Disclaimer : I don't own anything.

Note : WheN YOU see tYPing liKe this, It's on purpose.

To Ultimuus and JuseaPeterson, I'm glad you like my fic. Thank you for your encouraging comments.

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(Train to Timber)

A beeping noise sounded and I frowned to myself. I felt like I was lying on something that was bouncing a bit, and I could hear an engine. Remembering what happened, I cracked my eyes open, wincing at the bright light that seeped in.

"Next stop, Timber…Timber…"

I groaned and placed a hand to my forehead, realizing it was my gloved hand and I was back in my body. Slowly standing up, I noticed Dustin and Marah both awake, but looking a little groggy, and very confused.

"Next stop, Timber…Timber…" the computerized voice of the train called out.

I shook my head, forcing away the last remnants of sleep and looked at them with a frown. "Were we…asleep?"

"Maybe someone released sleeping gas?" Dustin suggested with a frown of his own. "There's lots of people who resent SeeD."

Maybe. I thought to myself as I shrugged. Better be careful.

Marah looked over herself and patted down her pockets, and checked her nun chucks. "Am I missing anything?" she asked out loud, shaking her head happily after a moment. "Anyone hurt?"

"…I don't think so." I said, looking to Dustin and checking myself, feeling relieved to find everything in place.

"What a relief!" she sighed as she walked over to sit on the bottom of the bunks. "Everything's cool with me." She giggled a bit. "I had such a nice dream!"

I had a dream, too. I thought with a silent groan as I looked away. It wasn't nice though…

"The train will be arriving in Timber shortly. For those getting off, please be sure to have all your belongings." the computerized voice said pleasantly.

I dreamt I was a moron.

"But seriously…" Marah continued. "Sir Tommy was so cool!"

I felt my eyes widen and spun to face her, noticing that Dustin did the same.

"Hey!" he cried. "There was a Tommy in my dream, too! He's a Galbadian Soldier, right?"

"Tommy, Jason and Zack…" I mused out loud, watching as Marah and Dustin both looked at me in shock.

Frowning, Marah shook her head. "There's no way we can understand this… Let's just concentrate on our first mission." she said seriously.

I guess you're right… "We'll put this incident on hold. I'll report it to the Headmaster when we get back to Garden." I said firmly.

"We should be there soon, eh?" Dustin put in, getting up and punching the air a few times before strutting out of the room. "Here we go…better psyche yourself up, baby!" he called with a grin as he headed out.

Marah nodded and stood up before swaying a bit and yawning. "Phew…still sleepy." she said as she rubbed her eyes and headed out of the cabin.

(Timber Train)

Remaining quiet, I followed them out of the cabin, and once the train stopped, the train as well. We were dropped off at a small station in a less crowded part of Timber, and as we descended the stairs, a man ran up to us.

He was wearing a green coat over a white shirt and black pants, and black gloves on his hands. He had short brown hair and hazel eyes. "Oh, the forests of Timber sure have changed." he said in a conversational tone.

I had half a mind to say the wrong password, just to see his response, but with a sigh, nodded. "But the Owls are still around."

He smiled broadly and nodded. "Welcome to Timber, sir. Please come this way, sir." he said as he ran off.

Following him silently, we entered another train, and watched as a blonde man with blue eyes half hidden behind glasses, walked in with a nod.

"So, you guys are SeeDs?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

I nodded. "I'm the Squad leader, Shane. This is Marah and Dustin." I introduced.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Billy, the leader of the Forest Owls." he said in return.

"Let's get on with it, then. What so we do?" I asked, wanting to get right to business.

"Just take it easy." Billy insisted. "Let me introduce you. You've already met Bridge, and I guess that just leaves our princess."

"It's the princess' nap time, sir." Bridge said firmly.

"Ahh, man… Hey Shane, sorry but, could you go get the princess? She's in the last room up those stairs. Some of my men are in a room on the way, ask 'em if you get lost." Billy instructed.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I looked at him with a frown. "…Were we hired to run errands? Well?" I demanded.

