Midnight Train to Timber
The next day dawned bright and clear, no sign of the previous night's storm visible in the sky.
Quistis and her friends, excluding Seifer, were seated at a table in the back of the cafeteria eating breakfast.
They were only there for a little while before Seifer came in and, after retrieving his breakfast from the line, joined them at their table.
As he sat down in the empty seat beside Quistis, left empty on Selphie and Rinoa's orders, the two blondes exchanged friendly smiles and she filled him in on the morning's conversation.
Their pleasantness was instantly noticed by Selphie and Rinoa who grinned at each other and winked.
The friends passed their morning in the Training Center, dueling. Everyone would take turns fighting each of the others.
While one pair was dueling the others would sit around them on the rocks that were strewn around the complex.
While Seifer and Squall were dueling Zell and Irvine were circling around them cheering. The girls seized this opportunity for some "girl talk" with Quistis.
Selphie decided to break the ice.
"So, Quisty, what did Seifer want to talk to you about last night?"
Her composure didn't crack an inch. She wasn't called the Ice Queen for nothing.
"Nothing important. Just wanted to ask me a question, that's all."
Her blue eyes stayed locked onto the fighters that moved around the room. One in particular was constantly in her vision.
She watched his white coat whip through the air in his wake as he dove under Squall's blade and rolled.
How had he gotten himself so imbedded in her mind? How was she going to handle going undercover with him when she was so unsure of her feelings for him?
Rinoa and Selphie had caught on to what Quistis was staring at and were silently congratulating themselves. They gave up on figuring out what he had asked her and contented themselves on watching her stare at Seifer.
Squall's blue blade whizzed through the air above Seifer's head as the blonde ducked under the blade and rolled to the side. He jumped to his feet and swung at Squall's head but the SeeD commander had his blade in place to block.
The audience watched the two experts fight with rapt attention. No one looked away as they fought their way around the room.
Suddenly Squall tripped up on a tree root and Seifer seized his opportunity and quickly had his blade at Squall's neck.
Irvine and Zell cheered while exchanging money. Rinoa went to Squall's side as Seifer shook his hand.
"Good fight guys. That was awesome!" Selphie cried as she ran up to the two.
"Yeah, awesome!" Zell agreed and he pocketed his winnings.
"Ha ha, Irvine how much did you lose?" Seifer asked.
Irvine flushed.
"Um…200 gil."
The rest of the group laughed and grinned at Zell.
"So what are you gonna do with the money?" asked Rinoa.
"Um, I think I'll take Sally out to dinner."
Selphie and Rinoa turned on their boyfriends.
"Why don't you take me to dinner?" they demanded.
The other two guys glared at Zell, who grinned widely, and sheepishly apologized to their girlfriends.
Just then the intercom came on and Nida's voice filled the room.
"Would Seifer Almasy and Quistis Trepe please report to the headmaster's office immediately?"
The two requested SeeDs stood up quickly and left the room.
Their friends, excepting Selphie and Rinoa, looked at each other in confusion. The two girls were grinning widely at each other.
Seifer and Quistis saluted Cid as he opened his door and let them into his office. They waited near the door until he moved back behind his desk and signaled them to sit down.
"You wanted to see us sir?" Quistis asked as she sat down.
Cid nodded and leafed through some papers on his desk.
"Um, as you two know, you are being dispatched to Timber to gather intelligence. You will be provided with a residence and your contact will meet you when you get to town to brief you on the situation. Other than that you are on your own. Infiltrate the base as soon as possible and start gathering information. You will be called back to Garden after you complete your mission."
They nodded and he smiled at them.
"And I took care of Seifer's death warrant so you should be okay as far as that goes."
Seifer smirked and nodded.
"Thanks."
They stood to leave and were almost out the door before they heard Cid speak again.
"The train will be here tonight for Timber."
Quistis turned slightly back towards the office.
"Pardon?"
"The train to Timber leaves tonight at 10 pm."
"We're leaving tonight?" Seifer asked.
Cid looked confused for a moment and inspected a paper on his desk.
"Yes, Seifer Almasy and Quistis Trepe dispatched to Timber. Two tickets on the 10 o'clock train," he read.
Selphie and Rinoa were waiting as Seifer and Quistis got off the elevator at the first floor.
"So, what's going on?" Rinoa asked, seeing the surprised looks on their faces.
"Cid assigned us an undercover mission in Timber and we're leaving tonight," Quistis answered.
"Tonight? Really?" Selphie repeated.
The two blondes nodded and moved down the stairs and headed for the dorms, Selphie and Rinoa trailing behind them.
"We have to go pack but we'll meet you back in the cafeteria for supper, okay?" Quistis asked as they walked past the cafeteria.
"Yeah, we'll go get the boys and meet you guys there in about an hour." Rinoa replied.
Seifer nodded and he and Quistis turned into the hallway leading to the dorms.
Rinoa and Selphie exchanged grins before running to the Training Center to find Squall, Irvine, and Zell.
Seifer's dorm was messy and unorganized as he crawled around on the floor looking for his spare set of boots. Everything else he would need was packed haphazardly in the large bag on his bed.
It was on this scene that Quistis stuck her head in. Seifer's rear was stuck up in the air as he stuck his head under his bed, muttering about disappearing shoes. She smirked as she ran her gaze over his room.
Clothes were strewn everywhere and his bed was unmade and his missing boots appeared to be hiding underneath a large pile of books that had fallen from their place on the book case when hit by what appeared to be a pizza box flattened so that it would fly like a frisbee.
