AN: This story is fully focused on Shinra and the Turks in Midgar, no definite time frame on this other than it is before the mansion was destroyed.

Tseng looked up from his desk, already reading the situation in his subordinate's face. "You've located him?"

"Rude's on the scene." Elena said between breaths. She had run all the way here. "He said he wasn't waiting."

"Of course. Let's back him up."

Tseng rose, Elena hesitated. "Are you sure you should go, sir?" He reached behind his chair for a crutch and leaned on it heavily as he made his way out of the room. Elena dropped her papers so she could open the door for him- her other arm was strapped tightly to her body in a sling.

"I'm just as fine as you are, Elena, now let's go."

The two Turks moved as quickly as they were able down the hall.

The prisoner fell in a heap on the floor when his bonds were cut from the pipe above. Little mercy came from the guard who nudged him with a heavy black boot but the captive was barely responsive.

"C'mon kid, get up." He made to boot him a little harder but paused, seeing how little his chest moved, so instead he knelt next to him and reached past the blood stained collar of his shirt to feel his pulse. "Shit." he breathed out and reached to pulled the young man up. What little strength was left in him flinched against the touch and moaned out as sore body parts were moved, but abruptly the guard let go and they both fell to the floor again. The captive moaned again but his tired eyes opened enough to see a shocked face staring back at him. The guard's eyes were wide open but lifeless. It took a long moment for the prisoner to register a second person in the room.

"No." He flinched away when this new threat reached out. Gloved fingers paused at his protest before pulling away.

"It's me." said the guard, reaching up to pull off the hood and high collar that were standard issue. "Reno, it's me Rude."

The red head seemed to choke on his own breath at this, his green eyes taking in that bald head, the dull glint of metal studding one ear. Rude reached forward again but still Reno flinched back.

"Reno..." He watched his partner's laboured breathing, took in every detail of his tortured form- his once white shirt, just about rags on him now, showing many of the injuries on his too-thin body. His hands were still bound together, his feet also, and both wrists and ankles were chaffed to the point of bleeding. But it was his face that was most shocking. Not the cuts, the bruised or the blood, but his eyes, the fear, the confusion, the desperation. After holding his gaze, however, something deep within them flickered and suddenly Reno was lurching forward, his bound hands reaching out.

"Rude." His shaky voice brimmed with emotion. Trembling fingers rose to touch his face. For a moment Rude lost sight of the urgency, of the need to keep moving, and just let the fingers trace over him, over his nose, his cheek and then they were on his jacket, gripping tight. "Rude." his said again, voice faint and on the edge of a sob. And then Rude was moving. He pulled Reno against him and whispered in his ear as he worked at the bonds on his wrists.

"We have to get you out of here. But you're going to have to help me."

"How?"

"Get you in this guy's suit and we walk out."

Silence met his statement.

"Reno?"

"You're alone, aren't you?"

Rude sighed. "Elena knows where I went, but yes, for now we're alone. But we can do this. We just need to get you cleaned up a bit first." He reluctantly pulled Reno away and lay him on the floor. He undid the bindings on his feet. They were covered in blood, he wasn't sure if it was all from the chaffing or not.

"Here," Rude moved from his feet to his head when he spotted a bottle of water. "Drink some of this, but not all. I need something to clean you off with."

He helped Reno sit and take a drink.

"Now let's get this shirt off you." He couldn't take the time to clean these wounds, they would be well covered. But he washed Reno's feet before shoving them into the dead guar'd boots and scrubbed as much grime as he could from his fingers. Reno was doing his best to sit upright on his own while Rude wiped his face as clean as he could get it.

"You think you can walk?"

"I have to, right?" Reno winced as Rude helped his arm through the jacket sleeve. He pulled the collar as high as it would go and tucked every lose strand of red hair into the hood.

"Need to get you a hair cut when we get home." Rude whispered as he checked over his work, making sure not to miss a detail.

"Shower first." Reno grunted back.