"A-Are you angry?!" he cried, his eyes going wide.

I looked at the door and sighed. We're not gophers…we're SeeDs…elite mercenaries… "This is the last time for something like this." I growled before stalking up the stairs and through a doorway.

"Ooooouuuch!"

I turned back at the loud groan and watched as Billy hunched over, against a wall, clutching at his midsection. Bridge didn't look at all worried or surprised, so I'm guessing it happened all the time.

"My stomach…" he groaned as he sat against the wall.

Shaking my head, I headed to the hallways and raised an eyebrow when I saw all of two rooms along it. Get lost? I thought incredulously. They actually though I'd get lost here?

"…Whatever…" I continued on and soon came upon the last room. Looking around as I entered, I noticed it was very….pink. The walls, the ceiling, and the bed were all coated with pink, and on the bed laid a girl in blue.

Isn't that…

My thoughts were interrupted when she groaned slightly and rolled over, slowly sitting up until her eyes focused on me. I watched as her eyes widened before she suddenly began to smile. "Hey…you're…! You know, from the party…" she said slowly as she stared at me. "So…does that mean…you're a SeeD?"

I nodded. "I'm Shane, the Squad leader. There's two others with me."

I was going to continued, but before I had a chance, she launched herself off the bed and hugged me tightly, the force causing me to spin before I placed my hands on my shoulders and pushed her away. What the hell?!

"YEEEESSSSSS! SeeD is here!" she cried excitedly.

Barely able to keep from smiling as she skipped around her room, I blinked for a moment. Sure, she was cute, but I wasn't used to having girls launch themselves at me, or watching them skip around, happy that soldiers were sent to them. "Take it easy."

"It's just that… I'm so happy!" she said as she sat on the edge of her bed. "I've been sending requests to Garden forever, but nothing… I'm so glad I spoke to Cid directly." she said smiling, but her eyes seemed pained at the reminder of the dance, and her smile was obviously forced.

"Oh, so you were looking for the headmaster at the party." I said indifferently. She didn't remind me of a SeeD.

She shook her head before looking pained and confused. "You know Blake?"

I felt my whole body stiffen up as I nodded warily. "…Yeah…"

"Well, he's the one who introduced me to….Kanoi."

I caught her hesitation to say our Headmaster's name, but chose not to question it at the moment.

"Kanoi's such a nice man." she continued, smiling for real now. "I really didn't think SeeD would come out to help a measly little group like us, but after explaining our situation to him, Kanoi gave the go ahead right away! Now that you guys are here, we'll be able to carry out all sorts of plans!"

"I'm going back to the others." I said.

She nodded. "Ok, let's go! Um, Shane? Is… Is he here?"

He? I thought in confusion.

The girl sighed. "Blake."

Oh. I shook my head. "…No. He's not a SeeD."

At this she looked disappointed. "…Oh." Then her eyes widened. "Oh yeah, my name's Kapri Heartily."

I noticed an almost invisible wince at the mention of her last name and she immediately pushed it aside and walked to the door.

"Very pleased to meet you, Shane." she said, turning back to me from the doorway. "SeeD members dance quite well, don't they?" she asked, a teasing glint in her eyes.

"Approach your target inconspicuously at a dance party…" I quipped as seriously as I could. "There may be missions requiring this sort of subterfuge. It's expected of SeeD to learn various skills."

"Oh…" Once again, she looked disappointed. "So it's work related. That's too bad." Turning, she left the room and with a sigh, I followed her.

Once we rejoined the others, I moved to my team mates and introduced them to Kapri.

She nodded vigorously and waved. "Hi everyone! This way."

Leading us into a strategy room, we all spaced ourselves out and listened to what was going on. Apparently, we were to kidnap a V.I.P by ambushing their train. President Vinzer Deling would be aboard a second train. Our job was to jump the train, unlock his car from all the others, wait for our train to come in and hook up to his, then go down and confront him with the help of Kapri.

President of Galbadia. They planned to negotiate the liberation of Timber.

