Author's note: Here is chapter 2! Enjoy!
I do not own FF7 or any of its characters. Talin, Unit 28, and some other side characters are mine.
Chapter 2
Morning came with a slow beeping as someone's alarm chimed before they hit snooze, but it was more than enough to wake several, including Talin. It was early, only about 0500 and breakfast wouldn't be served till 0630 but there was no going back to sleep for him.
Crawling out of his bunk he dropped off the side, and moved to the showers. Better get one before the stalls were full. There were only five for showers so they had to rotate, same with toilets. Once he was in the stall, he tore off the long sleeve shirt and gloves. He really did hate them, and it would be a blessing to be free of the need to cover his arms. Cold water poured down on him as he flipped the taps over and for a moment, he just stood there in the freezing spray to let it wake him up the rest of the way. Soon enough the water went hot, and he scrubbed down and washed his short cut hair before turning it off. Quick showers were a must in the barracks he had been told, otherwise there wouldn't be enough hot water for all of his unit.
He toweled off and listened. None were with him in the shower area, but he didn't want to risk it yet. He changed in the stall into his new uniform pants and shirt and pulled on the sleeves and gloves last before stepping out.
Callian was just getting up and stretching as he came back and looked at his arms.
"So, what's the call?" He asked and smiled as Talin nodded his head.
"I better do it now. Just... I'm just worried about their reactions. You're the first to not freak, you know."
"Well, you're not in some backwoods town anymore. People can think past their fear of the unknown, just give them a chance." Cal held out his hand and grasped Talin's forearm, forcing Talin's hand to grip his. "We may have just met, but a Cadet's unit is their family and it is our job to care for one another. I'm your brother now, so are the rest of these guys. Trust us to take care of you, Talin." The speech was impassioned but quiet enough to only be heard between the two of them.
Talin's grip tightened on Callian's arm and he nodded again. "Before we leave for breakfast, then. I want to get it out there so I can take the damn things off, but let's just keep it to the basics for now, k?" He said with a small smile, but the worry was still in his eyes. Cal pulled him forwards, and gave him a brief one-armed hug before letting go and backing up again.
Head reeling from everything, Talin hopped up onto his bunk and started getting socks and boots on. He had had more contact with people in this last 24-hour period than he had in months, and it was jarring. Checking his phone, he saw it was just ticking over to 0530.
"Ok, guys," He spoke in a louder voice that carried across the room, "0530, time to get a move on if we want to get to breakfast before it's cold." The grunts and sleepy groans sounded round the room as the sleepers roused. He watched from his bunk as several almost crawled to the showers and others rolled back into their beds for a few more minutes.
Eventually, all were awake, and either ready to go or just finishing dressing. Cal hopped up with Talin and gave him a look as if to ask, 'Ready?'. He nodded back and pulled the sleeves and gloves off. "Can't believe I'm doing this..." He whispered to himself. Callian smirked and hopped down from the bunk.
"We better get a move on, guys." he said, and clapped Talin on the shoulder when he also jumped down. Talin was uncomfortable and fidgeted endlessly as they walked towards the door.
It was torture on Talin's nerves as he waited for the first person to say something. He kept his arms down and tried to keep distance from the others. Gods it was awkward, how had Callian convinced him to do this?
Anders and Tores were standing by the door talking about their home towns as they approached. Tores had been with Talin on the ride over from Costa Del Sol where he had lived all his life. His skin held the traditional tan of a beach town and his hair, that was up in a short tail, could only be called chocolate in color. Hidden within the long strands were a few sections of lighter highlights from the constant sun. Eyes of light blue were full of happy memories as he spoke of home.
Anders was from Kisk, a larger town out in the grasslands where his family moved when he was 10. He had a unique look with black hair that had been buzzed off the sides and left long on top. This morning it was jelled back to keep it out of his eyes that were such a dark color, they almost appeared black in dim lighting. His rugged looks were marred with two scars in a line down his face. One was a nick out of his right eyebrow, between eye and temple, and the other was just at the corner of his mouth on upper lip.
Anders did a double take and frowned. "Dude, is that what they do to hunters in your town?" The question was kind but Talin still flinched.
"N... No, it's from an accident when I was a kid." He stammered out and tried to leave it at that but now Tores had turned to look also.
"What kind of accident does that? Looks like you fell into a pot of clothing dye." Tores said as he stepped forward to take a closer look. Talin was fighting with the urge to flee and backed up a step as he answered.