Quistis moved quietly into the room and began to sneak up on her distracted partner.
She gave him a quick tap on the rear with her boot and stood out of the way as he thrashed to get his head out from under the bed.
"What are you doing?" she questioned.
"I'm looking for my boots," he explained.
"Those?" she asked, pointing at the boots by the book case.
He growled in frustration, snatched them up, and threw them in his bag.
The mountain of things sticking out the top of the bag looked as if it would never all fit inside.
Quistis sighed as she watched him sit on top of the pile and try to force it down into the bag so he could close it.
"It might help if you folded some of those clothes."
He just grunted with effort as he tried to zip the bag.
Finally she couldn't stand it and shoved him off.
"I'll do it."
She quickly pulled his things from the bag, folded the clothes and neatly stacked them back in the bag.
When she was finished she turned to him with a smug look and gestured to the large space left in the bag.
"Did you want to bring a pillow?"
He looked at her work and whistled.
"Nice job. I just didn't think it was going to take so long for you to get tired of me doing it so badly. My butt hurts. Those boots are steel toed and were killing me."
She rolled her eyes and grabbed his pillow off the bed and tossed it into the bag. She zipped it and he carried it into the hall. She followed him and took up her own as they walked to the cafeteria.
Their friends were already seated and eating when they arrived and they hurried through the line and sat down to eat.
"So how long are you guys gonna be gone?" Rinoa asked as Seifer and Quistis dug into their food.
Seifer shrugged and continued to devour his cheeseburger. Quistis finished a bite of her chicken sandwich and answered.
"Cid said we are to gather intelligence that will help Timber gain independence, so I suppose that we will be there until Timber is free."
"That could be a long time!" Selphie exclaimed.
"We'll have to work out a way to come and visit you," Zell said as he ate his pile of hotdogs.
The rest of the group nodded and Selphie and Rinoa grinned at each other.
"So what time do you leave?" Selphie questioned.
"10 o'clock tonight," Seifer responded.
"We'll go with you and see you off," Rinoa declared with a smile.
"Oh, you don't have to do that," Quistis said.
"We don't know when we'll see you guys again so we might as well take what we can get."
The rest of their friends backed her up, saying that they would be happy to come see them off.
"Seifer you might as well try it. We can't go around Timber as ourselves, Galbadia would be suspicious."
Seifer scowled and looked distastefully at the thin glasses on the counter of the store.
Grumbling the whole time, he slipped them on and looked at himself in the mirror.
"Not bad, I guess it could be worse." He grimaced at his reflection before turning to Quistis. "And what are you doing for a disguise?"
She removed her glasses and quickly braided her long blonde hair.
"I'll get some new clothes and some contacts and that should do it. You could let your hair grow out a little and try growing a goatee," she suggested.
He nodded hesitantly and turned back to the cashier.
They paid for the glasses and got Quistis some contacts and left the store.
"Where to now?" he asked as they walked up the sidewalk of Balamb.
"There," she said, pointing up the road to a clothing store.
They went in and began to peruse the selection.
When they came out Seifer was in possession of a new trench coat, a black one this time, and several new outfits. Quistis also had a new wardrobe and had jokingly gotten herself a white trench coat to complement Seifer's.
"Alright, now where?" Seifer questioned.
"Um, we're meeting everyone in the train station in fifteen minutes," she replied, checking her watch.
He nodded and they trekked up the sidewalk towards the train station. When they arrived their friends had not shown up so they sat down on one of the benches in the station.
They had left the Garden after dinner and gone into town to go shopping. The rest of the group was bringing their bags to the station to meet them.
It was now nine-thirty at night and their friends were meeting them before their train arrived at ten.
When the group got to the station they found Seifer and Quistis sitting on a bench leaning over a file folder. Quistis would point out something on the pages inside and Seifer would nod or shake his head and point to something else on the page.
Squall and Zell were carrying their bags and the rest were behind them holding packages.
"What're those?" Seifer asked, indicating the boxes Selphie and Rinoa were holding.
"Oh, we got you guys some housewarming presents," Rinoa explained.
Selphie handed her parcel to Seifer and Rinoa gave hers to Quistis.
Quistis slowly opened hers, looking puzzled.
Seifer quickly ripped through the paper and tore open the box. Inside was a stereo with a CD player.
He looked up with a smirk. The girls shrugged and grinned.
"We thought you guys could use it at your house."
Quistis' box contained a travel CD player and headphones and several of Quistis' favorite CDs.
"Hey, we know ya'll aren't going to get along, so we figured we might as well give you each a way to listen to your own thing. And you both have to share both of them."
Seifer mocked pouting and stuck his tongue out at the two girls.
"Yes ma'am."
Rinoa and Selphie grinned and Squall and Zell handed over Seifer and Quistis' bags.
They gave their tickets to the conductor and the door opened to let them on board. The girls all hugged and the guys shook hands before the two blondes boarded the train and entered their cabin.
"It's gonna be a few hours before we get there, so we might as well get some sleep," Quistis told him as they settled on the couch in the cabin.
He nodded and moved to the bed that was attached to the wall.
Each of them lay down and prepared to sleep. They were on their way to overthrow a dictatorial government.
They would need all the rest they could get.
AN: I know the title says the train leaves at midnight but I was just borrowing the title from that old song 'Midnight Train to Georgia' (I don't own it.)
Please Review!
Next Chapter: Seifer and Quistis meet their contact and begin their jobs as spys!