Chapter Sixteen
Timber Reunion
Quistis Makes a Friend
Homeward Bound
Irvine sat quietly and watched Rinoa sleep almost the entire journey to Timber. He mused to himself concerning the conflicting aspects of the beautiful young woman, who lay before him. He thought, "Rinoa can be the most scatterbrained ditz in the world one moment and then the most caring person on earth the next. And now after all she's been through over the last couple of weeks to be able to pull herself together just like that and be able to formulate plans to break into the D-District Prison to rescue Squall and Quistis is just fantastic."
The train began to slow down as it approached Timber, and just when Irvine began to lean forward to touch the sleeping beauty to wake her, Rinoa awoke. She sat up and observing Irvine staring at her, she offered him a warm smile and his heart melted on the spot.
"You feel any better?" Irvine asked solicitously.
"Yeah, a lot better. That nap set me up. I'm ready to go" Rinoa grinned.
"Where to?" Irvine questioned.
Rinoa replied, "We'll go to Sayoko's house until tonight."
"Who?" persisted Irvine.
"You know, my friend who runs the Forest Foxes" Rinoa answered. Perceiving the confusion on Irvine's face, she realized he hadn't joined them yet when they stayed at her home.
"Never mind" Rinoa said. "It isn't important. You'll meet her in a few minutes, anyway."
As soon as the train pulled into the station in front of the pet shop, Rinoa and Irvine disembarked and Rinoa guided him downtown to Sayoko's door. Knocking upon it, Rinoa stepped back and waited for it to be opened.
Mishima cautioned, "Zell, you'd better slow down a little. We're coming into the outskirts of Timber and it'd be a bummer, if we went roaring past the secret police when we're so close."
Zell eased up on the gas pedal and glanced at Mishima saying, "Your wish is my command, my princess."
Mishima laughed. "Princess? That's Rinoa, isn't it?"
Zell turned his head and stared at Mishima in surprise.
"Zell, watch the road!" Mishima ordered.
Zell, returning his attention to driving, asked "How did you know that about Rinoa? I didn't even realize you knew each other."
"I know all," Mishima replied mysteriously with an impish grin on her face.
By prior agreement with Mishima, Zell pulled off the highway right outside of Timber.
"Well, we're here" Zell said unnecessarily and then stepped out of the car.
"Yes, I can see that" Mishima replied sardonically doing the same. After Zell locked the car, the two SeeDs began their short walk into Timber.
Squall twisted and turned on his hard metal bunk attempting to escape into the narcotic of sleep, but it would not come. Suddenly sitting up, he swung his feet around onto the floor and buried his head in his hands. He realized this had gone too far and he no longer had the luxury of waiting to discover what kind of attack Garden might send in his and Quistis's behalf. He absolutely could not allow Quistis to be dragged into that cell tomorrow to undergo further hellish, perverted torture at the hands of that tall madman. Squall idly wondered who the tall man might be, not that it presently mattered.
Squall thought, "Tomorrow when they open my cell door, I can't allow them to handcuff me." He recognized he was going to need to attempt to disarm one of them and then be ready to turn the weapon on all three of them.
"It sounds impossible," he thought desolately. "But I have to try! The remainder of Quistis's life depends on me."
Squall realized then it was fortunate sleep hadn't come readily to him, because he would need to remain awake in order to be prepared, when they moved his cell back up to the prison floor.
Squall sat back against the wall his bunk was attached to and visualized in his mind exactly how he would go about springing his attack. He suddenly recognized how fortuitous it was that only one of them had come into his cell with his weapon drawn. A smile sprang to his lips. He felt better. He had a plan.
Selphie had finally cried herself out of tears and was lying in the pleasant haze of semi-lethargy that often accompanied the end of a good cry, when a sudden knock came upon the door.
"Go away, Zone!" Selphie shouted.
"Sefie, there ain't nary a Zone out here!"
Selphie screamed "Irvy!" She leaped off the bed in one fluid move, raced across the floor, ripped the door open and flung herself into Irvine's arms, who reciprocated the embrace in the strongest manner possible.