But somehow I felt, this wasn't going to work. Something was going to go horribly wrong. It didn't help to find that this resistance group was so small and unorganized that they grouped together on the floor to plan missions.

Apparently, we only had five minutes to accomplish the mission, and though Marah thought it'd be too easy, I was glaring at her to shut the hell up, because honestly, even I didn't think 5 minutes was enough, but since it was orders, I wasn't going to argue. Remaining silent, I looked at the watch on my wrist and set the timer for five minutes before leaving it so I just had to set the countdown to begin whenever I wanted.

And lastly, Kapri decided she was going to be the one to relay the codes to uncouple the cars to me, and I would be the one dangling by a rope, entering the codes while trying not to fall to my death.

"By the way, the model's nice but the president's car looks kinda shabby. Why is that?" Marah asked in confusion.

Bridge nodded with a grin. "Yeah, Kapri made it. That's why. We bought everything else at the gift store."

"Uh…" Dustin gave her a sheepish look. "I thought some kid made it. The pain job sucks, too."

I raised an eyebrow, checking out the model and had to agree he was right. Yeah… It kind of does.

"Oh, shut up!" Kapri pouted. "I made it like that on purpose! It's represents my hatred to president Deling."

"Hatred, eh…? Yeah…Right." Dustin said, biting back a snicker.

Marah nodded with a grin of her own. "It's one of the…ugliest things I've ever seen! You must really hate him."

"Are you guys finished?!" Kapri demanded, glaring angrily at us. "Enough with the model! Can we get on with it now?"

We were supposed to decide on a party, but in the end, Billy and Bridge more or less left, making it just the four of us. Heading out, we stationed ourselves on the roof of our train as we approached the other. As we neared it, I ran forward, leading my team and jumped across, landing safely on the other side. Setting my watch to count down from 5 minutes we began to run across the car.

We stopped above a blue soldier, making sure the sensor he was checking, wouldn't show us, and once over a red soldier, took off as fast as we could so that his sensor wouldn't pick us up.

Then, we had to uncouple the first car.

It took three codes, and me dodging soldiers that walked back and forth. Twice, I almost got caught, but managed to side back up the rope and stay in safety. In the end, we manage to uncouple the back car, and had to run ahead. Next, was uncoupling the front car, but this time, I didn't have Marah or Dustin to warn me of approaching guards because they were at the back, waiting for the other train to catch up.

I had to use five codes, but managed to get it done and met Kapri on the top of the train before we ran across to an opening and dropped down, waiting until Dustin and Marah joined us.

Billy and Bridge met us with joyous grins and everything seemed to be going well.

So why can't I shake the feeling that something's going to go horribly wrong?

They praised us and ran off before Kapri could recruit them to join us. Sighing, she turned to us. "You 3! Let me know when you're ready and we'll begin serious negotiations with the president!"

Serious negotiations? Oh boy… I thought dryly, checking to make sure I had all my weapons and items.

We walked to the president's car, where Kapri immediately confronted the man sitting in the booth. Sensing that something wasn't right, I quietly drew my gunblade and kept an eye out for danger.

"President Deling!" Kapri stated in a firm, and surprisingly strong voice. "As long as you…don't resist, you won't…get hurt." she said, the hesitation in her voice clearly audible and showing she wasn't as strong as she acted.

Rolling my eyes, I watched as he shifted a bit before responding. "And if I do resist… What would you do…? Young lady?" he asked, his voice halting as he turned to face her.

Kapri's eyes went wide and she took a step back as her face paled.

"What's wrong?" I demanded, feeling more and more that we were in danger.

"Boo-hoo." the president stated mockingly as he stood up. "Too bad… I'm not the president. I'm what they call…a body double."

I took a step forward as he turned more and took a step towards Kapri and she took another step back. This revealed that his face was unusually pale ad his eyes were red.

"All these rumors about resistance factions in Timber… You pass on a little false information and they fall for it… Seems like there's only amateurs here…"

"Ama…teurs…?" Kapri asked, a look of hurt and fear in her eyes.