Rude chuckled, "yeah, okay." He put his hands under Reno's armpits and pulled him to his feet. The moment he let go Reno began to fall again and when Rude caught him, he felt the tremors in his body.

"Oh shit Rude, it hurts." His voice was near breaking.

"What hurts?"

"Everything." He barely hissed.

"I'm sorry partner, but there is no other way out. Please try."

For a moment his only response were a few sharp intakes of breath but then Reno tried to straighten up. He was weak, but it wasn't just that, things weren't working quite right. Who knew what was broken or sprained. Reno made a frustrated groan and grabbed onto Rude while he did his best to force his legs to take his weight. It took nearly a full minute before he pulled back and stood on his own, breathing as hard as if he'd just ran up ten flights of stairs.

"Okay."

"Reno-"

"There is a stairwell just at the other end of this hall." Reno breathed staring up at him. "I can make it there, if you can carry me down."

"Of course, as long as no one is around."

"Shoot them Rude. Promise me you'll just shoot them and run. Do not let us get caught in this Hell hole."

"Where do we go from the bottom of the stairs?"

"Promise me, Rude."

"I promise. Now where do we go?"

"I'm not sure, they've kept me up here most of the time, but I think you turn left and then right and you're at the main doors."

"I came in through the back. The front is too risky, I'm going to retrace my steps."

"I can't walk that far, Rude. Too many halls, and too many people. Take the stairwell please. If you get me that far, I will walk out the front doors, I swear."

"The front is the most heavily guarded. If you stumble-"

"I won't, I can make it that far. Please Rude, get me out of here."

"Okay." Rude supported him over to the door, but once they turned that handle and stepped into the well lit, pristine hallway, then he had to let go and hope Reno could make it to the end on his own. They walked side by side, passing men and women, some in business clothes, others in lab coats, all with ID tags clipped prominently on their lapels. Rude could hear Reno's laboured breathing, but it was really the only give away. He was fighting with everything he had to get to the end of that hallway.

"This one." Reno breathed out and reached for the door handle, practically falling against it. Rude quickly pushed it open and Reno stumbled inside. He leaned against the rail while Rude checked that the coast was clear.

"Okay, here we go." He knelt down so that Reno could slide onto his back. His grip was pretty slack around Rude's neck, the other knew they had to hurry. He ran down those stairs as fast as he dared- not wanting to make noise or jostle Reno too much. He felt Reno's head heavy against his shoulder and just prayed he hadn't lost consciousness. When he reached the bottom however, he felt his fears were true. He eased Reno down and the other slumped against the wall. He sat there, eyes closed and softly breathing.

"Please Reno, wake up."

He wasn't quite under, those green eyes parted again, but they were nearly unseeing.

"RENO!" Rude desperately shook him until his eyes snapped open more sharply. Then Reno was retracting from his partner in pain, arms curling in close about his body protectively. He trembled, as if waiting for worse pain to come. It took Rude a long moment to realize what had happened and he pulled his hood down to show his face again.

"Reno, remember you're with me. We're getting out of here."

Reno stared at him for a second before relaxing slightly. "Of course, sorry." But a stray tear slid down his pale cheek and disappeared beneath the collar.

"It's not so far now. We're almost free." Rude encouraged.

Reno nodded but he was shaking much worse now. Another tear streamed down. Rude moved closer to him and gripped his face.

"You can do this, Reno. You just need to hold on a little longer. And then I'm taking you home."

"Why aren't the other Turks here?"

"There was no time to warn them except for a phone call. I had to act while I could."

"Then how did you find me?"

"In one of the videos you see a uniformed guard for just a second. But I recognized the uniform when I saw one of the guards on a smoke break outside this building. I just acted."

"You saw the videos?"

"Reno, it's okay."

"Who else saw them?"

"Reno, don't worry about that right now, we have to get out."

"Did you see them all, Rude?"

"Reno, please-"

"Answer me."

"Yes, I saw all four of them."

"Four?" Reno considered this for a moment. "Okay."