"I... uh, well, I fell into a well when I was six...a Mako well..." He couldn't look up as he stumbled over the words and watched as a few more pairs of boots came into view followed by a quiet gasp.
"You what?!" It was Cody and the loud exclamation made him snap his head up. "How did you survive? Did it hurt? OH! Did you meet the Goddess? Is she as beautiful as people say? Does she have big tits? C'mon dude spill!" The questions came out rapid fire and Talin was almost laughing by the end of the more ridiculous ones. He waved the other boy off and tried to back up again but found himself almost surrounded by the others. All were curiously looking at his arms and some laughed as well at Cody.
"No, none of that. I didn't see the Goddess, in fact I don't really remember anything. I blacked out and woke up days later with the marks and that was it." Cody looked almost disappointed at the lack of juicy details and threw his hands up in exasperation.
"What good is a near death experience if nothing interesting happens?"
"Do they hurt? Is that why you had them covered yesterday?" Milo, the smallest of the group asked from his spot leaning against the wall. With short, fluffy copper hair and the build of a pipe cleaner, many wondered why he had been accepted for the Cadet Program. He was only about five foot six and it didn't look like he would get any bigger no matter what training he had.
Talin couldn't help the small laugh as he shook his head. Was that always going to be the first question for most people?
"No, they don't hurt. I keep them covered because I don't want to freak people out, but I'm tired of hiding them." He saw nods of understanding from a few as he glanced around.
"C'mon guys, lets head to breakfast, you can chat and walk, least I hope you can," Callian said with a grin and took Talin's hand to pull him through the group to the door before letting go.
As they moved out of the barracks to breakfast, several more questions were asked about Talin's fall and about him being a hunter for his town. What monsters did he fight? How old was he when he started hunting? He must be good to be a solo hunter, could he give them some pointers for sword fighting? He answered as best he could but was glad when they made it into the cafeteria and the conversation turned to food and classes.
A few people around them looked pointedly at Talin's arms but said nothing. It wasn't till he was getting a tray of food that one of the cooks spoke up.
"Man, if I was you, I'd report whoever did that. Those blue toilet tabs are toxic you know..." Talin was confused and didn't say anything but Callian about died laughing as they moved to a table. It wasn't unheard of for new recruits to be hazed and one of the most common ways was getting shoved into a toilet. More of the guys overheard.
A few laughed but Michael, the largest guy in their unit, frowned. When standing, he was an inch or so taller than Talin but built like a wall with broad shoulders. His skin was the color of caramel and his hair and eyes a matching warm brown.
"We better start spreading the truth around. Wouldn't be good if people think your being abused by your unit," He said in a quiet deep voice.
Drew, who was sitting next to Michael, agreed. "If they are going to spread rumors, let's give them a better one. Nothing better than the truth, in this case." He said with a sly smile. Drew was a boy of average height, about five foot nine, with dark hair and eyes a shade of blue only slightly brighter than Talin's. He shifted over and tapped Joey, who's most striking feature was the bright almost gold of his eyes that flashed with mischief as Drew whispered in his ear. He had tan skin much like Drew but his hair was longer and a soft brown. The three had all come from Bayder, but Drew and Joey had grown up together and the look they shared made Talin hesitate.
"I don't know, guys... I don't want this getting blown out of proportion..." as rumors had a tendency to do.
"Better to have mostly truth than some crazy fiction. Truth you can work with. They think we're hurtin' you and it could cause real problems." Joey said as he and Drew stood.
"Don't worry, Talin," Michael said, drawing his attention back to him, "They know what they're doing. Besides, we'll be sure to correct anyone that decides to...embellish the story," He said with a grin that bode ill for such a person.
The first class of the day was a weapons and hand-to-hand class. Each Unit took classes together for the first year at Shin-Ra so they found seating together in the lecture hall and waited for their instructor.
Just before the bell rang, a tall man with spiky black hair and sharp blue eyes walked through the door with a huge smile and apology. He wore the uniform of a SOLDIER but it was black instead of the blue and red they had seen previously. As with all of the ranking officers, he was well muscled in all the ways of a true fighter but not bulky as some were. Talin noticed a fluidity to his movements that was subtly different as well. Something told him that this guy could go from zero to one hundred in an instant.
"Sorry guys and gals, last minute change," He said with a one hand scratching the back of his neck. "Looks like your regular instructor, 2nd class Martin, isn't back from extended assignment yet, so I'll be taking over for this quarter."
