flood of memories and panic. He heard Leventhal shouting something, but the words wouldn't form in his mind; they were just endless sounds he couldn't make sense of. His writhing managed to throw off the hands on his throat, but Reno was still shaking and again, didn't have time to react as the crazed man's teeth tore into the side of his neck.

Rude had recognized the look on Leventhal's face as he leapt for Reno, because he'd had that same look so many years ago when he'd killed his first man. It was the look of someone who had nothing left to lose, and Rude was uncharacteristically frozen to the spot, only snapping out of it when Reno's cry of pain ripped through the air and saw blood spurting around Leventhal's lips as the man was sinking his teeth into his lover's throat.

Reno was struggling with Leventhal for only about three seconds when there was a loud bang and spray of blood that wasn't Reno's, and the chained man unlatched from his neck, falling to the ground with a gaping hole in the side of his head. Reno staggered back, shoving down his panic and trying to slow his breathing as his heart hammered in his chest. His vision was blurry and it took some effort to focus on Rude, who was standing with his gun in an outstretched hand, the barrel faintly smoking. The big man looked pale under his bronze skin, and Reno started forward, only to jump as more shots rang out. Leventhal's dead body jerked with the impact, and Rude's jaw was clenched as he emptied the clip into it, finally lowering his arm when the gun clicked dully at him.

Reno pressed a hand to his bleeding neck and stepped forward again hesitantly. "Rude?" he questioned, trying to look through the shades into his partner's eyes. Rude was still expressionless, but his whole body was quivering a little. "Give me the gun," Reno said softly, laying a hand on Rude's arm. The bigger Turk jumped a little as Reno's fingers slid down his arm, tugging the gun from his grip. "You okay, man?" Reno asked, still looking at him searchingly. It was the closest to losing control he'd ever seen his partner, and frankly, it scared him a little. Rude was always so solid, and now he looked almost worse than Reno felt, which was saying a lot, considering how Reno had just been strangled.

Rude let out a long breath. "I'm fine," he answered, forcing his voice not to shake. "Your neck." He reached towards Reno's throat, but the redhead predictably flinched and Rude let his hand fall. "Is it deep?"

Pulling his hand free, Reno moved closer and bared the injured spot. "Don't think so. How's it look?"

From what Rude could tell without touching the wound, Leventhal had bitten Reno on the thick muscle of his neck, avoiding the main arteries. It bled sluggishly, but not alarmingly. "Might have a funny-looking scar," Rude affirmed. "But it doesn't look too bad."

Reno looked down at the bloody carcass of Leventhal, riddled with bullet holes, and sighed. "We fucked up. I didn't think he had balls like that."

"You did not need to rile him up like that," Rude snapped through gritted teeth.

Reno raised an eyebrow. "You got somethin' to say, partner? You ain't never questioned my methods before."

Rude looked away and shook his head. "It just…" He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly a little. "It scared me a little," he finished, the tense line of his shoulders daring Reno to poke fun at him. "When he attacked you."

Reno was quiet for a minute, looking almost guilty. "Join the club," he said finally. "Now you know how I felt, when they took you."

"Is that what this was about?" Rude bit out. "Revenge? I didn't mean to get myself captured, you know. I thought we were over this." He shook his head a little and pulled the door open. "I'm gonna go make a report to Tseng. You should get cleaned up."

Reno opened his mouth to say something, but Rude was already gone, leaving him with the dead body and a panicked guard who wouldn't stop babbling.

"Just cool it, man," Reno snapped at the young guard. "You ain't gonna be punished, okay? It's on us." He left the body and rode the elevator back up to his office's floor, making a beeline to the bathroom so he could check out his neck in the mirror. It was throbbing painfully and he could still feel blood trickling down into his collar.

He reached the bathroom and leaned over one of the sinks, pressing a finger to the bite on his neck. It oozed a little and Reno grimaced, dampening some paper towels and holding them to the wound. The redhead turned to lean against the sink, his gut twisting a little as he remembered the look on Rude's face. Reno sighed and rubbed his forehead tiredly. He hadn't even realized until Rude brought it up that he still somewhat blamed his lover for getting captured, but now it seemed painfully clear in every word he had said to Leventhal. He knew Rude wasn't overly affected by what he had said to Leventhal about his son—Rude might have lost a child, but he was still a Turk, and he'd known most of Reno's jibes had been necessary. But he had been right about Reno not needing to push him as far as he had, and that knowledge stung Reno's pride viciously.

"Goddamn it all," Reno spat through gritted teeth, unsure if he was angrier at himself or his partner. He sponged blood from the gouge on his throat and then pulled out his flask, splashing some of the alcohol in it on the wound. It stung like Leviathan's bite, but Reno just gritted his teeth, more inclined to put up with pain than deal with whatever nastiness was possibly in Leventhal's mouth.

Although he wasn't in a hurry to face Rude again, Reno reluctantly made his way to Tseng's office and knocked.

"Come in," Tseng called, and Reno stepped inside, acknowledging Rude with a flick of his eyes and then nodding to Tseng. "Need a medic?" Tseng asked, nodding to his throat.

"Nah, it's not bad. Just bled a lot," Reno answered. "Rude fill ya in?"

Tseng nodded. "From what he tells me, I'm confident that we know everything about his involvement with SOLDIER-X." The Wutaiian man frowned a little, leaning back in his chair. "I understand the necessity of his death. Only one things worries me."

"What's that?" Reno asked curiously, happy he wasn't about to be punished even more.

"Rude says he was shouting about something as he attacked you. Something bound for revenge on the entire Planet, but more specifically, Shinra."

"Huh?" Reno remembered Leventhal shouting, but he couldn't recall any words. "About what?"

Tseng's dark eye were impassive. "Something called Deepground."