His body suddenly jerked as he grinned evilly. "Ahh…my butt hurts from all the sitting….Young LADY." his body jerked again. "So…what did you have in stORE for me had I resiSTED?" His body was jerking more violently now as he took another step forward. "Why doN'T you teLL mE? QuITE aMUsing though…for beING such amAtEurs…!! HoW daRe YOU InSUlt tHe presIDent?" he cried, swinging his arms at Kapri who ducked under them and backed up against a wall.

Running forward, Marah, Dustin and I blocked his path to her, our weapons drawn. He grinned before attacking me, but I swung my blade, cutting him across the midsection as he backed off.

"You…fELL…For…IT!" he cried as he ran forward and ducked under Marah's nun chucks to take a bite out of her arm.

Running forward, I slashed him with my gunblade before jumping back, and Dustin took my place, punching at the monster's face before kicking him in the gut. Marah followed last, lashing her nun chucks out and hitting him in the side of the head.

As we watched, he stumbled a moment before his body began to convulse really violently, and a glowing seal formed beneath him. He began to bend in ways humans shouldn't have been able to, and his body began to decay and smoke as it sunk into the glowing seal, more and more steam rising as we gagged on the smell of rotting flesh.

Once he was gone, there was a blinding flash of light and we watched as a skeletal head lifted out, the body that rose, being no where near human. One arm was extremely skinny and boney, and the other was a mass of pulsating flesh with red and blue veins running along it. The smell of decay grew as the body rose higher and one leg looked to be horribly mutated and was very thick with masses of flesh all over it, and the other, like the arm, was all skin and bone.

What the hell? I thought in disgust as he growled and stomped forward.

"He's an undead!" Kapri called.

That meant healing magic would damage him. But at the same time, he also held strong status magics in him. Closing my eyes, I drew zombie and confuse magics from him before focusing on the Cura spell and casting it.

The monster roared angrily as it fell back a bit, part of it's face melting a bit.

Dustin ran forward, punching and kicking him powerfully before being thrown across the room when it swung it's thicker arm at him. Marah countered by casting a Cure spell, and I watched as Kapri ran over and used a phoenix down to revive Dustin before casting cure on him to heal him. Joining us, she raised her arm, a crossbow being strapped to it, before whistling.

A large dog ran through a portal that had opened and stood beside her as she pulled out a doggie treat and placed it on his nose. A white light surrounded us all, and I felt a shield being formed around us as the dog ate the treat before barking and running off.

Raising her hands again, Kapri aimed well and hit the monster between the eyes with a well placed bolt.

I focused again and cast another Cura on it as Dustin and Marah followed with Cures, and Kapri finished with a Cura of her own.

The monster gave a final roar before his body began to sway violently and shake as he melted away. A large pile of steam rose up as his body melted into nothing, and he slowly dissolved.

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I didn't go through all the dialog, because I found it supremely boring to listen to in the game itself. Thus, the reason I tried to briefly explain the mission.

Also, I know I said it'd be a while until my next update, and I meant it, but I came across some time and decided to make good use of it. Starting tomorrow, I'll have less time and energy, but I absolutely HATE the idea of leaving my readers with an unfinished story.

My muse is drifting towards Resident Evil (the games) right now, but I vowed to myself that I wouldn't get into that until I finish this story that is incomplete and posted.

So I have two chapters update at the moment, and am working on the fic more. If it takes me a week or two to update, please don't think I've abandoned this fic because if I have, not only would I say so, I'd remove it within a week in case someone else wanted to try the same idea and actually finish it. But again, I don't like starting a story, posting it and not finishing it, so I'm using any and all spare time to work on this.

Just so you know, there are four parts to the script that I'm following. I'm about halfway through the first, so that should give you an idea about how long this fic will be. Probably close to the same lengths as Of Rangers and Guardians, and Saving Spira Again.

Hope you like it.

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" Man, I can't believe the president was a fake!"

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R+R please.

Thank you everyone.

Tenshi