Our escape continues briefly before we get caught in the same gate trap Garnet and Steiner did when they came back to Alexandria. Zorn and Thorn appear to mock us, but are immediately jumped by Marcus and a revived Blank. We get a quick flashback to the two thieves running through the forest to meet up with us, and then they open the gate so we can escape into Gargan Roo while they hold off the easily defeated rabbit-dogs. The gargant arrives shortly after and stops for us even though we didn't use any food to get its attention this time, but Garnet hesitates. Zidane tells her to stop thinking so much and do what's in her heart, which seems like pretty terrible advice given that that's why she drugged us all and came back to Alexandria, getting us all into this mess in the first place.
Oh, and surprise, that giant purple worm is back, only now it's green. Th green worm casts Thundara on the entire party, shrinks individual targets, and goes into a defensive curl after taking a physical attack. Blinding him on the first round and the occasional Cure spell renders him pretty harmless, though Blind doesn't actually affect his spell casting.
We climb back aboard the gargant just before another green worm creature appears behind it and chases us all the way to Treno and beyond, until we crash and everyone gets eaten by the green worm while blacked out.
We cut back to Alexandria, where Brahne is giving the jester twins the ultimate punishment for letting Garnet escape: the silent treatment. Two strangers arrive to meet the queen, apparently at her summons. One of them is a loudmouthed woman called Lani, and the other is a stoically silent man with pale skin and a red dredlock-afro who doesn't give his name. The pair are bounty hunters, and Brahne is hiring them to track down Garnet, retrieve her pendant at any cost, and kill Vivi. If the pendant is so important to her, though, why didn't she have her jesters take it off of her at any point in the long period of time she was unconscious and at their mercy?
The guy inquires if the rumors about a monkey-tailed guy traveling with the princess are true, and is promised extra if he kills Zidane. Once the two leave, a soldier comes in to inform the queen that the Alexandrian navy is assembled and waiting for her.
Cutting back to Zidane's group, which apparently didn't die in the high-speed bug chase and subsequent crash. We've arrived at a place called Pinnacle Rocks, which is that other area near Lindblum that we could get to but not actually do anything in back when we were leveling up for the Festival of the Hunt. Garnet's worried about the others, but Zidane tries to reassure her with an over-optimistic claim that they're probably in Treno by now. Garnet wants to hire an airship once we reach Lindblum to go back to Treno for them, and Zidane is spared from having to lie his way out of that corner by the sudden appearance of a floating old man who introduces himself as Ramuh. Garnet' heard his name somewhere before, and so has anyone else familiar with the more common summon monster from this series.
Yes, this is Ramuh, the Thunder God, and he wants to know if Garnet was aware that her summon magic was used to destroy Cleyra. Zidane tells her it's not her fault, and Ramuh concedes the point, but asks what she's going to do about it. Garnet reveals that she was afraid of using her summoning magic before (wait, so then the MP cost of casting spells is determined by how afraid of the spells the caster is? Wow, imagine how overpowered Vivi would be if he ever grew a backbone...), but now she wants Ramuh's help to stop her mother.
Ramuh transforms into his divine glory, and challenges us to prove our worth by playing hide and seek with a twist. We have to find Ramuh five times. Each time we find him, he tells us a piece of a story about a soldier named Joseph who died tragically. After finding all five, we're asked to put the pieces in order, with a catch. Two of the pieces of the story were actually its moral, and we have to chose one or the other: whether Joseph was a hero, or a human.
Plot-wise, it doesn't matter which one we choose, as long as we get the first three parts in the right order, but Ramuh makes Garnet explain why we chose the ending we did. Since I went with "human," so Garnet says that flaws are what make people heroes, but Ramuh keeps pressing. Garnet says that although she is away from her country, her heart is with her people, which doesn't really make any sense. Ramuh thinks she might lighten up if he joins her, and so we acquire our first usable summon spell, or rather, "eidolon." He leaves us with the parting advice that only e can choose which destiny awaits us, and then becomes the Peridot gem.
Zidane thinks the whole exercise was pointless. In his view, "hero" is just a label people apply after the story is over, and trying to apply meaning to someone's actions after the fact is meaningless. Ramuh, in disembodied voice form, agrees: being true to yourself is more important than what anyone has to say later, and he intends to help Garnet find that path.
We make it out of Pinnacle Rocks as night falls, just in time to see Brahne's airship fly in and start blasting the crap out of the castle. So much for not daring to attack as long as Lindblum has aerial superiority. I mean, I know Cid pulled airships off the border to reinforce Burmecia, but if the queen's airship could make it from Cleyra to Alexandria in half an hour, and Burmecia is closer to Lindblum than Cleyra to Alexandria, they should have been able to get back in position with ease.
