When you enter the forest, the party, particularly Zell, will worry about Deling launching an attack on Balamb Garden for the kidnapping incident. Of course, Squall is of little help, preferring blunt truths over consoling his friends. Rinoa will begin to rake Squall over the coals for his insensitivity, but he, Quistis, and Selphie will fall into a dream-state once again.
You'll then be back in control of Laguna, Kiros, and Ward, who are once again, lost. If you didn't set junctions to Selphie and Quistis, you will need to give Kiros and Ward GFs and start drawing magic. It's important that you pay close attention to the walkthrough of this section as Laguna's party's actions here will ultimately effect Squall's party much later on in the game, and you don't want to miss the rewards. Take the path down and you will engage in two battles with Esthar Soldiers, then take the ladder down on the right-side of the screen.
Check the debris near where Laguna will exit out from, and have him pick up an old key here; which he promptly loses, but will effect Squall's game later on.
Keep moving past the debris to the left-side and you will come across three panels on the floor. Have Laguna search the upper-right side of the middle panel and choose to pull the lever out; setting a trap for an Esthar Soldier. Make your way back top-side where you fought the Esthar Soldiers and instead of going to the right, take the path north and use the ladder in the next room.
Search along the debris here and Laguna will find, and lose, yet another old key.
Further on, you will come out on the left-side of the panel screen. Have Laguna tamper with the panel here, as well. It won't open, but we'll find a way in a bit.
Make your way all the way around to the other side of the panels, again, and tamper with the last one left. Now you can head north from the debris on the previous screen.
You'll begin to encounter the dangerous Gesper enemy here. While they have good spells to draw, try to kill them as quickly as you can as they have an attack, Degenerator, that will not only instantly kill a character, but remove them completely from the battle. You can steal the Black Hole item from them which will teach Quistis said Degenerator blue magic. For note, the Gesper enemy is only found during this Laguna's scenario, so if you'd like to stock up on the Gesper's card, now is the best time to do so outside of winning it (commonly) during card games. The Black Hole item can be gotten from another enemy as well as refining the Gesper card, itself.
Two screens north of the debris, where you found the first old key, you will come across a detonator conveniently laying on the ground. Have Laguna hit the red switch, followed up by the blue one, which will open up both of the other previous panels; as well as taking out some Esthar Soldiers.
Continuing north, you will enter into the above area. It's important because you can encounter a special enemy only in this room.
The Elastoid. This is another Laguna-only enemy you may want to use Card on as it is a much rarer card than the Gesper one, but still can be encountered reasonably during card games later on. The most important thing to note is: if your party is over the average level of 30, you can steal Laser Cannons from level 30 or higher Elastoids. This is an incredibly rare item when playing as Squall, so do your best to pick several of these up. The Laser Cannon teaches Quistis the blue magic, Homing Laser, which is one of her best limit breaks, but has another use as well. If you can steal Laser Cannons, you should be able to draw the incredible Meltdown spell from Elastoids, too.
You can use Ifrit's Ammo-RF ability to refine Laser Cannons into Pulse
Ammo, which is not only the best ammo type in the game, but needed to
create Squall's strongest weapon. There are easier ways to get Pulse Ammo later on, but if you're shooting for Squall's best weapon early on, you will need to refine at least three Laser Cannons into Pulse Ammo.
Further on from the Elastoid screen, have Laguna move the bolder here to reveal a Cure draw point. On the next screen you will find a save point and an exit to the north. If you take the path to the right you will circle around back to where you came from. When you have collected everything, take the north path out to the cliffs.
The party will be cornered by Esthar Soldiers and the battle you engage in will feature a differing number of Soldiers depending on the things you did throughout the dungeon to take their fellow Soldiers out.. If you did everything, there should only be two Esthar Soldiers in the battle. Once you land the killing blow on the last Solider, he will deliver a final Soul Crush attack on both Kiros and Ward and the battle will end. Kiros and Ward are badly wounded, but Laguna will see boats below the cliff they can, hopefully, use to return to Galbadia. Watch the scene as Laguna will help Kiros and Ward off the cliff, then take the plunge himself, and you will be switched back to Squall's party.
The party will gather themselves and then you can head for Galbadia Garden which is easy to spot just outside the forest. Inside, Quistis will temporarily leave your party to talk with the Garden officials, leaving you to explore
In the very center of the main hall, you can find a hidden Haste draw point. It's a fantastic spell and this draw point replenishes quickly. You will get an announcement over the PA for the party to meet on the second floor, but there are a few things to do here first.
From the center hall, take the path to the right and then also the first classroom on the right. There will be a trio of students inside, but the girl is of particular note.
She can play ALL of the level 6 boss cards; although you'll need to be patient.
While these aren't nearly as rare as the Guardian Force and Character cards, and can very rarely be obtained through the Card command on certain enemies, it's in your best interest to go ahead and complete this set now. Note: Once you complete your mission in Deling City, Galbadia Garden will no longer be accessible to you and you will lose this opportunity, but there will be other players later on who will hold these cards.
Try to win as many of the Shumi Tribe card as you can from her. You need five of these to refine into a Gambler Spirit and it is the only way in the game you can obtain this item. The Gambler Spirit can teach a GF Quezacotl's Card command ability. When you are finished playing, continue heading down out into a hockey rink area, and then enter the locker room on the left-hand side. Inside is a very valuable Life draw point.
Return to the main hall, where you found the Haste draw point and take the upper path and then the stairs to the next floor. The waiting room is just ahead, but take the exit to the right and all the away around the looping balcony and into the auditorium. There is a hidden Double draw point here.
Inside the waiting room, talk with your party members and Quistis will return. She will reveal that Seifer has been executed by Galbadia. Everyone will lament Seifer's fate and eventually Squall will rush out of the room; not wanting to talked about in the past-tense like they are Seifer.
Attempt to return the main hall (Zell will be with the push-up guys in the previous hall if they are there) and Squall will run into Seifer's friends, Fujin and Raijin. Didn't we just obtain a boss card of them? Hmmm. They've come to deliver new orders to the Headmaster here and won't believe that Seifer is truly dead and will run off for Deling City to search for him. Afterwards, there will be a PA message for the party to assemble outside of the front gate.
Assembling at the front gate, the party will meet the Headmaster of Galbadia Garden, Martine, and he will hand over the new orders of Headmaster Cid from Balamb. Cid has ordered that the SeeD members travel to Deling City and assassinate the Sorceress via a sniper. This leads to Martine introducing your newest, and last, party member, Irvine. He will join and are free to take the train at the station outside for Deling City, but like stated in the previous chapter, there are a huge amount of items for us to obtain before we do so and will be covered in the next chapter.
Since Seifer is dead now, why don't we go ahead and add him back to the party? If you have a Gameshark, enter the code 80077C2C 0001 into it and Seifer will be back in your inactive party and available for use. Keep in mind that Seifer will not follow Squall around like the rest of the party members, which in a few areas can cause problems, but generally there is little issue with using Seifer in your party. Issues usually come from staying at inns (Such as Balamb), where each party member has their own animations the next morning, or taking him into story events. If you keep Seifer in the third party member slot (Following last behind Squall), the game will think that you only have two members in your party and you shouldn't have any problems in the field, however, there will be issues with ladders and other special animations if in the second slot. All of this will apply to Edea way later in the game, as well.