"What are you doing here?" Selphie joyously squealed.
Irvine replied, "Why, I was worried about my little darling" while he surreptitiously moved his right hand beneath Selphie's dress.
"It's so good to see you," exclaimed Selphie while she just as casually reached down with her right hand and pulled his hand up to the middle of her back.
Selphie finally stepped back from Irvine and asked, "No really, why are you here?"
Irvine explained, "Squall and Quistis are being held for execution in the D-District Prison and Rinoa and I have been assigned to get them out."
"Oh Great Shiva!" Selphie retorted. "You and Rinoa?!" she accused.
Irvine flushed slightly. "There really wasn't anybody else to send, no da."
Selphie asserted, "There is now!"
Irvine slowly shook his head and explained, "Rinoa has it all worked out. Our plans are made. We're ready to go."
Selphie slowly repeated in a disbelieving tone, "Rinoa has it all worked out? Yeah, right" she added sarcastically, "This is the woman, who can't even keep her clothes on for a few hours at a time."
"No, really" Irvine insisted, "If you don't believe me, go down and talk to her."
"Alright, I will," said Selphie while stepping past Irvine into the hall and then down the stairs to the first floor.
She observed Watts and Zone hovering around Rinoa and began to move toward her saying, "Rinoa."
Suddenly a knock came upon the door and everyone fell silent and turned toward the door.
Fifteen minutes after being escorted back to her cell and thrown viciously onto the cell floor by the guard, Quistis had remained lying in the same position trying hard not to weep from the combination of physical pain and the sheer terror she experienced during her latest interrogation session. The worst part, she thought, was not being able to see her tormenters.
Quistis thought, "Was Squall really there or did they just trick me into admitting who I was?" And if he were there, she wondered, why wouldn't he have answered?
One of the three women sitting against the other wall spoke "Look at that fine looking bitch there" and stood up and began to cross the cell to where Quistis was laying stark naked on her back. Quistis greatly wished the guard would have had the decency to return to her what was left of her clothing.
Suddenly the woman, who had spoken to Quistis two evenings earlier, arose from her customary seat in the corner and moving rapidly intercepted the other woman, before she could reach Quistis and ordered, "Back off, Babs!"
"What are you - her guardian angel?" Babs snarled.
"Yeah, I am. Want to make something of it? Is it worth it to you?" the other woman asked, clenching her right fist.
"No, I guess not," muttered Babs retreating to the far wall once again and reseating herself.
As the redheaded woman knelt by Quistis and placed her right hand on Quistis's shoulder, this first act of kindness shown to her by anyone since her arrest caused her to begin to sob uncontrollably.
The woman spoke in low tones, only Quistis could hear. "My name is Akemi and I'm a resistance fighter from Winhill. I know who you are and where you're from, because I saw you in Winhill. I can help you, if you will allow it."
After the knock came upon the door, Sayoko wondered "Who in the world might that be?"
Selphie exclaimed while moving toward the door, "There's one way to find out."
"Wait!" Sayoko's daughter ordered, "It could be the army or the secret police. Everybody should be prepared to flee."
Selphie felt the adrenaline begin to race through her body, while she noticed Zone had begun moaning and had crouched down with his back to the door and Watts raced up the stairs to the second floor. Rinoa remained in the corner and was shaking her head ruefully at the antics of her compatriots.
Sayoko's daughter moved to the door and opened it. Mishima bounded in happily followed by Zell.
Rinoa exclaimed, "Mishima!" while stepping forward rapidly and embracing her in a hug. "It's so good to see you again, sweetheart."
Zell thought, "I'll be damned. She does know Rinoa."
Selphie thought, "There it is again - that sweetheart thing. I just don't get it."
After Sayoko's daughter closed the front door, the room quickly became bedlam with Watts returning from the second floor and Zone regaining his feet talking to Rinoa, who was speaking to Mishima. Irvine began talking to Zell, who was responding in a loud voice. Brian began conversing with Sayoko and Watts.
"Wait a minute!" Selphie shouted. As everyone froze, she continued, "What the hell is going on here? Let's get this organized."
