Merry, um, Boxing Day, guys, we're headed for the Sealed Cave. Let's head in.
Luca: Thank goodness! The seal's still intact.
Rydia: We made it in time...
Luca: I sure hope so.
Rydia: What?
Luca: If the Red Wings threw their full firepower into it, they may be able to break the seal by brute force.
Rydia: Then what are we waiting for!?
Luca: You're right. Let's go!
Brandish thou the seal-unraveling mark, and the path to the Dark Crystal shall be open.
Um... thou? Anyway, Luca uses her necklace to open the door.
Luca: We've got to get our hands on the Crystal first!
Rydia: And then what?
Luca: We'll go to the Overworld with the Falcon, and let the boss and everyone know about this!
Rydia: Are we really ready for this?
Luca: Yup! We'll show 'em what my master's Falcon can do! Besides, I'm sure you're worried about Cecil and the rest, aren't you?
Rydia: Yeah...
Luca: C'mon, let's get going!
Okay! Then the moon phase changes to Waxing. Bleh. The Sealed Cave is still a very annoying place. Lots of doors, lots of rooms, lots of Trap Doors, lots of chances to have Silence inflicted on us (although it'll only have any effect on Rydia anyway, Calca and Brina can use their abilities when Silenced). Rydia learns Pig shortly before our first Trap Door.
Because we can't have reflect, though, the game has given us a new weakness we can exploit on the doors: Stop. And good thing for that, because we don't have many Pheonix Downs. The first Trap Door hides Mage's Clothes. Like Angel's Clothes, but with better Intellect than Spirit. So that's for if you really like Jive. I don't.
Onto B2 then. The big row of Trap Doors is here. Seems like most of the doors have lost their bite, because I remember a lot more of them being traps in FFIV. First Trap Door holds a Battle Axe, which we give to Luca. Second Trap Door contains a Save Point. We need that Save Point.
Of course, after I heal up, clearing the Silence on everybody but Rydia, the first Dance used is Esuna. Bloody spiteful RNG...
We continue down to B3. First, we find a Kokkol Ore... in a pile of bones. Um... this stuff is nice and all, but not worth dying for. One Trap Door inside a room that wasn't trapped later and we find some Horned Armor. This is going on Luca.
In the room full of boxes at the bottom of B3, we find the 12th and final piece of Kokkol Ore. We'll upgrade our weapons at the forge after this dungeon.
B4 is just a Save Point, which we use, and the path to B5. We cross the bridge into the Crystal Chamber. Crystal's still here, we grab it. I think we know what will happen next.
Luca: A wall!?
Rydia: I had a feeling this would happen!
Demon Wall's same as always; beat the crap out of it as fast as possible. If it gets too close, it'll spam instant kill moves. Luckily, I get a Haste Dance, so that helps. It falls before it gets to the halfway mark.
Rydia: Got it!
Luca: Nice job, Calca and Brina!
Now let's backtrack outta here.
Rydia: !
Rydia's having flashbacks again, this time to Kain stealing the Dark Crystal.
Cecil: Kain!
Rosa: Don't listen! Resist him!
Kain: It's all right, I...I'm back in control of myself.
And of course, he immediately disproves that by hitting Cecil.
Cecil: Ugh!
And then he leaves with the Crystal. Good thing that was just a flashback. Back to the present now.
Luca: Rydia? What's wrong?
Rydia: !
???: I see you saved me the trouble.
And in comes... the Mysterious Girl. At least it's not Kain. The writers wouldn't use that betrayal that was overdone in the first game again, right?
Mysterious Girl: So you're one of the last surviving summoners?
Rydia: You're the one behind what happened to the Eidolons!
Mysterious Girl: The likes of you don't deserve either the Eidolons or the Crystals.
Luca: Who asked you!?
Mysterious Girl: There is one who's far more worthy of the Crystals.
Then she starts to cast something.
Calca & Brina: !
They push ahead of Rydia and Luca.
Luca: Calca!
Rydia: Brina!
She shoots, I guess that was lightning, at them. They fall. Um, this is bad.
Mysterious Girl: These ridiculous toys. What a waste of time. Now, hand over the Crystal.
Rydia: I won't let you have it!
More lightning, and Rydia faints. We lose the Crystal.
Luca: Rydia!
Mysterious Girl: With this, all four Dark Crystals are back in our hands.
Luca: Wait!
And then the girl blasts Luca. For the Evulz, I guess.
Mysterious Girl: Your lives are not my concern.
She leaves.
Luca: Nnngh!
Luca gets up.
Luca: Rydia... you all right?
Rydia: Luca! What happened to the Crystal?
Luca: I'm sorry, Rydia.
Rydia: We need to hurry... before they get their hands on the Overworld Crystals, too!
Luca: Calca... Brina.
Rydia: Thanks, you two. You were kinder to us than we ever deserved.
Actually, I'm pretty sure they still owe us for trying to kill us in FFIV.
Luca: I'm going to repair you. I promise!
Well, let's go back to the Falcon.
Luca: That girl didn't even pretend to take us seriously.
Rydia: Huh?
Luca: She didn't lay so much as a finger on the Falcon.
Rydia: Yeah... and she didn't kill us when she had the chance...
Luca: Not even a passing thought in her mind, are we?
Rydia: Doesn't look like it!
Luca: We need to get her back for this. Quickly, to the Overworld! Are you ready to go, Rydia?
No, actually, there are a couple of things to do first. We'll take care of that next time.
Stats:
Luca: Lv 22 HP:984 MP:53 Strength:33 Speed:14 Stamina:25 Intellect:0 Spirit:0 Attack:55 (5x80% Accuracy) Defence:36 (2x22% Evasion) Magic Defence:4 (0x1% Evasion)
Rydia: Lv 23 HP:613 MP:244 Strength:13 Speed:14 Stamina:11 Intellect:31 Spirit:27 Attack:23 (2x80% Accuracy) Defence:18 (1x27% Evasion) Magic Defence:14 (1x21% Evasion)