Squads of black mages teleport into the city, and the Lindblum soldier just run away. At least the Burmecians actually tried to defend their homes and families, geez. Recognizing the attack pattern, Zidae guesses that Brahne will be summoning an eidolon for the coup de grace at any moment, which would be just as dumb as it was in Cleyra, since she's after another McGuffin or two in Lindblum that she couldn't be certain would survive the magi-nuke. He's right, and we're too far away to do anything as a gigantic demonic Kirby sucks half of the city off the map while the queen just shakes her jowls in a hideous approximation of mirth. Even with her new powers, Garnet can't do anything but watch in horror.
We reach Lindblum sometime after daybreak. Zidane tells Vivi to wait at the gate in case there are Alexandrian soldiers still around, which makes absolutely no sense, since he's taking Garnet, who's even higher on the Alexandrians' priority list than Vivi. Now what would have made sense is if he'd had Vivi stay behind because we don't want a repeat of Burmecia/Cleyra, where the survivors kept flipping out at him because he looked like the enemy soldiers that just devastated their homes, especially since we meet a group of... Lindblumians? Lindblumites? Lindblumese? 'blumies? I'm going with 'blumies. A group of 'blumies trying to finish off one that's pinned under some rubble, and react angrily to Zidane when he tells them to knock it off. The Alexandrian soldiers don't seem to care, though, as there's a pair of them just loafing around watching this and bragging about how awesome Alexandria's power is.
Lindblum may have reduced to rubble, but the inn's still fine and charging exactly the same amount for a stay. The air cabs have all been destroyed, but it doesn't matter, because every district in is ruins. The Industrial District is entirely gone. Minister Artania is in the Business District, directing Lindblum guards to clear the streets and rebuild. He informs us that the castle and Cid both survived the attack, and takes us directly to him. A pair of guards bring in Vivi shortly after we start talking with Cid, having captured him under the assumption that he's with the other black mages, who the 'blumies are apparently allowed to kill despite being under Alexandrian occupation. For that matter, there isn't a single Alexandrian soldier anywhere in site around Cid. Man, the Alexandrians really suck at this whole "conquest" thing.
Cid's gotten more intel on Brahne's actions, specifically on Kuja, who evidence suggests is from a place called the Outer Continent, north of our current location, the Mist Continent. Since Kuja is the one supplying Brahne with her magical weapons, taking out Kuja seems like the logical next step in stopping her plans. Of course, that would probably be more effective if Brahne wasn't producing the black mages herself in Alexandria, and if her ultimate weapons, the eidolons, weren't already in her hands. Killing the weapons dealer doesn't accomplish much if the bad guys already have the weapons, guys. Shouldn't our first step be to destroy the production facility in Dali, then try to find any others that might be hidden away in other villages, then march up and take Brahne's magic summoning stones away from her once she's completely out of supernatural soldiers and legendary knights to protect her?
No? We're sticking with the plan to eliminate the weapons dealer who already gave her all the weapons she needs? Alright, fine.
Actually, Garnet wants to rescue Steiner and the others first, but Cid says he can't spare any soldiers to help because they have to protect Lindblum.
...from what? Lindblum has already been conquered, its streets are full of Alexandrian troops. I'm so confused about the terms of this conquest and surrender....
Anyway, as Zidane points out, Beatrix, Freya, and Steiner are more than capable of taking care of themselves against anything the queen can throw at them (so once again I must ask, why the bloody hell did we run away?!) so she agrees to go after Kuja first. Unfortunately, airships can't fly without Mist, which doesn't exist outside of the Mist Continent, Brahne took the experimental steam-powered airship, and the harbor is under Alexandrian control (shouldn't the whole city be?). However, non-native monsters have been appearing around a recent excavation site in Qu's Marsh, so Cid thinks there must be a way to travel between the continents there. We return to the Business District so we can stock up on supplies, where I continue to be frustrated by the inability to buy Hi Potions, having outleveled the regular kind quite a while ago.
We meet back up with Vivi and Cid beneath the castle, where Cid has sabotaged the transportation system to stop the Alexandrians from being able to get back and forth to the harbor, then gives us a World Map and sees us off to the exit. None too soon, either, because the Alexandrians (who have acquired a new breed of soldier with brunette hair and pants)have caught on to Cid's little trick.
It's time to head off into a big new world of adventure and discovery... right after I take this opportunity to play some more Chocobo Hot and Cold.
