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PSO2 Story Guide
The story of PSO2 has many chapters & is very long.
This isn't meant to be a substitute for the game, or as a transcript of the entire script/plot, but rather a way to understand, read-up-on, speculate, analyze & get a really good idea of what's going on in the game.
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Green Text: Speculation
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Episode 2 Chapter 1 : His Will Inherited
Episode 2 Chapter 1: Her Will NOT Inherited

5/10 at 1300
This one takes place entirely on Vopar.
When you arrive, you run into Echo & Cabracan right away. It’s another day of looking for Cabracan’s friend. Echo and Cabracan still don’t get along because his species speaks directly (doesn’t beat around the bush, won’t lie, doesn’t worry about politeness) and she antagonizes people who speak directly on purpose (ex. Zeno). It becomes clear that Echo is “insisting” on helping because of the way she treated him when they first met (by attacking him) and because Zeno is her missing friend. Cabracan feels her skills as a hunter are poor and claims to not want her help because it isn’t working. Echo asks if you’ll come along on the search

Yes, I’ll join
There’s something I wanted to investigate here

If you say you have to investigate, you get “Her Will NOT Inherited” a completely different story.
If you say yes you’ll join, Cabracan is happy because Echo’s help hasn’t been working all this time. Mentioning it makes her angry again, of course. Cabracan joins your party, and it’s off to fight normal coastal enemies while they comment. He will talk about the selgez’n being able to be invisible sometimes, the shell flowers that spew poison ‘at noon’ (in the daytime) & that the Aqulps can call others when they are ‘in trouble’.
After a few fights, she’ll ask Cabracan’s friend’s name. (She has not thought to ask it this entire time they’re together, she never asks anything and appears thoughtless) He explains that it is “Camalots”, and that he’s his “pair”. So, either that’s the meaning of alien shell-creature best friend, or Cabracan is a gay alien.

The quest is straightforward without real branching paths or puzzles. Eventually you come to an area where dagans are fighting blumegella. Watch out for Cabracan in this area, because while the normal native coastal enemies won’t attack him, blumegella will sure poison him and do a bunch of damage especially if you don’t have resta. After this, Echo will wonder if Camalots is ok in a polite way. Cabracan rephrases it into his plain-speak “did he or didn’t he kick the bucket because everything alive dies at some point”.  She hems and haws a bit over this before agreeing that it’s what she meant (as you can see, they’re CLEARLY illustrating the difference in the way characters like to talk AND be talked-TO—neither of them ever “gets it” though
Cabracan states that Camelots may be looking for him, or waiting to be found somewhere but all he’s out to do is prove if he is alive or not. This really hits home for Echo because she is in that situation with Zeno since he disappeared in the Falz Elder fight. She must close her eyes and get herself together over this, but of course explains none of it.

Moving on after this, you can encounter some dagash, which also are never seen on Vopar. Neither dagash or dagans should be there, so someone’s unleashing unusual darkers/there’s more going on than meets the eye. While no one asks any questions about this, an Org Blan appears from the shallows to attack..but what’s that hiding on a hill over its shoulder? It’s Camelots!  Echo tells Cabracan to run over there and get him down while she & you face the org blan. After protesting that it’s dangerous, he runs off (and so leaves the party so the boss doesn’t murder him by accident and end the quest)

If you can beat the org blan…
Camelots will come over to your area.
He wears a spiral snail-type shell on his head…is his head? Nobody ever explains these people’s heads. Their bodies are identical.  Cabracan basically says that Echo’s effort in helping him save his friend is good…even though she’s bad at everything. Of course, this makes her mad again and she starts swinging her sword around quite close to Cabracan and Camelots to scare them as much as possible. Poor Camelots retreats into his…shell…head entirely in his fright. This is very mean and uncalled-for. Camelots does not deserve to be treated this way, and the Arks are supposed to act professionally & be investigators not threaten innocent people.

A rectangular piece of technology lies in the sand.
This is the distress signal generator from Arks that everyone’s been trying to find. Either the org blan or Camelots stepped on it at some point, setting it off. Echo wonders who could have dropped it.

No one asks:
Did the org blan trap Camelots up there for weeks?
Why did Camelots leave suddenly to go into enemy infested areas?
Why are there misplaced darkers here?
What are their heads?
Who are the elders he mentions earlier that might know more about Vopar to actually you know…DO the JOB of Arks and “investigate” something for once in……ever?


