After glancing at his watch for the third time that morning, Rude saw a taxi stop directly across the street from him. Reno and Elena got out and proceeded to dodge traffic as they made their way toward the bald Turk.
         "Sorry we kept you waiting, man," Reno apologized.
         "It's all right. What was the hold-up?"
         "Nothing you need to worry about. Just had a little emergency. Right, Elena?"
         Silently, she nodded.
         Rude eyed them warily, then turned toward the entrance of the cafe he'd been waiting in front of—the Moccha Coffee Shop. It was a cozy little place where everyone minded their own business; needless to say, it had served as a longtime favorite of the Turks. He heard Elena and Reno fall in step behind him, and soon they were all inside, seated at a booth tucked away in a far corner. Rude quickly decided on what he was going to order, so he spent much of those initial minutes observing his companions: Reno, elbows on the table, staring down at his menu and scratching the back of his neck, and Elena, who shifted in her seat seemingly every other minute as she glanced at her own menu. Rude sensed that something had happened between them, but he wasn't sure how to approach this matter, or even if he should approach it. Eventually, it was Reno who broke the silence.
         "There's, uh, something I need to tell you guys."
         "What is it?" asked Rude.
         "I've been trying to contact Cait Sith ever since I got ahold of Tseng's laptop and access codes, and I can't get through. Not yesterday afternoon, not this morning…"
         "Have you tried contacting the controller directly?"
         "Believe me, if I knew who it was, I would've done that by now. Tseng left nothing in his files about this person's identity."
         Elena asked, "What kind of signal are you getting? I mean, when you try to contact Cait?"
         "I'm not getting any, that's the thing."
         At that moment, a waitress came by to take their orders. Rude noticed that Elena appeared to be mulling over something during this break in their conversation. After the waitress left, Elena told Reno, "Your problem sounds like either one of two things: the receiver's dead, or Cait Sith is."
         "No way," Reno replied. "What about a hacker? AVALANCHE did have a former Shinra tech on their team—it mightn't have been too hard for them to recruit another one."
         Elena shrugged. "It's possible. At any rate, I don't know what kind of wireless remote system they put inside of Cait, but if it's anything like the ones used for the military's mecha, then it would be next to impossible to change the serial code without essentially rebuilding the whole machine from scratch. In other words, it's hardwired."
         Rude found himself impressed by her technical prowess; although he knew she had worked in Weapons Dev., he had never seen this side of her before. "So you think it may be a busted receiver?"
         "It's possible. However, a broken receiver should be traceable—that is, if it has a standard backup system."
         "I think it does," Reno replied. "The thing I don't get is that if Cait is malfunctioning, or has been hacked, then why hasn't his controller notified the Turks?"
         Silence fell over the table. It was indeed a very good question, and one that could not easily be answered.
         "At any rate," Reno continued, his attention focused on Elena, "will you show me how to do that sort of tracing after the induction? I want to find Cait Sith, whether or not the controller wants me to."
         "Sure thing. It's not very hard."
         The waitress came back and set down three cups of coffee. Rude stared at his fellow Turks in silence. This whole business about Cait Sith was worrying, to be sure, but he still felt that there was something else that neither Reno nor Elena was telling him.

         The ceremony for Reno's promotion took place in the President's office later that morning. Aside from Rufus and the Turks, all of the executives were there, as well as the Mayor of Midgar a few other top officials. It was over relatively quickly, as it was obvious that certain people present didn't want to be there. Once it had ended, the executives came up to Reno and each shook his hand in turn; Rude noticed that Reeve and Scarlet's handshakes were especially brief, but in entirely, indescribably different ways. Rude watched the husband and wife leave with the other executives, before Rufus cleared his throat. They turned to face the President once more.
         "Congratulations, Reno," he said, offering his hand. "Your predecessor and I weren't on the best of terms, so I'm hoping that our working relationship will be a little bit better."
         Reno said nothing, but shook the President's hand all the same.
         "Have you heard any news from your spy recently?" Rufus asked.
         "To be honest sir, we've lost contact with Cait Sith. Since Tseng died, I've tried almost everything I could in order to get in touch with him, but so far, nothing's worked. We still have a couple of options for tracing him, so we're going to make use of those."
         Rufus furrowed his brows. "Not good. We'll meet later to discuss this, after you try out those options of yours. Until then you're dismissed."
         Reno nodded, then led Rude and Elena back downstairs.

         In the Turks' own office, Reno asked Elena to get some tracing equipment. Once she left, Reno closed the door and walked over to Rude.
         "All right, man. What's on your mind? You've been staring at me and Elena all morning."
