[Hee, I can't thank you guys enough! Oh, yeah, it's okay trekken, I was just wondering if that was indeed the scene! Anywhoo, is that the million Gil question? lol, I'll never tell. Hee, well, it has to be leading up at or after a certain scene, IMO, but any earlier might be a bit oddish considering. So…wait and see is all I can say! Heh heh. Glad to hear I'm doing okay with everything so far, with the thoughts and new scenes and such. I guess I do update a bit faster, but school's soon approaching! Gotta get as much as I can in before then, ne?]

Dust flew up around the group of 5 as they stood at the lonely station of East Academy, watching the train continue on its way to Dollet. The wind had picked up due to the train's acceleration, causing the loose articles of their clothing to be manipulated by the wind and flow freely with the invisible force. Rubbing her eyes of any dirt that could have entered, Rinoa followed the group of SeeDs into the nearby dense forest that was straddled by two large rock mountains on each side.

Though there was a clear enough path already etched into the inhabited forest, Rinoa still found herself being clawed at by adjacent tree branches. They had small talk here and there to break the tension, and Rinoa tried her best to keep it up. If she didn't, she was sure that her mind would wander to Seifer, and she didn't want to think about what could be happening to him. After trekking around the woods for what Rinoa estimated was around 45 minutes, give or take, Quistis spoke.

"We're not too far from Galbadia Garden now!" That must have been the tenth time she had said it.

"Hey, I was just thinking…" Selphie started. "There might be some bad news from the Galbadian government. What if we get caught and then get broadcast to the whole world...!?"

"Whatever happens, happens! Now come on! Let's just keep going!" Zell said sternly, desperately trying to keep his own spirits up, let alone the rest of the group. "I, I'm worried about Balamb Garden," he finally broke down. "If anything happens to Garden, it's all my fault. I'm the one who said we were all from Garden..."

Rinoa blinked curiously; she never knew what happened between the group after Seifer took President Deling hostage and they went off the air. Zell turned to Squall for reassurance. "You think the president will retaliate on Garden?"

"Maybe," Squall answered him dully.

This having not been the answer he was looking for, Zell paused. "…Figures…" He grabbed onto the sides of Squall's open jacket and shook him. "B-B-But, we have a whole bunch of SeeDs at Balamb Garden! They wouldn't lose to the Galbadian army, would they?"

"Depends on how strong the army is."

Rinoa felt irritation beginning to rise up inside of her once again. What is wrong with him? Is he completely devoid of emotion or purposely doing this for some sick form of entertaining himself?

Zell released Squall from his gripped and they continued walking. "I know, but…" Zell trailed off, and before he could say anything else, Rinoa jumped in. She couldn't take what Squall was doing anymore.

"Oh, you're just a great leader, aren't you..." Rinoa butted in sarcastically. "Do you actually have fun acting so callous towards your comrades?" Squall didn't respond, and having him walk ahead of her, she couldn't see the look on his face. She continued nevertheless. "Zell wants your support." Still…nothing. "Any kind of encouragement will make..." The world of difference… Rinoa continued in her head. What's the point if he doesn't even care. Rinoa took in a deep breath and tried going about it another way.

"Don't you ever worry about or even think about the well being of your comrades!?" Silence. "Don't you understand!?" She yelled, almost screaming it at him. Acting like this makes you no better than the enemy. "Are you even listening, Squall?" She asked him harshly. The rest of the group made no attempt to try to defend or help either of them; from lack of fear or because they knew it was no use, who knows? Rinoa had half the mind to walk over and slap him in the face. Would that put some sense into you?

Squall suddenly stopped in his tracks, and collapsed right on the spot. Rinoa froze as if she was petrified; all her yelling didn't give him some sort of heart attack or something, did it? I didn't mean for this to happen! Before she had any time to react, Quistis swayed.

"Uhh…" she murmured, before falling herself.

"M…Me, too…" Selphie whispered, and dropped to the ground.

"What's going on!?" Rinoa yelled frantically. I killed them all! She ran to Squall and felt for a pulse.

"I think…they went to the 'dream world'," Zell said, checking on Quistis and Selphie.

Feeling a pulse, Rinoa let out a heavily relieved sigh and kneeled down beside Squall. Zell squatted between the two, wiping a hand over his forehead.

"Dream world?" Rinoa asked, wondering if that really was what caused everything.

Zell nodded. "Yeah. First time was when we were on the train coming to Timber, actually. Squall, Selphie and I, we just suddenly fell asleep and were in this really weird, but awesome, dream!"