Echo & Cabracan are equally stupid.
Echo allows him to antagonize her with his constant complaining even though he complains about everything all the time and it’s 100% expected. Cabracan knows she can be dangerous to him, but continues to antagonize her by complaining constantly

5/10 at 1400

Her Will NOT Inherited:
If you say There’s something I wanted to investigate here, Cabracan will be disappointed, but he & Echo will go off on their mission. While looking around, you find Theodore instead.

Soon after, you can find Theodore standing about with his card out again. This time, he’s gazing and swaying gently before a large rock wall. As you approach, he throws his card which explodes, breaking down the giant wall. *He’s now just as destructive as Fourier, breaking huge things with explosions/destructing environmental pieces that are not normally destructable.  He looks over his back and shoulder to you (his head is flopped too far back) and says that it feels like darkers should be around ‘the air is thick’ but there’s nothing. Why won’t anything appear? Where does he need to go to find it? Not having any answers he just says the only thing that matters is killing them all, and that it’s fun massacring darkers. He then hobbles forward along the path he made…and gets into your party. (What is the ‘it’ he is after?)

At 1800
As you work your way through the ruins, various darkers appear and Theodore is competent at fighting them with you. Shell flowers abound, and hitting them produces small rains of fire that can take out enemies at night. As you progress, he asks ‘you were acquainted with her, weren’t you?’ (meaning Ulc) And begins to reminisce. At first, he’s happy in his memories of her as she was always there for him, cheerful, smiling encouraging…scolding…but then he corrects himself saying she was always angry, yelling, scolding and the memory becomes bittersweet. He wonders why he can’t meet her any more, and darkers appear to remind him (and try to kill him, of course) which he takes out, while saying it’s all their fault.

*This is the common dilemma of the “help-receiver” person—if someone’s always pushing you forward, correcting your mistakes, egging you on, nagging when you slack etc. even if its “For your own good” resentment can build.

At 1900
After passing more ruins and enemies, Theodore says it’s fun to be paired with another Arks. Before, he was always with ‘higher ups’ telling him what to do. (Because he would run away otherwise, of course, he had a proven track record of that) Now, they’ve realized he gets things done by himself and ‘don’t bother with him any more’, which he explains away as/thinks is “an excuse” because he’s so much better than them and they just don’t know their place.

He gets back on his darker tangent again, saying that destroying every last one of them is what you taught him (teacher), so you seem to worry a bit. He asks if you’re worrying about him, but there’s no need to worry because he won’t die until every darker is gone. He explains that if they never attacked the ship directly getting to where she was on the last line of defense—but then shows something odd “Before that time I needed to be killing every single one” because only then would she still be around. Raging at this fate, he throws his card, exploding in foie an indestructible giant pillar of stone. Aggrivated he says what are you waiting for, there are more darkers to hurry and kill, while you fret over his foie ability. *This is odd because he talks about doing something in the past that he didn't do, as if he could go there and do it.

At 20:00
After fighting a mess of darkers on a lonely beach, Luther appears out of an aurora of light. He claps and says it’s impressive to kill that many darkers with ease. You’re surprised to see him there (as it is, with people walking out of thin air) so he says Xion must have put you up to ‘this’ and that she’s ‘too late’. (What it is he thinks you’re up to is never explained, nor why it is ‘too late’)
He says his business isn’t with you her today, it’s with Theodore. Theodore doesn’t want to talk to him though, as there are more darkers to kill. Luther says that attitude is the model Arks citizen, and that darkers are a problem for him, so he wants help in dealing with them. However, Theodore’s power is great, but it’s only his own individual strength. He then makes an offer for more power, as much as a Council of 6 member, to ‘destroy anything he wants’. ..but he won’t wait for an answer.
Theodore stops him, saying he sure can decide on his own to go with Luther to get the power. You can protest this, but it does no good, Theodore justifies it by saying ‘getting stronger is the duty of Arks’ and that he needs to get stronger to make them pay for what they did, to get strong enough for her to forgive him, and to make her happy.

He walks over to Luther to join him, and Luther accuses you of glaring at him, saying it’s his decision and respecting the decisions of others is what friendship is about. He then makes them both vanish.