Whispers exploded around the room as the SOLDIER went to the desk to sort out the paperwork he had brought with him. Hank was sitting just below Talin in the rows and was almost bouncing with excitement. Leaning down he asked who the guy was and was promptly stared at by all in hearing range.
"You seriously don't know? Wow, you really did live in the middle of nowhere. That's SOLDIER 1st class Commander Zack Fair." The name was faintly familiar but Talin still shrugged. Hank elaborated. "He's one of only four 1st class SOLDIERS and was promoted just recently to that rank. He was Commander Angeal Hewley's student." Again, the name sounded familiar, and he had a partial memory of another dark-haired man, but that was all. Hank shook his head in frustration. "Eh, we can teach you later." And he turned back to the front as Zack passed stacks of papers to the front row to hand up the tiers.
Hank was one of the two who were native to Midgar so it was no wonder if he knew all the big named SOLDIERs, but the hero worship in the Cadet's eyes almost made Talin laugh. Hank had looked like a bit of a dreamer when they did introductions last night. Those light brown eyes had wandered often and never quite focused on any of them. Somehow, he had managed to keep his long dark hair from being trimmed and it fell from the loose tie he had it in.
"Ok! So, since this is all really last minute, I just wanted to let you guys know that we will be working from the schedule Lieutenant Martin had set up. That means that on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we will be in lecture hall for the book-smarts section. Thursday and Friday will be hands on in the training rooms up on the 7th floor, room 7-3, so be in comfortable workout clothes on those days."
Many more excited murmurs went round the room at that. They would get to train with a 1st?! How cool was that? They were going to learn so much!
On the schedule that had made it up to them, it showed that Zack would be doing one-on-ones to see where each Cadet was for close combat that Thursday. Talin was excited for the chance to spar against one of SOLDIER's elite and looked forward to it. He was an anomaly in his unit, he found out later. Most were scared shitless at the idea.
The rest of the class session was going over what would be covered in the quarter. Most of it would be learning how to operate and care for different weapons used by the infantry. The rest would be a beginner class for of close combat.
Just as the class was being released, Talin heard his name called.
"Cadet Graft, can I see you for a moment before you go?" Zack called from his desk. Callian offered to stay and wait for him, but Talin waved him and the others on, "I'll catch up, go on."
When he made it down the stairs, he was met with a wide, welcoming smile that all but dissolved the minor worry at being pulled aside.
Standing to attention, he saluted with a quick, "Sir."
Zack's eyes followed Talin's hand as he saluted. "At ease, Cadet," He said and Talin relaxed his pose. "I won't keep you long, but I wanted to check on you." His smile faded a bit and a hint of concern touched his eyes. "To be blunt, I wanted to see if you...needed to report something? Possibly some trouble with your unit?" He asked and gestured to the arms Talin had clasped behind his back.
"Oh, no, Sir. Nothing like that. It's... from when I was a kid. There was an accident and it left my arms like this." He pulled his arms from behind him to show the 1st as he spoke. Zack was curious but didn't pry.
"Ok, Cadet. Just wanted to make sure." The charming smile was back, and Talin couldn't help but appreciate how handsome his teacher was... "You better catch up with your Unit for second session. See you tomorrow," He said, the casual dismissal freeing Talin to sprint up the steps of the hall and out the door. Dayton, Callian, and Anders were waiting for him saying they had decided to wait for him while the others went ahead.
"What did he want?" Dayton asked as they moved quickly down the halls.
"He asked if I needed to report a hazing," Talin said laughingly. The concern that the 1st had shown surprised him but it was kinda nice. He wasn't invisible here, or at least he wasn't to Commander Fair and his Unit.
The rest of the day went by much as Zack's class had. They were introduced to their instructors and what they would be covering for the quarter before moving on to the next class.
Their second class was Military History, and Talin was actually looking forward to it, unlike most of the group. Raised where he was, he never had access to information on the wider world and craved the knowledge like a starved man craved food. When prompted by the instructor for each person to take a course book with them if they desired, Talin hopped up and snagged one in an instant.
After that was a drill/gym class. It focused on strength training, sharpening reflexes, endurance building, agility and so on. Talin found himself bored in this one and not really looking forward to it.
Just looking down the activities list made him wonder if he should talk to someone about moving to something more challenging. No, that would only draw more attention to him that he didn't want. Guess he would have to try and not use any Mako while training. It would suck but he had to get established here before more people found out what he was really capable of. Callian knew, and Talin was beyond thankful that his new friend hadn't reacted badly, but who could say how others would respond.