"Why, Reno, why, should there be more? How many did they make? How often did they torture you?"

Now it was Rude who wanted answers but Reno just shook his head. "Let's go. Help me up."

"Okay, we're leaving." Rude opened the door. No one was there so he was able to help Reno for a few paces but as soon as they made the second turn the halls were packed with people. The main lobby was full of employees and security, waiting at elevators, signing in at the main desk, walking through the upright scanners, getting coffee, chatting idly.

"Just don't stop moving." Rude lead them into the crowd. He marched straight for the light- for the clear glass doors and freedom.

They made it about ten paces.

Reno had done his best, truly, but someone in a hurry to get where they were going bumped into him. She hollered as hot coffee spilled down her front and he yelled in pain as he collapsed to the floor.

"What's going on?" Another guard yelled. Rude reached for Reno and hauled him up.

"Nothing, it's fine."

"What's wrong with him?" He asked suspiciously.

"Nothing."

"Does he not speak? Soldier, what's wrong with you?"

The guard reached for Reno's hood. The moment it fell down, revealing that red hair and battered face, Rude knew they were dead.

"Get them!"

The guard dropped dead at their feet, Rude kept to his promise. He supported Reno on one side and let the bullets rip on the other.

It was all a blur of shattered glass and deafening shots to Reno until he was skidding across white tiled floor, another body beside him.

"Rude." He saw the creases in his partner's face, and then the streak of red across the tile. "No." he sat up, realizing Rude had hurled them behind the reception desk for cover, but he was bleeding badly and the men were coming.

"Where are you hit?" Reno asked desperately trying to spot the wound and keep track of the guard's movements. Rude had taken three down. Reno took his gun and checked the clip.

"More, in my jacket..." Rude mumbled, trying to reach for the extra clips.

"Good. Now where are you hit?" Reno grabbed the clips and reloaded. Though his whole body shook from pain and fatigue; though a moment ago he'd felt overwhelming panic; now the weight of steel in his palm, that familiar rough handle, the smooth curve of the trigger- washed it all away. He stared down the sights and fired. A guard hollered and dropped. This was enough to send the others scattering for cover, buy them at least another few seconds. Reno ducked as more fire came their way, but he could see it all so clearly: the military routines of their motions- their cover, their attack, their formation.

"Rude, you still with me?" He asked, not able to take his eyes off the lobby. "Rude?"

"Stay focused. Reno." It was barely a whisper.

"Dammit. How bad is it?"

"Just stay focused."

He took a breath. And then he got his shot. One guard leaned just a little too far past the pillar he was hiding behind. Reno got his foot, then, as he fell out and exposed himself, again in the chest. This caused the panic he desired, the men moved to take him down, reckless, enraged, two more shots, two more men gone. Reno ducked back.

"Only two left, but there will be more on the way. This place is huge, Rude, you have no idea, I had no idea. You'd never know it from the outside eh? That a place like this could exist in Midgar. You know, I think it goes all the way to the top, to the plate. They must have an entrance up there too."

"Who are these people?" Rude groaned out.

"What, they never said in their ransom videos?"

"No. Just demands."

"What were their demands? Clearly worth more than my life."

"Reno..."

"Just kidding partner, now here we go." He looked over the desk again. They had been waiting and the moment his head appeared they fired. He ducked down again but a bullet hit a coffee mug and the shards exploded. He collapsed back grasping his face.

"Reno!"

"Shit. They got my eye." he kept a hand tight against his right eye, and picked up the gun with his left. The men knew they had hit him, and he just fired in time as one rounded the edge of the desk. Rude was trying to move, but he couldn't. Reno could see the dark stains on the guard's uniform on his back. There seemed to be two major sources of blood.

"Damn Rude, they got us in a bad spot."

"Grab his gun." Reno looked to the body of the soldier he'd just killed and pulled the weapon away. He slid it over to Rude.

"I promised you I'd keep shooting. I promised you I'd get us out."

