Sharon and Gina walked into the train car after Squall, with Zell following close behind. Selphie hopped in and stood expectantly in front of the sliding door leading to the front of the train, bouncing up and down a little on the tips of her toes.

"Open... open... open... open," she chanted softly, drawing a weird look from Squall as he passed the ticket under the sensor to unlock the door. She flashed him a huge smile as the door finally gave way. "Thank you! I love trains!" Selphie said as she rushed past and promptly glued herself to one of the huge windows.

Gina and Sharon exchanged a look and had to keep themselves from bursting out laughing, because if they did, they wouldn't stop for a very long time. Both of their thoughts kept traveling back to a Final Fantasy flash video on the internet they had seen online to the chocobo song, more specifically the part where a chibi Selphie was loading tons of sugar into her mouth while crying out "I LIKE TRAINS! I LIKE TRAINS!"

Squall glanced over to the pair that were not doing such a good job of concealing impending hysterical laughter over Hyne knew what. They always seem to have some inside joke going on. Inwardly hoping that they would calm down soon enough to take their first mission seriously, he walked through the sliding door where Zell was busy gawking over the VIP cabin.

"AWWWW, YEAHHH!" he whooped loudly, drawing a heavy sigh from Squall. Sharon and Gina appeared in the hallway shortly thereafter, and followed the hyper blonde and the stoic leader into the lushly furnished room.

"This is just so awesome!" Zell continued, plopping down on one of the sofas and surfing through the magazines. Gina noticed that a magazine labeled Pet Pals Volume 1 had fallen out of the pile, and reached over to pick it up all while staring at it in awe. Gotta stop this, man. I can't act like I've never seen a magazine before. But of course, this was an entirely different situation.

Zell's blue eyes lit up suddenly, and his interest in the reading materials were forgotten. "Dude, I bet you guys don't know about Timber!"

Leaning back against the ruby red seat while folding his arms across his chest, Squall replied, "If it's not important to completing our given mission, then I don't care."

Zell scrunched up his face. "There you go, being such a tightass again. What if everyone else wants to know?"

Squall opened his mouth to protest, but was surprisingly cut off by Gina. "Timber was a country that was aptly named in the past for its large quantities of deep forests." Gina began, almost as if on automatic. "About 18 years ago, the Galbadian army invaded, and Timber fell without much effort. Their influence still remains strong to this day, even though there is said to be lots of resistance factions scattered throughout the town if you know where to find them."

Zell blinked at her in shock, not only because she knew so much information about a town she'd never been to before, but also because it was almost as if she copied the words right from his brain. Must be that psychic thing Sharon mentioned back when I first ran into them.

Sharon shot Gina a warning glance. Her best friend caught the look and immediately registered what she had just done. She smiled sheepishly at the two guys. "I, uh... did my homework. Lots of it."

"Yeah. Lord knows what Instructor Trepe would've done to us if we didn't." Sharon mentioned offhandedly, causing Gina to whine briefly. Both of them still remembered the day Quistis had cracked that whip dangerously close to their ears when they fell asleep in her class, and even though they were pretty sure she'd never resort to actually hitting students with her weapon, they didn't want to think of the possibilities, either. Squall blinked and wondered just what happened that made them fear Quistis almost to the point of idiocy. She's not an overbearing dominatrix, even though she might come off as that sometimes.

All of them snapped out of their thoughts to see Selphie wander in the room, almost as if she was in a trance. Her eyelids were drooping dangerously low, enough to make Sharon think that she couldn't see where the hell she was going.

"You guys, I don't feel too good," the normally hyper girl whimpered, teetering a bit off to one side, then the other. Squall stood up sharply just as Selphie collapsed to the floor. "What in the..." He reached over and felt Selphie's head to make sure that she didn't have a fever, then looked over to see Zell experiencing the same thing. As the martial artist slumped to one side on the couch, Squall switched his gaze to Sharon and Gina, fairly relieved to find out that they seemed to be unaffected by whatever had caused the previous two to fall out. He started to straighten up, until a peculiar buzzing rang in his ears, and his vision blurred dangerously before blacking out.

Laughing a little bit in disbelief, Sharon stepped over Squall and Selphie on the floor and sat down on the couch next to the unconscious Zell. "Well. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what they're experiencing right about now."

Gina nodded and sat in a chair across the room, looking over them. "Dude, but I'm kinda jealous. I was kinda hoping that since we're here and all, that we'd get to see Laguna and the rest in their younger adventures."

Sharon sighed. "True, but it really wouldn't make sense for us to see what they're seeing. It's their journey to take, we're just along for the ride. Which is kinda good, anyway. I didn't really want to up and black out and find myself in Ward's body or something like that."

"So, I guess we just sit and wait for them to wake up."

"Yeah... they'd better wake up before we reach Timber. God, we're just in disc fucking ONE. This is going to be a long journey." Sharon rubbed at her temples. "Hey, you know who we get to meet once we get there."

Gina let out a snort. She knew exactly who, and wasn't sure if she should be glad or not. She didn't necessarily hate Rinoa, but she wasn't exactly her most favorite female, either. Mostly, she and Sharon shared the exact sentiments regarding on how the game poorly fixed two people as different as night and day together. They knew opposites attracted, but geez... it seemed to happen so suddenly and out of nowhere, and the fact that the player was able to read Squall's thoughts all the way up until that fateful point, they could've sworn he thought Rinoa was just a terrible nuisance.

Maybe... maybe this time, they'll fall in love the right way, Gina thought to herself. I could accept it if they did. I know Squall; he's too cautious of a person to up and fall for someone that easily. They'd really have to earn his trust, first. At least, that's how I would act if I was in that kind of situation.