End Notes:
Luther knows quite well you suspect he's up to no good, his friendship speech is 100% insincere.
Theodore has something seriously wrong with him since Ulc died. He had all his marbles before, but he most certainly has lost most of them at this point, it's not regular greif either, something else is affecting him.
It's going to be incredibly easy for Luther to get Theodore to do whatever nefarious thing he wants because while he's more powerful, he's just as dumb as he used to be, if not more-so.
Echo wasting all of Cabracan & Camelots' goodwill/knowledge and passing up every opportunity to investigate anything is an exercise in irritation
.
Nobody asks about the distress signal device, the odd darkers, Grams, Gramps, what Camelots was doing, what the 'enemies' had to say before they couldn't talk any more, what the water temple things are, who built the ruins, did the planet always spin this fast...myriad questions that could lead to valuble darker-stopping answers.

Episode 2: Chapter 2
Hitherto - Henceforth

This one is 2 chapters in one, each having not much at all to do with the other.

At the very start a choice appears:
It feels like Aki will call me
It seems Sara could call now

Your choice induces the person to call. A bit of static appears, letting you know that time is a bit off now.

If you choose "Sara might call"
She does right away, saying she 'finally got through'. If you tell her you felt she would call, she says it's deja vu, but she never gets such feelings. She also says you 'promised youd come', so you should be on your way.Once in the Altar area, Sara appears right away, saying let's get going so don't worry about who we're meeting or where, it's easier to show than tell, and there's not much time.

Thus begins
Chapter 2: Calculation of the Future

At 5/25 at 10:00
Fight your way past stradah, who usually don't appear on Amduscia to reach the next area.

At 10:30
In the next area Sara comments there's lots of darkers they may be responding to 'his' presence, and cause trouble for the dragonkin. She wonders if "that’s why she had to negotiate" last time. Being annoyingly vague causes you to ask 'who', she still won't say, but gives you a hint. That he's "a terrible little brat who's so whiny you want to kick him, never does anything himself and critiques everyone else." Supposedly 'he' knew it would 'turn out like this' and that’s why he put you & Sara into the situation.

At 11:00
Sara wants to 'make him sweat bit' in revenge for always being led along by this mystery brat, so she stops to tell you a bit more. She tells you why she's so invested in what he says, which is that they have the same interests in mind, though she was forced into it. She also feels she owes him & Maria, and also "he talks directly into her head". That's why she wants your impression of him to be as bad as possible ahead of time, so that if he says something above his class, he'll get lightly laughed at for it. What does she mean 'above his class'?

At 11:30
Her 'hints' are dumb. It is no one you ever could have possibly met or know of.
A goron zoron appears in a large room, and if you can defeat it, you move on to the room Ro Kamits inhabits. And someone's sitting on her.

Upon one of her levitating rune cubes sits a boy with a fizzing floppy sweatshirt. It bubbles & has rainbow pictures of diatoms/amoeba/etc on it...so it's actively fizzing. He has navy blue hair in an unkempt short top with extremely long thin trailing ponytail (it’s to his feet) & matching blue eyes. He introduces himself as Xiao, sort of like Xions' little brother. (This does no one any good, you don't even know who/what Xion is) He wanted to meet you, the person Xion has a vested interest in.

He heckles Sara more, saying he heard all the things she said about him on the way in, to which she retorts she said them on purpose just so he'd hear. He explains to you that Sara was supposed to help him 'be more human', and thus introduced him to such 'banter', but ended up hating it. He 'hops' down from Ro Kamits, thanking her for the use of her resources/space to hide them from Luther. She says that 'a favor for a favor' is how the dragonkin work so it's ok. (What did he do for them?) When he hops, he floats gently down. Then, proceeds to vanish & re appear behind everyone.

He explains that Xion talks in a riddly way so that Luther can't understand her. She's not human either, but is becoming more-so, and maybe easier for you to understand, thus Luther could understand more too. He says that ARKS is basically in a shambles, as Luther's puppet (really?)

but that it's still organized as it is, is a statement of Xions' efforts. He wants to work with you and Sara to return ARKS to 'how it used to be'. Sara says it sounds like a lie, but isn't, and she still hates him, and doesn't like 'him making her do things'. (Just what's so distasteful for her to do, that he asks of her?) He says her heckling is a product of herself, so she argues that if it hurts him, she'll hurt herself to get at him. He can't disrespect such an attitude so he'll sing in her head all night tonight.