"It's okay partner. You can make up for it." Reno turned from where he'd been watching and relaxed his gun. Rude heard the ding of the elevator and then a stampede of boots. Reinforcements had arrived. Reno set his gun on the floor. "Shoot us both, now, Rude. Don't let them take us."

"Reno."

"I'm serious, Rude. Kill me, or I'm going to do it myself."

"You idiot." With a mighty grunt Rude pulled himself off the floor. He fell back against the counter with a cry. "You fucking idiot, get over here."

He grabbed Reno's arm and pulled him next to him. "Get ready."

"For what?"

"For me to save your ass."

Rude pulled the hammer back and pushed himself up just above the edge of the counter.

He fired three time. And in in those three second, chaos erupted.

Somehow the whole lobby seemed to be on fires, rumbling with explosions. Any glass left was shattering, and Rude was running. Reno wasn't quite sure how his partner was still moving, and dragging him along at that, but he was, because he'd promised. Reno just got glimpses of people. Most of the civilian-type were gone, already evacuated when the shootout began. But guards were rolling on the floor, tyring to put out the fires on their backs. Or they were searching around as if blinded or just lay stunned. And in the chaos, two Turks fled for their lives.

They hit open air. The humid scent of trapped fumes and refuse hit them, they were in one of the most impoverished parts of the slums. Reno slipped in mud, and began to fall. Rude tried to keep him up but he was in even worse shape now and they both went down. But they weren't our of danger, they needed to keep moving.

"Shit Rude..." Reno breathed, unable to rise again. He knew they would be coming. "How did you do that back there?"

Rude groaned, realizing he wasn't getting up again either. "Fire extinguisher. Gas line in the coffee lounge and the guard about to throw a flash grenade at us. You see people's weaknesses and use them to your advantage-"

"And you always see your surroundings and use them to your advantage. Made us the perfect team."

"It did."

"Thanks for coming to get me, partner." Reno was sitting facing the entrance. The guards were coming out now, saw them in the mud. He still had one hand clamped over his eye, he placed his other on Rude's shoulder. "You ready?"

"Yeah."

Reno reached for the gun, hoping they would all open fire at once, that maybe he and Rude wouldn't even feel it. But nothing happened. He remained their stunned for a second, gun raised at the enemy, completely surrounded. Now he didn't know what to do. He hadn't expected to get the opportunity to fire.

"Nice effort." Came a voice that set every muscle in Reno's body rigid. The soldiers parted to let a man into their midst. As soon as he was clear, Reno fired. Nothing happened.

"Should have been counting your shots, Reno, we were." Reno threw the gun down, his whole body shaking now. Rude watched his partner's eyes change from fearless to terrified.

Every step the man took toward them seemed to send an electric shock through Reno's body. Rude took in those near-black eyes and recognized the man at once from the tapes. Charles Cole. When he was directly before them, he pulled back the sleeve of his charcoal grey suit and looked at the face of the heavy gold watch around his wrist. "You're late for our session, Reno. You'll have to make up for that."

He looked to Rude now. "Hmm, and you've brought a friend. I wonder if Shinra cares about him more than they do you. How long have they abandoned you, now? Four weeks, four very longs weeks you've been in our company? And now I have two. There is so much more you can do with two, you know, so many more games to play."

Something snapped in Reno. He grabbed the gun again and lunged, trying to batter the man's face in. But he was wild and weak- acting without clear thought, and not enough power to achieve any damage. Cole knocked him back to the mud and stomped down on his chest, pinning Reno and making it hard for him to breath.

"Hmm, still haven't quite gotten rid of that defiance in you, have we, Reno? Maybe I don't want a new Turk after all. Maybe I want to teach you a lesson right now." He pulled a gun from his jacket and aimed at Rude. Reno watched the cruel glint in his eye and he fired.

Reno couldn't get enough air to scream, couldn't even breath as he watch Rude's body jolt at the impact of the bullet, watched his eyes flare wide with pain and then begin to shut. He felt as if his own body had been hit, he felt cold all over.