"Selphie's right" Rinoa agreed. "Let's go upstairs and coordinate our plans."
Everyone, except Sayoko and her daughter, retreated upstairs and crowded into the bedroom that Selphie and Brian had been using.
Two hours later a basic agreement had been reached. It was decided that, for security reasons, the SeeDs who were returning to Balamb should travel in pairs and not use the same route. Irvine and Rinoa were going to acquire some sleep, so they could leave Timber in the middle of the night in order to reach the D-District Prison early in the morning. Selphie and Mishima would drive back to Dollet in the morning and travel by boat to Balamb. Zell and Brian would ride the train to Balamb and hopefully locate Kasumi and Shinji.
Rinoa stood up from where she had been seated in the corner on the floor and explained, "I guess that's it. If you would excuse me, I need to get some rest."
Selphie rose up from her seat on her bed and, hugging Rinoa, whispered in her ear "Good luck."
Selphie turned and demanded, "Come on everybody - downstairs."
After everyone had vacated the room, Rinoa lay down on Selphie's bed and thought, "Good luck! I'm going to need a lot more than that."
Seifer, Fujin and Raijin were seated at a cafeteria table having their dinner. Each was dressed in their new SeeD uniform, although Seifer was still wearing his long coat over his.
Raijin wondered, "What's Squall gonna think when he comes back and we're all SeeDs, na da?"
"I don't care," answered Seifer in a flat tone.
"Yes you do!" exclaimed Fujin firmly.
Seifer glanced up with a start of surprise and half of hot dog frozen in midair in front of his open mouth.
"You've always cared, often too much so. That's why you felt you always had to defeat him. You thought it would make him respect you. Well, he always respected your fighting ability. It was your other behavior he couldn't respect. When he learns what you did today, he will respect that."
Seifer finished chewing his hot dog and murmured, "Arigato."
Cid walked by their table escorting Edea from the cafeteria. They paused and Edea leaned down placing a hand on Seifer's arm and praised, "That was a wonderfully brave thing you did for Xu today."
"Thank you, Matron."
Cid explained, "I need you three to thoroughly search Akane's room and, also ask around and discover if she was close with anybody, besides Rinoa, and what she might have shared with them."
"YES" Fujin complied.
"And Seifer," Cid continued, "I need you to sit in morning staff meeting, until Xu is up and around."
As Cid and Edea continued on their way through the cafeteria, Raijin exclaimed, "Morning staff meeting, no da! You're gonna be the next Xu, no da."
While Fujin began to laugh, Seifer stood up and ordered, Shut up! Let's go." He began striding out of the cafeteria followed by the laughing Fujin and Raijin.
Quistis managed to regain her composure in a few minutes and sat up on the cell floor. Akemi helped Quistis to regain her feet and guided her over to a corner of the cell, where the two women sat down with their backs to the wall. Quistis sat huddled in an attempt to hide as much of her nakedness as possible from the prying eyes of the three women seated along the far wall. Quistis now realized what Rinoa must have felt like that day back at the Garden and was sorry she laughed when she first heard of it.
Quistis responded, "Thank you for saving me from that troglodyte, but how else can you help me?"
"I know where they house the captured weapons."
Quistis questioned suspiciously, "What do you get out of this?"
Akemi answered simply "I escape with you."
"Why do you need me?"
Akemi nodded toward the three women sitting against the far wall and explained, "You think those three clowns over there are interested in escaping or, even if they were, would be able to effect one?"
Akemi suddenly asked, "Is there anyone else in here with you?"
Quistis nodded. "One other."
"Squall?" Akemi ventured.
Quistis's eyes grew wide in surprise. "You really do know about us."
"Oh," Akemi explained, "I doubt there's too many people who haven't heard of Squall."
"But how do we get out of this cell to get to the weapons?"
"Ah," Akemi spoke. "That's the fly in the ointment."