(Really? She's that dumb to antagonize a floating, vanishing, psychic kid? He could just say the word and she'd shoot herself willingly.)

For people in a secret hurry, they waste far too much time arguing the pointless, so he gets back on track by wanting to show you evidence that some outcomes can be changed. He waves his hands and gives you a sparkling star of light (That disappears) saying that all you need to do now is go to the ruins on Naberius on the day that Dark Falz revives, and change it a little so no one notices. To do that the day before when you met with Maria & Sara is your real goal. He assures you he'll "make the time sync up" so all you need to do is 'what you do normally' (implies kill darkers/save people) Then just 'change one thing' that doesn't seem like much, that makes a huge difference'. At that, they're out of time, so he says he believes in you & both he & Sara vanish.

Ep 1 Chapter: Step Toward The Future is available.

End note:
Aside from antagonizing a psychic who she has no defense against, Sara fails to understand Xiao’s nature in that she complains that ‘he never does anything’. It’s clear from this one meeting that he CANT. Whatever he is, it’s extremely ‘magic/science’ that this Luther guy would love to get his hands on. Obviously he’s not going to run around where Luther can get to him, so he has to have normal folks Luther won’t bother to help him out. And why is it “so troubling” to her to…what…save the lives of everybody? Prevent doomsday? It’s not like Xaio is working for a trivial outcome, or even an outcome that wouldn’t affect her (it would!) so it’s still stupid to hate on his plans or dump on helping him.
Unanswered questions:
What's Maria's deal in all this? She's so seldom seen.
What the heck is Xiao/Xion?
Why is his sweater fizzing?
What did he do for the dragonkin?
How does he manipulate time?
What's Luthers real deal big plan & how did he get so dangerous?

Chapter 2: Clearance of the Past

It feels like Aki will call me
If you pick Aki, she'll call immediately, ask your status/how soon can you get 'here' (meaning sanctum) and says it's deja vu that you felt she'd call. She's 'prepared' and waiting for you to go there.

Aki says that Ko Rela has asked her to find Ro Kamitsu because usually this ancient clan can be 'felt' by her when it's in the Altar area. Aki explains that darkers are intensifying in the area, so probably that's got something to do with it...and also they may be looking for something in the altar...but what? Aki gets sad and says she doesn't want to cause any more trouble for the dragon clan, doesn't want 'something like that' to happen again. You fight past dagans and some infected dragonkin to reach Quna who is standing alone in a room.

When you approach her, she sees you, but Aki can't see her.
She says she's 'masking' herself but you can see her anyway (to which you say yes) so Aki asks why you're talking suddenly to no one. Quna says it's all right (so obviously, she masks sound as well as sight because Aki can't hear her either) that she's not on a mission anyway and then chooses to appear out of her hexagons.
Aki exclaims that the only way she can become invisible/visible like that is with the Genesis Mai Translucent Blades. (Thus finally naming her knives) Aki is shocked because "Quna is doing something bad to herself" because the blades "consume so many photons". (But, if the photons are all around us/can get into exited states/etc then what's the detriment? Does it ONLY know somehow to consume 'someone’s own personal photonic energy'?) Quna demands to not be lectured because those blades are what's kept her alive all this time, and also she can't die because she "made a promise with him". (likely Hadred) She admits she's nowhere close to completing it because there’s no clear solution, so she always ends up back at the Altar thinking he might still be here.

Aki mentions the whole religion=dragonkin souls end up back here (it's what they believe, there is of course, no proof) which really grabs Quna's attention. She whirls around, hopeful, but Aki counters with that maybe not because: does it apply to artificially created by ARKS dragons? Quna however will listen because Aki knows her stuff, so she goes on to mention that her research helped create him, which Quna doesn't like so she demands answers angrily. Aki wants to give them as everyone moves on, so Quna threatens her with hearing things she doesn't like (From Aki) will cause her to attack...so Aki says: that as a researcher she's prepared to be hated/attacked. (Which is odd. Why? Finding answers is usually HELPful toward defeating the badguys)