Both girls stayed in silence for a while until the unconscious group finally began to stir. Zell gave a huge yawn and rubbed at his eyes, while Selphie pulled herself up from the floor, blinking rapidly. Squall was the last to come to, getting up off of the floor and letting his eyes focus and his brain remember where he was.

"Were we all asleep?" Squall asked tentatively.

"Maybe some SeeD haters put some sleeping gas in the vents?" Zell wondered, looking around.

Selphie started to agree until she saw Gina sitting off to the side. "Well, it doesn't look like Gina was affected, so it couldn't have been that. Or Sharon, either." She scratched her head for a bit, then smiled. "Well, at least I can say that this Laguna in my dream was so cute!"

Zell did a double take. "Hey! There was a Laguna in your dream, too? Was he a Galbadian soldier?"

Selphie nodded quickly, and Squall murmured "Laguna, Kiros, and Ward," bringing both SeeDs to look at him in shock. "This trips me out," Zell started. "We all can't have the exact same dream at the exact same time... can we?"

"Maybe it's not just a dream," Sharon said mysteriously, causing everyone to stare at her expectantly, but she wasn't about to continue. Thankfully, a train announcement signaling their arrival at Timber sounded just then, reminding them all that they had a mission to complete. Gina was the first one up and out of the door, and Sharon followed until she came to the door, and turned around.

"Hey Squall, aren't you supposed to be our leader? Better get it together; never know when you might have to do something like this again," she said with a wink and a grin, and slipped out.

Squall blinked. Just what in the hell was that supposed to mean? He didn't like the notion like she knew something that he didn't, but what was he supposed to do about it now? She was right in one sense; he couldn't let himself be so easily distracted by a dream, at least not when he was the leader and had to focus for the sake of his team. Pushing his thoughts to the back of his mind as he was always so used to doing, he followed the rest of the group out of the train and onto the steps of the train station, where a man wearing a brown vest over a white T-shirt stood, looking at the group expectantly.

"Oh, the forests of Timber sure have changed!" he dramatically said, causing Gina to choke back a threatening bout of laughter.

"But the Owls are still around," Squall replied, and the man nodded in recognition. "Welcome to Timber, sir. This way, please."

The group made their way across the small street to yet another boarding platform, where a small one-car train was parked. Filing in, they were met by a skinny man in a blue shirt and black shorts, who nodded to his colleague before addressing them. "So, you guys are SeeDs?"

"I'm the squad leader, Squall. This is Zell, Selphie, Sharon, and Gina," Squall replied, shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet ya. I'm Zone, the leader of the Forest Owls. That's Watts over there, the guy that brought you here."

"So, let's get it on with it. What do we do?"

Zone blinked at his take-charge attitude. "Just take it easy, already. Besides, we still have to wake up our princess." He winced as a sharp pain in his stomach made itself apparent. "I guess it wouldn't be too much to ask you to go and get her for us, Squall. She's up those stairs in the last room."

Squall rolled his eyes. "So, we were hired to run errands?"

Sharon, who had enough of watching the game unfold line by line in front of her, nudged Squall in the arm. "Oh, just go get her already. She's part of the group, and obviously just as important as everyone else here. Just think of it as completing your first order."

Squall responded by putting his hand to his forehead briefly before turning and trudging up the stairs to go retrieve 'the princess'. Zell stood off to one side, practicing kicks and punches, and Gina walked over to Zone, who was kneeling down clutching his stomach.

"Stomach problems?" Gina asked, and received a pained nod from him. She kneeled down next to him and patted him on the back. "I know how that is. I think I have something here that might help a bit." She reached into her pockets and felt past the pack of Mentos she'd been meticulously saving since she'd arrived at Garden, and pulled out half a roll of Rolaids. She handed the pack to Zone with a smile. "Here, take a couple of these."

Zone took the roll and looked at it for a minute. I don't remember seeing any of these 'Rolaids' being sold anywhere, but it's worth a shot if I can get this damn stomachache to go away. Gina stood up, happy with her accomplishment, and everyone turned to see the sliding door at the top of the stairs open, and Squall returning with a girl with black hair streaked with chestnut, wearing a long sky-blue sleeveless duster over a black tank top.

"Everyone, this is Rinoa," Squall announced. "Rinoa, this is Zell, Selphie, Sharon, and Gina."

"Hi everyone!" Rinoa chirped with a wave. "Well, let's get you guys briefed. This way." She started to move towards the strategy room, when she was stopped by Gina, who had just realized she had something in the large pocket of her hoodie that she'd been holding onto since the train ride.

"Umm... I guess I shouldn't still have this since it technically wasn't mine to begin with, but I was wondering if you would like it," Gina said, and produced Pet Pals Volume 1 to Rinoa. She didn't really know why she giving it to her, besides the fact that all it would do was take up room in the pocket. Maybe I'm just feeling guilty about dissing her character so much when I first played the game...

Rinoa's brown eyes widened as she took the magazine. "Wow, I've been looking for this forever! I can finally teach that new trick to Angelo!" She reached out and impulsively hugged Gina, causing her to stagger backwards a bit and freeze up like a board. "How did you know I wanted this?"

"Oh, she's psychic," Zell spoke up with a grin.

Selphie's eyes popped open. "For real?! Gina never told me that!"

Squall stifled another exasperated sigh. They weren't even halfway into the mission and everyone was already distracted. He had been slightly amused at the fact that Gina reacted the same way he had when Rinoa had glomped him when she first realized who he was, but now wasn't the time for any of this. "Um, excuse me... in case we haven't forgotten..." Squall hinted.

"Oh! Yeah, you're right. Sorry about that." Rinoa unlatched herself from the still startled Gina, and flashed another smile. "This way, please!"