It was three o'clock in the morning. Rinoa had been awake for two hours, because her anticipation and anxiety had awakened her. There were people sleeping everywhere, doubled up on beds and sleeping on the floor. She had indulged herself with a long hot shower, shampooed her hair and styled it, applied her makeup very carefully and put on a heavy dose of perfume. She had a need to look extra good for this assignment.
She crept on tiptoes over to the bed, where Irvine was laying across one end and leaned down and whispered, waking him. Irvine awoke immediately, feeling tense himself and quickly sat up and, pulling on his boots, he stood up and gathered his hat and coat off the floor.
They did not speak, until they were out on the street.
"What time does the train leave?" Irvine questioned.
"In fifteen minutes, we need to hurry."
The train to the D-District Prison was boarded at a small kiosk outside of the Amphor Pub. They strode purposely through the darkened streets rapidly, passing no one. They arrived at the station with time to spare and Rinoa again purchased a private compartment ticket for the two of them.
Once they entered the private compartment, Rinoa lay across one of the benches and explained, "This trip should take three and a half hours. I hope to sleep through most of it. Please wake me when we're nearing the prison." She then closed her eyes forestalling any further conversational opportunities for Irvine.
"Good night" he spoke dryly.
Unbeknownst to Irvine and Rinoa, Selphie was awake when they left, but hesitated saying anything to them, feeling as though she had already said her tearful goodbyes to Irvine. Tossing and turning unable to return to sleep, Selphie decided to arise and be prepared for an early start on their trip to Dollet, after Mishima had arisen for the day.
Throwing off her sheet, Selphie tiptoed around the room gathering up her belongings and carried them with her into the bathroom. She stood under another long hot shower and had just emerged from it sopping wet when a gentle knock came upon the bathroom door.
"It figures" Selphie thought. "Who is it?" she whispered.
"It's Mishima, let me in."
"But I'm not dressed. I just got out of the shower," Selphie complained.
"So what? I'm a girl too, na da" came the answer from outside the door.
Selphie reluctantly opened the door and Mishima squeezed into the small bathroom.
"Good morning" whispered Mishima.
To Selphie's great alarm, Mishima began to strip off her clothing. "What are you doing?" demanded Selphie.
Mishima glanced bemusedly at Selphie and answered, "I'm going to take a shower."
As Mishima dropped the last of her clothing onto the floor and stepped into the shower, Selphie's eyes widened at the young SeeD's spectacular figure.
Mishima noticed Selphie staring at her and asked, "Something wrong?"
Selphie tersely answered "No" and glanced away, beginning to towel off. She dressed as quickly as possible and applied her makeup and brushed her hair in record time, so she wouldn't be there when Mishima emerged from the shower.
Leaving the bathroom, she thought to herself, "At least I can see why all the guys think she's a sweetheart."
Selphie quietly located all of her possessions and stuffed them into her backpack, dirty laundry included. She thought to herself she would certainly be glad to return to the Garden, so she could have a clean outfit to wear. She suddenly excitedly remembered the Garden might still be in Trabia and she could visit her old friends again.
She thought, "It'd be great to see Kaede again. I hope they repaired the coffee shop, so we can get some cheesecake."
Having packed everything, Selphie sat down on the edge of the bed and waited patiently for Mishima to be finished with her shower. When she emerged from the bathroom, Selphie waved her over and asked, "What do you think about getting an early start?"
"I was just thinking the same thing. There's really no reason not to."
The only thing Mishima had been able to salvage from when she had to flee Timber was her makeup kit, so she was ready to leave. On the way out, Selphie left Zell a note on the kitchen table explaining they had left for Dollet. The two of them stepped into the street and Selphie locked the door behind them. They quickly and quietly walked out of Timber.
Selphie and Mishima had been on the road for almost an hour with Selphie behind the wheel, when Mishima suddenly commented out of the blue, "That girlfriend of Zell's is certainly a lucky young woman, don't you think?"
Selphie responded "Huh" noncommittally, wondering where this conversation was headed.
"Yeah," Mishima continued, "if it weren't for her, I wouldn't mind hitting on that stuff myself."
Selphie thought, "Aha! I knew it!"
"So when are you and Irvine going to get married?" Mishima asked.
