Let's Play the BEST GAME EVER!!! (FFIX)

[Pumpkin]

Alrighty, we're back!

Next stop, the airship! Steiner insists that he will go speak to the cargo ship crew to get them on board. Dagger is starting to realize he's being a bit sketchy.
(SPOILER)

Zidane already caught on to the fact that the cargo ship is actually headed back to Alexadria, but he asks Dagger to trust him because he has a plan.

Vivi, meanwhile, is still struggling with what they saw underground.

Before they can discuss too much though, the cargo ship starts taking off and our crew has to hurry up and get on.

After some accidental butt groping and fussing, they head in to the cargo ship. Vivi is still afraid of heights.

Unfortunately, all is not well with our little buddy even when he goes inside when they realize that the airship crew is those Black Mages they saw. He tries to talk with them but they are completely unresponsive.

Zidane asks Dagger to support Vivi and then plans to get the ship to go to Lindblum.

On the deck we find Steiner wallowing in misery.

Zidane quickly tells him off, which upsets Steiner until he realizes that Dagger is on the ship like he wanted. The he reveals his ~master plan~ of using the airship to go back to Alexandria. He sure did pull a fast one on nobody.

That's pretty harsh. Zidane, meanwhile, gives limited craps and only wants to go get the ship turned around. Steiner, being the standup fellow he is, starts to consider a more lenient sentence for Zidane, who has helped keep the Princess safe.

Meanwhile, trouble's-a-brewin.

That's a face you can trust.

Zidane commandeers the cargo ship and turns it around, which greatly upsets Steiner.

The Black Mages start to react to this, to the confusion of everyone.

Dagger and Vivi had made their way up to the deck but unfortunately, Black Waltz #3 decides to drop in and electrocute poor Vivi.

Vivi has some unexpected allies thankfully and the Black Mages show up to shield him.

At this he starts killing the Black Mages with his super magic or whatever.

This makes Vivi sad

Black Waltz doesn't care about how sad Vivi is though and so he MUST BE DESTROYED

Vivi, upset at what happened, goes rushing out to confront the foe. Steiner and Zidane soon follow.

Leaving their destination in Dagger's hands, the other three confront the Black Waltz.

The Black Waltz calls the Black Mages mere tools and Steiner calls his actions reprehensible whether they were his allies or not.

And then of course we have a BOSS FIGHT!

Beginner tips: This will either be a very easy fight or a very hard one. The last thing you can steal will take a long time to steal unless you have luck on your side. You'll also use many items. If you want to save Vivi's auto-Trance for after you've stolen, you can use Square (or equivalent) to switch to other characters with active ATB bars.

So after a stupidly long fight in which all three of my characters ended up in Trance, the final Black Waltz is defeated!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Turns out we did not defeat the Black Waltz.

Zorn and Thorn decide to hightail it while the Black Waltz steals their ship.

Nothing concerning there.

It doesn't take long for the others to notice the impending threat.

Vivi stands sadly on the dock, sad about the loss of his people as the Black Waltz closes in.

~Intense faces~

The Black Waltz makes its way to the cargo ship and resumes his attack.

This time Vivi is having none of it and manages to blow the Black Waltz back a bit.

Unfortunately, having used up his energy, Vivi collapses. Zidane rescues him just in the nick of time as they begin to pass through South Gate, still pursued by the crazed Black Waltz.

It follows them in to the gate where it begins to cast a spell, which in the close quarters of the gate just goes awry and sets his own ship aflame.

This causes a massive explosion that propels the cargo ship forward and out of South Gate just in time.

While everyone else is down about what just happened, Zidane is as cheery as ever.

But I mean, aside from all of that...

Vivi is still pontificating about how similar he is to those Black Mages and for once its Steiner to the rescue.

Don't piggyback off of Steiner finally saying something smart!

Anyways we now pull up to the massive industrial city of Lindblum, a whole city inside of a castle.

There's also a castle in the castle.

We dock in the castle castle and meet some soldiers who find us pretty suspicious.

Everyone is super impressed with the castle except for Dagger, who has been here before.

Anyways, Dagger tells the guards she wishes to speak to Regent Cid and shows her Falcon's Claw, a national treasure, as proof of her identity since she's traveling in a cargo ship with weirdos. They call Minister Artania who recognizes her immediately. She's obviously familiar with him as well as she calls him Uncle Artania.

Next time we will be going to meet the Regent, but first, here's an update on our traveling moogle friend Stiltzkin!