CHAPTER 6 – Timber

Squall, Selphie and Quistis were given a special room on the train to Timber. Selphie figured it was because they were all girls, but Quistis assured her that it was because SeeD had a reserved room on the train car right behind First Class.

Squall laid down on one of the two beds in the room. It felt weird to her to be laying on a bed away from Shibiru, but she also felt relieved that she was away from guys for a little while. She never would have believed this before, but sometimes guys were just too much to handle.

"So," Selphie said, laying down next to her, "what's Shibi like in bed?"

Squall frowned. "I don't fuck and tell," she said. "Besides, it's not like you'll ever meet a guy who'll compare to him."

"Oh, so he's that good?" Selphie asked, giggling.

Squall couldn't help but break into giggles, too. "Yeah," she said, "that good." She looked over at Quistis, who was smiling. Maybe Selphie and me are acting stupid.

Squall turned over on her side, facing away from Selphie. "What'sa matter?" Selphie asked. "Am I ugly or somethin'?"

"I'm gonna try and sleep," Squall said. "I couldn't last night."

"Oh, because you and Shibi were, uh..."

"Yeah, we were."

Hours later, and the Timber stop had finally arrived. Squall and Selphie had each fallen asleep on the bed, and both had—according to Quistis—been a pain in the ass to wake up. Squall wasn't surprised about herself—with that weird dream and sex with Shibiru both, she was surprised she'd slept at all that night.

Squall and Selphie stood behind Quistis as some weird looking guy wearing a short sleeve shirt, shorts and a blue skull cap walked up to her. "Hey, you gals lookin' for a good time?" he asked, nervously.

Quistis said, "No. We're here to do some owl watching."

"Oh, owls. Those are a pain in the ass to watch."

"No kidding. Especially female owls."

The weird guy smiled. "Follow me," he said.

The three girls looked at one another. Selphie whispered. "Should we really go with this guy?"

Squall: "I don't think so, either. He gives me the heebies."

Quistis: "We'll never know if we don't try, y'know." She looked at Squall. "Did you just say the 'heebies'?"

Squall rolled her eyes. "Whaddya expect? I've been hanging around with her"—she pointed at Selphie—"too much."

It was Quistis' turn to roll her eyes. "Look, we'll just follow him and if need be, we'll take him down if he tries to screw with us."

Selphie laughed. "Yeah, 'cuz Squall's got a boyfriend back home to 'screw' with!"

Squall stuck out her tongue and followed Quistis, who followed Mr. Creepy. Eventually, they arrived at a train that was stopped on the tracks. Mr. Creepy knocked on the door. "Zone! Lemme in! I got me some pretties here!"

Squall watched him carefully. From the sound of things, it was about to get real ugly. "Really? Three of 'em?"

"Yep."

"C'mon in!" The door opened and Squall pushed Mr. Creepy inside the train car. She knocked Mr. Creepy down in front of his friend—Zone—and jumped on him. Then she drew her gunblade and held it to Zone's neck. "Whoa! Whoa! Lady! We're the Timber Owls!"

Squall lowered her gunblade in amazement and dumbfoundedness. "You're the Owls? But, how come..."

Squall shut up when a girl about her age, wearing nothing but a pair of boots walked into the room. Her long black hair hung to her mid back. She stopped at the entrance to the room and put her hands on her hips. "Watts... have you been causing trouble again?" She shook her head and pouted. "God... We'll, I'm Rinoa Heartily, leader of the Timber Owls. If you'll allow me a moment to get dressed, I'll explain the situation." With that, she closed the door and her receding footsteps could be heard.

Squall couldn't contain herself. "No wonder you guys tried to sneak us on here like we were your hookers—your boss is naked half the time and you don't get any action."

"Squall!" Quistis shouted.

"Sorry..."

"Look, we look up to Rinoa," Zone said, helping his buddy up. "She's fighting back against the Galbadians."

Squall giggled. "Yeah, I bet you do look up to her when she's probably got you on your knees eating her out."

