"Don't touch that!" The Trabia student practically wedged himself in between Nida and the bank of slightly rusty instruments across the side of the Garden's makeshift bridge.

"I wasn't going to touch anything," Nida said. "I was just curious about the controls."

The student glared at him. "Look, this isn't just any vehicle. Flying a building this size is really complex! You should really just leave it to the specialists."

Nida shrugged, and took a step back. "Sorry to bother you."

The control console was in the middle of a conference room on Trabia Garden's second floor, where windows looked out over the area of the Garden's main entrance. Now, the view outside was mainly of the Garden's ring rotating below them, and the Winhill plains drifting by below that.

Cables ran from the control console to wall-mounted screens on either side of the room; one of them had been set up to show a bunch of technical information, while the other was still stuck on a test pattern.

Lank, the student who'd accompanied Selphie to the meeting in Cid's office, was working on that second screen.

"Don't worry about Port," he said, looking up. "Back in Trabia, he always wanted the Tech Squad to manage Garden's vehicles, but the Headmaster always turned him down. Now that we can fly the whole Garden, I don't think he wants to give it up."

"No problem," said Nida. It wasn't like he had any real business here, anyway. Everyone had some downtime after returning from the D-District Prison, so he had been wandering aimlessly around the Garden. He'd just felt drawn to the control room for some reason. "It looks like you've made a lot of progress."

Lank shrugged. "We got lucky at first. The basic controls are pretty straightforward. Since then, we've been trying to connect these new systems to the Garden's computer network. A lot of that work has to be done from scratch."

Nida frowned. "It's only been a few days. You built a new program that quickly?"

"Well, it's not totally new. We're actually using one of the junction computers you guys at B-Garden used to manage GFs. Since most Centra technology is magic-based, we figured it might be similar."

"Wow, really?" Nida hadn't heard anything about that, probably because he'd been with the other SeeDs planning the prison raid while the T-Garden students were working this out.

"Hey!" said Port. "Don't give away all our secrets!"

Lank ignored him. "Oh, there's one more interesting thing. There was a lot more equipment in the Garden's lower levels that got left behind when the building took off. We've got a theory that most of it was just used to power the transformation process, and—"

"That's it!" Port gestured angrily toward the door. "We need to have a conference! Anyone who's not in the Tech Squad, please wait outside!"

Nida shrugged, and left.

Trabia Garden's 2F had a ring-shaped balcony, with dormitory halls arrayed around the outside, plus the Headmaster's office and a few staff rooms. The center was open, looking down at the building's main hall, and a skylight was built into the ceiling above it. The place was much smaller than either Balamb or Galbadia Garden, and it had a sort of homely feel to it, almost like somebody's mansion rather than a school.

At least a dozen students were milling around in the main hall below him, all in grey T-Garden uniforms. The other SeeDs and the Balamb Garden students who'd volunteered to come along were apparently still keeping to themselves.

He'd lost track of the others after they returned from their raid on the prison. Xu and Headmaster Daniels might still be meeting with Deling and General Caraway about the situation in Galbadia, and Selphie was probably hanging out with some old friends who were students here, but he could only guess about the others.

Presumably someone was coming up with a plan for what to do next, but he couldn't guess what that would be either. Nobody even had a clue about where Squall had gone after he and Ellone had left Balamb. Headmaster Cid had said that stopping the Sorceress was Garden's ultimate mission, but no one seemed to have any idea how to go about it.

Or maybe they did have a plan, but they just weren't telling Nida. It made sense—he'd been in the middle of this so far mainly by accident, thanks to his role on the Timber Team, but that mission was long over now. Now he was just one of Garden's three juniormost SeeDs again, with average combat scores and most notable for not being notable. So there wasn't any particular reason to include him in Garden's next move.

The illumination coming down through the skylight was starting to fade, and Nida caught a glimpse of some clouds lit orange by sunset. He decided to skip dinner and head back to the dorms. He'd brought along some technical books that he'd recovered from Balamb Garden's library, and it seemed like he had some time to read them.

Quistis watched the sun disappear behind the bluffs from the circular deck that ran around the center of Trabia Garden's roof. A sort of glass-walled gazebo capped off the building, and the outdoor deck around it seemed to have been designed as a sort of lookout point, complete with binocular stands on the railing.