After defeating several code attacks with various dragonkin enemies & dragonkin magnetites, they'll say the door in C3 area has opened. There, you'll have to get past various magnetite traps where they are continuously firing, doing unusual techs, or are oddly arranged to get you. If you can pass that area, Quna will glare at Aki until she explains that she worked for the secret VOID research facility doing experiments when 'she was younger'. (Aki's not that old looking--how long ago was this?) She was attracted to the strengths of the dragonkin & devoted all her time and energy only to research.
She admits that 'cruel experiments' were carried out, but doesn't say she was the one doing them. (So, they knew these guys were sentient just like humans but did unknown awful stuff to them anyway, probably killing people just because) She believed it would contribute to the evolution of ARKS while Quna disagrees, saying researchers always say such things & it doesn't make up for what they did to us as guinea pigs. Aki knows its just an excuse and that nothing came of it anyway. So why was someone experimenting on Quna? What is her relation to Hadred? Why does nobody ask this? What were they trying to do? Nobody says the GOAL of this stupid void place or why anyone would want artificial dragons. Sic them on the darkers? Make human+dragon hybrid people that are 'tougher'?

She then says her research got used to make an artificial dragon (Hadred) and when she heard about it she demanded papers/info from her superiors but never got it. She couldn't take responsibility for it so quit her position/walked away. Now she knows she can't make amends but tries to. Saying things like 'don’t like wasting life' but that phrase 'makes her sick' (because apparently she was totally into doing that earlier)

Once you get to a large room, a Dragon EX will appear.
Quna says “it’s not affected by darkers”, but everyone here must be blind because it will always have an infection point (the glowing ball in the horn-cage) stabbed into its lower jaw that is at least the size of a human head and flashing bright red. This is never explained. The enemy is a fixed-appearance, why does the dialog and monster not match? It would make sense if it was infected & just nobody commented, all the commenting just makes it weird/wrong.

It roars and flails, and Aki gets near it hoping it will either hit her with the crystal spike or eat her. It’s looking like it’ll take a swing, but you & Quna are able to push her out of the way and it misses. And then just sort of stands there while Quna yells that killing yourself won’t make the deeds of the past not happen and she has to at least live to see what’s next.

Fight the Dragon EX
If you can beat it, you’re summoned upwards into another large room, this one inhabited by the ever mysterious Ro Kamits. And she is…a series of stone cubes & a glowing slab. The runic & ‘maze’ stone blocks that compose her float up and down in the air & pile upon the ground. The slab is textured, and glows a soft blue as she speaks. Aaaand somehow nobody is surprised by this.

Aki marvels at getting the chance to meet Ro Kamits at last. Kamits explains she’s heard of Aki through Ko Rela, who she’s been taking good care of. Kamits wishes that the exuberance of Rela continues, as she lives happily. (Implying she wants Aki to keep helping Rela out/being her ‘friend’) Aki denies helping anyone, saying she’s only harmed in the past.

Kamits explains that Dragonkin don’t die, they reincarniate through the planet & the altar to take flight again, so don’t worry about the past and ‘us’ (dragonkin) just work for the light and the future. Aki says she can’t disagree, though it's clear she wants to.

Quna gets in her question, that if dragonkin souls are thus ‘recycled’ here in the sanctum to be born again, what of Hadred? Ro Kamits explains that she knew of him, but he was artificial so he won’t recycle. However, he did finally find peace when he died because it was Quna & you who killed him and ended his misery. Quna’s sad but relieved about this answer. She reminds Quna to not be sad of partings, but to be happy about the time that was able to be shared.

Ko Rela arrives suddenly (as always) stabbing herself into the ground at great speed in her excitement. She says she’s so relieved that everyone’s ok. Ro Kamits says sorry to make her worry, and Aki deduces that if she’s here then the threat is gone. Ro Kamits says thanks for helping, and is sure she’ll meet you again.

At 1400

Back up on the ship…
Aki asks Quna if she wants to take her revenge still. She’s still hoping/angling to die here, clearly, as she says she won’t resist. Quna explains that’s why she hates researchers, always dwelling on the past and focusing on the bad. Killing her now would only make things easier for Aki, so she says work to make up for what you did by making things better in the future. And…she works up her idol persona…if she gets lost she can attend a certain idol’s concert to re-inspire. With that, she leaves. Aki’s amazed because even with what she’s done she can still smile at her.

Unanswered questions:
No one asks her how she’s a series of blocks that talks
Somebody had to carve those cubes & slabs that make up Ro Kamits, how’d she come to exist?
What did Aki really do?
What experiment was upon Quna?
What’s up with the Dragon EX? Why does it have no eyes? How does it talk? What’s his deal?
How does the whole souls thing work?
Do Arks/humans have souls? Did the planet spawn a set amount of souls at one point & that’s everybody? How? Can dragonkin parents just not ever be able to have kids if all the souls are currently in use? Who manages the souls & how are they dispensed?

