The next day, Lina didn't show up for her class. Instead, she left the students sitting there for over half an hour thoroughly confused with their own instructor's behavior. After a while, people gave up on class and left, forgetting it all together. It was long until the others realized that Lina was, in fact, missing from Garden. She couldn't have gone anywhere, they'd been in motion for most of yesterday and all of today and it was highly unlikely of Lina to just take off without so much as a warning to Rinoa.
"Have you tried her dorm?" Squall suggested, an hour deep into their search. They scurried over to her room and hesitated at her door--as if the piece of wood were an ominous sign of some sort that no one was willing to touch. Rinoa stepped forward, pulled lightly on the doorknob, but it didn't click and wouldn't budge. She sighed.
"Locked," she announced. Rinoa knocked on the front of the door--no response. She resorted to banging her fist against it--still no response.
"One second...I'll get the master key," Quistis said and took off. After a tedious minute or so during which the others could only think to pace back and forth in impatience, Quistis came back with a slender red key. She jammed it right into the keyhole and twisted it roughly to the right. The lock made a little click and--bingo!--they were in. They infiltrated the room, expecting to something that might give them a clue of where she went.
Her room was completely empty and cold; so much that it was eerie and disheartening to step into. Clothes that may have been filed through in order to find a better outfit laid piled on the chair. On the desk before it sat a large leather bound album. Quistis opened to the first page and flipped through a disturbing sight. Inside contained pictures that they supposedly had all taken together, but from each picture, Lina was missing. It was as if someone had simply snatched her off the page. Rinoa was hysterical!
She rampaged out of the room, coincidentally bumping right into Sadie and Zell on her way out.
"Is there something the matter, Miss Heartilly?" Sadie asked, but the sneer in her smile only further enraged Rinoa.
"I'm not talking to you, whore! Now BEAT IT!" She pushed Sadie aside and she scrambled away as quickly as she could. Rinoa watched her leave, making sure she was out of sight, then turned back to Zell who stood there with a blank expression on his face. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Rinoa saw that Zell could not even focus on her. She grabbed his chin and turned his face so that he would look at her. Nothing; nothing in his eyes, his expression, everything was empty. "Don't you care?! Don't you care at all that Lina's missing!?"
"What... are you... talking... about?" Zell responded mechanically. His eye contact with Rinoa was barely anything at all--just an empty stare that seemed coincidentally focused in Rinoa's general direction. This made Rinoa even angrier than she'd been. Sure, call her headstrong, but she had a point--Zell was acting like a mindless robot, something no normal person would admire.
"SNAP OUT OF IT!" Rinoa screamed and impulsively slapped him across the face. Zell made barely any reaction, but he blinked once or twice, the consciously fluctuating back into him and then straight out again. Rinoa slapped him again and again until little red hand prints were embedded in his cheek. "WHERE THE HELL IS MY SISTER!? WHERE IS SHE!? WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" With one final blow to the face, Zell toppled backwards.
"Wha-what's going on?" he stuttered, helping himself to his feet only to face the wrath of Rinoa yet again. He looked shocked, then appalled as the smarting of Rinoa's slaps sunk in. He was finally free of Sadie's grasp even though it took a few knocks in the head to get there.
"What do you mean 'what's going on?'" Rinoa shook her head. "I expected better of you, Zell. We've all been searching for Lina for ages and you weren't even in the right mind to help us search. Instead, you were off hanging out with that orotund, man-eating whore, Sadie or whatever. I can't believe you sometimes, you think you've got everyone all figured out, but look at you! Lina's missing and you're asking 'what's going on'?! You just don't seem to frikken--"
"WHAT!? LINA'S MISSING?!" Zell yelled, incredulous and cut her off. He only got the first couple of lines Rinoa had spat out. Rinoa sighed and stomped away. Zell was starting to think she was serious. "Oh shit!" He dashed over to her room.