A good number of people were gathered up here now, watching the scenery as the Garden made its way across the plains. Most were T-Garden students, chattering about the amazing adventure that they had found themselves in the middle of when their academy took to the air. Headmaster Daniels had tried to find homes for the junior classmen in Balamb before they left, since the Garden would probably be headed into danger, but nearly all of the older students had decided to stay.

If Quistis hadn't been so caught up in the view, she probably would have spotted Rinoa sooner. She was off by herself, leaning over the railing and looking out at the sky, where some kind of hawk circled lazily in the distance. Quistis started over to her; Rinoa noticed, and the wind blew hair across her eyes as she turned to wave.

"It's really pretty up here," she said as Quistis stepped up next to her. "There wasn't anything like this at my school in Galbadia. Students weren't even allowed on the roof."

Quistis nodded. "Still, I'm surprised to see you up here. Now that we've rescued your father, I'd have thought you might want to see him."

Rinoa turned away. "That man's been in meetings with everyone all day. It's always been like that. Even when I lived in that house, I'd never see him."

A gust of wind came in from the side, tangling Rinoa's hair around her face. Quistis caught one last glint from the sun beyond a distant gap in the bluffs.

"You've…been a SeeD longer than the others, right?" Rinoa asked, after a moment.

It took Quistis a second to catch up with the question. "I passed the SeeD exam three years ago. Nida, Zell and Selphie just graduated this spring."

"But you're about the same age, right?"

Quistis nodded. "You can take the SeeD exam starting at age 15. Most people wait a year or two, but…I decided to give it a try."

"That's amazing." Rinoa looked at her for a second, before quickly turning away. "So you must have started fighting at a really young age."

"I suppose so," said Quistis. "I've been at Garden since around age 9. I guess that's half my life, now." She sighed. "Though it might as well be all of it. I really don't remember those early years."

Rinoa nodded, now looking down at her feet. "It must have been nice. Already knowing what your goal was, when you were at that age."

"My goal?" Quistis made half a smile. "I think I just wanted to succeed. SeeD was Garden's elite force, so it just made sense to apply. As soon as I'd graduated, I started training to be an instructor. That seemed like the most important thing in the world to me. But if you asked me why, I honestly couldn't tell you. And even after I did succeeded, I felt like I was missing something." She tried to shake the reverie out of her head. "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure why I was always so driven. After all the work I did, nothing never seemed quite right."

"…I kind of know what you mean," Rinoa said. "I was a little bit like that when I first came to Timber." She rested her elbows back on the railing, looking out at the landscape. "I'd just run away from home. I knew I wanted to do something to fight Galbadia, but I had no idea where to start."

"Why did you choose Timber?" asked Quistis. "Deling isn't universally popular even in Galbadia; there must have been resistance groups there."

Rinoa shook her head. "Everyone in Galbadia…as soon as they learned who I was, they just saw me as the general's daughter. Like the only reason I cared about their cause was because I was trying to get even with him. Or they said that associating with someone like me would just cause them trouble. But Zone, Watts, and the others…they didn't care." She took on a wistful expression. "Anyone who supported our cause had a place in the 'Forest Owls.' I was really proud of that."

Quistis smiled. "That's a noble ideal."

For a moment, Rinoa didn't answer. "But I've been wondering. Ever since all this started…." She trailed off, absently fingering the golden bangle around her wrist. "Sometimes…when I'm with all of you, I…feel like we're on the same wavelength, you know? But then the battles start, and…I get left behind." She looked up at Quistis. "You're all so used to this. You're all so good at it. And it seems like even you guys are almost at your limit."

That was obvious, but Quistis still hated to hear it out loud. She shifted uncomfortably, and Rinoa looked away, hunching over the safety rail.

"I guess…I'm getting scared." Rinoa's hair blew across her face again, and she didn't brush it away. "I try to catch up, but it's no use. How far is everyone going? I can't…hear anyone. And once I catch up, I wonder…is everyone safe? Will they welcome me with open arms?" She hugged herself, holding a fierce grip on her own arms. "…Is everyone ok? Will we all make it back together? When I start thinking like that…." She trailed off. Her legs were shaking like she wanted to curl up in a ball right there.

Quistis put a hand on her shoulder. "That's only natural. We're all facing a situation that we couldn't have imagined before, and I think all of us are struggling with it. Maybe I'm just a failed instructor who spent my whole childhood chasing a role that was never meant for me. Maybe I've been chasing the wrong goal all these years, but I never had the sense to realize it. And maybe now it's too late to change."

