"Can I see your ID, sir?" asked the Galbadian soldier as Squall and Seifer stepped off the train in Timber.

"Sure thing," Seifer replied, handing over his ID card in a quick, nonchalant motion. "What's a soldier like you playing usher for, anyway? Budget cuts back home or what?"

Most of the soldier's face was hidden behind the faceplate of his helmet, but Squall got the distinct impression that he was glowering. "Security concerns," he replied. "Had some trouble with one of the resistance factions earlier today. We've got it under control, though." He waved them through. "Carry on."

And they did so. "'Under control,'" Seifer scoffed. "These Galbadians wouldn't know a threat until it was standing there pointing a gun to their head. So they just arrest everybody who looks even halfway suspicious, and still they can't get the right guys." He shook his head. "Idiots."

"What are we doing here?" Rarely was Squall in much of a mood to put up with Seifer's rants, quips or insights. And at the moment, he was not.

Seifer grinned at him, a gesture that made Squall reflexively grit his teeth. "What's the matter, Squall? Having second thoughts?"

"I don't even know what to have second thoughts about," said Squall. "What did we come to Timber for? Why'd you bring me, but not Fujin and Raijin? Right now, I don't know anything."

I shouldn't have said that out loud, he thought, a few seconds too late.

Grinning wider, Seifer set off down the road, compelling Squall to fall into step. "How much do you know about Timber, Squall?"

Squall nearly rolled his eyes. Yes, of course Seifer would make him jump through hoops before revealing anything. "It's a city in Galbadia," he said, uninformatively.

"Not bad," said Seifer. "I can see you didn't have any problems on the written exam. Try this one, though: Timber's a city occupied by Galbadia. Been that way since the Sorceress War, and most of the resistance has been stamped out or pushed underground. Not all of it, though."

"You've come here to help the resistance factions?" asked Squall.

"Getting warmer." Seifer had come up upon a station for one of the elevated trains that ran through the city of Timber, only to find Galbadian soldiers blocking off entry. "Hey, what's going on?" he asked of them.

"All trains within the city have been shut down for the duration of President Deling's visit," replied the soldier, "in response to his attempted capture on the railroad."

Squall frowned. President Deling? Visit?

"Perfect," said Seifer, turning back to Squall. "Okay, looks like we're walking."

The gears were running in Squall's head by this point, but their end product was such that it still gave him pause. "Seifer,..." he began, once they were out of earshot of the soldiers. "Are you planning to do something to the President of Galbadia?"

Seifer just grinned.

The Forest Owls' train stopped at the same platform where the SeeDs had boarded, to permit Nida, Zell and Rinoa to disembark. Watts accompanied them onto the platform, relating info.

"...Say!" he exclaimed. "I remember now, sir! I think the TV Station is located behind a building called 'Timber Maniacs!' Please head in that direction, sir; I hope you find it!"

"...Sure," said Nida, looking around. "So which direction would that b—"

"WaaaaaaTTTS!" Zone called from aboard the train. "C'mon! The Galbadian soldiers are comin'!" To emphasize their hurry, the train began to creep away from the platform.

"Lots of guards patrolling the city now!" said Watts, oblivious as the train picked up speed without him. "Please be careful, sir!"

"Uh..." Nida began, watching as the train rolled away.

"Seems like the hotel's not available, either!" Watts continued. "Should you need to recover, use the 'Owl's Tear', sir! Heard it works wonders!"

"Yeah, okay, but..." Nida paused. "...The what?"

"I believe you can find it at the old man's house..." said Watts, unhelpfully. "...I guess you won't be needing it anyway. You're all SeeDs; you'll be fine, right, sir?"

"Well, —"

"Hey...!" Watts finally noticed that the Forest Owls' train was no longer at the platform. "Don't leave me, sirrrr!" he called, sprinting after the bright yellow engine that was disappearing into the distance.

"...Right," said Nida. Shrugging, he took note of the surrounding city, which seemed to extend to the horizon in almost every direction. "So now we have to find the Timber Maniacs building."

"I think it's just across that bridge," said Rinoa, pointing to a pedestrian bridge at the opposite end of the square.

Nida raised his eyebrows. "Oh. Well, that's convenient."

They set off in the direction of the bridge. "...So what's the deal with you guys, anyway?" asked Zell. "I mean, is your whole resistance just the guys on that train, or what?"

"The 'Forest Owls' aren't the biggest resistance around," Rinoa admitted. "Almost everybody in Timber belongs to some faction. But most of them have gone underground, and aren't taking action." She puffed up with determination, without actually looking very dramatic. "But we're not willing to stop fighting for Timber's independence; not until Galbadia leaves this country once and for all!"

"You really think you can singlehandedly fight off the entire Galbadian military?" asked Nida.

"It doesn't matter how many of us there are," said Rinoa. "What matters is how dedicated we are to the cause! And no one believes more in Timber's independence than the Forest Owls!" They were walking past a pair of Galbadian soldiers, though Rinoa didn't notice them until she had completed her declaration. When she did, she let out a little yelp and reflexively hid behind Zell.