Lunch was after tactics and then they had a class on military tactics. It was a limited class since new Cadets only needed to follow orders not plan assaults, but it would help them understand some of the 'why' of their orders.
The last class they had for the day was Creature Studies. Again, it was a greatly abbreviated class that only covered basics of world monsters. It would involve lots of memorization of weaknesses and how to identify each monster but that was all. It would be useful for any of them that made it to SOLDIER and possibly for any Infantry that are deployed outside of the city, but till then it was mostly useless info.
They wandered out of the last class chatting about what classes they were looking forward to and the ones they dreaded. It was still an hour before dinner would be available so the group took the elevators up to their barracks to drop off books and all the papers from the day.
"Hey, Talin, want to come with us to the training rooms after dinner? We wanted to brush up on some hand-to-hand before our spar with Commander Fair," Joey asked as they headed back down for dinner.
"Sure, I could use some brush up, too. Been a while since I actually got to fight against a person and not just a training dummy." Talin was glad for the invite so he could at least get some kind of a workout in. Even if it wouldn't be as intense as he needed to get tired it would help.
Dinner was full of laughter as Milo and Cody got into a contest of who had the better stupid story from their home towns. Both had some that just couldn't be true but were funny enough to have the unit dying, and several from other tables, too. By the end of dinner, it was called a draw and Talin's sides hurt from laughing.
As it turned out, all of the Unit had decided to get some practice in that night. Room 22-1 was the largest training room and was full of the floormats that they needed. Callian and Dayton were already paired up when Talin looked around for him and he paused, unsure who to pair with. A slight tap at his shoulder by Michael answered his dilemma.
With a nod, they moved to an open mat and began a slow sparing session that sped up as they got comfortable with each other. Talin had wondered if people would avoid touching his arms even after he uncovered them, but Michael had no such hesitation. They grappled and sparred without even a moment of awkwardness, much to his relief, and he got his ass thrown a few times. Michael might have been big but he could pull out some speed in short bursts that surprised Talin.
The focused effort of not using Mako was almost as draining as if he had and he was glad when he finally landed a solid pin on the larger Cadet, ending that match. Rolling from the hold and helping his partner up, they called it quits for the night and leaned against the near wall to watch some of the others.
"You fight well. How long have you been training?" Michael asked as he handed the redhead a water bottle.
"I was seven when I started training to be a hunter. I had to be good, my teachers didn't tolerate disappointment..." The sentence burned with resentment but Michael chuckled.
"Ah, those types," He said, shaking his head. "From what I hear, you'll wish they were your teachers again after a few months in the SOLDIER program." The deep chuckle was contagious, even more so as they watched Milo fly screaming across the mat as Chase put too much power behind a throw. The momentum of his throw sent Chase to the floor as well. He frustratedly got back to his feet and ran hands through his bleached white hair.
"Sorry, Milo. I've been trying to get that one down," He said with regret showing in his sharp grey eyes.
Laughter quelling to a small chuckle, Talin walked over to the pair and helped the small boy up.
"Way too much power, Chase," Talin said, still smiling, and had him shift his feet a bit and try again with a less than willing Milo. This time, the throw was more controlled and Chase was able to slow his momentum and catch himself instead of following his opponent to the floor. Milo called it quits and fled to sit next to Michael by the wall so Talin stepped in as Chase's partner. He had him do the same throw and compensate for a heavier and taller foe.
It was a great feeling to work with someone so willing to learn. He had the move down by the third try, successfully throwing Talin exactly to the edge of the mat while maintaining his balance. A few of the others had been watching from their mats, long since done with their own sparing, and congratulated Chase.
Tired and sweaty, the group cleaned up the mats and headed back for bed. Talin found himself asked by a few to spar with them the next night. All wanted his help with this or that and he promised to help if he could.
As he fell into bed that night, he found a feeling of contentment settle over him. Little by little he was making a place for himself in this group. They weren't afraid to come in contact with his strange colored skin and several had even fist-bumped him after his training with Chase. None but Callian knew about his ability to use the Mako in his system, but maybe... The need for acceptance ended that train of thought.
He couldn't risk scaring away the few friends he had made so far, and nothing would do that faster than seeing his arms glow like a damn reactor. Or, Goddess forbid, an accidental use of Mako in a match. The thought scarred him more than anything and set him firmly in his decision to restrain his use of it. He would just have to sneak away to drain off some of the energy. Too long and it would start to burn under his skin, but maybe Callian would help him secure a training room.
Plan made, he let himself slip into sleep at last, but his dreams were too full of nightmare memories to be restful.
