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Deep Water	By : crystalwind Category: Final Fantasy VII > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 747 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Deep Water
- 1
Deep Water

The water stretched out before him, cold and uninviting. At 164 feet long and 82 feet deep, the over-660,000 gallon pool was the largest body of water than the boy had ever seen in his life. Nobody had bothered to warn him that a swim test was required in order to become a Turk. Nobody had bothered to consider that a child from the Slums might not even know how to swim.

“Sir, we have a situation down here at the pool.” The voice on the phone was frustrated and close to being angry, and Tseng sighed. That tone of voice usually was the result of only one Trainee.
“What it is?”
“It’s Reno, Sir. He refuses to get into the water. He didn’t even wear swim trunks! All of the Trainees were told about the test today, it’s not like he didn’t know it was coming…” Tseng frowned. While Reno frequently annoyed the TIs on purpose, he had never willingly disobeyed one of them before.
“I’ll be right down.”

By the time Tseng arrived at the pool, the other Trainees had been sent inside to wait, their swim test completed. Reno sat near the edge of the pool, his booted feet tucked up close to his body as though he was afraid of getting too close to the water. Looking at the way he was sitting, curled in on himself and studiously avoiding looking at the TIs, it occurred to Tseng that maybe he really was.
A light tremble ran through Reno’s body when Tseng crouched down next to him, before he brought himself back under control. He didn’t look up at Tseng, gaze focused steadily on the water, and Tseng didn’t speak for a few moments, watching the young Trainee instead. The TIs paled when he finally did speak, wondering why they hadn’t thought of it.
“Reno… can you swim?”

“Why doesn’t he just get in the pool? All he has to do is tread water for a few minutes without touching the sides or the bottom of the pool; it’s not like it’s that hard.”
The Trainees sat in a classroom with no windows, so that they couldn’t look out and see what was happening at the pool. The walls were thin enough that they could hear most of what was going on outside, but it didn’t really sound as though anything was happening at all.
Evyn, a sandy-haired Trainee who had been born in Junon and had been swimming his entire life, shook his head slowly. “Maybe… He’s from the Slums, isn’t he? I’ve only seen a few pools here on top of the Plate, so I doubt they have any down below. What if he can’t swim?”
The Trainees stared at each other.

“Nobody told me I had to! Nobody even explained what a pool was, I didn’t know!”
Tseng sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Of course Reno didn’t know how to swim… Even if there were pools in the Slums (which there certainly weren’t), Reno would have avoided them like the plague after what his mother had done to him. Why hadn’t he foreseen this, and gotten Reno swim lessons?
“Reno… I’m sorry. This is my fault, and I’m sorry. I should have made sure you knew… but I can’t do anything now. I can’t teach you quickly enough, I can’t help you, I can’t delay this or get it waived for you. You have to do it on the same day as the rest of the class. If we were still before the Deadline…” But they weren’t. The Deadline had passed two weeks ago, and now there could be no retests, no postponements. The Director couldn’t make an exception for one student, even if it wasn’t Reno’s fault, even if Reno was perhaps the best of all the Trainees Tseng had ever seen pass through the TTC. He had to get in the water, or he would be shot. If he drowned before the 5 minute time period was up, so be it. He was dead anyway, so a protocol had been made decades ago that no Trainee would be pulled out before the time limit.
Reno didn’t question Tseng, didn’t ask why or plead with him to change his mind, but he cried, silently, for the first time in a very long time. It wasn’t fair, and he didn’t want to drown and be cremated to save space in some government cemetery full of unmarked graves, and there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it. When Tseng told him to strip down to his boxers so that his clothes wouldn’t weigh him down, he did so. He could hear the quiet anguish in Tseng’s voice, even if the stoic leader would never have admitted to any compassion for his student.
Tseng stood when Reno reseated himself on the pool’s edge, his now-bare feet dangling in the water. Reno tensed and looked back at him one last time when he heard the sound of a safety being clicked off.
“Get in.”

Inside the now-silent classroom, every Trainee flinched when they heard the splash.