Selphie started giggling. Quistis looked like she wanted to, but knew that she shouldn't at the same time. The three girls sat down on a bench opposite the door they'd entered through. Ten minutes later, Rinoa returned to the car dressed in a blue dress over top of a black undershirt. Unlike the three SeeD divas, she was showing very little cleavage.

"So, you're the three SeeDs that Headmaster Cid said he'd send?"

Quistis stood up. "Yes. My name is Quistis Trepe. The loudmouth," she looked at Squall, "is Squall Leonhart, and the giggle-head," this time she looked at Selphie, "is Selphie Tilmit."

"It's nice to meet you."

"So, how come you asked for three girls?" Squall stood up and asked.

Rinoa looked over at her. "Which one of you is the squad leader?"

Quistis stepped in front of Squall. "I am. Squall's just... well, she asks a lot of questions."

"I can't blame her." Rinoa took a deep breath. "Look, this mission won't be something you'll like to do, but it needs to be done, and I needed female operatives for this." She walked down the hallway, then turned around and motioned for everyone to follow. She continued when everyone was in a room that had a large model. "This train here," she pointed to the train on the model, "represents President Deling's personal train. Few people know this, but whenever he makes a public appearance, President Deling hires women to come to a party he holds for his closest associates."

Squall almost broke out laughing. "So my little hooker comment earlier wasn't far off? You actually do want us basically sell ourselves to Deling's administration?"

"I said it would be something you wouldn't wanna do."

"Oh, believe me, you ain't kiddin' there, sister."

Quistis smacked Squall on the back of the head. "Squall! Just listen, damn it!" She shook her head. "Go on, Rinoa."

"Um, actually, Squall explained it. We're gonna sneak onto Deling's car as prostitutes and get information out of him about why the Galbadians are moving in on other territories."

Selphie asked, "So the Dollet invasion was only part of a bigger game? Galbadia's moving in on other areas?"

Quistis answered, "Headmaster Cid brought this up at the last SeeD captain meeting." She walked over to the model. "How are we going to do this?" she asked Rinoa.

"Well, we've got some clothes for our infiltration. All we need to do is wait for the train to stop here in Timber, and get onboard and—"

Squall cut her off, "Seduce our way to the top?"

Quistis looked at her. "Speak again, and I'm going to dock you some of the pay."

"I'm just sayin' it like it is."

"Look, Squall, I'm not too happy about this plan either, okay? It's just what we've got to do." She looked over at Rinoa. "It's what we're being paid to do."

Three hours later, Squall, Selphie, Quistis and Rinoa were dressed and waiting. Squall in a fishnet top, miniskirt and five inch heels; Selphie in a belt (the only thing she had up top), a thong and similar shoes; Quistis had on a similar fishnet top that Squall had, plus a pair of booty shorts and four inch heels; and Rinoa was wearing three bandages (Squall had expressed her condolences for when those had to be taken off) and six inch spike heels. Watts and Zone weren't allowed to see them afterward, for reasons Squall accepted without hesitation.

They met the Galbadian emissary, who eyed them all before leading them into the train car that held President Deling's party. Squall looked around the car and saw every bigwig in the Galbadian government. The mayor of Timber was also in attendance, along with the manager of the TV Station.

Headmaster Martine, of Galbadia Garden, walked up to Deling. "Mr. President, how nice to see you."

"Headmaster Martine."

"The students at Garden have been waiting for you to give another speech since the announcement of the War."

War? Squall didn't understand it. There hadn't been a war announcement since the team had left Balamb.

"Yes, I know. I'll be out there shortly after the announcement I have to make at the TV Station this afternoon."

"Announcement?"

"One the whole world will be surprised to see."

Deling smiled at Martine's shocked face. After that, he looked around at the guests and the young women he'd hired for the afternoon's festivities. One in particular caught his attention. She was a brunette, fishnet top and a miniskirt. She reminded him of someone, but he couldn't remember who.

"Attendant," he said to the nearest one, "bring me that girl."