         "Something happened between the two of you, didn't it."
         Reno paused, averting his eyes from the bald Turk. "Yeah. You could say that. I don't know how to tell you this…"
         "Please do."
         "Well, remember last night when you told me about Elena and Reeve leaving together? They remained together for the rest of the night, if you know what I mean," Reno's averted his eyes, shoving his hands in his front trouser pockets as he did so. "I'm sorry, Rude."
         "Reno…" he replied, at that moment realizing just how much he'd misjudged Reno and Elena's friendship. They were indeed close, but not as close as he'd suspected them to be. Rude could now see that Reno was indeed sincere about getting him and Elena together. And Elena…
         "Shocking, ain't it? Just when you think you know a guy…"
         "You talking about Reeve?"
         "Yeah." Reno sighed wearily, then sat down at Tseng's old desk and flipped open the laptop that lay in front of him. "It's not like these past few days haven't been hectic enough. Anyway, guess I should take care of this last little bit of business."
         "What's that?"
         "Tseng's will. I figure that I can distribute the stuff Tseng left for everyone after work today." Reno's eyes scanned the computer screen. "Huh… he really kept this thing up to date. Wanna know what he left for you?"
         Rude shrugged. "Sure."
         "Those two hand-forged katanas he had displayed in his living room. I remember you would admire them whenever we were over at his place."
         "Yeah," Rude replied, touched by the thoughtfulness of his former boss.
         Reno briefly smiled at him, the first smile Rude had seen on his face all day, before turning back to the laptop's screen. "Looks like he didn't leave anything for Rufus…"

*****

         Rufus and Reno had given Elena a new mission, which she accepted with great zeal: find Tseng's assassin and bring him in for questioning. When the tracking programs she ran that afternoon had failed, the Turks concluded that they had no way to contact, or even locate, Cait Sith. What this meant was the loss of an invaluable source of information, leaving her without a clue as to where to look for her current target. She intended to start her mission the very next day, going to Kalm first, not only to interrogate the locals, but to visit her family and friends. All of the events of the past few days were starting to have a cumulative effect on her, and as a result, she felt especially stressed out.
         When she came back to her building after work that day, Reeve didn't seem to be home. She didn't care, though; after all the recent events, she wasn't so sure that she wanted to see him, even for a second. Their sudden, yet casual, affair was weighing heavily on her mind, as was Reno's reaction to the whole thing. Her new boss had worn a serious expression throughout the entire day, a look Elena hadn't seen since that night in Cosmo Canyon.
         Not half an hour after she had entered her apartment and begun packing, a knock came. She opened the door to see Reno, his face still cold. Elena didn't have to say anything, as she knew why he was here. She stepped aside, and Reno strode into her living room and sat on the couch.
         "Can I get you anything?" she asked.
         "A beer, if you've got any," Reno replied as he drew a small, velvet-covered box from the folds of his jacket. Elena's eyes remained fixed on the box as he set it on her coffee table; she then turned around and went into the kitchen to get them some drinks.
         She came back into the living room and handed a glass of beer to Reno, while setting down a couple of coasters. She took a sip from her own glass and said, "I'm getting the impression that here's more to your visit than I think there is."
         "I'm distributing the items in Tseng's will. That," he said, nudging his chin at the velvet box, "is what he left for you."
         Elena's eyes widened slightly as she stared at the box. She hadn't known Tseng for very long, yet he'd obviously taken the time to think of her in his will, and because of this, she was speechless. She looked at Reno, not knowing what to say or do.
         "Go ahead. Pick it up and open it."
         She did as she was told. Inside the box were a pair of silver and jade cufflinks. They bore intricate sea-turtle patterns, and looked antique.
         "They originally belonged to his father, the real Tseng Kawaguchi. The Tseng you knew— Yoshiro— received them when he was first promoted to Turk. He must've seen real potential in you, to have left you such a meaningful piece from his life."
         Elena found herself moved by this gesture on the part of her recently departed boss. The words Tseng had spoken to her at the Temple of the Ancients flooded back into her memory, and she realized what she really meant to him. She shouldn't have had to prove anything to him; once he had accepted her into the Turks, her title was proof enough. She shook her lowered head, sniffling, "Tseng…"
         Reno sighed. "I know exactly how you feel, Elena. I loved the guy too. But… he's gone. We have to remain strong. For him." She looked up to Reno, brushing a few tears from her cheeks. He smiled thinly. "You should get all that stuff out of your system as soon as you can, especially if you're going after Cloud. Not the anger, but the sadness. The anger you'll want to hold onto for a little while longer, at least until you confront the enemy."
