Nida suddenly felt very dizzy. As the floor suddenly seemed to be rocking under him, he stumbled briefly while trying to find his balance again. When he did, he noticed that the others seemed to have been similarly affected, and were looking around or clutching their heads in confusion.

Except Squall. Squall didn't seem to be there at all.

In his disorientation, Seifer had unwittingly released his grip on an also disoriented Deling. The president, seeing his chance but not quite seeing the exit, bolted into a run in the general direction of the hallway, too quickly for Seifer or Quistis to stop him. Zell yelped, but Deling proved to be quite a fast runner and was past the SeeD before he could react.

Then he tripped over Nida's foot, which he had also not seen.

Seifer was back on him in an instant, putting an end to that excitement. "Nice try, President," he said, trying to sneer but not quite succeeding. Nida knew Seifer mostly by reputation, but he could tell the non-SeeD had been thrown off his game.

"...Is that the real President Deling?" asked Rinoa.

"Does that mean Seifer captured the President?" asked Zell. "Dammit, that's our job!"

"Seifer, I can't believe it!" exclaimed Rinoa. "This is amazing! I...!" She raised her arms as if wanting to hug him, but was unable to as Seifer was physically restraining the Galbadian president.

"You don't know how much trouble you're all in!" Deling blustered. "Whatever organization you represent won't survive the week should anything happen to me. The Galbadian army will crush any forces of insurrection."

"Yeah, you've been trying!" said Rinoa. "But Timber won't ever rest until we have our freedom, and to think otherwise is just...dumb!"

Nida's eyebrows involuntarily shot up.

"Hold on a moment," Quistis said. She was frowning at the space in the room where Squall had last been, which now looked just like any other part of the room, especially in the sense that Squall was not there. "Did anyone see what happened to Squall?"

"Who?" asked Rinoa.

"...He was right there, wasn't he?" Nida pointed to the spot Quistis had been staring at, as if that was information she didn't have. Mentally he reprimanded himself for acting so dense.

"He was," Quistis agreed. "I didn't see him leave, but he's obviously not here anymore. It doesn't make sense." She shook her head. "Suddenly I have this awful feeling; I don't quite understand it, but..."

"Oh, was Squall that guy in black?" asked Rinoa.

"Hey!" snapped Seifer, who was struggling to keep a now-squirming Deling in his grip. "Could all of you shut up for a second and notice we've got a situation here?"

The others, rather dazed by the cumulative effect of the past sixty seconds, complied. For a few moments, silence hung in the room.

Then Selphie came running down the hall accompanied by Watts. "Guys, guess what!" said Selphie by way of greeting, before she skidded to a halt upon seeing the gathering they had assembled. "Heey, what's going on here?"

"Is that President Deling, sirs?" asked Watts. "Excellent job, sirs! Mission accomplished, sirs!"

"Um..." Judging by her expression, Rinoa had forgotten that the purpose of this particular mission had been to declare Timber's independence, not capture Deling. "That's right! We've finally struck a major blow for Timber's freedom!" She looked to Nida and Zell. "...What should we do now?"

"...We probably shouldn't stay here," said Nida. "The Galbadians will come looking for him. Plus –" this place is really creeping me out, he nearly added. "– we could use some time to figure out what just happened here."

"So you wanna run away?" demanded Seifer. "You want to go and hide and take guesses about what's going on? Squall just disappeared from right in front of us; what do you suppose will happen with him while you sit around and do your thinking?"

"Hey, I bet you're the one who got him into this to start with!" accused Zell. "What right d'you have, actin' like we don't care and you do?"

"Stop it!" snapped Quistis. "We don't have time to argue! Both of you, act your age for once!"

Nida blinked. While he didn't know Instructor Trepe well, she was hardly notorious for her temper. Seifer expressing any brand of concern for Squall was unexpected as well, especially a day after the two had nearly killed each other.

"Oh!" Watts literally jumped, apparently remembering something important. "New info, sir! The Galbadians have located our base on the tracks outside of town! It's been destroyed!"

"What!" exclaimed Rinoa. "Is anyone hurt?"

"Everyone escaped, ma'am," Watts assured her. "But now there's a manhunt on! We'd better keep a low profile, sir!"

Keeping a lower profile than a giant yellow railroad engine with RAIDERS painted on the side shouldn't be too hard, Nida thought. Nonetheless, the concept of a manhunt being on for them even before they captured the president was not a happy one. "We should keep off the streets," he said. "Is there an underground exit to the building?"