If you choose "Sara might call"
She does right away, saying she 'finally got through'. If you tell her you felt she would call, she says it's deja vu, but she never gets such feelings. She also says you 'promised youd come', so you should be on your way.Once in the Altar area, Sara appears right away, saying let's get going so don't worry about who we're meeting or where, it's easier to show than tell, and there's not much time.

Thus begins
Chapter 2: Calculation of the Future

At 5/25 at 10:00
Fight your way past stradah, who usually don't appear on Amduscia to reach the next area.

At 10:30
In the next area Sara comments there's lots of darkers they may be responding to 'his' presence, and cause trouble for the dragonkin. She wonders if "that’s why she had to negotiate" last time. Being annoyingly vague causes you to ask 'who', she still won't say but gives you a hint. That he's "a terrible little brat who's so whiny you want to kick him, never does anything himself and critiques everyone else." Supposedly 'he' knew it would 'turn out like this' and that’s why he put you & Sara into the situation.

At 11:00
Sara wants to 'make them sweat bit' in revenge for always being led along by this mystery brat, so she stops to tell you a bit more. She tells you why she's so invested in what he says, which is that they have the same interests in mind, though she was forced into it. She also feels she owes him & Maria, and also "he talks directly into her head". That's why she wants your impression of him to be as bad as possible ahead of time, so that if he says something above his class, he'll get lightly laughed at for it.

At 11:30
Her 'hints' are dumb. It is no one you ever could have possibly met or know of.
A goron zoron appears in a large room, and if you can defeat it, you move on to the room Ro Kamits inhabits. And someone's sitting on her.

Upon one of her levitating rune cubes sits a boy with a fizzing floppy sweatshirt. It bubbles & has rainbow pictures of diatoms/amoeba/etc on it...so it's actively fizzing. He has navy blue hair in an unkempt short top with extremely long thin trailing ponytail (it’s to his feet) & matching blue eyes. He introduces himself as Xiao, sort of like Xions' little brother. (This does no one any good, you don't even know who/what Xion is) He wanted to meet you, the person Xion has a vested interest in.

He heckles Sara more, saying he heard all the things she said about him on the way in, to which she retorts she said them on purpose just so he'd hear. He explains to you that Sara was supposed to help him 'be more human', and thus introduced him to such 'banter', but ended up hating it. He 'hops' down from Ro Kamits, thanking her for the use of her resources/space to hide them from Luther. She says that 'a favor for a favor' is how the dragonkin work so it's ok. (What did he do for them?) When he hops, he floats gently down. Then, proceeds to vanish & re appear behind everyone.

He explains that Xion talks in a riddly way so that Luther can't understand her. She's not human either, but is becoming more-so, and maybe easier for you to understand, thus Luther could understand more too. He says that ARKS is basically in a shambles, as Luther's puppet (really?) but that it's still organized as it is, is a statement of Xions' efforts.
He wants to work with you and Sara to return ARKS to 'how it used to be'. Sara says it sounds like a lie, but isn't, and she still hates him, and doesn't like 'him making her do things'. (Just what's so distasteful for her to do, that he asks of her?) He says her heckling is a product of herself, so she argues that if it hurts him, she'll hurt herself to get at him. He can't disrespect such an attitude so he'll sing in her head all night tonight.

(Really? She's that dumb to antagonize a floating, vanishing, psychic kid? He could just say the word and she'd shoot herself.)

For people in a secret hurry, they waste far too much time arguing the pointless, so he gets back on track by wanting to show you evidence that some outcomes can be changed. He waves his hands and gives you a sparkling star of light (That disappears) saying that all you need to do now is go to the ruins on Naberius on the day that Dark Falz revives, and change it a little so no one notices. To do that the day before when you met with Maria & Sara is your real goal. He assures you he'll "make the time sync up" so all you need to do is 'what you do normally' (implies kill darkers/save people) Then just 'change one thing' that doesn't seem like much, that makes a huge difference'. At that, they're out of time, so he says he believes in you & both he & Sara vanish.

Ep 1 Chapter: Step Toward The Future is available.