Rinoa bit her bottom lip lightly. That didn't make any sense. Were they drugged? "You all had the same dream? What was it about?"

"Oh, dude, it was about this Galbadian soldier guy named Laguna and his two buddies…uh, what was their names…Kiros and Ward! They were at this bar trying to hook Laguna up with this chick. He was sooo nervous."

What an odd dream. Rinoa thought. She looked at Zell. "Do you think someone drugged you or something?"

"Well, I figured it was sleeping gas. You know, there are people that aren't the greatest fans of us SeeDs."

I wonder why… Rinoa mused, remembering how rude they were at times.

"We never really went into it much, since we did have to think about the Timber mission and everything."

"Yeah…" Rinoa trailed off, feeling Squall beginning to stir beside her. Soon enough, Squall, Selphie and Quistis were wide-awake.

"Was it Laguna again…?" Zell asked them.

"Sir Laguna's in BIG TROUBLE! I hope he'll be ok…!!!" Selphie sounded genuinely worried about a person in her dreams.

Quistis rubbed her head, feeling twigs in her hair. "Doesn't seem like the first time for you all. What is this?"

Squall was quiet for a while, as usual, and spoke eventually. "We'll just be wasting time trying to figure it out. Let's keep going."

"Yeah, let's go!" Zell said, standing to his feet. "I think we're almost there."

Rinoa looked thoroughly relieved that Squall and the others were all right. "Umm...Squall..." Rinoa started, helping him to his feet, though he didn't want it. She flinched slightly, letting go of him. Did I…hurt you? "I think I may have said too much. I'm sorry." She looked at him expectantly, but all he did was shake his head, looking like he wanted to say something, but he didn't, and he continued on forward.

Rinoa lowered her gaze and felt someone's hand on her shoulder. Lifting her head she turned to see that it was Quistis.

"Hey, don't worry about him. That's the way he always is. It's hard but…eventually you get used to it, you know? It becomes almost funny, you know how he's going to react to things and you can tease him about it." Quistis smiled, and Rinoa returned the gesture, smiling herself.

"I know what you mean. But it gets so frustrating!" Rinoa put her hands on her hips.

Quistis laughed and started walking. "Join the club."

The group eventually made it to Galbadia Garden. As they entered the front gates, the SeeD's 'Oooed' and 'Ahhhed' as they began quickly pointing out how different it was from Balamb Garden. Rinoa simply looked around curiously. It at least looked different, and that was all she could really say. She only visited Balamb Garden once, and that was at night when it was all glamorous for their party.

"Wow…Completely different…" Selphie said, turning to walk backwards to survey everything again.

"Sure is quiet," Zell uttered, crossing his arms.

"…I like it," Squall commented. Rinoa giggled, finding this funny, and quite typical of him. Quistis was right.

They passed through the security gates and stood on the other side of them.

"Could you leave this one up to me? I've been here several times and I know the headmaster pretty well. I'll go and explain our situation," Quistis said, and ran off.

The group headed further into the Garden, and as they walked, the group was called to the 2nd floor reception room, and they made their way up.

"So Quistis attended classes here?" Rinoa said, immersed in the sights.

"I wonder if they have a Garden Festival here, too?" Selphie asked excitedly.

Upon reaching the room, they spread out and picked different spots to sit or stand in wait.

"How long are they gonna make us wait…?" Zell said impatiently, and Quistis promptly entered shortly after.

"How'd it go?" Squall inquired.

"They understand our situation. And Balamb Garden is safe." Zell let out a loud, alleviated sigh. "The attack on the president in Timber was classified as an independent action. There was an official notice from the Galbadian government saying that Balamb Garden is not being held responsible."

"So, Seifer's taking all the blame?" Zell asked, stretching out to a more comfortable position on the couch opposite of where Rinoa sat. Rinoa instinctively almost folded her legs up to her chest at his words, heavily worried.

"The trial's over, and the sentence has been carried out..." Quistis trailed off, the outcome fairly obvious.

"...He was executed?" Rinoa blurted out despite herself. "...Of course he was. He attacked the president. He sacrificed himself for the Forest Owls..." Rinoa blinked quickly, feeling the sting of warm tears welling up in her eyes. Seifer…

"It was your group that got Seifer involved in all this," Quistis said, and Rinoa looked at her almost sharply; it almost sounded like she was blaming her for Seifer's death. Quistis continued. "You're a resistance faction, right? You must have been prepared for the worst. I'm sure Seifer was prepared, too. So don't think of it as Seifer sacrificing himself for you."

