After Ultimecia was killed, the world calmed down a little. However, the situation in Timber was quite hopeless, because it was still under Galbadian occupation. There was no active resistance movement anymore, after Forest Owls had split up. And to make things even worse, Winzer Deling's son now ruled the country, and he was even more frightening leader than his father.

Rinoa had promised to help Timber regain its independence, but she had fallen in love with Squall. Now she had to make a choice: would she stay at Balamb Garden with the one she loved, or would she reunite Forest Owls and go back to Timber? In the end, it was an easy selection.

"Squall... I must go to Timber. I cannot betray them..." she said while sitting on Squall's bed.

"I understand... but I don't want you to go," Squall responded.

"Do you think that I want to go? No way. But I won't rest before Timber is free. And since Garden doesn't want to support us..."

"You know that it's too risky for Garden to mess with such a hostile nation as Galbadia. And if we can't do anything, do you think that Forest Owls can?"

"Someone must do something. And it doesn't matter how powerful you are. You just need to try hard."

"I hope you are right..."

At the same time, Seifer was fighting a T-Rexaur in the Training Centre. He had been allowed to take the SeeD field exam again. Normally the students went to the Fire Cavern to take the exam, but it hadn't been used since Ifrit was beaten by Squall and Quistis.

"You can do it!" Raijin, who had already passed the test, shouted.

"Please, keep your voice down," Xu said. She had never wanted to supervise Seifer, Raijin and Fujin, but she had had to. She remembered that she had once said that Seifer would never become a SeeD. Now she was afraid that she might've been wrong.

"Take this!" Seifer shouted and slashed the enemy with his gunblade. It retaliated with a thunder spell, but he evaded it easily. After that, he casted thundaga and it was enough to kill the T-Rexaur.

"Good job," Fujin congratulated.

"Thanks..."

In fact, the whole test had been a piece of cake for him.

Quistis was walking towards the library when Xu came out of the Training Centre, followed by the three SeeD candidates.

"Well, well, if it isn't my favourite instructor," Seifer said, grinning.

Quistis ignored him. "What's up, Xu?" she asked.

"Well, as you can see, I had to be the supervisor for these three." Xu glanced at them.

"Sounds like fun," Quistis said sarcastically.

"Yeah, right." Xu turned around to face Seifer. "You three, dismissed!"

Seifer's posse, or the disciplinary committee of the Garden, went to their own ways.

"Do you think they'll pass?" Quistis asked.

"They did a good job and the exam was easy for their skills. We'll just have to wait for the results..."