Something had gone wrong.

Even the dullest person could figure that out and since Quinn was far from dull, the questions of what possibly could have happened started to run through her mind. Too much time had passed from when she read Headmaster Trepe’s letter to this moment in time, where she sat on a couch in the briefing room she prepared for the Balamb SeeD. Times were indeed chaotic. Quinn got off the couch and looked outside from one of the room windows. Plenty of students out, some sitting at the tables out in the quad, while others walking around or watching the usual game of pick-up basketball going on. She would have loved nothing more than to laugh at all that, tell them to grow up and prepare for the next days class. But as much as she didn’t like to admit it, it was not too long ago that Quinn herself was just like them.

There was no point wasting more time waiting around. Quinn had to assume for the moment that something had happened to at least one of the teams. Maybe they were still making their way towards her Garden or to Deling City, but until she was able to confirm all that, she was in the dark. She left the briefing room and went down to the first floor. A few students ran past her; either a fight broke out on the court or it was a really good game so far. Quinn saluted to a uniformed SeeD standing in front of a door, which was unmarked but clearly important.

“Evening, Gareth.” Quinn smiled to ease some tension.

“Good Evening Quinn. Something I can do for you?”

“I understand there’s a lot going on in there right now, but I need a favor. Some SeeD from Balamb Garden were supposed to either come here or to Deling City for a mission. But too much time has passed and I’m starting to worry. Think I could borrow someone for a few minutes to scan back any possible radio chatter?”

Gareth’s posture went from tall and proud to now slightly hunched and worried.

“Ahh…I don’t know…Um….I mean they’re pretty busy….”

“Please? Just for a few minutes. I’ll say I knocked you out if they get angry.”

“Quinn…”

“Gareth, it’s me. We were squad mates for the exam. How many times did I let you copy my “Understanding GF” homework assignments?”

“Ah okay, fine. Always throwing the homework guilt out there. When you head in, go down to the first row and all the way to the end. Helen is in there right now, she’ll help you.”

Gareth stepped aside and Quinn moved closer to the door. She quickly gave him a small kiss on the cheek and watched him blush as she went through the door.

After walking down a short corridor, Quinn was now in one room that very few people in the Garden were ever allowed to see. There was no official name for it, almost making it a dirty secret, but most that knew about it or worked in it just referred to the room as the “Control Room”. In front of her were three rows with twelve people in each row, sitting at their station and doing various forms of intelligence work. In front of them, were dozens of wide screens, projecting whatever image they needed to show at any time. None of the analysts broke their attention when she walked in, but the three men who stood to her left noticed her. Each of them wore a black military uniform, but without any markings or signs of rank. Quinn knew who they were, and knew that she wasn’t supposed to know. The eldest of the three, complete with gray hair and gray goatee, quickly came over to her.

“Those of you who know about this room and what’s done here certainly like to abuse the privilege. We are conducting very important work in here little girl and…”

“Sir, I mean no disrespect or have any intention of interfering with whatever you’re doing in here. I was given orders by Headmaster Trepe earlier and the only way of confirming those orders is by borrowing an analyst for a few minutes.” She spoke at a tone only above a whisper.

“I don’t care about your orders. Leave here…”

“It’s quite alright Barry.” One of the other men, this one middle aged, came over to the side of the elder man and placed a hand on his shoulder. “We can spare one body for a little while, it’s no big deal. This one is a good one; she’s not like the rest.”

“Hmpf. If you say so. Go ahead kid, make it quick.”

Quinn nodded. “Thank you sir, sorry again.” She wanted to say something to the other man, maybe a quick thank you, but she knew it wasn’t needed. He looked older now, not as old as his associate but old enough. Or maybe “worn” was the better way to describe it. Time was starting to take its toll on him. She wished that maybe someday she’d get to see him smile again. But he hadn’t smiled since before the funeral, and his son had been dead for some time now.

Not one to risk the old man’s fury, Quinn made her way to the end of the first row and over to Helen. Helen was the same age as Quinn, a bit shorter, a little chubby and not one for field work. However, she was brilliant with intelligence work and easily one of the brightest SeeD members in the entire Garden. She usually looked worried and tonight was no different; Quinn figured the poor girl was running on little sleep and too much coffee.

“Helen, I’m really sorry to bother you but I need your help.”

“It’s okay, nothing too important going on right now anyway. They make you think something is to feel guilty about coming in here, but it’s no bother. What can I do for you?”

“Earlier in the day, Headmaster Trepe informed me that Balamb Garden started a mission to investigate what has happened to President Loire. They designated different assignments to different units and one of those units was supposed to be in this area. I haven’t heard a word from anyone. Even if they went ahead to Deling City, my contacts would have told me. I’m starting to think something happened to one, if not all of the units, however many there might be.”

“Okay, easy enough. Let’s start a few hours back in Balamb, how does that sound?”

“Fine by me.”

Helen pecked away at her keyboard and immediately video started to show up on the screen in front of the two ladies. After zooming in a little bit, the video showed a group of people getting onto the train in Balamb. From the way they looked, it was clear they were from the Garden. Helen didn’t change the feed yet though, as it looped through the next few hours and showed another group headed on the next train.

“So that’s two units so far, traveling by train. Let’s see if there’s any radio chatter around this time frame?”

Helen grabbed an earpiece from the console in front of her. The video from the Balamb Train Station was gone from the screen, replaced with images of wavelengths from different radio frequencies.

“Monitoring frequencies from both G-Army and Esthar forces.”

Quinn didn’t dare make a sound as Helen did her work. Mostly out of respect for her friend, but also partly because she could feel the old man staring her down. That could have been for many reasons though. After a few minutes of listening to radio, watching video of a firefight near the train and identifying some people, Quinn had the answers she needed. However, she let Helen break it all down for her.

“Seems like the first unit on the first train ran into some Esthar forces and while I wasn’t able to decipher all of their code, I think they took the first unit away somewhere. I’ve identified the leader of the first unit, his name is Arc Noman. My gut tells me there in Esthar, so I hope you’re not supposed to meet with him. As for the second force, it looks like they ran into some trouble with the G-Army. You saw yourself from the video; they got out of that trouble with a very strong attack. I’ve identified the members of that unit: Storm Zephyre, Dante Valentine and Kyle Bane. Valentine and Bane seem to be pretty clean; their files don’t show too much. Zephyre however, has a reputation for being “ruthless”, at least that’s what her file says. Seems like the three of them went off in the direction of Timber. If you take a Comm-Link, I can update you in real time if you’re headed out.”

“Helen, I can’t thank you enough. You’re the best.”

“Find me a cute date for the next Garden Festival and we’ll call it even, okay?”
__________________________________________________ ___

An hour later, Quinn was ready to go. Getting to Timber wouldn’t be an issue and even walking the streets wouldn’t be too bad either. The perks of having friends or contacts in various positions in life were starting to help her out quite a bit. There was one more perk that she had though, and this one would make her trip to Timber very short. Quinn stood out in the Quad, which was now deserted, looking up at the stars. She added a black scarf to her outfit and the light breeze made it wave a bit as the night went on. Quinn closed her eyes and her right hand started to glow white.

“Alexander...”

She took a deep breath and when she opened her eyes, Quinn stood in front of the Timber Maniacs building. It had been some time since she used that technique, long enough that she needed to sit on the steps to recollect her composure.