         Elena nodded and took a deep breath. She closed the velvet box and set it back on the table. "Now, you wanted to talk to me? About Reeve, I take it?"
         Reno lowered his eyes, then closed them and nodded. "Yeah. I want to talk about Reeve."
         "And about last night?"
         "Yeah. Basically, I'd like to know why… that happened. Seemed pretty fast."
         "It was. I'd guess you could call it a spur-of-the-moment type of thing."
         "He's spontaneous at times, sure, but he's never…" Reno trailed off. Elena found herself about to mention details of the previous night's conversation, the one she had while in bed with Reeve, but then she recalled her thoughts from that morning. What does this have to do with Reno? Why should it be any of his business whom she dated, or— heaven forbid— slept with?
         "Reno, sorry if this sounds a little weird, but why do you care about this so much?"
         "It's because, if anything, I'm… envious of you right now."
         Elena hadn't been expecting this sort of reply. "What do you mean?" she asked.
         "I might as well tell you. I'm in love with Reeve."
         She bit her bottom lip and nodded; she'd had no idea… "I— I'm sorry…"
         "It's not your fault. I have no right to control what the guy does," Reno replied, with another weary sigh. "It's not like he feels the same way I do. Still, for some reason I just can't let go."
         "No, really, I am sorry. I was only doing what Tseng wanted me to do."
         Reno gave her an odd look. "Tseng? What are you talking about?"
         "In the Temple, he asked me out on a date. When I came back into the room after he was attacked, he said that the date was a plot."
         "And did he tell you who your real date was supposed to be?"
         "Now that you mention it, he didn't name any names. But he said it was a mutual friend, and I—"
         "You thought it was Reeve."
         "Yeah, well, it was pretty obvious to me that—"
         "Elena you bonehead," Reno said, his voice quavering. "Tseng knew nothing about Reeve's feelings for you."
         She started to say something, then paused. What on earth was Reno talking about?
         The redhead continued, "Just because I knew about them doesn't mean—oh, fuck it. It was Rude. Tseng was talking about Rude."
         "What? But I had no idea—"
         "It's true. I was in on the whole scheme," Reno said, his voice raised. "Rude is going apeshit over you, but you never noticed. Not that I blame you, poor guy's too fucking shy when it comes to girls. And you couldn't even ask Tseng who exactly it was he was talking about? You just assumed—"
         Elena's cheeks grew hot. They were both standing now. "And what the hell would you have done in my place, huh? He was dying before my eyes! It's hard to think when you're in that kind of situation!"
         "I know it's an honest mistake and all, but I can't believe you'd let Reeve fuck you on the first date!"
         "Last I checked, sex was a mutual thing. It's not like he didn't give me a choice. I could've left."
         "But you didn't."
         "No, because I was enjoying it too damn much, if you really must know. I liked him, okay?"
         Reno growled, his eyes amber in the lamplight and his voice taking on an ethereal, almost inhuman, tone. "You fucking whore. I swear—"
         Before he could say another word, Elena darted around the edge of the table and grabbed Reno's head, pulling his mouth down to lock with hers. As she felt his tension give way to a nervous quavering, she broke off the kiss and stared into his eyes. Much to her relief, they were a bright blue again, and they were wide open, filled with something between shock and horror. After a moment, Reno averted his gaze.
         "You know, you've got some balls doing a thing like that."
         She laughed slightly. "What else could I have done? Shot you? I don't think that would've calmed you down any, or brought you to your senses."
         "Listen, I'm sorry about what I said. You're not a whore. I understand that… things happen."
         "No, I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have said certain things myself. And, as I said before, I liked him, as in, it's in the past now. Reeve and I came to a bit of an understanding last night."
         "Yeah?"
         "Yeah. For a long time he didn't want to cheat on his wife, even though they had separated. I was his release from that, in a way…"
         Slowly, Reno nodded, and sank back down to the couch, apparently lost in thought. Elena continued standing, and watched as Reno idly rubbed his chin, and then his lips, with his fingers.
         "Elena?" he asked quietly. "How do you feel about me?"
         "You're my friend, and I care about you. I never intended to hurt you. And I especially don't want to see you hurt yourself."
         "Right. Thanks, Elena."
         She continued to watch Reno; now he was staring at his hands with frightened eyes, massaging and rubbing them together. She recalled everything he had told her about his limit break, as well as the serious face he wore back in Cosmo Canyon and earlier tonight.
         "You know," she said quietly, "you never did tell me what you were doing with the Elders in Cosmo Canyon."
