The story begins.

But WTF first, though.

The Gullwings have come to Guadosalem to get their stolen sphere back. We change into our stolen outfits and easily walk in the front door. The Jyskal manor is just as it was before. Even the paintings of previous guado maesters are hanging on the walls. As we enter, we hear the ending of a conversation between Leblanc and Nooj. Nooj! We sided with that nerd! Leblanc is all lovey-dovey towards the mayven, but he's business as usual. He thanks her for showing him where Yegnagun is and leaves. Leblanc goes to her room.

Head through the door on the bottom floor, and we'll see the food Seymour prepared for us and see it's still there. Ormi and Logos are in the back, and they command us to do our duty. What's our duty? Whatever it is, it involves Leblanc, so head to her room. She's staring at a carbonate statue of Nooj but goes to lay down on her bed for our duty. Yuna now has to massage her mortal enemy! It's a weird nine squared minesweeper where we need the "perfect spot" on Leblanc's back. Bad spots make her mad. My question is, why does she have to moan so much? Anyway, Yuna puts her to sleep. The boys show up and tell us to make sure the switch still works. Return to where they were, and we'll find a secret passage!

The girls remove their outfits just as Brother blows their cover. Here's another Ormi fight.

Make your way to the red arrow on the map, and we'll find a sphere. It's not the stolen one, but it's another Crimson Report. This one takes place right after the first one, and it continues from it. Logos yells at Ormi about four missing people, warning him to "fix it" until their commanding officer shows up. Speaking of whom, the boys show up. Blah blah, they run away and set off the booby traps.

Go to the back of the dungeon to get chased by a spiked wall. Just get hit by it because it'll take you to the first switch to turn off the traps. The other two are between the floors that led to the spiked wall. Activate them, and press the last button behind the spikes. This reveals a new passage back to the save point and a new room. In the new room is the stolen sphere, as well as its other half. There's also a chest the game doesn't give us a chance to open... Leblanc had the other part of our broken sphere the whole time! Before we can see it, all the named Leblanc members show up for another fight.

Leblanc knows she's defeated and lets us watch the sphere. It's more Vegnagun, but it's surrounded by Bevelle guards. Leblanc decides we're now allies because Nooj went to Bevelle to stop Vegnagun, which means she's on his side. And we're going to Bevelle to make sure Yuna's Eternal Calm remains. Yuna thinks about her calm, always assuming peace would last, but can she still think that?

We're on board the Celsius, but it won't be long. After Brother and Leblanc argue, we're forced to Bevelle. We have to fight our way to the door again, but we can reach the main temple. It'll be peaceful, too. Inside the temple are monks running around. They're all confused because Barelai has gone missing. Inspect the rooms on either side to change the lift's direction. We need to head down and into the Cloister of Trials.

Mobs attack us along the way, but we'll reach the former chamber of fayth in time. But it's a lot different. There used to be a relief here, but now there's a hole. The Gullwings jump down, even though it's bottomless and the Highroad wasn't. We safely land and come to a massive, cavernous machina. Leblanc and co. catch up, and we head into the Bevelle depths.

To advance, activate the three blue towers. Each will summon a mob, but we unlock the way forward as we progress. You can hang around and keep triggering the towers to reach a ribbon at the bottom of the hole, but that looked really tedious. The three lead the way forward. There's nothing on the right path, so head left. Stand on the pillars to open the bridge, and we'll come to another room with machina. Rikku thinks this is the room with "you know who," but Leblanc tells us to stay focused. I made the mistake of backtracking, and I think I broke the game. You could have spoken to Ormi and Logos, but they were gone when I got back. I've read there's supposed to be a puzzle here, but it didn't work for me.

The next puzzle, though, did. Take the left lift up first and activate the two floor panels. Then fall from the south to take the middle lift, turning on that panel. Return and repeat the process with the right lift, taking the left one down at some point. This opens the jumping puzzle to the dark knight dress sphere, which means Paine finally has something to change into!

Further on is the prater himself, Batelai. Paine warned us that he's stronger than he looks earlier, so how does she know him? Barelai tries to convince us that he can be trusted with Vegnagun, but Nooj can't. We don't believe him, so he attacks.

He's actually really strong. He's fast, can hit the entire party, and has some tricks on his sleeve. I'm almost to level thirty, but Yuna died, and Paine almost followed. Fortunately, I am almost level thirty, so my team has the DPS to keep up. And Yuna's grid lets us use Curaga if she changes jobs, so I always have that on easy access.

He'll run away, and a save point will spawn behind us. Use it and follow.

He'll come to another massive chasm with a walkway over it. We'll reach the end, only to find an old friend. Bahamut is before us. But Yuna sent him, and his fayth is gone? Yuna tries to speak to him in an attempt to calm him down, but Paine knows we have to fight! She's correct.

Bahamut can curse a character, preventing them from class changing. Dark knight sucks at the moment, but it has great stats, so I want to use it. So bring holy waters, which I had 99 of because why not. After a while, Bahamut will start a countdown. If you've played FFX, you knock what this means. I couldn't finish him in time, so I ate a Mega Flare. It did a whopping 300 damage to my overpowered team. I took him out shortly after.

Yuna thinks about her calm again. Is it already over? She thanks Paine for being prepared to fight, and Leblanc comes in. Rikku noticed a hole a moment ago, and the topic turns to that. Did Vegnagun make it? Where does it lead? Before we begin to answer, Buddy contacts us to inform us chaos has erupted across Spira. We're asked to save, so I'll start chapter three...

... tomorrow!

FFX-2 has reused almost every FfX asset. Bevelle Underground was the first big new addition, and I kinda liked it. The save points were far between, which made the dungeon a bit of an attrition battle. And it could have been harder had I done the puzzles. But the plot has finally started, so let's see what X-2 has to offer!