"What was that she said?" asked one of the soldiers.

"Uh, we were just...talking," said Nida. "About the...attempted kidnapping." It occurred to him a moment later that the Galbadians might not have broadcasted news about the attempt and so maybe he shouldn't have admitted to knowledge of it; but maybe these soldiers wouldn't figure that out.

"She said something about 'independence'," said the other soldier. "What's your business in town?"

"We're...owl-spotting," said Nida. "Tourists."

"Yeah," said Zell. "And we're visiting relatives! Loyal patriotic unionist Galbadian relatives who don't support the Timber resistance at all!" Nida motioned to Zell to tone it down a bit, but he didn't seem to notice.

"There's something suspicious about these three," said the second soldier. "We'd better report it."

The next thing Nida knew, Rinoa had produced some sort of boomerang-gun and fired it directly into the first man's armored chest. "You'll never take our freedom!" she exclaimed.

Wincing at the prospect of a very public fight with a pair of Galbadians, Nida quickly drew his daggers and drove one into the first soldier's gut. The second soldier brought up his sword, but Zell was upon him before he could take action with it. Opening with a high kick to the side, Zell immediately put the soldier on the defensive; the Galbadian responded with a wild swing of his blade which Zell dodged expertly, then he caught the man's right arm with his left hand, twisted the blade out of the soldier's hand, and flipped him onto his back. He then drove his fist into the man's jaw, which either knocked him unconscious or broke his neck; it was hard to say which. The whole engagement lasted about thirteen seconds.

When it ended, Nida quickly looked around to see if anyone was rushing to raise the alarm, or kill them, or cause a general panic, or otherwise make his life more difficult than it really needed to be. What he saw, however, was little evidence that the local people had noticed the fight at all; and those who had been watching seemed to be smiling and nodding with approval. Beating up Galbadian soldiers didn't seem to be a particularly serious offense in the eyes of the locals; so Nida reasoned that as long as they could exit the scene quietly before any other troops arrived...

"Booyah!" exclaimed Zell loudly. "Who d'these Galbadians think they are, anyway? We got a right to walk around where we want, don't we?"

Nida winced. "Technically, we don't," he said. "Martial law and all. We should probably vacate the scene before the Galbadians come looking for these guys."

"We could hide out somewhere!" Rinoa suggested. "I think I know that house; that's the Forest Fox's base!" Here she pointed at a very normal-looking, two-story house near the Timber Maniacs Building. "I bet they'd be willing to help us!"

"...Sure," said Nida, sighing. "Why not?"

"Great!" Rinoa said, leading the way. "Maybe they'll make us some lunch too; I'm getting kinda hungry..."

"Hey, yeah!" Zell exclaimed. "Actually, d'you think there's any restaurants around? Don't hot dogs come from Timber, or someplace 'round here?"

Reflecting on how easily he could have just become a librarian, Nida followed.

"Hi, Rinoa," greeted the leader of the Forest Fox — who looked very much like an ordinary middle-aged homemaker — as Rinoa, Zell and Nida stepped into that faction's secret base — which looked very much like an ordinary pre-colonial Lanker kitchen. "Oh, was that you who they're saying tried to kidnap Deling? I'm impressed."

"We almost had him, too!" Rinoa lamented. "But now we've gotta get to the TV station. He's gonna make a big announcement soon, but we've got a better idea! We want to broadcast an announcement of our own, declaring Timber's independence!"

"Hey, what's going on?" asked what could be either a member of the Forest Fox or simply the woman's teenage daughter, descending the stairs and appraising the new arrivals.

"The Forest Owls have a plan to declare the independence of Timber," replied the older woman. "Speaking of which, Rinoa, I don't recognize your friends. Are they new recruits?"

"Even better!" Nida might have imagined it, but he distinctly thought that Rinoa puffed up her chest. "They're SeeDs. We had to use all the money in our Liberty Trust, but it's gonna be worth it!"

At this, both of the Forest Fox certainly looked impressed. "Wow," said the younger girl. "You guys are SeeDs? So you can, like, use magic and everything?"

"You bet!" said Zell. "Hey, I'd even give you a demonstration —" he hesitated, and one could actually see the moment when his mind caught up with his mouth. "— but, ah, I'd better not, y'know? Garden regulations; no frivolous use of magic."

"Oh," said the girl, smiling. "Too bad."

Nida wasn't quite sure if she was flirting with Zell or not, but he definitely didn't want to find out. "We should probably keep moving," he said.

"Hey, do you know the best way to get to the TV station from here?" Rinoa asked of the Forest Fox's leader, without directly acknowledging Nida. "I mean, I kinda know where it is, but I never actually had to go there before."

"No, I don't suppose you would," said the woman. "Well, the best way is by the tram, but I suppose you'll want to sneak in the back way." She frowned. "Let's see...there used to be a way through the back alley of this house. But the Pub was built around the time they stopped broadcasting; we haven't used the back alley too much since then."

"It's right behind this house?" asked Zell. "That's convenient."

"Not if there's a pub in the way," pointed out Nida.

"Why don't you look through the 2F window?" asked the woman. "You should be able to see the back alley from there."