         "I was trying to get rid of my limit break, Bahamut-ZERO. There was one phase of the experiment that was incomplete when we did it, so… I guess it didn't work after all."
         "I'm sorry to hear that," Elena replied, plopping down next to Reno and placing her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry that we even have to go through all this crap in the first place."
         She felt Reno's hand pat her head, and found herself relieved by this gesture. "It's all experience. In the end, that's the only way to look at it. Regretting shit's just a waste of time. Say, do me a favor, will you?"
         "Sure. What do you want?"
         "When you go out on your next mission tomorrow, I don't want you just to find Tseng's killer— Cloud, Sephiroth, or whoever— and bring him in, I want you to avenge our friend's murder. Do it for me, for Rude, for yourself, and especially for Tseng. Nobody else at the Company has to know. We can cover it up."
         "You want me to take revenge for Tseng's death on behalf of the Turks."
         "Exactly."
         "Yes, sir," she replied, burying her face into Reno's shoulder. "Consider it done."

*****

         Reno left Elena's place some hours, beers, and tranquilizers later, feeling much calmer than he did when he first arrived there. He ambled back down the hall, stopping before the brand-new door of the adjacent apartment. Listening for a moment, he heard the faint sounds of someone shuffling around in there; from this, he deduced that Reeve was home, and knocked.
         The door swung open and Reeve appeared, a horrified look crossing his face the moment he laid eyes on Reno, causing the latter to cock an eyebrow and say, "What the hell's up with you?"
         "You don't look too good. What've you been doing?"
         "Ahh, nothing. Just goin' around, givin' out the stuff that Tseng left for everybody. You should feel honored— save for a certain brunette who's unreachable at this time, you're the last on my list."
         "I don't feel honored by your gesture, as I understand why I'd be last. You've been avoiding me ever since this morning."
         "Oh. Yeah," Reno said. "Well, don't worry about that. I've worked it out of my system."
         "Uh-huh," Reeve replied, but without the expected accompanying head nod. "I'm afraid you misinterpreted my question. What've you been doing? Tranquilizers?"
         Reno stared at Reeve, whose countenance had changed from one of horror to concern. "Yeah… tranquilizers. Four or five doses. Had a couple beers too."
         "Shit. Are you trying to kill yourself?"
         "That sounds pretty good right now, heh. Better than letting ol' ZERO have the last laugh."
         Reeve frowned and took a deep breath. "You better come inside and lay down for awhile." He placed a hand on Reno's shoulder and attempted to pull him through the door. It was then that Reno realized just how reluctant he was to step foot in this place.
         "Please, Reno. Stop and rest for awhile. I don't want you going back home like this."
         Reno shook his head. "It still hurts, Reeve."
         "I know. How do you think I feel, putting you through all of this? Come inside. We'll talk."
         Reeve wasn't giving him much of a choice, so he stepped into the apartment and headed straight for the couch, where he lay down on his side, facing the rest of the living room. Reeve came to stand in front of the couch. "I don't know if I have any hyper laying around. I could give you a remedy, though it won't help much."
         "That's okay. I'm fine."
         "You're absolutely sure."
         "Yeah."
         "So," Reeve said, "what did Tseng leave for me?"
         "Just this," Reno answered, pulling a thick letter-sized envelope from his jacket's inner pocket and tossing it on the coffee table. "I don't know what it is. Feels like there's a key in there as well— I wouldn't know what that's for, either."
         Reeve stared at the envelope. "Strange. I wonder why he'd leave me such a thing? By the way, what did Tseng leave for you?"
         "His apartment. He doesn't have any living relatives, and I was his second in command, so I guess he figured I was the best person to have it."
         "What are you going to do with it?"
         "I'm not sure yet. I mean, it's paid for, so I can move out of my current place if I want and live there. At least I wouldn't have to worry about paying rent ever again. Can't do it for awhile, though. It's too soon."
         "Right." Reeve walked over to the couch and sat on the edge, near Reno's feet. Much to Reno's surprise, Reeve turned back and pried the Turk's shoes off, setting them on the floor. "You must really be out of it, eh? Laying on my sofa with your shoes still on."
         "Oh, sorry about that."
         "Mmm," Reeve replied, elbows resting against his legs. Neither of them said a word for what seemed like a long time. Reno looked over at this man whom he'd long called "friend", his thoughts of the day's events and his feelings for him meshing all together in one cacophonous jumble. Finally, he broke the silence.
         "Elena thought that Tseng wanted her to go out with you. That's why she…" Reno trailed off, not knowing how to phrase the rest of the sentence. Reeve turned and gave him a funny look.