Selphie blanched and almost drove off the road. "Married! We haven't discussed marriage. I'm too young to get married."
Mishima laughed and parried, "Oh, come on now! Plenty of girls in Dollet are married at your age. What's the matter? Don't you love Irvine?"
Selphie responded, speaking slowly "Yes, I love Irvine very much, but the subject of marriage just hasn't come up."
Mishima turned and looked seriously at Selphie. "You do know Irvine isn't the type to hang around forever without some encouragement and I've seen the way you treat him."
Sephie asked sarcastically, "So what's your point?"
"I think it means Irvine realizes how incredibly wonderful you are and he could never find anyone better than you."
Tears appeared in Selphie's eyes as she thought to herself, "They're right. She is a sweetheart."
Standing on the lip of the Grandidi Forest overlooking the Great Plains of Esthar, General Caraway swept his high-powered binoculars in a panoramic view.
"General, it looks as if almost every bit of the Esthar Army is out there" said the General's aide. "We're outnumbered almost two to one."
"Yes, I can see that, Major" General Caraway answered dryly.
"I wonder how they could have known to expect a surprise attack?"
"Yes, I wonder," answered the General thoughtfully, while fully realizing how Esthar would have come by this information. "Get me Deling City on the phone. I need to confer with the President."
"Sir, the President isn't at the capital. He's at the D-District Prison incognito interrogating some spies from the Garden and can't be reached," explained the Major.
General Caraway kept his face expressionless while he ordered, "Then get me General Loo over at First Regimental Headquarters." The Major quickly did as ordered and then handed General Caraway the military field phone. "He's waiting, sir."
General Caraway took the phone and spoke into it. "Good morning, General. Yes, I'm surprised too. No, I'm going to confer with the President, regarding whether he desires the invasion to proceed. Remain at combat-readiness, but do not attack unless provoked. Yes, I will get back to you as soon as I return from conferring with the President. Yes, thank you, General."
Handing the phone back to his aide, General Caraway ordered, "Get me military transport to the D-District Prison immediately."
"Yes sir!" the Major responded snapping up a salute.
The pigtail girl sat at an extremely early morning coffee shop table by herself. She felt miserable with all her friends absent from the Garden and she was particularly worried about Zell. She couldn't fathom why the Garden hadn't received a message from, at least, one of the people, who had been sent out on assignment.
She had attempted to fill her loneliness with extra time spent at the library and study, but that hadn't worked out because the library closed just before the dinner hour and she was already receiving straight A's in all her classes. To further fill out her schedule, she had volunteered to stand on the around the clock watch of Akane. But Akane would stand there and stare back at her and shout obscenities and make obscene gestures at her the entire shift. The pigtail girl blushed at the memory of one night when Akane suddenly turned her back, bent over and pulled down her underwear and waggled her bare behind at her! The pigtail girl has never witnessed such a gross display.
But, in a sense, she didn't blame Akane. She blamed Headmaster Cid. She didn't care what Akane had done in Headmaster Cid's office. She thought Akane should have been given some demerits and sent back to class. "That Headmaster Cid," she thought, "should be reported to someone!"
Perceiving by her watch she could now open the library early, she dragged herself up from the table and trudged from the coffee shop.
Three and a half hours after leaving Timber, Selphie and Mishima drove into Dollet. Parking the car by the Rent-A-Car, Selphie placed the keys under the front seat, not caring about obtaining any of the deposit placed on the car.
It too Selphie and Mishima thirty minutes to walk down to the lower end of Dollet. Mishima guided Selphie to the house, where the resistance had hidden Shinji. She was disappointed her friend wasn't in town, because she desired to have Selphie meet him but, at least, they were assured by the remaining resistance members, there wouldn't be any difficulty in tramsporting them to Balamb by water.
An hour later, they were docking in Balamb and Mishima stepped out of the boat first and then held her hand out to assist Selphie, who scrambled out quickly. Never looking back, the two young women stepped lively up past the dock area and then the hotel. Rounding the corner of the intersection, they knocked on the door of Zell's mother's house.