The water was cold, horrible reminiscent of that day in the bathtub, and Reno struggled instantly, kicking and flailing until his head broke the surface. He couldn’t keep himself up – he didn’t know anything of the technique for how to do so, was too panicked to think about it rationally and straighten his body and cup his hands – but he managed every so often to break the surface again, sucking in breaths half-full of chlorinated water and too blinded by the waves he was creating to see Tseng standing at the edge of the pool, watching him while one of the TIs kept time. His ears were full of water and he couldn’t hear the time being called in 30-second intervals, completely alone and cut off from the world on the surface.
After an immeasurable time of flailing and splashing, he managed one last, deep gulp of air before he sank down, continuing to kick and thrash his arms to avoid going to the bottom and being failed automatically. From here he could see Tseng’s blurry outline, although it took him a minute to realize that the figure with no jacket or shirt was Tseng, ready to dive in and pull him back to safety should he make it to the 5-minute mark. It dimly occurred to him that he was probably still crying, although the tears were lost immediately in the surrounding water. It was calm below the surface, and he almost exhaled, almost sucked in a lungful of water because it felt like he was floating away from the world anyway, and nothing particularly mattered any more. The sensation of the world fading to black at the edges was a familiar, albeit highly unwelcomed, sensation to him, and at least this time he could choose to exhale if he wanted to. The water was gray around him and he could no longer see Tseng’s figure, no longer tell if he was keeping himself suspended in the water or if he had finally sunk to the bottom, when he finally released his breath in a slow stream of bubbles, life rising quickly to the surface.
He was already regretting his decision to breath when he felt a pair of strong arms hook under his armpits and haul him upwards, his legs and arms thrashing again in a last-minute surge of adrenaline and terror as his lungs filled with water and he discovered that drowning wasn’t a pleasant or desirable way to die. His chest heaved when he broke the surface and was pulled onto solid ground, desperately trying to draw breath in while his body desperately tried to push the water in his lungs out. It took three rescue breaths – performed by Tseng, although Reno was blacking out again and wasn’t aware of this – before enough air finally entered Reno’s lungs for his body to expel the water, leaving him choking and gasping, light-headed when enough oxygen returned to his body for him to see again. The TIs quickly wrapped him in several of the pool towels, and Tseng threw his shirt and jacket back on before walking back over and scooping the shivering boy up into his arms.
“Dismiss the other Trainees, and bring Reno’s clothes to the Medical Center.”

Evyn’s watch read four minutes and fifty-nine seconds when the last splash was heard from outside. The Trainees continued to sit in silence after he announced this, everyone wondering if Reno had been able to hold his breath after he stopped splashing nearly two minutes prior. The TI who opened the door a few minutes later had their undivided attention when he entered and glanced around the room, noticing that all of the Trainees appeared anxious and concerned. The general opinion of Reno amongst his fellow Trainees had apparently changed drastically after the ugly episode with Trainee Devin, and he made a mental note to make sure that Tseng was aware of the fact. Then he finally addressed the room.
“You’re all dismissed for the remainder of the day. Study for your Calculus exam tomorrow.” He started to leave and then turned, somewhat amused to see every Trainee on their feet and glaring at him in outrage, half of them with open mouths in preparation for demanding to know Reno’s status. “He made it, by the way.” He turned and left, the door that swung shut behind him not thick enough to block out the impromptu cheer.

A/N: Just a snippet that I’ve been churning around in my head for a few days. I might post a short (very short) epilogue to this, but haven’t decided yet.
And now… off to the “field” for a week, with PT 3 days out of 5 and no showers! -cries- (yeah, it’s sad… I’ve been 10 days in the field without showers, getting a lot more sweaty and disgusting than I will this week, and now I’m whining that I won’t be able to shower Tuesday through Friday and am getting released at like 4 on Friday :p (and that’s only IF it rains and we get to do the 9mm pistol range Friday morning, which we can’t do if it stays dry because of the fire risk :p)
Anyway, enjoy :) And I’ll post the epilogue next weekend probably if I decide to do it.
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Deep Water