         "That can't be right. I don't see how Tseng would know that I had any sort of interest in her, unless you mentioned it to him."
         "I never did, but she'd misunderstood what Tseng had said all the same."
         "What do you mean?"
         "At the Temple of the Ancients, he asked her out— on behalf of Rude, though she didn't know this at the time. When Tseng was dying, he fessed up, but didn't name names. Somehow Elena assumed he was talking about you."
         "So, she did this for Tseng, but Tseng's intention was for her to go out with Rude," Reeve rubbed at his eyes with the palms of his hands. "Shit."
         "So now that you know the circumstances of this outcome, how does it make you feel?"
         "I would say 'used', but that wouldn't be entirely true, since I used her as well."
         "She did say something tonight about her being some sort of 'release' for you."
         Reeve gave Reno a small smile, a gesture the latter found a bit jarring, considering the circumstances. "Yes, she was. I remember something you said awhile back. You said to me, 'You and your damn morals'. I didn't realize at the time how prophetic your words were. My morals were damned from the start. Sometimes I wonder if I ever even had them to begin with… perhaps I'd actually been mistaking ego for morality."
         "There's aspects of you that aren't moralistic at all," Reno said. "You smoke, you drink, you do drugs, you gamble, you've long been plotting a hostile takeover of Shinra— I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff."
         "There's just one thing, one ideal, that I've always aspired to. My 'morals', if you will."
         "What's that?"
         "Never to directly hurt anyone who's never done anything similar to me. Never to be the cause of someone's pain, or personal tragedy, at least not without a damned good excuse. I don't ever want to be held responsible for such actions— not even indirectly— but sometimes, things slip through my fingers, and out of my control. Such as the Sector Seven plate, or the Gongaga reactor, or… certain things I myself have done on pure spontaneity."
         "Like banging Elena in your kitchen."
         "Well, yes and no. I was actually thinking of the time I nearly killed you in the Gold Saucer's Executive Suite."
         For a moment, Reno paused mid-breath, not knowing what to think. Meanwhile, Reeve's countenance had paled, and his gaze was fixed on Reno, though it seemed to want not to be there.
         Reeve continued, "You were trying to violate my false morality of wanting to prove myself a better person than Scarlet, and in turn, I violated my real morality by hurting you, severely. Remember what I told you back then? I said that your wounds weren't serious. I lied. Ever since then I've been thinking about things, about us. Now, with everything that's been going on, I've come to a decision. I know what has to be done."
         For some reason, Reno didn't like where this was going. "What's that?"
         "You must forget about me, Reno. I know how you feel about me, and that's why I don't want to see you get hurt anymore, particularly because of something I did. I don't want that sort of risk hanging over my head."
         Reno sat up. "You know, you could just come out and say that you can't return my love."
         "My own feelings have nothing to do with this. I'm just thinking about what's best for both of us. You nearly summoned ZERO this morning, right? I understand that the last time you did so rendered you mentally unstable for a while."
         "Yes it did."
         "You never want to feel that way again, do you."
         "No, I don't."
         "I don't want you to feel that way either, and I don't ever again want to be the cause of any kind of harm to you, physical or emotional."
         "But how can you be so sure that you'll hurt me in the future?"
         "I'm not, not for certain. But I…"
         Reno eyed Reeve warily; Reeve in turn averted from his gaze and stared down at his feet. Reno got up from the couch, slipping his feet back into his shoes.
         "You care about me, but you don't want to become involved with me," Reno muttered. "It's fine. I can live with that."
         "It's just that I'm not sure a relationship with you is…" Reeve trailed off.
         "You know, I've waited well over a year for us to have a conversation like this. In a way, I feel a bit relieved. No questions hanging over my head anymore. I don't like the outcome, but like you said, maybe things will be better for us this way."
         "Maybe."
         Reno walked to the door, with Reeve following behind. He opened the door and turned back to look at the executive, but found that once he did so, he couldn't look away again. Who was he, really? Who was the person lurking behind those tired, jaded eyes that were currently fixed so firmly upon his own?
         "Are you going be all right getting home?"
         "I think so. I've sobered up a bit."
         "Mmm," Reeve replied. "Suppose this is it, then."
         "Yeah…"
         "Take care of yourself."
         "I'll try."
         "As will I. Goodbye, Reno."
         "Goodbye, Reeve."
         Reluctantly, Reno broke from his gaze and stepped out into the dimly-lit hallway. He was about to turn around again when he heard Reeve's door close behind him. Resisting the urge to linger, Reno continued on his way, leaving the building for his own place, just a few blocks away.