Nida frowned. "Can't we just go out into the alley, and see it that way?" he asked.

"Well, our back door's been stuck for years," said the woman. "I guess you might be able to climb down from the 2F window, if you really wanted to."

It occurred to Nida that the woman seemed oddly intent in getting them to look through the 2F window.

"Hey, all right!" exclaimed Zell. "So we'll sneak into the alley, all secret-agent-like! That'll totally catch those Galbadians by surprise!"

Nida was starting to get used to Zell's outbursts by now, but he couldn't help wondering silently just how sneaky they would look climbing out of a window in broad daylight. "...Sure," he said. "We'll...go look out that window, then."

"Okay, my butt really hurts, guys," complained Rinoa, as the trio made their way down the alley.

"Hey, you're just lucky me 'n Nida were there to catch you," said Zell. "Otherwise you would've hit the street a lot harder!"

"If you caught me properly, I wouldn't have hit the ground at all!" Rinoa insisted. "I told you I wasn't too good at climbing down walls! Besides, aren't SeeDs supposed to have GF that make you super-strong?"

Nida could have made a joke about how much Rinoa weighed at this point, but given how obviously not heavy she was, he couldn't think of one that made sense fast enough.

"Hey, we're all okay, right?" asked Zell. "Let's just get on with the mission!"

"Uh, Zell," said Nida, more quietly. "Maybe talking about the mission out loud right now isn't the best —"

"Whoa!" Zell, cutting Nida off as they came upon the Timber TV station. The subject of his amazement was a massive, flat display screen located on the side of the building, which was currently displaying some very high-definition static. "That's an outdoor TV!"

"This is creepy," said Rinoa, staring at the sea of shifting static that resembled a constantly shifting eye-teaser photo. "What is that stuff?"

"The screen has to pick up a clear signal to translate into usable images," said Nida, dutifully ignoring his previous point as unlikely to get anywhere. "Looks like they still haven't configured their broadcast for proper reception."

"It looks kinda like a whole bunch of sand," said Zell. "Black-and-white sand, though; and maybe in an earthquake, you know what I mean?"

The oddest thing was, Nida could actually see what he meant. "...Well, we should probably find a way to get inside," he said. "That looks like a truck-loading door over there, but that might not even lead to the main building. I dunno, is this where we sneak in through an air vent?"

"What about those stairs?" asked Rinoa.

"I'd imagine the Galbadians would have guards at all the main entrances," replied Nida. "...Hey, actually, they've got to get people out to service that TV somehow, right? Maybe there's some kind of door up there?"

"Hey, yeah!" said Zell. "Let's check it out!"

"All right," said Rinoa. "We'll examine the outdoor TV. Team, let's move out!"

Ten seconds later, they were examining the outdoor TV. "Think this is it?" asked Zell, pointing to a small hatch beneath and to the right of the display screen.

"Looks like," Nida agreed. "And that's probably the control panel; we'd probably need an access code to get in, though."

"Yo, just leave that to me!" Zell insisted. "They call me 'the machine' when it comes to machinery!"

"...Okay," said Nida. "That's a computer, though."

Zell blinked. "...Yeah, well, computers are machines!" he insisted. "Sort of. Anyway, just watch!" Stepping up to the control panel, he began tentatively punching in numbers. Nida watched him, and Rinoa stood around trying to look useful while not doing anything.

"...I still don't see why I had to pay the 'climb-down fee' to those kids when you two didn't," she said, after a moment.

"...You actually paid them?" asked Nida.

Suddenly, a burst of sparks shot from somewhere behind the display screen, which went blank. This was accompanied by a metallic thud from the service hatch; and Zell, who had initially recoiled along with Nida and Rinoa at the explosion, experimentally nudged at the hatch with his foot. It slid open freely.

"See?" Zell asked triumphantly. "Told ya; nothing to it!"

"How did you short out the system just by using the..." Nida decided he didn't really want to know. "Well...let's go, then."

And the two SeeDs, accompanied by the Princess of the Forest Owls, slipped through the service hatch and into the TV station, with Nida conscientiously sliding the hatch closed behind them. About a minute later, Watts, who had been collecting information again, passed by. He ran down the alley to the Forest Fox's base, where two children were looking out from the window.

"Excuse me!" he called. "Have you seen the 'Forest Owls'? I have information to report!"

"Are we allowed to tell him?" asked the younger boy.

"We'd better charge him a 'tell-you fee'," said the older. To Watts, he said, "Tha'll be 5,000 gil, please!"

Obediently, Watts checked his wallet. "Oh, no," he said, sinking to his knees. "I can't fail the Princess, but how am I gonna get 5,000 gil?"

"Tell you what!" said the older boy. "If you can't afford it, we'll give you a special discount! Half off, so...3000 gil!"

"That better not be my half!" complained the younger boy.

"Boys!" came the sharp voice of the Forest Fox's leader. "Are you charging people fees for things again?"

"Uh-oh!" said the older brother. "Run away!"

And they both disappeared.

Watts remained, more than a little confused. "...Hello?" he said; but no one was there.