This was an incredibly depressing line of thought, she realized. Had she been trying to make a point with all this?

"Right now…I don't think we can afford to have doubts like that. And if you're worried about falling behind…at the very least, we can support each other." Rinoa finally looked back up at her, and Quistis made herself smile. "So…stay with us. Let's face it together."

Rinoa frowned. "Oh!" Raising a hand to her mouth, she quickly looked away.

"Hm?" Quistis asked.

"Those words." It was hard to tell in the twilight, but Rinoa might have been blushing. "It's just…something you told me before, in Galbadia."

Quistis didn't have much chance to figure out what she was referring to. A ringing noise appeared in the back of her ears, and her sense of the wind on her skin and the railing under her hand started to fade away. "Is this…?" she wondered, but the answer became obvious before she could finish the sentence. The last thing she saw before the world faded away from her was Rinoa reaching out to her as her legs gave out, and then she fell into the darkness.

The room was lined with giant windows — in the ceiling, in the floor, and one that wrapped along the whole outside wall. None of them showed anything particularly interesting: Below the floor was a deep, empty pit lined with advanced-looking machinery, and above the ceiling was a cloudless sky. And the window in the wall showed another giant wall not two meters away, crisscrossed with diagonal grooves but otherwise solid and gray.

Inside were four computer consoles facing that window and the big gray wall. He was one of a small group of people gathered around these, looking out as if that wall was the most important thing they could possibly see.

"Alright!" That was him talking, but with someone else's voice. Apparently he was very excited about whatever was going on. "Time to send this thing on a one-way trip of no return!"

"Isn't that…kind of redundant?" asked someone else, standing next to him.

"Aw, whatever!" He folded his arms. "This is a historic moment, alright? Gimme a break!"

"Did you remember to set the destination point?"

"Of course I did!" he exclaimed. …He had, hadn't he? Maybe he should double-check. Frowning, he shuttled between one control panel and another until he found the map he was looking for.

"…There!" He pointed. "All I've gotta do is push this button, and off it goes to the middle of the ocean!"

"Do you want to make a speech?" asked the other man.

"A speech…." He nodded. "I guess you are supposed to say something at a time like this." After nodding to himself for another moment, he stepped up to the control panel. "BEGONE!" he exclaimed, right before pushing the button.

Then nothing happened.

"…'Begone?'" asked the other man.

"Never mind that!" he exclaimed. "More importantly, shouldn't it be—"

A blue-white glow pulsed through the pit below the windows in the floor. A second later, a rumbling began that shook the entire room.

"Whoa!" he said, stumbling backward. The vibrations seemed to go straight through him, like someone was drumming right on his bones. It was lucky that apart from the people, everything in the room was firmly fastened down.

Then, on the other side of the window, the wall began to move.

Right after that, Nida woke up.

He was lying next to his bunk in the dormitory he'd been assigned, with the book he'd been reading lying open nearby. There was still light in the sky, so he can't have been sleeping long. And, really, he knew that hadn't been a normal dream.

After placing the book he'd dropped back on the desk, he ran out into the hall. There was only one turn to get back to the central balcony, but he still managed to go the wrong way, and emerged on the opposite side of the building from the administrative section. He turned left to make a clockwise circle around the balcony, then reversed course when he saw Quistis and Rinoa emerge from the roof-access stairway off to his right.

"Hey…," he said, when he caught up to them. "Did…something just happen for you?"

Quistis frowned at him. "Did you see it, too?"

"I think so," Nida said. "Was that Laguna?"

"What's going on?" asked Rinoa.

"Ellone was showing us something," said Quistis. "It must be her way of warning us."

"Okay," said Nida. That raised a lot of questions, so he needed a second to remember which was most important. "Warning about what?"

They both frowned. Nida wondered if the events would have made more sense if he'd experienced any part of Laguna's story before now. But then again, if that were the case, why would Ellone have picked him to show this in the first place. The clue must have been somewhere in what he'd just seen.

At practically the same instant, he and Quistis looked up at each other.

"Did you see the destination point?" she asked.

Nida nodded.

"Guys…?" asked Rinoa.

Quistis turned to her. "I think we know where Squall is going," she said. "And whatever that was…I don't think we can afford to let him find it."