End note:
Aside from antagonizing a time-altering psychic who she has no defense against, Sara fails to understand Xiao’s nature in that ‘he never does anything’. It’s clear from this one meeting that he CANT. Whatever he is, it’s extremely ‘magic/science’ that this Luther guy would love to get his hands on. Obviously he’s not going to run around where Luther can get to him, so he has to have normal folks Luther won’t bother to help him out. And why is it “so troubling” to her to…what…save the lives of everybody? Prevent LITERAL GALAXY WIDE doomsday? It’s not like Xaio is working for a trivial outcome, or even an outcome that wouldn’t affect her (it would!) so it’s still stupid to hate on his plans or dump on helping him. Remember: if Luther OR Falz OR any darkers win EVERYBODY DIES. This includes Sara!

Unanswered questions:
What’s up with the Goron Zoron? Why’s he so fat? What is he? Flying chair!

Go Back in Time to 4/1
Xiao will speak directly to you & say you have to decline an invitation and go to where Sara is. Fight your way past natives in the ruins, as no darkers appear but the usual Grim Monoliths are encased in unbreakable spikes to create more hazards.

4/1 at 12:10
In area 2, you encounter Sara & Maria who are talking to each other.
When you arrive, Sara says it's "just as Xiao said", & Maria wonders if it’s a coincidence. Sara says we've got to hurry so no chatting, she doesn't want to say what her future self might know. What are we going to do? That's a silly question, we've got to throw logic out the window and do the impossible.

Chapter 8 A step toward the future begins

4/1 at 12:30
Fight your way past more darkers and natives in the ruins & when you defeat the last enemy, a transporter to the next area will appear. Once there, Maria demands answers from Sara, saying that she's "Dragging around the 2nd member of the Council of Six" (Which is a surprise) Sara says Xiao didn't explain it well to her what they had to do to either her or you. Sara asks how to know it's not already too late because the DF seal is broken? Sara thinks its something that needs to be broken, or else Luther would never come out/make himself known. (which is clearly an important step in getting rid of him) Sara's mad at Xiao for not saying so sooner, (and will clearly just yell at no-one now) so Maria dismisses her and asks you why you think we're here:

1. To stop Dark Falz
2. To Save ARKS

If you pick To Save ARKS she interprets it as 'someone DF is fighting against now', and not "the organization" as Xiao had earlier specified. So anyway, it seems manageable, we should hurry off to do it so Sara quit your bickering. Sara then yells at Xiao for making Maria to yell at her.

In the next area you approach a large field as Zeno is being defeated by pink Gettemhart=Falz Elder. He's yelling at Zeno that 'this body' (meaning Gettemhart) said that the fight here would be more interesting/Zeno would be more powerful. Zeno says he's afraid he can’t live up to those over-expectations, so Elder Falz is disappointed, but will kill him now anyway, because it's clear he was trying to save his friends. As Elder leaps in to (I guess punch him to death with his absurdly large ham fists?) try to kill  Zeno, he's batted away by Maria, literally swinging her partisan as a bat.

*This means that the first time around, Zeno WASNT leading off the giant continent sized rock monster-falz, he was murdered by Gettem-Falz, who AFTER the deed, transformed into the giant crust-busting rock monstrosity that then proceeded to battle the ARKS with all the arms & such. This means that section of the story was actually do-able/makes sense.

Maria says she's here to take him down again, as the original council did 40 years ago with Alma, Herself, and Regius. He can't tell whether it's the body or the seal still acting on him but he doesn't have the power he's looking for. Zeno wants to fight too, but he's too injured/worn from the previous fighting and can't. Maria says he'll just get in the way, as would you & Sara. Sara says to don't count her out, and she can't count you out either. This provokes Gettem-Elder into transforming into Falz Hunar to try and fight you.

If you can beat this boss & his Cycloneda reinforcements...he blames you and He'll turn back into Gettem-Elder and crackle with red electrical-looking energy. He begins to complain more, saying where's his real body, where's his real power and looks around in a bit of a freak-out. Maria, however, says he's no time to look around it's time to kill him for good, no sealing. She brings out Crush Reaper Hatchet Lavious, her special Genesis weapon. It's a disk end pole-arm with a large, flat, levitating grid for the blade. It glows as it is summoned from thin air to her hand. She smashes it into him, though he blocks with his arm. It's magical though, and is eating at him. However, before she can finish him off, she's knocked aside by...

Mask Man = Persona.