Rinoa looked away from her. Why…am I not worth sacrificing? How else should I think of it, then? Did Seifer die in vain?

"I'm sorry. I guess that wasn't much consolation," Quistis said, feeling like she wasn't very good at cheering people up. She sat down on the end of the couch that Rinoa was sitting on. Quistis went on almost unconsciously, remembering Seifer. "I don't have any good memories of him. I've seen some troubled children, but he was beyond troubled. Well, he wasn't really a bad guy."

No, it wasn't much consolation at all…He…Seifer…he may have been one of the only reasons I fight so strongly for Timber's independence…Was he really a problem child? I…never knew him when he was in Balamb Garden; I'm an outsider…I guess…I don't know that side of him. Rinoa thought inwardly. "I...really liked him," Rinoa said out loud suddenly. She wanted to tell them the side of Seifer she knew; she didn't want him to be remembered the way Quistis was set on doing so. "He was always full of confidence, smart...Just by talking to him, I felt like I could take on the world."

"Your boyfriend?" Selphie asked, leaning her arms against the back of the sofa, peering at Rinoa.

"I don't really know," Rinoa said truthfully. I always thought of him as my boyfriend because of the way he always encouraged me with his confidence…the way he made me feel… "I…I think I was in love. I wonder how he felt…?" I guess…I'll never know now.

"Do you still like him?" Selphie questioned, finding this interesting. The Seifer Rinoa talked about sure sounded a lot different from what the rest of them knew him as.

"If I didn't, I wouldn't be talking about it." Rinoa smiled sadly at Selphie and brought her legs closer to her body. "It was last summer... I was 16. Lots of fond memories..." Rinoa stopped there. That…was something that belonged to her and Seifer alone. She didn't feel like sharing that part of them at the moment. It was all she had left of him.

"I didn't like the guy, but executed...?" Zell said, putting his head in his hands.

"You really hated Seifer, didn't you, Zell?" Selphie now turned her questions over to Zell.

"Yeah, but... He was from Garden... He was one of us. If I can, I wanna get revenge."

Rinoa was about to bury her head in her lap again when Quistis suddenly spoke, her voice filled with alarm.

"What's wrong, Squall?" Quistis asked him, troubled. She had looked up to see his reaction to the news and he had on the most peculiar of emotions written all over his face. It was so hard to pinpoint exactly what he was feeling right then.

"I won't have it!" Squall yelled, and the group almost jumped right out of their skin from his sudden emotional outburst. Rinoa slowly placed her feet back on firm ground, trying to lock onto his eyes though they darted all over the place.

Squall…It's like you're having some sort of emotional breakdown…That's what happens when you keep what you feel and think inside you all the time… Rinoa was scared senseless. It looked like Squall would just completely lose it and tear them all to shreds. Squall…

"W-What!?" Zell exclaimed.

"Are you MAD!?" Selphie shouted at the apparently delirious man.

Squall ran to the door. "I'm not having anyone talk about me in the past tense!" He screamed at them without turning around, and ran straight out the door, leaving everyone puzzled.

"Squall!" Rinoa cried out to him, jumping to her feet and running after him before she knew what she was doing. She just felt like she couldn't leave him alone in the state that he was in. She ran halfway down the hall and stopped, looking both ways; she didn't know where he had gone, but she was going to look through the entire Garden from top to bottom if she had to.

"Rinoa!"

She turned to see Quistis standing at the doorway. "Rinoa, just let him be. He needs to be alone right now. And we can't have you being lost in here, either."

Rinoa looked away from her but made no motion to move either way. "I…" Rinoa didn't know what to say. She supposed Quistis did have a point. But still…I want to know that's he alright.

"Don't worry, Instructor," Zell said, walking past her and putting an elbow on Rinoa's shoulder, leaning lightly, which was easy for him, since he was a couple inches taller than she was. "I'll escort Rinoa around. I can't stand sitting in that room anymore." Rinoa playfully stuck out her tongue at Zell, feeling he was silently teasing her of her height, but was happy. She could look for Squall and have a tour at the same time.

"Yeah! Totally!" Selphie skipped out of the room. "I wanna go see their Quad!"

Quistis shook her head and laughed, bringing a hand to her forehead. "Well, it has been a while since I've been here. I'd like to take a look around myself."

Jumping up and down happily, Rinoa smiled brightly and took off with Zell close behind her, Selphie skipping along the opposite way.

"Just keep your ears open for announcements!" Quistis yelled to their retreating backs, doubting quite heavily that they heard her.