"There it is. There is the defeat I've been waiting for."

Tears flowed out unashamed. Reno continued to stare at Rude's body.

The boot lifted, Reno took in more air. "Come on Reno. Back inside."

A couple of the guards grabbed his arms and hauled him up between them. They took his weight completely, dragging him forward. Reno stared back at Rude. His whole chest clenched in a terrible pain. And then his eyes landed on Cole's back.

From deep in his core, a cry worked its way out of his body. It was ancient—a sound buried deep, born from generations of human suffering, a noise universal in the human species. It was a sound from the soul and it ripped out of tortured lungs just as Reno ripped out of his captors' grasps.

Momentum carried him and Cole over. They landed in a heap in the mud. Reno straddled Cole, his hands locking around his throat.

"YOU BASTARD! I'll kill you! I'll KILL you! He slammed his head deeper into the mud. He screamed every curse he ever knew. Until the man beneath him used his superior weight and strength to reverse their positions. Reno was flipped off and now it was him in the mud. Cole's eyes were wide with a menace Reno had not yet seen. It was the first time the man had ever even had a hair out of place that Reno had seen. Now, drenched in the filth of the slums, he sat astride Reno's frail frame and clenched down on his throat. Reno thrashed beneath, no less wild himself.

"You're a beast, Reno. One I tried to tame but can't. I may never get what I want from Shinra but I will get what I want from you. No one defies me. NO ONE! I will break you into dust. But I will never kill you! Not until you are broken! Do you hear me! How many Turks will I have to kill before you submit?"

Reno had stopped struggling. The pressure on this throat had become too much and he was starting to fade.

"I hate you, Reno. I hate you more than any other being I have ever met."

Reno stared up at those eyes. Those eyes who had watched him every moment of torture. Those eyes who had stared at him as he killed his best friend.

And now those looked down upon him and reflected back the one primitive emotion that ever escaped him. That anger so deep it verged on insanity. But his gaze was matched evenly by the man beneath him.

For a moment the two men were locked in their stare-down, locked in the heat of hatred. The guards around them stood unsure of what to do, disturbed by their boss's raw display of emotion. Then Cole pulled away from him. His hands relaxed from Reno's throat, he smoothed down his collar and rose.

"Take him upstairs. Get him out of that uniform and ready for the next session. He killed your brothers today, I think we ought to think of something special."

Cole started back for the building. The others looked down at Reno but Cole's words did not seem to have effected them as much as he'd wished. Yes, Reno had killed some of their men, but he had shown a display of human strength none of them had before witnessed. On the level of warriors, they had to respect him.

But orders were orders and after the pause a pair stepped forward to pick him up.

"Come on kid, back we-" the guard sputtered and collapsed. The other did too. And then men started dropping everywhere.

"SNIPERS!" People were scattering. Reno heard Cole shouting. Then tires screeching, screaming. He pushed himself up out of the mud and sat staring at the chaos. A red dot washed over him and settled on his chest for a moment, then pulled away and nailed another guard.

"Shinra." Reno breathed, but the word choked when he saw his partner's body. If only they'd been a few minutes sooner. His shoulders were shaking. He should be trying to run but he had nothing left.

"Reno." He didn't move at the first call, but the second was more shrill and more desperate. "RENO!" Elena slid in the mud next to him until her arm was around him.

"Reno." She breathed his name in his ear, so edged with relief. But he was still looking at Rude. She'd run right past him, he was dressed as one of the soldiers after all, just another body in the mud.

"Reno." She pulled back and looked at him, saw the tears streaking down his face. She turned and followed his gaze. "Reno..."

"He killed Rude."

Well here is my newest Reno fic, as I said in my last, I clearly seem to be hinged on delving into the pyschology of Reno, however in this one, I really tried to focus on his resiliance and intelligence and that of the Turks. Hope you like, it is pretty dark I will warn you.

Thanks for reading. I would love to read your reviews :)

Riza