Now that Espers have destroyed Vector, the Empire is in the mood for... negotiations? You're going to be the ones to persuade Gestahl to stop the war. And Kefka's in jail. Celes is nowhere to be found. Season of Mists reference in the title. I know, I haven't been doing much in the way of references nobody will get in this one.

So, really, the whole thing is their own fault. Such disregard for their own people.

Actually, not yet. Gestahl wants you to talk to his soldiers. Some of them will attack you, so knock some sense into them. There are twenty-four (24) soldiers to talk to and you have four minutes to talk to them.

Note: Ignore the treasure for now. It just wastes time. Regular mans are Commandos. You've met at least one commando before.

This is a Mega Armor. He fulfills the Final Fantasy requirement of giant robots. Hey, II, are you slacking? And you call yourself a Final Fantasy. Anyway, instakills work nicely. Magic is countered with Missile and Fight is countered with Tek Laser. Getting knocked out leads to a red flash. Warping out of battle results in a green flash. Running out of time results in a blue flash. No, they can not all happen at the same time causing the gravitons and graviolis of the red flash to combine with the microwave radiation of the blue flash and the effluvia from the Land of Summoned Monsters to combine and cause time compression. You can't travel back in time using the red and blue flashes either. Whatever gave you that idea? Oh.

If you want the maximum amount of goodies, say the right things, which is "To our hometowns."

You can fuck up, but the game doesn't seem to give any indication that you fucked up. Then again, the Emperor has a weird idea of what's polite. Which is why you can get away with the maximum points despite Gau making monolith sculptures with his food and Sabin eating like a duck.

This works on a point system, by the way. Gestahl inexplicably favors leaving Kefka in jail as opposed to executing or pardoning him. Pardoning, I can understand, but no disintegrations? How very suspicious.

You also get more points for telling Gestahl that what he did was inexcsable as opposed to saying "what's done is done..."

As for the absent Celes, just say she was one of us. Don't bother asking. I'll see what happens later.

Ask all 3 questions once. And remember which one you asked first. Don't ask questions multiple times. That's impolite. Also, the napkin is for aesthetic purposes only, don't eat lobster with a salad fork, stop eating with your fingers, Gau! Remember those videos with Tommy, Billy, Jane, and Mary, where they learned about being proper and avoiding people like Terra Branford?

Fun Fact: Girls Beware is not about lesbians. Admit it, you never saw it coming.

When talking about the espers, don't tell the truth. Instead, say that the espers have gone too far. Remember, there's the truth, and the truth!

There's the reason you remembered what he asked first.

After that, take a brief break. Stretch your legs, don't pee in the corner, go provoke some soldiers into picking a fight with you.

You have 2 minutes to beat the Sp.Forces for 5 points to your score. Slurping your soup is impolite, but picking fights actually benefits you?

After that, you want to hear Gestahl say that the war is over. Do accompany him or you don't get three points. You're going to be accompanying him anyway. It doesn't change the game, unfortunately.

Locke comes along to steal things. Terra's around too, because she's part Esper. The Espers are more inclined to listen to her, I guess. The rest of them will stay in Vector.

You get some items, and the locked door in the Imperial Base is open now, and there are some nice items there. That is, unless you tried to fuck up. South Figaro will always be liberated.

You can see Kefka stewing away in the bathroom, which is hereafter referred to as the brig, waiting for the Brain Specialist to arrive.

They didn't bother to put the fire out on that banner, but the fires didn't spread very far. This place must be loaded with asbestos. Also, nice Star Wars quoting, dill weed.

Cid comes along to help Setzer with his airship problems.

Cid, although the Empire does not appear to have an airship (while they do have an air force), thinks he knows everything.

And Setzer tells him to piss off, stupid banana-raincoat wearin' bitch.

In any other game, he could just attach a rocket engine to it and make it go really fast.

It made the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs.

They were the worst of rivals and the best of friends.

Now that Celes has been fired, the Empire is sending boats to where you need to go.

Uwe-he-he-he-he! It's a-me, Kefka, in a Celes mask!

As for Shadow, don't get too attached.

Go rest at the inn. She's not really Kefka in a Celes mask.

Locke snores and rolled over on the dog. And he started barking.

I suppose it's better than having defective emotions and no brain specialists to speak of.

BLEAARGH!

Oh, don't worry, I've already told Celes.

Strago Magus is his name. No relation to that Magus. Advantages: Blue magic. High magic power as well.
Disadvantages: Has the most useless attack in the game. Blue magic is ridicously expensive, and a few of them are really impractical.

Arbitrary Coolness Rating: 5

Her name is Relm. Her full name, which won't fit, is Relm Arrowny. You have to wait a bit longer before you get to actually use her.
Advantages: Highest magic power in the game.
Disadvantages: But only if you power her up first. Sketch is useless in all but a few cases and bugged up the anal cavity to boot. And her attack sucks as well.

Arbitrary Coolness Rating: 7

You're a nice doggy, aren't you? The cherry stones say I'm going to be a kangaroo when I grow up.

Bee eee dee. There's no ehhhhhh in there.

Go is a two letter word.

The above found in a chat log with someone calling himself Magicite. Congratulations, something you said five years ago is immortalized here.

When a fire starts to burn,
There's a lesson you must learn.
Something, something, then you'll see
You'll avoid catastrophe!

D'oh!

Uh, Shadow left you again. What's he doing here? And why is Interceptor so nice to Relm?

Zoiby want balloon! Want balloon NOW! Zoiby want go outside.

Balloons are the Cererian equivalent of bombs. If we didn't meet them in Final Fantasy II or III (which we do), anyway, in which case, they're from that place instead of a chunk of rock that was not only demoted from planet status twice, the editors of Wikipedia didn't bother renaming it in the Nahuatl entry on it.

Balloons are resentful of all terrestrial beings and attack physically and explode and get killed by Strago's Aqua Rake: Expensive but useful! If you use cat rain or something, you can confuse bombs and Strago can explode too! YAY! Except not really, since it only does your current HP in damage, and I can not think of any situation where it is at all useful.

This is Flame Eater. He doesn't actually eat fire, but he absorbs it, he merely sets things on fire. Don't use exploder on him. That's stupid. The only time I ever used Exploder was on a boss in Final Fantasy X where I was unable to summon. Don't use Demi or Quartr on him either. That causes him to retort with either Quartr or the dreaded Flare spell and it will always miss. He'll call balloons and grenades. Basically, slow him if you want and then cast ice spells and Aqua Rake to get rid of the balloons. At level 26, stone is useful, but don't bother with it otherwise.

Interceptor to the rescue! Make him my executive vice president. I'll see you in the next chapter.