"Timber is now fully under martial law," the officer was saying. "All exits to the city have remained secure."
"Understood," replied the general, without looking up from the report on his desk. "And the search?"
"We're currently implementing Phase 3," the officer said. "Estimated completion is 1900 hours. No results so far."
"And nothing from Intelligence?"
"Not beyond their initial report. It seems the resistance may have wanted us to learn of the train hijacking, as a diversion from the actual kidnapping."
The general closed the report. "A clever plan. It seems I...that we have underestimated the Timber resistance. Even so, they have yet to announce the kidnapping, or make any demands."
The officer nodded. "They may still be on the run."
"Perhaps," the General said. "Inform me once Phase 3 is complete." The officer saluted, and turned to leave. Then, the general looked up. "Wait. There is another contingency we should consider."
"Sir?"
"With the president's status unknown, Galbadia is without a functioning government. And his kidnappers may be keeping silent because this is part of a broader terrorist operation. If so, it is imperative that the chain of command be unbroken."
To his credit, the officer hesitated only a moment before nodding. "I understand, sir. I'll begin the paperwork."
- - - - - - - -
It was a long drive from Timber to Galbadia Garden. Nida wasn't precisely sure how long, since he had never had occasion to drive across the Galbadian continent before, and the Timber roads were not particularly well-marked; but they had been on the road for hours now, with Zell behind the wheel, Quistis navigating, Nida stuck between Rinoa and Seifer in the center seat, and Selphie with Deling in back. (Rinoa had torn up the half-sleeve that had covered her left forearm in order to improvise a blindfold for the Galbadian president, in a show of resourcefulness that had left Nida momentarily impressed – though he still wondered what possible use the garments had originally been designed for.)
They had managed to avoid all the Galbadian roadblocks without too much trouble; apparently the soldiers didn't expect their targets to have escaped the city yet. After that, it had simply been a matter of driving in a straight, or gradually curving, line for hours on end.
"There," Quistis said, nodding to a forested valley coming up between a pair of high cliffs. "Garden should be just beyond those woods."
Zell complied, and the group was all to happy to get out. "Are we there yet?" Selphie asked from the truck bed.
"Just about," Quistis confirmed. "Everyone, make for the treeline. It'd be best if we weren't seen by passers-by." She and Nida then hauled Deling out of the vehicle, before noticing that Seifer had stopped after taking only a few steps.
"Seifer?" Quistis asked, seeing it too. The others had now stopped as well.
"This is the end of the line for me, Instructor," Seifer said, starting back toward the truck's driver's-side door. "You're not dragging me back to some detention cell."
"Yes, I am," Quistis replied evenly, placing herself between him and the car. "Seifer, the Galbadians will be after you, too. If you come back with us now, we can protect you."
"I don't need your protection," Seifer snarled.
"Seifer, there's no time for this," said Quistis. "You're coming back to answer for the situation you've put us all in. I'm not going to let you run away from that."
Faster than Nida could follow, Seifer had drawn his gunblade, and was aiming it straight at Quistis' neck. "Screw you," he said.
"Hey, what the hell are you doin'?" demanded Zell.
Seifer lashed out with his gunblade. The shot missed Quistis easily, and Nida guessed it had been meant to force her out of the way. Instead, Quistis' chain whip shot out, and within seconds she and Seifer were sparring fiercely. Nida, Zell and Selphie all started forward. "...Stop!" Rinoa yelped. "That's an order!"
Nida blinked at her, as did Selphie; but Zell continued forward as if he hadn't heard her at all. "Zell, you have to stop!" Nida commanded.
"Screw that!" Zell said, and charged in anyway. He tried to tackle Seifer from behind, but was foiled as Seifer – who had clearly been aware of his approach – spun around at the last second and delivered a roundhouse kick to Zell's solar plexus, recovering in time to prevent Quistis' chain whip from wrapping around his neck. Zell grunted and fell to the ground.
"Stop it!" Rinoa yelled again, as Zell recovered and Quistis tried a swipe at Seifer's blade-arm, nearly getting her own cut off by his parry. "What do you think you're doing? Stop fighting!"
"We don't have to do this, Seifer!" Quistis chimed in.
"Shut up!" Seifer retorted. He jabbed at Quistis' shoulder as Zell tried to drive an elbow into the small of his back, then ducked out of the way of her riposte, which in turn nearly hit Zell. Seifer then kicked Zell in the back as he dodged, but his right arm got smacked by Quistis' whip, knocking him off balance.
"Stop!" Rinoa demanded; then she charged in herself as if to physically separate the combatants.
"Hey!" Selphie exclaimed.
Quistis was pressing her advantage, and Zell was looking for an open angle from which to strike. But Seifer managed to duck one of her blows, and recover with a sweeping lateral strike that could have caught Quistis right in the side if she hadn't jumped back to avoid it. As it was, his follow-through led the gunblade straight to Rinoa's neck.