Maria is surprised, saying 'its another falz', and Persona has nothing to say. This gives him a chance to escape, leaping 20 meters in the air up a very tall ruins column, he disappears into it. This is what activates the giant rock monster, so Maria uses the weapon to teleport everybody out of there because the whole part of the continent is going to go to rubble as Falz Elder emerges anyway, despite everyone's efforts. (Of course Persona magically vanishes too) This time though, Elder just takes off into space as the rock monster & leaves everyone alone.

Back on the camp ship, Zeno's stumbling along with your help and feeling terrible about everything. Sara's exhausted from the ordeal, to which Maria says that's pathetic and her training is poor. Sara, however, unlike Zeno, will stand up for herself saying to shut up because she's nothing to be compared with. (It's true, Maria is an old android. Elder androids here only seem to get better/wiser as they live longer because the body doesn't age. You know Maria's pretty old because she was on the council 40 years ago, meaning she was probably at least 10 years of constant training to get there. Of course, she's formidable, and doesn't tire as again...no flesh to wear out. It's likely that here the older the android the more powerful it could be.) Sara asks if it was ok to use the Lavious, which Maria mistakes as concern for her--but it isn't--her concern is for the weapon. Maria says it's no good now (what, it's a 1-time use? Does using it to teleport people break it? Can it do neither or both only one time?) and that she'll have to bow her head to Zeig for the first time in 10 years. (meaning, she used it on something 10 years ago and broke it then too. But why get mad at having to use a weapon that's meant to be used, then fixed?)

Zeno is still upset, he was acting cool telling you to go back first but is lame now because he was defeated. Maria says it's ok though because fighting Elder by himself and coming out alive is good enough. She calls him Zeno-boy, to which he asks her not to....so she proceeds to do it for the rest of all of her conversation here just to upset/disrespect him.
He says Casra was with everyone first, but went back too, so everyone else must have gotten out ok. Maria says that if Casra knows, Luther will know. This is BIG. It means Casra is in league with Luther and probably always has been. He could be why the 'arks is Luthers puppet'. However, what's good is that Casra will think that Zeno's dead, and that's probably what Xiao was really after, to which later he confirms this is true. Zeno surmises that if you are here that Echo & that girl (it's Melphonsia) made it out ok. He's upset he couldn't beat Elder at a fraction of his power, so Maria says that it's natural for a hunter who treats his class like a hobby to lose like that. (Remember, Zeno's natural class ought to be ranger but he goes hunter for his mystery-reasons) She offers to re-train him, so he can protect the people he loves.

Maria asks Sara to see if that's what Xiao wanted, to which he says yes then tries to chime in an anti-Sara insult so she hollers at him again. Zeno requests that nobody tell Echo he lived so it's a good "wake up call for her". He'll get stronger, come back, and repay you one day. You nod that Echo's doing ok. He says ‘you act like you know the future’. Sara will call after the mission ends to thank you and that everything turned out ok.

Aren't they just the dandy dysfunctional petty couple?
Zeno LITERALLY wants Echo to live in torment, uncertainty and grieving thinking he's surely dead. He wants her to suffer, and keep suffering until he's good and ready to come back. He's not stupid, he's mean. He knows she'll blame herself for not being stronger and saving HIM by stepping up to Gettem-Elder & that she is precisely the type to wallow in the guilt of it all, tormenting herself each day over losing her friend in a hopeless fight after one last heroic act to self-sacrifice and save her. The uncertainty of his 'demise' is also a torment in itself. Because he wants her in pain for so long, can Zeno still be considered a good guy?

Makes sense: Zeno MUST go into hiding to keep Casra & Luther from learning someone's been meddling with time #1, and #2 that he lived & can crop up later as a thorn to them. Elder won't tell, he flew away into space. Persona won't tell either, because he's seldom seen anyway & as a darker, doesn't like Casra who's with Luther...because remember, Luther's no fan of darkers either.

Makes sense: For the Emergency Quest codes, Elder's always popping up from outer space with all his arms.
What REALLY happened: Likely, this version of things is what happened. Everyone THINKS Zeno dies, but really you & the gang here save him secretly and tell no one. Echo still goes on her Cabracan rambles, changing her class & etc. Elder still forms, breaks the crust of Naberius and flies off. Luther thinks everything’s the same.

Large unanswered question: What is Luther's goal? He hates darkers, hates Arks, and wants to....what?