Squall was busy trying not to lose her temper at the people who didn't know she had a boyfriend when an attendant walked up to her. "Excuse me... miss," she could tell that part was added on, "President Deling requests your presence."

"Mine?"

"Yes."

That's weird, she thought.

Squall followed the attendant to President Deling and found her knees wanting to give out on her. She didn't want to be anywhere near him. Rinoa's plan was to wait for Deling's party to end, then capture him and replace him with duplicate.

She and the attendant arrived at President Deling and he sent the attendant away. "You name, miss?"

"My name, sir?" Squall asked, shocked that he'd addressed her. I thought he just wanted me over here to fuck me in front of everybody. "My name, uh, sir..."

"C'mon, girl, spit it out. I didn't think women like you concealed anything."

Oh, I want to stick my gunblade into your face nice and slow.

"My name is Squall Leonhart, sir."

"Leonhart... Leonhart—ah! Related to Raine Leonhart?"

"Yeah, she was my mother."

"I always heard she'd had two daughters before her death. Are you the younger sister or the older one?"

Wait, what? Mom had another daughter? "I didn't even know I had a sister. She died shortly after I was born." Another question entered her mind shortly after that: Wait, what? I was born a girl?

"So, the younger sister." He smiled and nodded at his two aides. Then, he turned to his party goers. "I thank you all for coming, but some urgent business has come to my attention and I need to take care of it. My attendants will escort you out of the train and back to your respective places. Thank you, all."

Squall didn't understand. Why were they all being ushered out of the train? Rinoa, Quistis and Selphie remained, however, not even being asked to leave. Squall turned back to the President and asked, "What's going on?"

"Did you really think I didn't know about this little operation against me? And to think, even a native Galbadian is in attendance."

Quistis walked up to Squall. "Native Galbadian?"

Squall shrugged. "I didn't know."

The President looked past them straight at Rinoa. "Ms. Heartily, will you please come here?"

Rinoa walked toward him with a confidence that Squall didn't understand at all. She looked as if she was about to lead a war charge. When she reached the President, she brought herself to her full height, accentuated by the high heels she was wearing. "What do you want?"

"You had to know that your line of information came directly from my office. How didn't you expect this?"

"Who says I didn't?"

Squall stepped between them. "What the hell is going on here?" She turned to the President. "How do you know my mom, and how do you know I have a sister when I don't know about it?" Turned to Rinoa. "And if you planed for something like this, why the hell didn't you tell any of us?"

The President laughed, but it wasn't a human laugh. It was like a throaty-snarl kind of laugh. "Good thing the real President had me here to be the bait for him." He laughed again, then his head split apart. It became a large vertical mouth with hundreds of sharp teeth jutting out. Two beady eyes stared at Squall like tiny black holes. His arms split into masses of writhing tentacles. His legs split into eight stick-like spider legs. It nearly made Squall puke. "Ready to join your mommy, Leonhart?"

Squall was scared. Nothing before had ever made her this frightened, though somehow the feeling was familiar. The creature rose a tentacle and shot it straight at her. She crossed her arms in front of her face like a shield, waiting for the blow.

It didn't come. She opened her eyes (when had she closed them?) and saw that the tentacle was hanging there, poised to strike but it seemed unable to. "What the hell?" the creature shouted. It started pushing its tentacle into the invisible barrier between them. The tentacle split, but unlike before, this wasn't meant to happen. Blood fell on Squalls face as the creature pulled its tentacle back like an injured limb. "You little bitch!"

Squall wiped the blood from her face as the creature tried to attack again. Like before, all it did was hit an invisible barrier. This time, however, Squall stretched out her hand and concentrated. She felt something deep within, something like a long-lost power. All of the creature's tentacles began to split apart. Blood splattered everywhere. The creature's beady, black eyes turned red and bloodshot, then burst open. It cried out in excrutiating pain, then collapsed on the floor.

"Wow! Damn, Squall, you've been holding out on us!" Selphie shouted.

Quistis walked up to Squall and placed her hand on her should. "Are you okay? What was that?"

Squall simply turned to her and said, "I don't know."