For a second, all four of them froze. Rinoa moved first; she fell to the ground with a hand to her throat, looking at Seifer with a horrified expression. A second later, Seifer lost his grip on his gunblade; the weapon, blade stained with blood, fell to the ground with a hard thunk as it struck the earth.
A second after that, Quistis knocked Seifer's legs out from under him with her chain whip, sending him crashing into the ditch beside the road.
Zell was last, remaining frozen for another second or two, with his outstretched hand between where Seifer's gunblade and Rinoa's neck had been. Now he straightened up, and pulled off the combat glove that Seifer's weapon had just cut through. Blood from the gash in his hand was already starting to run down his arm.
"Aw, man!" he complained. "These were brand-new gloves, too!" Shaking his head, he took out a Potion to heal his hand.
"Rinoa, are you all right?" Quistis asked. Rinoa nodded, though she couldn't seem to stop fingering the spot on her neck where Seifer's blade had almost connected. Quistis then picked up Seifer's gunblade and handed it to Nida before looking down at Seifer, who didn't seem to be in a hurry to get up. "Don't try anything like that again," she said, her tone quietly furious.
Seifer didn't make a move to argue. Quistis offered him her hand in getting up, which he ignored.
Then, Quistis swayed backward, clutching her head in her hands. "Uhh...," she said, glancing at Nida and the others with a very confused expression, before collapsing to the ground.
"M...Me too," Selphie piped in, then fainted herself.
The others looked at each other with expressions showing various levels of bewilderment. ...Oh, no, Nida thought. Not this again.
Then Seifer's hand shot up to his head. "The...hell?" he asked, before collapsing right on top of Quistis' unconscious form.
There was silence for a moment. "...What?" Rinoa squeaked.
Zell was frowning. "I think...they went to the 'dream world.'"
Nida looked at him incredulously. "'Dream...world?'"
"Yeah," Zell said. "You know, man – that place Selphie and I went when we —"
"Right," Nida said, sighing. "We should...probably get them into cover."
-
Moving Quistis, Seifer, Selphie and Deling into the woods was about the first thing they managed to do without incident. After doing so, Nida and Rinoa sat down against trees to wait, while Zell started pacing.
"...How much trouble is Seifer gonna be in?" Rinoa eventually asked.
"My guess would be a lot," Nida said. "He's broken almost every protocol I can think of by now."
Rinoa nodded, looking weary. "And...what about that other guy? From the TV station."
"Squall?" Nida asked. "Depends on what happened to him. If he was captured by the Galbadians..." He shook his head. "It wouldn't be good."
"You mean they might kill him," Rinoa said. When Nida didn't answer, she picked up a fallen stick, examining it as if she badly needed some new focus for her attention. "Seifer was trying to help us," she said. "The 'Forest Owls.' I guess he figured we needed more help than your team could give." She shook her head. "It was probably obvious to everyone that we couldn't handle things on our own."
"It's not like anything Seifer did was your fault," Nida said. "As far as I can remember, he's always done whatever he felt like."
"Hey, are you talkin' about Seifer?" Zell asked. "Look, forget about him, okay? Seifer's always been a total jerk."
Rinoa looked away. "...You don't understand."
Nida frowned. "How do you know Seifer, anyway?"
Rinoa looked at him, then away again. "...It was last summer. I was 16. He came to Timber and..." She leaned her head back against the tree, eyes focusing on someplace distant from the present. "I...really liked him. He was always full of confidence, smart...Just by talking to him, I felt like I could take on the world." She smiled wistfully. "Lots of fond memories."
"Seifer was your boyfriend?" Zell exclaimed, drawing a surprised look from Rinoa. "...Man."
"I don't know, really," Rinoa said, looking over at Seifer's prone form. "I...I think I was in love. I never really knew how he felt."
Figures, Nida thought. Between them, Seifer and Squall managed to draw the attentions of maybe 2/3 of the girls back at Garden. The only difference between them was that Seifer noticed.
They lapsed into silence again; this time it was broken when Quistis, Selphie and Seifer all started to moan and get to their feet.
"Okay...," said Seifer. "WHAT was THAT?"
"Was it Laguna again?" Zell asked.
Selphie nodded. "Sir Laguna's in BIG TROUBLE! I hope he'll be okay...!"
Quistis frowned. "Doesn't seem like the first time for you. What is this?"
"Zell and Selphie passed out on the train to Timber," Nida offered. "We couldn't figure out why."
"How strange," Quistis said. "Like living somebody else's memories." She paused a moment longer. "...Well, I doubt there's anything we can do about it here. We'll address this once we reach our destination."
"Yeah, let's go!" said Zell. "We're almost there, right?"
Quistis nodded. "Zell, take Deling. Seifer." She said Seifer's name more harshly, and nodded in the direction they were going. With Seifer glowering, they started off on the last leg of their journey – at least as Nida imagined it.