"Uh..." Rinoa said. "No, I don't think so. We'll have to use the back alley again."

"There weren't any guards there, sir!" Watts said. "Since it's closed off, they might not even know about it!"

"Heey," said Selphie. "If the Galbadians have got Squall, then we've got their president as a hostage! Can't we use him as, like, a negotiating tool or something?"

"My government does not negotiate with terrorists," said Deling. "You're wasting your time."

"'Terrorists!'" Rinoa said indignantly. Stepping up to the president, she added, "Anyway, it's your time to waste as well as ours, Mr. President. So I don't really care. Team—" she turned around to face the others, including those who weren't actually in her team. "Let's move out."

After a few seconds spent looking at each other, the others began to wander down the hall, although it wasn't clear that any of them actually knew what their plan of action was.

"...So where are we going?" Zell asked.

- - - — - - -

The Forest Fox's leader was understandably surprised by the entourage of Forest Owls, SeeDs and Galbadian president-for-life who managed to jimmy open her back door without (quite) knocking it off its hinges in the process. "Oh, my!" she exclaimed upon seeing them. "Rinoa, is that—?"

"Vinzer Deling, the one and only!" Watts declared proudly. "We've captured the President of Galbadia, ma'am!"

"I hope it's okay if we stay here," said Rinoa. "Yours was the closest place, and soldiers are out looking for us, so—"

"Of course," said the woman, nodding vigorously. "You can use our basement. It's a little damp, but it's the best I can think of." She led them to a door that creaked slightly as she opened it, revealing a stairway under a naked light bulb leading into an unlit room. "You're welcome to stay here for as long as you need," she said, pulling the chain to turn on the light and illuminate the box-filled basement at the bottom of the stairs. "Make yourselves at home. I'll let you know if anything changes."

Rinoa nodded. "Thanks, chief."

Seifer practically carried Deling down the stairs; though the president was mostly worn out on protesting by now, he would still put up some struggle whenever it seemed the most inconvenient for his captors. Rinoa found a metal folding chair they could tie him to, but the only thing they could find to secure him with was a roll of duct tape, which they applied liberally to his arms and legs. This got him complaining again, particularly about the state of his apparently expensive suit; but everyone ignored him.

"So," Rinoa said, once the president had been secured. "What do we do now?"

Quistis opened her mouth to speak, but thought better. "Can we talk upstairs?" she asked, glancing at Deling.

Rinoa frowned, glancing at the President herself. "...Okay. Someone should watch him, though."

"We'll do it!" exclaimed the older of the Forest Fox leader's sons, who had been watching from the top of the stairs.

"Yeah!" affirmed the younger. "We'll watch him real close, and if he tries to escape, we'll give 'im a spanking!"

Nida got the impression that Rinoa was actually considering this. "I dunno," he said. "Maybe one of us should—"

"Aw, c'mon!" said the older boy. "We'll do great! We wanna help save Timber's future, too!"

"Sure," Rinoa decided. "But be careful, and don't let him trick you!"

"We won't!" the younger boy promised earnestly. With this assurance, the four SeeDs, Seifer and Rinoa retired to the main floor of the house.

"Seifer, what are you doing here?" Rinoa asked as they were climbing the stairs. "Garden didn't send you, did they?"

"Seifer isn't a SeeD," Quistis said. "He convinced Squall to join him, then broke out of the Disciplinary Room, injured many and stole Garden property to get here."

"So I wasn't going to sit around like a Grat while you dictated my life for another year," Seifer shot back. "And what the hell is this, anyway? Three rookie SeeDs against the whole Galbadian Army?"

Nida did wonder if it was better with two students who couldn't even pass the SeeD exam, but that seemed like a rather mean thing to say out loud.

"I need to get Seifer back to Garden," said Quistis. "Cid needs to know what's happened to Squall, and we can't have random elements disrupting a mission."

"Oh, like hell you will!" Seifer snapped. "You got something to say to me, Instructor? How about saying it to my face?"

Quistis fixed a cold stare on him, but before she could say anything, there was a forceful knocking on the house's front door.

"Anybody in here?" demanded a rough voice with a distinct Galbadian accent.

The Forest Fox leader hurried to the door, bracing it shut with both hands as she peered through the peephole. "What is this? I have two small children in here; don't do anything to frighten them!"

"Quick, hide!" said the leader's daughter, grabbing Zell's arm and pulling him toward the stairs. "Some of you can come upstairs, but hurry!"

The group hastily organized their retreat.